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In a REH Story, Conan says something like that the reason that people are rude in civilization is because they know that they will not get their heads split open as soon as they open their mouths. I have to say that it reminds me of social media.

We have and played both the Mongoose and Modiphius lines. Gameplay wise, they are very different but both very good. But I think the original did a better job with its supplement books and overall service to source material. They had less political correctness to worry about

Thanks for the video DD!!

What is the best Conan to buy in todays world? this one is a wee bit pricey.

I literally used this system as a springboard to make my own homebrew. I love the dodge and parry system. (It increases as you level) because it makes your character clearly getting better instead of their gear. Full plate at 1st level in DnD is an 18 ac and at 20th it’s still an 18 (without magic). But your party defense as a first level Barbarian would be your strength bonus. At 20th it’d be that +7. Is this system perfect no but it has so many good ideas.

I love the Conan RPG games more than DMD.

I've actually been trying to round up all the old Mongoose Conan books. I will also add that I truly live the Modiphius 2d20 Conan game and books.

There's actually a new Conan RPG kickstarting in October by a different publisher (Monolith). They picked up the license after Modiphius lost it. Might be worth a look.

I've got a bunch of these books (1st edition). I have very few remaining physical book RPGs but this one and the 40k RPGs remain on my bookshelves.

Sword & sorcery is a different and superior vibe than whatever "standard D&D" is. Like most gamers, I love Conan. Dark fantasy infuses pretty much all my stuff.

Though I despise 3E and onwards, I will definitely give this a try. It looks to be amazingly faithful to the source.

funny thing. I've been a gamer for over 40 years. I have never, ever, ever, seen or been a part of a group that has not allowed women to be a part of the hobby (as player or GM). Hell, most times, we were thrilled to see someone's wife, girlfriend or female friend get involved. Never treated them any differently than we did each other, either. However, the whole woke-feminism BS that is forced down everyones' throats; that is different. I don't want that or those that push that at any table I run, simply because they do nothing but ruin the fun for everybody.

I had the second edition and played it in a shared apartment during my student days. It's a shame that the book got lost at some point. Even back then I was a big fan of Howard's works and the rules reflected it very well, at least for their time. Today I would say there are better mechanics, but just for the information about the game world and the pictures the game is still a very good product.

Zingaran Noble: Stupid Cimmerian, you have white privilege. Barbarian: I prefer to think of it as "broadsword privilege"! Zingaran Noble: Aieeee!

'was D&D 4th edition as bad as everyone says'.......YES,YES.YES !

I love conan! I did not play this when it came out but I was playing regular D&D at the time. I read every Conan novel I could get my hands on when I was in Middle School in the early eighties. Great review

This is my favorite RPG, I have run it more than 3.5 and I have ran 3.5 alot .

anything by Erol Otus brilliant artist !

Good job. I'll take a look at, although being based on 3/3.5E is a strike against it to me (I spent a lot of time getting away from that edition and for me Castles and Crusades is the best version of 3). As for pulp fantasy, I usually get my Conan on with Hyperborea.

Very good review and so true. Mongoose's Conan line stays to this day one of the best. As I never understood the DnD game mechanics and still don't I never played Conan in 3E but I still use it as source for my own worldbuilding. I only regret that Mongoose lost the license before they could make the Pict Sourcebook which I think they had in their planning. Currently I am playing as a player Conan 2d20 from Modiphious. Thanks to the GM and the co-players the spirit of Conan really comes up. The mechanics though... to much metagaming for my taste. GURPS Conan I found useful. Especial the armies section and the battle system. Not as good or even complete than the Mongoose line though. And you are absolutely right, without Conan Fantasy wouldn't be were it is nowadays. He belongs to the classic three: Lord of the Rings, Conan and Mists of Avalon. Thank you for having brought this to the attention of younger generations - they for sure need to hear what really is good stuff.

The Modiphius Conan game is amazing. Several Howard scholars were involved in its production, and the artwork represents the world perfectly. Some people love/hate the 2d20 system, but once you climb the learning curve your combats are deadly and rarely last more than three rounds. I just played it this last weekend and introduced three new players who fell in love with it. Best part IMO: weapons all have different effects rather than just being a damage die. Swords parry, maces knockdown/stun, spears penetrate armor, and so on. Death is always near, as you'd expect in the Hyborian Age. No short rest bullshit in this game.

I hate that these books aren't available for POD. I dislike the fighting over license every few years now. I would love to grab these, i totally missed out on them back when they were released.

Hey Double D, after watching your latest video, I have to ask this. What's your take on the upcoming Monolith's Conan RPG? I had high hopes that they'd do a decent job but after noticing the player Comfort & Safety disclaimer, I'm not so sure.

Still the gold standard of Conan rpgs. Modiphius' game was way too clunky and burdened by increasing political correctness as the line went on. And their "fidelity to Howard" line was total BS. They added tons of crap that wasn't in Howard. I'd prefer just embracing the pastiche, like Mongoose did.

Great video! Too short though.. would love a deeper dive. 💪😊 I personally love the modiphius Conan game too.

Agreed, Mongoose Conan was awesome. The newer Modiphius 2d20 Conan was certainly a welcome addition. Artwork, rules, options, all of it was amazing. I highly recommend you play it. It's a shame that the game is no longer in print and that its publication process was slightly screwed over by covid which delayed shipments.

Love Howard's writing style! So evocative. It feels like modern authors are trying to write film scripts instead of novels. Pulp authors like Howard are often criticised for "purple prose", but their descriptions of the physical environment and characters are so immersive. "You are there."

"Intellectuals are often wrong." - by not being afraid to be wrong, one brings forward knowledge and progress. This patently American anti-intellectual sentiment is what brought us Flatearthers, Trumpism, and various raving religious cults unseen elsewhere in civilized world on such scale. I will take an intellectual over a preacher any day. As for the quality of Howard's books, intellectuals were not wrong in this case. While skillfully written, it's just stereotypical, derivative literature intended for easy reading with brain mostly switched off (like Friends series, endless cowboy action movies, Hong-Kong action flics, etc.). That said, I read and enjoyed Conan novels during my youth, and I am not ashamed for it. However, it remains what it is.

I ran a Conanesque game using Dragonbane. It worked pretty well, but once the characters advanced a bit, they had an easy time one on one against mooks, but if outnumbered they were toast.

Nice vid. I actually worked at Mongoose from 2004 to 2009, and did a little bit of the development on the Conan RPG (about 10 supplements). It was very faithfully adapted, and most of that is down to writer Vincent Darlage, who was a huge Howard fan. Also the covers by Chris Quilliams captured the feel beautifully, and line developer Rich Neale put a lot of love into the visuals. I vividly remember on one occasion having to censor a large block of Vincent's writing because it was FAR too graphic - I won't be going into details why. Fun times.

Great to here the love is still out there! We've playing it right now, every player a huge Conan fan (R.E Howard's never been surpassed, IMHO)! It's clear that Mongoose LOVED Conan. The level of commitment was next level.

Yeh, hatred against Whites in gaming needs to go. That's all it is at the end of the day, by including every nonwhite who do you exclude after all? It may be worthwhile looking up "no White guilt" on youtube and Fornull. Cheers for the video!

People should check out the new edition of Barbarians of Lemuria (the french version translated to english). It just had a KS funding campaign and it should be available for purchase once it gets to backers. I'd say it's probably the closest in spirit to the Hyborian Age. I wouldn't put my hands on the upcoming Conan RPG by Monolith. On the first pages of their quickstart, they endorsed the usage of weird crap like the X card.

I'm a fairly progressive person, and I HATE politics in my games. Good on Troll Lord for staying out of the stupid culture war.

The seige engine and multi-classing rules are top notch, especially since none of the classes are hybrids.

Played a campaign in Conan. It was one of my favorite games. I jumped out of the fighting pit to attack the sorcerer and she made my bones jelly. magic didn't play around.

Great review.

I got the TSR version when released. It introduced me to d100, a skill system, perks and quirks. This was before AD&D's nonweapon proficiencies. I found it very inspiring for helping to create the basis for my own rpg design at the time. I've not played the GURPS, Mongoose, or Modiphius versions, but I am paying attention to the forthcoming Monolith license.

When my friends and I started playing dnd back in the early 80s, we were all reading the conan books, and our games were always more conan than Tolkien. Looking forward to picking up these rules.

I am a huge Conan fan it had as big an impact on me as a boy as Lord of the Rings, likely bigger. I have this feeling Conan is going to explode into popularity in the near future, it is just a feeling 😉

That iconic painting is burned in my brain for life. I'll probably die remembering and wondering why I remember it. Crap I'm getting old.

7up with caffeine sounds like a great way to kill the customer base 😂. But in all seriousness, I can’t disagree with this list. I would personally change the Mimic’s abilities to be able to mimic women and children. I don’t recall mimics doing that, if they could, why wouldn’t they? Perfect way to gain trust quick. It will also create suspicion everytime a new NPC showed up 😂

I would like to also add that the Bosonnian long bow was.....awesome! Give me d12 any day. My friends and I abandoned 3.5 after encountering Conan and had so many senseless open world battles and encounters that ended up almost always ending in a brutally delightful TPK using every single abilty and tactic that the party could pit against the hostile hordes, soldiers or beasts. There were even random encounters that ended up providing hilarious ends to our sessions. It never felt depressing nor too number crunchy. The army rules were even ok to run, but I digress. The nature of the game favoured solo play or a hero and his buddy taking on ridiculous encounters for the treasure, challenge and sheer mayhem that could be dished out and received. I cannot get that feelimg from modern D&D.

Also, the Modiphius version is AMAZING too. In play, it works very well. It's a bit more narrative than crunchy, but the Momentum/Doom mechanic *feels* right in play.

I've never played the Mongoose Conan. I loved the 2d20 version though. I was a kickstarter backer for it, so I delved in pretty deeply. Ran a few games for some friends and it was awesome in my opinion, mixed reception from my players - some adored it, others were too "D&D" to get into another system. In the end 2d20 is too crunchy for my sensibilities, but I appreciated what it brought to the table. Very cool game ideas there. It inspired me to make a simpler version for quicker, more accessible gameplay that still captures the pulpy action essence that 2d20 did well. Monolith is currently the license holder and is making a brand new Conan RPG! The quickstart is interesting. I'll reserve judgment for now.

Whoa, parry, dodge and armor absorbs damage? Did they make 3rd edition playable? (I play GURPS because this always irritated me about D&D and its derivatives.)

My Friday RPG group helped playtest the Mongoose Conan RPG! It was great helping shape the final rules. Lots of back-and-forth about hit points, weapon damage, massive damage, and so on. It was a great use of the d20 system and I'd still play it today. I have all the supplements and both editions. Great resource for the Hyborian Age regardless of the system to boot.

I love these books. Damn shame I never got to play them back in the day; our DM at the time would not run anything other than base 3.5

"Conan!" The age of high adventure! I used to read the paperbacks, and the black and white comics. Arnold Schwarzenegger will forever be the best Conan ever! A great character! I never even knew about a game about Conan! But back in the 80s I was busy living life...

I love this game. Historical fiction was Howard's first literary love so it was that genre's familiarity and exoticism combined with the fantasy and horror elements of weird fiction that really makes the Hyborian world come alive. Great review. Have you thought about doing a Conan live play?