Speedpainting Woes

Greetings Adventurers! As I am experimenting with Speedpainting and the Army Painter Speedpaint 2.0+ line. I’m beginning to understand how the paints work as well as what techniques really work and what doesn’t. I’m still on the struggle bus with some mini’s taking me an hour to paint (my success with the Zombie Ogre) 

and others well… really no different than with my acrylics, sigh. I’m stuck in the loop of painting the base coats then switching back and forth to other minis to use up the paint. Then I go back to do the details with acrylics and trying to use the paint on my wet palate, so I don’t waste this expensive stuff I go back and forth between minis. This back and forth is really eating up time, I need to find a sweet spot with Speedpainting the base colors and just using acrylics with washes for the details. Also, I need to do ONE mini at a time so I can actually finish one!

Now on to my biggest woe. Zenithal Priming. I was watching a bunch of ‘how to’ videos on YouTube and almost everyone was saying that this Zenithal Priming is the “thing.” So, I figured I’d try it out. Now, most of my mini’s are all primed either with a grey primer or a white one. My newest purchases were primed with white and my oldest with a darker grey, and some in between were primed with a light grey. I found out that a light grey (as opposed to the darker grey) works best so that is what I’m going to go with in the future...but more on that in a little bit. Unfortunately, I don’t have any ‘new’ minis that need priming, and I don’t just want to re-spray already primed ones with a black primer (whew I’m sure glad I didn’t do that!) and do double work. Ok. I'm weak. I bought a few minis on Amazon that I wanted to replace my original Dungeon Dwellers that I had lost or actually threw away (Ugh, I threw away the Thief and the Elf because the casting was so awful and I really wish I hadn’t done that. I lost the Wizard.) 

The Heritage Models "Thief" and a far better casting than the one I had.

So, I picked up replacements from the Reaper official Dungeon Dwellers modern re-launch line. They are extremely well sculpted re-dos that basically have pretty much the same poses as the original Heritage ones. I got some metal ones, plastic ones, and even a cool Hyborian Sorcerer that was a 3d Printed one (yeah, I got one or two that I just thought were just cool and maybe not exactly Dungeon Dwellers. Like I said I love minis.)

Back on track, I promise. I assembled what needed to be assembled and read the backs of the cards. Hm. Some of them said they are good to go without priming? Ok. Strange because they didn’t look primed like the Nolzur’s. Ok so no matter, I hit 'em up with some black primer then dry brushed them white (well, I didn’t wait long enough to dry with the thief, so he got a little grey. More on that in a bit). I followed the Zenithal Priming instructions and hit the highlights real good with the white dry brush. They looked like the videos so I began with the Hyborian Sorcerer and a plan.

I grabbed the colors I wanted to use and set them aside, this was a new process for me. Usually, I start with one color then hunt and pick the others. This time would be different. I knew I wanted a cool red robe thing as base so I’ll Speedpaint that (I did some color testing and found that Fire Drake was actually brown and Bright Red wasn’t really bright but it WAS the color I wanted: a sort of dark red), my Vallejo Flesh (called Bronze Brown 72.036 for those who are interested in THE best flesh color ever! Near perfect with a flesh tone wash), Gold, Silver, Black, Fire Drake (the brown for the booties), Skeleton Bone for the skulls, Emerald Green Metallic for the Skull’s eyes, white and some flesh wash and strong tone, for the skulls and chain. Ok I figured 30min to get this guy DONE. Well, I found out some stuff.

Anything that wasn’t white stayed black…black black. Even after a few coats. Anything that I hit with the acrylics could not AT ALL be covered with the Speedpaint, even after multiple coats. I made some mistakes with the flesh and gold metallic. As you can see they are still mistakes so I’m going to have to figure out how to color match that red to fix them or they will stay there. That black that wasn’t dry brushed white stands out. A LOT. I immediately went back and re-dry brushed all the others so that only the shadows have black in them. I was to learn that this wouldn’t even do it. The Hyborian Sorcerer is still a work in progress.  

I hit up the Thief and, same deal, that black is blacker than black. Ugh. Although, the areas that were light grey looked really good, hm a discovery.

You can really see where the "black" really stayed "black" 

Next, I tried a full Speedpaint on the Elf with two shades of green following the painting instructions I found on the Reaper website (cuz I liked his look and wanted to see what the speedpaint version would look like.) Note the "Zenithal drybrush" in the first pic. The overall result: Oh no! A big mess.

Ugh, the darkness!

Jungle Acrylic Disaster

The greens when applied were not bright, they were very dark with that black and it looks terrible. Judge for yourself.  When I did my test swatches with those colors they were bright! Then I tried to use acrylic Jungle Green to re-do the cloak. Nightmare. That black is just not letting any color work right. Lessons learned NO WAY Zenithal! I’m going with my standard. That light grey primer with no drybushing. Check out these tests. 

The first is Bright Red and the second is Fire Drake. JUICY! The pic really doesn’t do it justice. I’ve hit up some Speedpaint tests on my grey primed and partially painted villagers that I’m going to use as Zero-Level DCC Funnel minis and they look SO GOOD. 

Bright rich colors and so so fast to paint too! They are still very much a work in progress but the start looks great. That elf is going to get the spray and a redo! I completely re-did the elf with a white/grey primer and look at the results:

Much better and he is still a work in progress. Painting them first with Speedpaint over the light grey primer for the major areas then going back and doing detail work with my acrylics seems to be the winner. Everything but the flesh (again a Vallejo: Dark Flesh 70.927 not really dark but I love it for maidens, elves and gnomes) and straps is Speedpaint. I might have my solution but it just is going to take me a little bit to figure out how to use these new colors. One thing I have done is I've painted a very small portion of the tops of the bottles of Speedpaint with the color inside. This, not only makes picking out colors easy but I can see what the dried "real" results are on a dark grey (all the caps are dark grey) prime. I've also started to do this with my regular warpaints as well so I can see what the dried result will look like. I've seen many pro painters do this and was adverse to this in the beginning as I thought it looked sloppy. Function over fashion on this one. It really does make it easier. One last major woe is that if I paint a light area with the dark Speedpaint color by mistake it is very hard to fix without going back to covering the error with white acrylic then painting it with the desired lighter color. I can't even just go straight to the lighter acrylic color to cover it. Notably, I'm still trying to break my habit of one color at a time and painting multiple minis at once and not finishing any single one. Sigh. It will take time. My continuing thoughts are I really do like the Speedpaints now that I'm getting comfortable with them. I’m still very much in my “it’s new” phase with them. In my next post I'll get some pics of finished minis ready for varnishing so you can see the Speedpaint results then share my "not so final" thoughts on the Speedpaint 2.0+ line. I really do hope my investment will pay off and I can get ole Smiley to the table along with about a hundred of his friends.

“Don’t mess me up like that elf, buddy, or I’ll disintegrate you!”

Speedpaint 2.0+ My Initial Findings

Hello Adventurers! So, I just received my wonderful Speedpaint 2.0+ Complete Set (90 colors!) and

I’ve begun to paint with the colors and try them out. It is a bit of a learning curve. I’ll share some pros and cons with my actual use and beginner’s (well speedpainting at least) thoughts. If you don’t want to read further. My initial take. Yeah, I think these will work and speed up my painting times. Can I get down to under 30min a mini?…maybe not but maybe less than an hour? Not sure yet. I’m still learning. Is it worth it? Not sure. Time will tell, but I think I like them. 

Pros

This stuff flows really well. The consistency is very much like watered down acrylic paint or a wash. 

The dried coverage is unique and does a good job of acting like a wash adding depth.

A little seems to go a pretty long way. I only used about 5 or 6 drops to do the entire Ogre Zombie skin and that was with 2 coats and it is a rather large mini (almost 3 inches tall). I maybe used 2-3 drops of paint (each color) for the elf (1.5 inches tall) and I had paint left over.  

The colors look cool. Some are very bright and others are very dark. It is hard to tell which they will be from the bottle graphic, the wet liquid, or even the initial coating until they dry. Right there is the biggest learning curve especially when picking colors. 

I’ve not had any “reactivation” issues unless I wanted them.  I even tried painting over previously painted areas after only less than a few minutes drying time (just when it didn’t look wet) and I didn’t have any bleed.

They clean up really, really well. On my dry palate, once the speedpaint dries, it becomes almost like a liquid plastic putty. It lifts right off with a fingernail or paper towel. Acrylics dry HARD on the dry palate and have to be scraped off, not so with these. 

I tried out these paints on several minis with varied primer types. I tried them on a flat white, a flat light grey, a flat dark grey, and pre-primed Nolzur’s D&D. All came out with very similar results. All of them good.

That minotaur's body is actually the "Gravelord Grey" and not the "Grim Black" but it is VERY BLACK. The "Grim Black" is SUPER BLACK. The horns, axe head, axe shaft, and base are all Army Painter Warpaint acrylic. The body and belt are speedpaint. The sandals were painted with speedpaint brown and the color did not cover and later I used an acrylic to paint the leather of the sandals.  

Cons

It does not do “coverage.” If you put a darker shade on and mess up. The regular lighter color will not cover it. I’m having to “shade” match my acrylics to the speedpaints to cover mistakes. This sea hag's brown loincloth is one coat...very white.

The colors can be really dark when they dry. Also, some can be very light when they dry. This medusa I kind of wanted the opposite of what I got. I wanted dark snakes on a light face and hands but I picked poorly. Again need to get experience as to what the final colors will "really" look like. 

You must be VERY careful with the application. This stuff flows like water and it should be put on with a smaller brush than you would think you would need with standard acrylics. 

It pools. It REALLY pools BUT it dries lighter in the pools than you think it would. 

One coat and done doesn’t really work for a lot of the colors. Especially on textured parts of the mini like fur or wraps etc. The ogre's wraps would not get darker. I'm going to have to use an acrylic and a wash to get the effect I want on these.

It’s not for detail work. Because of the flow It does not seem so great for belts, rings, pouches, belts etc. Use a small brush and be careful where you put the paint.

If you are trying to get paint into a small place (like a gash or hole) don’t think it will flow in and not leave color paint behind. Use a small brush and be very careful if the color is dark and you are painting next to a light color. Note: See the right and left gashes near the armpits.

Speedpaint dries pretty fast on your palate. Put one or two drops then add more when you need more. If it begins to dry it becomes a goopy mess like melted plastic.

Findings

The paint goes on fast and dries, looking great. Sometimes you will have to do two or more coats to get the color you really want. Detail work must be done with acrylics. 

The verdict is still out on the metallic colors. I don’t hate them, but they don’t seem to give the same intense coverage that the Warpaints Metallics line does. Maybe they could be good for armor and chainmail to create that darkness in the textured part without having to use a wash? More experimentation needed. Looks pretty good on his belt once it dried.

I got a really BIG bottle of Speedpaint Medium and a regular sized bottle. Not quite sure why they included this much “mixing medium.” I read on their website that you can “thin down” the Speedpaint but gosh it’s really thin right out of the bottle. I need more research on what the Speedpaint Medium is used for. Can I make my acrylic Warpaints Speedpaint by adding the medium? Whoa that would be cool. Stay tuned. Oh, and if you are wondering “Smiley” is still primer grey. I’ll get to him soon enough! 

NOTE: Smiley is a 1980 Grenadier AD&D lead miniature from the #2012 Dwellers Below boxed set. I have the original box, foam, insert and have 7 of the 9 miniatures fully painted. Just “Smiley” the beholder and the Yuan Ti remain unpainted. The Yuan Ti is base coated green but the rest of him is primer grey! I really want to do a good high level job on “Smiley” and decided he wasn’t a good choice for a paint experiment. 

 

 Painting Miniatures

Greetings Adventurers!

Now I’ve been painting miniatures longer than I’ve been playing TTRPGs. I started out with Heritage Models Dungeon Dwellers Caverns of Doom adventure game set that I probably got sometime in 1981.

These were LEAD miniatures and several looked like melted messes of metal rather than the superbly crafted 3d printed plastic/filament minis of today. When I started playing RPGs I also got into the miniatures hobby associated with them. I particularly liked Grenadier Models AD&D line. I also dabbled with some Ral Partha’s, Alvanco’s Wizards & Lizards and some random Armory ones among others. I started painting those Caverns of Doom figures with enamel paints (yeah yuk!) designed for plastic models and quickly learned that was not the thing. After a few play sessions most of the paint had been worn off. Also, the end results were less than ideal. I took all of my painted miniatures and dropped them in acetone and removed the paint and started over. Re-starting with Floquil railroad colors, designed for metal trains, I began to hone my craft and started painting some pretty good minis.

(Early Paladin work, Grenadier 1980's, notice the poofy lichen basework)

Oil-based paints were a pain to deal with and I always seemed to be out of thinner. Soon, I moved on to water based acrylic paints and started to pick up some Citadel Colors mostly made for Warhammer minis. I liked the color pigments and their thickness but the bottles they came in were pretty terrible and sometimes the paint became so clumped it was unusable. As I developed my hobby skills in painting and miniatures (like basing, kit-bashing, pinning etc.) I got rather well at mixing colors, drybrushing, glazing and other techniques.

(Re-done Halfling Grenadier 1980's)

Still, I was not satisfied with the Citadel Colors, especially for the price. A few years ago I discovered the Army Painter line of colors and really loved them. I got a mega set and supplemented it with colors that I wanted or experimented with. I really dig their Warpaints line. The big thing though. It takes me FOR-EVER to paint one mini. From the initial spray paint primer to base coat, then shading, highlights, special effects, detailing, and then on to washes and drybrushing all the way to dippin into varnish to add depth (an old tin soldier modeling trick) then spraying with a dull cote to take away the varnish shine or even skipping that whole step and just and sealing them with a clear cote spray. It’s like a few HOURS to finish a mini and that is if I know what colors I want to use from the get go!

(Reaper Elf, Getting better but basework still "basic")

My conundrum. I have a lot of minis. Most of those minis are not painted. Some of my minis from 1981 aren’t even finished. Everything is primed, but color? 

(Yep. There are more minis under that cardboard)

Nope. I even made a vow to myself not to buy another miniature until I had all the ones I already owned painted. This lasted, mostly (I bought military ones and military models), from about 1986 till I got into the gaming industry in early 2000 when I started to get some “comp” minis for free or in trade. I really didn’t buy a SINGLE fantasy miniature from 1986 until about 2000 when I broke my vow with the wonderful Reaper line of miniatures. 

(Reaper Ghost with a little too much varnish. See brown part inside of hood and on shield, Ack!)

BUT I love using minis at my table. My gaming group loves to see their battles played out on maps and want, neigh, demand that I have a battlemap for every combat encounter. I have minis for characters that were specifically purchased for games (and used unpainted) that have long since ended. Sadly, with the promise that I would have them painted “next session for sure!” I have bought whole groups of monster minis designed for encounters in an upcoming game session (usually a few sessions away!) only to paint one or two and the rest hitting the table only in their glorious primer coating. I desperately want to have my magnificent collection, now bulging with the excellent Nolzur’s Marvelous line of D&D minis (I’m especially fond of their monsters,) painted and table ready. Sigh.

(Reaper Dungeon Dwellers, throwback line, plastic spider)

I’m nowhere near a professional at mini painting. I’m not even close to some of the people who have you tube videos up there like Squidmar, Ninjon and Lyla Mev, who I’ve learned so much from. I just want to get my minis to the table and not have them with off-white or grey primer.  Now, I’ve been watching slapchop, speed paint, contrast or whatever you want to call “painting a miniature faster” videos for some years now and the results, to me, were less than stellar. I’ve stayed with my acrylic paints and crank out perhaps 5-6 completed mini’s a year (ugh, that sounds so awful.) 

(Conan still in progress, note test swatches on cardboard holder)

Well dear friends, I’ve decided to take the plunge. I’m writing a lot now and really need to have my “hobby time” prioritized. So, I have done a lot of research in the last year (off an on yeah…time is hard to find) and I think I’ve found a solution. I took the dive. Army Painter’s Speedpaint 2.0+ line of paints. I’ve ordered the “supermega one with everything” set. The reviews from all the pros are in. I’ve seen all the how to’s. They have fixed the bleeding and reactivation issues. I’ve gone to a whole bunch of websites with the sample swatches that dozens of people have painted and I’m going ALL IN. I think this might be my solution. I’m gonna paint these little buggers and get them to the table. Pros are cranking out “table ready” minis in less than 15min after priming. I’m sure I can get down to 30min a mini. I’ll keep you posted. After all, “Smiley” here has been waiting since 1982 for some paint.

"Paint me, Seymour!"

 DCC Day at Dragon’s Lair

Greetings adventurers! Saturday July 19th was Dungeon Crawl Classics Day. This is a celebration all things DCC (as well as Mutant and X-Crawl Classics) sponsored by Goodman Games. Taking place at FLGS across the world once a year Judges present special DCC adventures for any and all to come and play a little bit of DCC, and get some cool stuff. The event is run free of charge for those both experienced and brand new to DCC. This year I made it out to Dragon’s Lair Comics & Fantasy here in Austin, TX for some DCC goodness. 

I planned carefully so that I could play in my new friend Matt “Grape Ape” Robertson’s DCC game and arrived early, perhaps too early as I found out the game would not start until some two hours later. 

Alas, I did some shopping and picked up some DCC day specials along with some great DCC adventures. I sat down and started to look over my new purchases and was soon joined by others ready to throw down some DCC action. 

Soon Grape Ape arrived and began his set up. I struck up some amazing conversations with my new acquaintances and we swapped many gaming stories before the game began. Three full tables eventually assembled for both DCC and MCC with ours being the first to fill up. Grape Ape is the Community Outreach Liaison at Goodman Games and lives nearby here in Texas (Check out his Rules as Written Podcast on the official Goodman Games You Tube channel.) We have met several times at various conventions and events but have never gamed together, until now. Judge Grape Ape ran The DCC Day special: The Key to Castle Whiterock and boy was it a hoot!

I’m not going to throw out any spoilers but in the end my character ended up dead and we didn’t get the Key to Castle Whiterock. I can’t say how much fun I had playing in Grape Ape’s game, I seriously felt like I was 12 years old again playing in my first Fantasy RPG adventures. Everyone had a great time, we got some great freebes from Goodman Games and some neat swag from Grape Ape for participating in the game. I must give shout outs to all the excellent players in our game. You guys are amazing. Kudos to Keith (Gosshus the Cleric who by far has the most deity disapproval I have seen in any game I’ve played in my entire life!), Chaz (our giant-sized Wizard), Tony (Jasper the gold and silver sniffin dwarf. I’ll reach out to you soon and hopefully we can start our own gongfarmer local!), Ryan (Haldr the elf devote of none other than Sezrekan himself. Maybe someday you can convince us to teleport 100 miles away from the dungeon!) and last, but not least, Hector (Wat the primitive warrior MVP who had the most Mighty Deeds and saved our skins more than once, in the end I know you tried to save me but smashed all your fingers, you can have Squire Bedford’s share of the treasure.) A special Thank You to Grape Ape for organizing this fantastic event and running such a great game (I am so going to steal your goblin voice in my next game.) To my fellow adventurers I salute you until we meet and adventure again.

 Conan the Cimmerian in Roleplaying Games Part III: The Modern Age

“…Hither came Conan, the Cimmerian, black-haired, sullen-eyed, sword in hand…” 

Greetings Adventurers! Welcome to the last entry in my series about Conan in RPGs. In 2015 British game company Modiphius Entertainment announced that is would be creating a new Conan RPG. Sadly, I was not on board. I felt burned by the stack of books on my shelf from Mongoose and didn’t have the faith or energy (or cash for that matter!) to emotionally or financially invest in the Kickstarter. I let Conan Adventures in an Age Undreamed of (2017) pass.

This was to be a terrible mistake and nearly a painful regret as I will discuss later on. The Kickstarter was a tremendous success, fully funding within a few hours and by the end raised nearly 10 times the goal amount. Much acclaim was hyped upon the new game and the momentum would only build with the release of the Quickstart Guide which included an amazing Thunder River introductory adventure. This game was to be different, and the designers were to focus only on the Howard cannon. Brilliant writers, talented and famous artists were commissioned for the artwork and maps. For the first time Howard scholars from the Robert E. Howard Foundation were brought on board to review and assist. The highly successful 2d20 System previously used for Modiphius’ Star Trek Roleplaying Game (among others) was utilized and tweaked to fit Howard’s world. In January 2017 the pdf was released and by May 2017 the 368page all color physical book was in print and the world of Conan exploded! From that point on over a score of hardback books were produced all based on Howard’s writings. Critically acclaimed supplement books such Conan the Barbarian (the Barbarian/Cimmerian sourcebook)

 and Conan the Thief (The Thieves and Zamora sourcebook) were produced as well as many others detailing Howard’s world. Several adventure books and accessories were also produced during publication, such as special dice, card decks, an amazing Gamemaster’s Toolkit/Screen, Maps, and other items. During the end of publication some liberties were taken with a few supplements (not of Howard canon) that tied into The Age of Conan and Conan Exiles video games as well as a (fated-see below) sourcebook tie in with Monolith’s Conan board/miniatures game. All the books were hardbacks, beautifully illustrated and well made with quality paper. For the most part (I’m talking about you Conan the Wanderer) all were critically acclaimed. Sometime in 2020 I ran into a sale at Drive Thru RPG and grabbed a bundle of all the .pdfs with some birthday or perhaps it was Christmas money, I cannot remember which. It was a “Conan Impulse Buy.” I skimmed the core book but have always been averse to “roll low” systems and didn’t think much of the 2d20 system, then. I perused the .pdfs not really taking it in or reading much about the mechanics other than some of the flavor text which I felt was very good but alas, I left them sit on my hard drive. In 2022 I heard that Modiphius was losing the license and on a trip to Houston with my wife I ran across the physical copy of the Gamemaster Toolkit and picked it up for a little less than cover price. One thing you will get to know about me- I’m a sucker for GM screens or DM screens or Judge’s screens or whatever you want to call them. I just love them (Hm. Perhaps that may be an idea for another series of posts?) In the hotel room I scanned it among the other treasures I picked up that day not thinking much about it. The tables were clean and well laid out and the GM screen was printed on very thick durable cardstock. Upon review, I was fascinated with the listing of weapons and armor and wanted to know more about the strange damage symbols and how “Armor Soak” worked. I had also read previously online that the Gamemaster Toolkit was worth it alone for the Adventure Generator and as I reviewed it in the booklet I found out there was, indeed, something I had missed. When I got home, I found the .pdfs on my hard drive and transferred the free QuickStart (and adventure) onto my handheld pad and began to read. This was amazing. What had I missed all these years? I had goofed and goofed bad. The more I read the more I began to enjoy this elegant system. I devoured the .pdfs and began my quest to purchase all the physical books that I could find. It started with the core book and blossomed from there. Luckily there were people on eBay dumping their copies. With news of Modiphius losing the license and the liquidation of their backstock (sadly which I had missed) prices on eBay were low and sometimes even affordable. I lucked out and snagged a bundle with over a dozen books nearly completing my collection in one go. I slowly searched and hunted, grabbing physical copies where I found them. Some in FLGS like Games Plus in Mount Prospect, IL outside of Chicago (where I was on a film shoot) and some from Noble Knight Games (dealers in new and out of print games.) Then in 2024 I managed to find the last book (for cover price I might add) which was the video game tie-in-The Conan Exiles Sourcebook at Robert E. Howard Days in Cross Plains, TX (for you non-Howard scholars this is an event held at his house every year celebrating his life and creations.) With that book I completed my collection. Sure, I’m missing the special dice (Ack! See below) and some maps but I now have all the books. I’ve fallen in love with this system and have read cover to cover a large portion of my collection. I’m savoring this reading taking each volume word by word and enjoying them at a leisurely pace. Currently, I’m on Conan the Wanderer, this is the one that critics have panned and has the least favorable rating of all the line, but so far I still feel it is an excellent read. I have read (cover to cover), reviewed, selectively read, or have used sections of all the books. The system plays well and the Doom and Momentum mechanics give the game a certain feel that I can only describe as “pulpy.” (IMHO the boys at Daggerheart have seen this system and appear to like it. I challenge you to compare their 2d12 system to this one and tell me it is not true.) The subsystems of skills, combat and magic add just enough crunch that I like without making it too complicated nor too basic. The game does not use hit points and has a stellar death spiral mechanic. I think that the excellent and (Ennie award winning) Seth Skorkowsky has the best explanation and formal review, far better than I can describe here. Please check it out. This is MY goto Conan system and I will continue to use it. I might buy some new adventures when they come out, but for the system I’m going to stick with this one. Sorry Savage Worlds…this one just works for me and for Conan, I’ll see you for some other stuff. Promise.---and more on SW later! 

Ok. So, I got off on a bit of a tangent now back to the history with Modiphius. Sadly, they did relinquish their license in 2022 and it passed on to Monolith Games. Monolith Games had created a very successful Conan tabletop game (2016) packed with miniatures and they continue to crank out reprints

 and new supplements for this boardgame to this very day. They now have the license for a Conan RPG and are producing Conan: The Hyborian Age – The Roleplaying Game (TBD). They ended their successful Kickstarter at the end of 2024 and have put out their free Quickstart on Drive Thru RPG. I’ve read and tested the Quickstart and I’m not a fan. Some of the stats and numbers I’ve seen do not jive with me. I do not like a hit point system for the Hyborian world and I prefer a death spiral system. Also, a bit of the flavor of the game just isn’t in the Howard style that I enjoy. This does not mean I will not patronize this company as I will probably purchase the two planned adventure books (in .pdf) and convert them to Modiphius’ 2d20 Conan system. I just won’t be purchasing the core book or other supplements. I will say that the artwork looks great and the layouts are very professional. This is just my opinion and I urge you to download and try it out yourself.

Well, those were some long posts filled with lots of information. I’m sure this is not the end of the tale of Conan of Cimmeria in roleplaying games and I wish Monolith all the best with their new RPG. For those of you wondering- Conan: Adventures in an Age Undreamed Of Core Book prices on eBay are beginning to drop and with the coming of the new RPG people are unloading their core books and collections at now reasonable prices. Good Hunting! I just saw that someone was unloading the mega-kickstarter with the Leather Bound Core book, Leather Conan Backpack, GM dice set and EVERYTHING in print for a few thousand dollars. Too rich for my blood. Ack! I just found the Modiphius Conan dice on eBay and paid way too much for them…alas, I’m still a sucker for Conan.

 Conan the Cimmerian in Roleplaying Games Part II: The OGL Years

Greetings Adventurers! Today we will be continuing my peek into Conan Roleplaying history. We return to our tale that takes us into the early millennium. In 2000 Wizards of the Coast released version 1.0 of the Open Gaming License and changed the RPG industry forever. This allowed third party publishers to produce compatible material for Dungeons and Dragons without an individual licensing agreement. Onwards to 2004 where our hero Conan again was able “…to tread the jeweled thrones of the Earth under his sandaled feet” with the release of Mongoose Publishing’s Conan: The Roleplaying Game (2004).

 This version used the OGL to allow players to adventure in the Hyborian Age using the current and extremely popular d20 Dungeons and Dragons rules set (with some interesting modifications which I will talk about later). The initial release of the core book was followed by dozens of supplemental hard and soft cover books detailing the world of Conan, not just Robert E. Howard’s Conan but all iterations of our hero from the various books, movies, comics, graphic novels, and media. Releases also included many adventures both original and chances to walk in Conan's shoes such as the excellent Conan and The Tower of the Elephant. Fun Fact: A few 5x8 pocket sized editions were created for this line! 

It was a hit and such so that a second printing of the first edition called “The Atlantean Edition” came out in August of 2004. I enjoyed this line of products very much. The sourcebooks were fantastic and filled with Hyborean goodness. During its publication run I managed to pick up nearly everything available for the first edition, except for the pocket sized books and 2nd edition books, more on that later. By the time the second edition came out in 2007 I had socked several hundreds of dollars into the system and did not wish to depart with any more cash for what I could tell were “jazzed up reprints” (my words).

I do like, no love, Mongoose Publishing and continue to give them my hard-earned money with their Traveller system to this day. I just think, at the time, it was a bit of a cash grab. The success and rapid rate of publishing (over a score of books by 2006) was not without controversy. In 2006 the boxed set Shadizar – City of Wickedness (of which I own an original copy) was printed with a map provided by the cartographer that was plagiarized (read nearly directly lifted) from a free map offered by Wizards of the Coast. This went unnoticed and was included in the production. Many patrons were very upset by this, including myself. Several, again including myself, found out about this late in the publishing game and would not have the opportunity to get a replacement map (which had been provided by Mongoose if you requested it) other than the free download provided by Mongoose. The second edition of the game did not do well and many of the publications were re-dos of existing sourcebooks such as Return to the Road of Kings.

I enjoyed the Mongoose d20 version but felt it suffered from the same thing that D&D 3.0 and 3.5 suffered from: rules bloat. For example: in the second edition players guide there are three pages of  just tables dedicated to the listing of minor and variant character races and variant/prestige and multi-classes with how to FIND the sourcebook that contains them. Combined there are over 100 entries! These charts do not include ANYTHING other than the name of race/class and the name of the sourcebook where you have to dig out all the information, requirements, abilities, feats etc. of that race/class. Talk about rules bloat! Remember these are NOT even just the basic character classes. There are nine of those. There were rules and feats for everything. Another example: The players guide for 2e also boasts 4 pages of charts with the same type listing of just feats and where to find them. Again, no info on the requirements of the feat, what it does, or the game effect- just the name of the other book where you can find that information. Because of this character write ups were sometimes horrendously long with some monsters nearly a half of a page long. The rules included alterations to the d20 armor system that was clunky, to say the least, and added yet another layer to the already complex 3.x system. The magic system was a hodgepodge of D&D spells mixed with alternative tweaks to fit the Hyborean flavor. In my opinion, this system suffered a bit from the same splattering of including ALL of the Hyborean mythos. However, I will say the adventures were good and many of the sourcebooks have excellent reference material and beautiful artwork and maps. There are quite a few typos and errors and I think these were simply overlooked by overworked editors trying to meet print deadlines for all of these products. Even though many of these books have become quite rare and are selling for some high prices on eBay I would not part with my copies of them. I still find myself, to this day, grabbing The Free Companies, Tito's Trading Post, The Road of Kings, or The Scrolls of Skelos amid others for assistance in my Conan creations. I truly think I will use the city boxed sets (yes, even the bad map one) when it comes time for my heroes to tread upon those streets in one of my Conan games. These books have a lot of flavor and contain many highly detailed descriptions of locations and NPCs that no other Conan RPG ever (to this date) has done.  

Mongoose Publishing dropped the license in 2010 and cancelled the line as sales for the “new” edition books dwindled. This, coupled with “disagreement between ourselves and the license holders” about producing more material and the migration to a new system ended Mongoose d20 Conan. It would only be a short five year hiatus before we would see another Conan RPG and that RPG would be earth shattering in many ways. I leave that tale for another day.

 Conan the Cimmerian in Roleplaying Games Part 1: The Beginning

Greetings Adventurers! I’m a big Conan fan. To say that puts it mildly.  I’m not just a Conan fan- I really enjoy almost all of Robert E. Howard’s work but more on that another time. Today’s post is about Conan and RPGs. 

A little history about me and the big barbarian. I first came across Conan as a fantasy character amidst the comic books of Marvel, DC, Archie, Key and so forth. It was in the form of The Savage Sword of Conan magazines. As a child it seemed very adult to me and a little beyond my fantasy interests, which were mostly in the likes of Robin Hood, King Arthur and onward to the Lord of the Rings, etc. Forward to the 80’s and my love for all things related to Dungeons and Dragons. As a young teen I came across the Conan the Barbarian (1982) film by John Milius in VHS (sadly I missed the theatrical release). I was taken by the character and the whole theatrical experience. For the first time I saw Dungeons and Dragons as I imagined it. Swords and Sorcery at a “realistic” level…well at least at a realism that wasn’t campy, low budget, or schlocky to me. I was entranced by it all and shortly learned that there were a whole slew of books written about the character. I managed to find a copy of the Ace Publishing  Conan Book 1 and I was hooked. The rest is history.

Of course, it didn’t take me long to find my favorite barbarian in roleplaying games. I’m not going to go into the “Barbarian” Class or various mentions of “Conan like” depictions in RPGs I’m only going to explore the actual licensed versions. I’ll start historically and not in the order that I came upon the various gaming publications of my favorite savage hero.

To my knowledge the first appearance in a roleplayingish sense in gaming was with Fantasy Games Unlimited’s Royal Armies of the Hyborian Age (1975). Although it doesn’t specifically have any rules for roleplaying in Conan’s world it does include wargaming information (and rules) for battling armies during the Hyborian Age. Conan is but mentioned as a Superhero commander and little much else. I found my copy in a dusty RPG discount bin at some gaming convention I attended in the late 1990’s. I’m lucky that mine contained the original map and cardstock reference sheet. I know I paid less than $5 for it. The rules are dry and typical of wargames of the 1970’s and very similar to TSR’s Chainmail. The section of Appendix II about Magic Users is interesting and worth a read just for the bit about Thoth-Amon (who garners three rather large paragraphs, far more than Conan himself!) 

 

The first licensed ability to play Conan came about in 1984 with the publication of TSR’s AD&D Conan Modules: Conan Unchained! (1984) and Conan Against Darkness (1984). Both are rather dry affairs, the first a high-level adventure with players taking the roles of Conan! (Why the exclamation point I do not know.) Valeria of The Red Brotherhood, Juma The Warrior and Nestor The Gunderman as they proceed to fight along Kozaki’s in the Free Companions and delve a Wizard’s Tower. The Second is another less inspiring high-level adventure with Conan (no exclamation point this time), Pelias, Prospero and Nzinga taking on the feared Toth-Amon in and Shem and Stygia. The world of the Hyborian age for AD&D adds a Fear Factor, Luck Points, and some unique healing rules. In my opinion David Cook and Ken Rolston tried too hard to appeal to all the movie goers, comic fans, and book lovers and failed to capture the “Howard Feel” of adventure. 

A year later these were followed by the very first standalone Conan RPG simply called Conan Roleplaying Game by TSR (1985). Coming off of the very successful Marvel Superheroes RPG of 1984 TSR (the beloved FASERIP system) attempted to use the same style of color-coded action charts (read Universal Table) to resolve tasks. The system was targeted at beginning roleplayers and it wasn’t the best fit for Conan fans. It contained many clerical errors and lacked the dangerous feel of the Howard Stories. Three adventures came out for it in 1985 but the momentum of a less than ideal system doomed the project. I only played this system once yet I treasure my copy as I was gifted this boxed set by a dear friend of mine who I worked with at Crescent City Con (we organized the gaming events) who knew of my love of Conan. Within a year I had acquired the other three adventures at various gaming conventions. Alas, the color-coded table system was a bit too simplistic for my gaming tastes. A unique note to this part of the story is that this rare game and its adventures go for very high prices on eBay now. 

Next Steve Jackson Games would acquire the license and produce GURPS Conan: The World of Robert E. Howard’s Barbarian Hero (1989) for its popular Generic Universal Role Playing System. Previously in 1988 SJG began producing GURPS solo adventure modules then in 1989 releasing the full sourcebook followed by even more solo adventures. Far better than the TSR version as GURPS was designed for the fantasy genre (SJG’s Man-to-Man became GURPS) and plugging the world of Hyboria into the system worked very well. I found my copy at a FLGS for $15 at a time when copies were being sold on eBay for hundreds of dollars. Since 2021 SJG has been able to sell this product again both as a pdf and print on demand and old 80’s copies have plummeted in value since. As are SJG’s other GURPS world/sourcebooks this one is great and I highly recommend it for the lore, monsters, and the gazetteer chapter alone is worth the purchase, at least for the pdf. Even though I own all of the “solo” adventures they play pretty much like an old “choose your own adventure” book and are not my favorites. 

Conan took a downturn after 1989 and his time in the roleplaying spotlight began to fade. It wasn’t until the release of the OGL that brought life back into Conan’s roleplaying career. We continue this into the next post. Until then adventurers I hope you enjoyed the beginning of my little trip into the past.