Quick-starts are means of trying out a roleplaying game before you buy. Each should provide a Game Master with sufficient background to introduce and explain the setting to her players, the rules to run the scenario included, and a set of ready-to-play, pre-generated characters that the players can pick up and understand almost as soon as they have sat down to play. The scenario itself should provide an introduction to the setting for the players as well as to the type of adventures that their characters will have and just an idea of some of the things their characters will be doing on said adventures. All of which should be packaged up in an easy-to-understand booklet whose contents, with a minimum of preparation upon the part of the Game Master, can be brought to the table and run for her gaming group in a single evening’s session—or perhaps too. And at the end of it, Game Master and players alike should ideally know whether they want to play the game again, perhaps purchasing another adventure or even the full rules for the roleplaying game.
Alternatively, if the Game Master already has the full rules for the roleplaying game for the quick-start is for, then what it provides is a sample scenario that she can still run as an introduction or even as part of her campaign for the roleplaying game. The ideal quick-start should entice and intrigue a playing group, but above all effectively introduce and teach the roleplaying game, as well as showcase both rules and setting.
Conan: The Hyborian Age – Quick Start is the quick-start for Conan: The Hyborian Age, the roleplaying game based on the Swords & Sorcery short stories by Robert E. Howard and published by Monolith Board Games SARL.
It is designed to be played by five players, plus the Game Master.
It is a fifty-two page, 16.52 MB full colour PDF.
The quick-start is lightly illustrated, but the artwork is excellent and exciting. The rules are a slightly stripped down version from the core rulebook, but do include examples of the rules which speed the learning of the game.
The themes and nature of Conan: The Hyborian Age and thus the Conan: The Hyborian Age – Quick Start, specifically the lurid and sometimes uncomfortable nature of the source material may require the X-Card depending on the gaming group. However, there is nothing controversial or potentially offensive about the content of the Conan: The Hyborian Age – Quick Start.
How long will it take to play?
The Conan: The Hyborian Age – Quick Start and its adventure or ‘Tale’, ‘The Seal of Acheron’, is designed to be played through in one session, two at most.
What else do you need to play?
The Conan: The Hyborian Age – Quick Start requires a set of polyhedral dice per player. Each player also requires a single extra ten-sided die which should be a different colour.
Who do you play?
The five Player Characters in the Conan: The Hyborian Age – Quick Start consist of a born on the streets assassin, a warrior from the hills, a female wanderer, a sorcerer who can call wolves to his side, and a warrior from the icy north.
How is a Player Character defined?
A Player Character has four stats—Might, Edge, Grit, and Wits. Stats are rated between zero and eight, though most are capped at six. Each stat also has an associated Stat Die. This is either a six-, eight-, or ten-sided die. Skills are not traditional skills per se, but rather special abilities that grant a bonus to a particular action or access to a specific ability. ‘Of the Shadows’ is an example of the former, granting a bonus to all Edge checks involving or detecting acts of stealth, whilst ‘Assassin’ is an example of the latter, enabling the Player Character to apply Edge rather than Might when using one-handed light or medium melee weapons.
Besides Physical Defence and Sorcery Defence and Life Points, a Player Character also has Stamina Points and a Flex Die. Stamina Points are expended to access a range of bonuses or to activate certain Skills. The Flex Die is a special die rolled in addition to any dice rolled by a player for any reason. It can either be a six-, eight-, or ten-sided die.
How do the mechanics work?
Mechanically, Conan: The Hyborian Age – Quick Start has a player roll either a Check or an Attack. To make a Check, a player rolls the appropriate Stat Die for the action and adds to it the value of the Stat and any modifiers. ‘The Rule of Threes’ means that the modifiers do not go above ‘+3’ or below ‘-3’. The Difficulty ranges between four and six for Easy, seven and nine for Moderate, ten and twelve for Difficult, and thirteen or more for Legendary. A roll of one on the Stat Die means that the Check or Attack fails.
When any Check or Attack roll is made, the Flex Die is rolled as part of it. When the maximum on the Flex Die is rolled, it triggers a Flex and grants access to various boons. This always includes giving the Player Character a bonus point of Stamina, but the options given in the Conan: The Hyborian Age – Quick Start consist of guaranteeing that an attack or action succeeds or inflicting Massive Damage on a damage roll. Consequently, the smaller the die size, the more chance of Flex being triggered.
There is no effect if one is rolled on the Flex Die.
How does combat work?
Combat in the Conan: The Hyborian Age – Quick Start is designed to be desperate and dangerous. A Player Character can conduct two actions per turn, though certain Skills or expenditure of Stamina Points can add more. A Move is one action, an Attack is one action, a Focused Attack is one action with a bonus, Defend is one Action to gain a bonus to Physical Defence, and Cast a Spell is one or two Actions depending upon the spell. If a Player Character has enough actions, he can take two actions that are the same. Thus two Move actions or two Attack actions. Range is determined by zones around a Player Character. Melee Attacks use the Might Stat; Ranged and Thrown Attacks use the Edge Stat; and Sorcery Attacks use the Wits Stat. If the result of the Attack roll is equal to or greater than the opponent’s Physical Defence, a Melee, Ranged, or Thrown Attack succeeds, whilst a Sorcery Attack succeeds if the Sorcery is equal to or greater than the opponent’s Sorcery Defence.
Melee and Thrown Damage is determined by adding the Might Stat to the result of the weapon’s Damage roll; Ranged Damage is determined by a Ranged weapon’s Damage die only; and Sorcery Damage is determined by the spell being cast. Skills can also add to this damage.
The Armour Rating of any armour worn reduces damage. Armour worn has other effects, including penalising Sorcery Attacks.
Damage suffered is deducted from the Life Points. If a Player Character has his Life Points reduced to zero, he is heavily wounded and unconscious. If a subsequent Grit Check is failed, he dies. If alive, two Recovery checks can be made per tale or session to restore Life Points.
If a Player Character does die, a Game Master can opt for a ‘Fateful Intervention’. Four narrative suggestions are given, such as the Player Characters’ foes leaving them for dead and allowing them to crawl from the battlefield. All four are appropriate to the genre.
Enemy Antagonists have Life Points just as the Player Characters do. Minions have a Threshold value. If this Threshhold is exceeded with a Damage Roll in a single blow, the Minion is killed.
Stamina Points can be spent during combat to react to a situation in unexpected and daring ways that ordinary men and women do not. This includes to make an additional Move Action, to increase the damage inflicted by a single, successful attack, to increase the Range of a Thrown weapon, and with a Player Character’s final Stamina Point to inflict Massive Damage as per the Flex Massive Damage result.
How does Sorcery work?
Sorcery in Conan: The Hyborian Age is divided into five Disciplines. Each Discipline grants access to a number of inherent spells. Casting spells costs Life Points or Stamina Points to cast. Only one Discipline, the White Magic Dscipline, appears in the Conan: The Hyborian Age – Quick Start, and only one Player Character can cast spells.
What do you play?
The Tale in the Conan: The Hyborian Age – Quick Start is ‘The Seal of Acheron’. In part inspired by Robert E. Howard’s ‘The Slithering Shadow’ and ‘A Witch Shall be Born’, it opens with the Player Characters with their fellow Dog Brothers in a tavern following several days of battle on the border. A fellow mercenary offers them information about a recently exposed ruin in the nearby desert. Wounded in the recent clashes, he cannot explore it himself, so suggests that he share the information in exchange for a share of whatever they manage to loot from the ruin. The Player Characters may be harassed by bandits (oddly armed with just knives) or wild dogs or hyenas on the way there, but the bulk of the adventure focuses on the underground ruins. The emphasis is on exploration, action, and combat combined with elements of horror. ‘The Seal of Acheron’ is straightforward and atmospheric.
Is there anything missing?
The Conan: The Hyborian Age – Quick Start is complete. It includes a good overview of the genre and core themes of Conan: The Hyborian Age. These are adventure, big versus big reward, sword and sorcery, and forward momentum. There is also decent advice for the Game Master on running ‘The Seal of Acheron’.
The core rules presented in the Conan: The Hyborian Age – Quick Start are relatively easy to prepare.
Yes. The Conan: The Hyborian Age – Quick Start provides a solid introduction to Conan: The Hyborian Age and gives a good as to what it feels like to play.
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