A new Conan the Barbarian game is being released soon, and the quickstart guide is now available.

Conan: The Hyborian Age is a sword-and-sandal fantasy RPG with lightweight mechanics by Monolith Board Games. It’s fairly well written (a bit slow to get to the point sometimes) and well laid out. I like the art; it’s gritty but heroic, full-color, and well-executed.

Basics

The system uses standard D&D dice.

A lot of things are resolved by ability checks, which use different dice depending on the ability.

The system uses zones instead of specific distances. They are Touch, Close, Medium, Long, and Distant.

There is no alignment.

There’s no advantage or disadvantage.

Armor absorbs damage.

Spells are cast with an ability check.

Ancestries

Just Human, apparently.

Classes

There don’t seem to be classes, per se. The Quickstart Guides says you can be a Warrior, Rogue, Sorcerer, or Soldier, but these aren’t explored; instead, a few pregenerated characters are provided, and only their skills are listed.

Abilities

Might, Edge, Grit, and Wits, called stats. Indexed from 1 to 6 for humans, rolled 3d6 in order and giving modifiers of -3 to +3 for ability checks.

The choice of ability names is seemingly just to spite those familiar with D&D, altho it’s a bit more warranted here, as there are only four abilities, and the scale is different.

Skills

It seems to be a skill-based system, but how it works is unclear, because only pregenerated characters and their skills are given in the Quickstart Guide.

Sorcerers (or characters-with-sorcery-skills) don’t have spell slots; they spend life points or stamina points. They make spell attacks with wits. They can heal.

A flex die is rolled with most checks. A maximum on your flex die allows you to select 1 stamina point, or turn a failed check in a passed check, or deal the flex die result as damage on top of normal melee damage.

Combat

The game uses individual initiative in the form of an Edge ability check for PCs but side initiative for the GM. That is, players have a specific order, but when it’s the GM’s turn, all the bad guys go at once.

The system has a two-action economy. Characters have several choices of action: Move, Manipulate, Attack, Focused Attack (+2, costs 2), Defend, Cast a Spell, Free Action (which costs 0), Anything Else.

Attacks can be melee and thrown, which use a Might check and imparts bonus damage for high Might; ranged, which uses an Edge check; and sorcery, which uses a Wits check. Damage is done with the weapon die, but the opponent’s armor absorbs some.

The monsters are only a couple that appear in the sample adventure.

Damage & Healing

If reduced to zero hp, you die unless you pass a Grit check.

Up to twice per adventure (or more, for long adventures), characters can take a short rest called a Recovery and regain 50% of their maximum Life Points and 1 Stamina point.

Magic

There are various magical disciplines, but these are not explored in the Quickstart Guide. One pregenerated character can cast “white magic”. Each discipline has come “inherent spells”, which are utility magic, like “Sense Sorcery”.

You don’t have to memorize spells as in D&D. To cast a spell you know, you must make a Wits check. If failed, the spell fails.

Weirdness

There’s… not a lot of weirdness. Mechanics-wise, it’s definitely D&D-for-those-who-don’t-like-D&D, but I have a feeling it would play pretty similarly. The “skills” are reminiscent of modern D&D feats. Conan 2d20 from Modiphius had a lot more going on–too much, in fact: momentum and doom, four pots of hit points, and so on, plus an elaborate background system that players with a background fetish enjoyed rolling up over and over.

There’s nothing in the Quickstart Guide that I would say supports exploration (hex crawl rules, movement thru a dungeon, searching, etc.).

Many of the characters in the art wear modern long trousers, which always kind of bugs me in fantasy art, but it feels extra wrong in a Conan work.

Conclusion

This seems to be a pretty solid system, altho it makes a lot of choices seemingly just to spite D&D (no Vancian magic, no classes per se, no d20 attack vs armor class, zones, etc.).

I can imagine myself playing it, but it also doesn’t have the impressive heft of Conan 2d20. Perhaps the full game will have a similar background system, tho, which would help. The strength of a Conan game is that it’s simulating a particular fantasy world, so it’s not kitchen-sink fantasy with a dozen playable ancestries and vague backgrounds.