Matt John S

You should be good. expect an email in the next few days. 

I'm so bothered by how small Baal ended up being, I'm in not rush to paint him :( He should Khel sized. 

If you use a paint on sealer, I'm betting you won't have any scratches. Apply a few coats. 

Thanks @drunkviking. That is my hope as well. 

Sorry all, I think posted an old post again somehow, so disregard the last one I posted. I won't get a chance to go through these probably until Tuesday, so if you need to finish up or modify your pitches, have at it. I'll be taking a look then.

Matt 

On 12/01/2018 at 7:29 AM, drmauric said:

Yes. Well, Yogah has Spellcasting but...

 

On Tuesday @Matt John S listed Conan, Hadrathus, Shentu, Ikhmet, Niord, and Yogah as the main Hero pool with Shevatas and Belit being usable if necessary. (because in terms of canon, they would be long dead)

A prior post listed the King Box Heroes as usable, because that is all easily available to download, but it seems like we moved away from that idea once we started talking proxy and printing to make things easy on Core Box/ Retail Only people, which is our target audience.

 

So seems like we need a consensus here. We all seem to be on slightly different pages. :)

Agreed. We do need a consensus. We could have our main scenarios, let's say 5 or 6 use the strict list of only retail elements, but allow optional scenarios to use all elements from the game. Perhaps these scenarios offer very minor rewards as far as progression goes and focus on things that happen elsewhere or "off screen" of our main story. It's just a thought. 

7 hours ago, Ken said:

 

Sounds reasonable. Maybe Hadrathus hires someone to go retrieve an object, or get information from a well guarded informant, etc.

 

We should take care to watch out for scope creep, though. How many scenarios are we each writing? How much time will each scenario add in terms of tweaking and playtesting?  

Good point, and good idea @Ken. I am hoping we end up with 5 or 6 main scenarios and may 2 or 3 optional scenarios. 

@Primeval@drmauric@Neil Amswych@Grizzlyface

Feel free to pump the brakes on this if it's overreaching, but here's a little framework: 

If we think of Yogah of Yag having been resurrected, we can make it make sense and have him be a reoccurring character. In Red Nails, they bring dinosaurs or "dragons" back from the dead by using their bones as part of their spells. who says we can't have Yogah's Bones having been returned to his home in Khitai and have someone maybe even Hadrathus brings him back. or maybe the Khitai wizard does it and then Yogah teams up with Hadrathus. Anyways, we bring him and Hadrathus in for scenario one. Shentu obviously fits the Khitai motif, so he starts there too. I think Inkhmet could show up then too, perhaps he's a deserter of Thoth's assassins and joins the heroes instead. Whatever the motivations I think it's easy to begin with these 4 Heroes and keep them the 4 Heroes until we take things to Nordheim. At that point we introduce Niord and swap him out for someone else. the other swap later would be to bring in Conan.

So roughly: 

Scenario 1, 2, 3, we have Yogah, Inkhment, Shentu, and Hadrathus

Scenario 4 We swap one out and put in Niord, Conan's old buddy from his reaving days up North. 

Scenario 5 and 6 (A and B final scenarios) we swap one out for Conan. 

We don't have many more options for Heroes anyway, so couldn't we just stick to this pool? Side missions could open this up and put in all new ones. Maybe Pallantides is beset upon by horrors or assassins sent to Tarantia by Thoth. Boom. And any side missions could simply augment how the next scenario plays out. So say you insert a side mission (using whatever components we like) in between 3 and 4. if the Heroes win this 3.5 scenario, you could so something simple like have them begin play with one fewer gem in their fatigue, and if the Overlord won 3.5 they start with a few less in their fatigue. just gives that side a slightly stronger start and doesn't break anything but still has some meaning. 

Thoughts? Does that clash with anything or leave anyone out?

On 1/11/2018 at 11:44 AM, drunkviking said:

Hi Matt John S.:

 

I am excited to see the solo campaign that you developed for the Modiphius cross-over book. My question is: would the solo rules work for other scenarios with some modest changes (e.g. set-up, gem count, etc...)? I'm just really curious. Any thoughts or information would be appreciated. Thank you!

 Greetings @drunkviking, glad you're excited. To answer your question, no. This play mode is a special set of rules. The heroes play the same, but the Overlord has automated commands that require each scenario to be written for this play mode. Essentially, there is no strategy on the part of the Overlord, and you as the Heroes are trying to fight against the scenario itself. By default the overlord minis attack whichever hero is the most vulnerable (has the fewest gems in reserve). usually the boss tile is programmed to attack the strongest hero however, so as to balance that out. there are always objectives and events like the regular game, too, so it's not just about killing things.  These scenarios play faster and most use the new game boards by Modiphius so the play area is smaller. You are given the choice to play with 3 or 4 heroes (if you don't have that many players you assume control of more than one hero) and can choose whichever Heroes you like from a class system. this gives a lot of freedom as to which you use. You also accumulate gear, weapons, and spells as you go and have two mini 'level ups' throughout the 9 scenario (two of which are optional) campaign. Finally, there is a ranking system. You get victory points depending on how well you do in each scenario and at the end of the campaign you're assigned a rank from "Perfumed Fopp" to "Legend" Those who've played and tested had a blast and I loved writing it. I get new ideas for scenarios and campaigns every day, and these scenarios are less time consuming to write as player vs player balance isn't an issue. Making the scenario tight and fun is more easily adjusted. My hope is the community likes it enough to develop and share their own campaigns. Hope that provides some good info for you. 

46 minutes ago, drmauric said:

Yes. Well, Yogah has Spellcasting but...

 

On Tuesday @Matt John S listed Conan, Hadrathus, Shentu, Ikhmet, Niord, and Yogah as the main Hero pool with Shevatas and Belit being usable if necessary. (because in terms of canon, they would be long dead)

A prior post listed the King Box Heroes as usable, because that is all easily available to download, but it seems like we moved away from that idea once we started talking proxy and printing to make things easy on Core Box/ Retail Only people, which is our target audience.

 

So seems like we need a consensus here. We all seem to be on slightly different pages. :)

Agreed. We do need a consensus. We could have our main scenarios, let's say 5 or 6 use the strict list of only retail elements, but allow optional scenarios to use all elements from the game. Perhaps these scenarios offer very minor rewards as far as progression goes and focus on things that happen elsewhere or "off screen" of our main story. It's just a thought. 

30 minutes ago, drmauric said:

@Neil Amswych

One of the suggestions early on, though it may not have been said directly, was if you want to use Skuthus for example, just give him another Spellcaster's statistics for the sake of those with just the core box. They should be pretty similar.

That could work but the only other option from our hero pool would be Hadrathus, right? 

4 hours ago, Neil Amswych said:

 

If Skuthus is a core box hero, why would someone need to proxy him?

If you don't need to use Skuthus ' hero sheet it's fine, but that sheet comes with the stretch goals in the stretch goal box, I believe. 

We've talked about making some of the scenarios optional. If we did that the optional ones could use whichever components you wish . 

7 hours ago, Primeval said:

So how do we handle death in terms of the narrative of a campaign, especially if we are using pretty much the same heroes for most of it and attaching points or terms to victories and losses. My scenario is going to have a bonus for the Overlord in the final scenario if he wins, and that bonus is thwarted if the heroes win (even of the Overlord wins I have a narrative point to include that will also give a small bonus to Conan in the final scenario) - but if the Overlord wins it will mean the heroes die. Do we simply write death as being overwhelmed or something of  that nature?

 

As long as its not like the main character in that Age of Conan trilogy about the Aquilonian knight/Black Dragon who gets knocked out every 2 pages :)

Yes, we'd just have to say they get overwhelmed or barely escape. It's the only way to do something like this. Games like Imperial Assault do this all the time.

1 hour ago, Gavatar said:

I would LOVE to be a Playtester! 

 

My group regularly plays scenarios, the campaigns, and custom scenarios (our own and others).

 

I have not read the complete thread (yet), so if there are actions I need to take to be considered, please advise.

 

Thank you!  Keep up the Fun & Excellent Work!

 

Gavin Gossett

Thank you, sir. We will definitely want playtesters. We'll let you know when the time comes. 

1 hour ago, ARIAKAS said:

Excited for the book! @Matt John S - do you know wether we can get multiple copies, per chance?

I don't believe so, but I think there will be pdf copies available. 

4 hours ago, Neil Amswych said:

 

Skuthus as a possible hero as well.

Better to offer Skuthus as a substitution as we've come to the consensus that we stay away from any needed proxies. 

2 hours ago, Pahul said:

Hello, I'm a french fan here willing to participate. I'm usually really keen in roleplaying games and therefore I'd like to have the opportunity to write a scenario. Is it still possible ? Do you have some restrictions from now on the locations it might be located to ?

@Pahul if you're super keen we can make room, I'm sure. My best advice is to read over what we've posted. I summarized our plan just a few posts ago so that should give you some idea. In short, were focusing on materials that can be purchased at retail in order to offer an inclusive campaign. We want pitches for scenarios submitted on Sunday, then we'll adjust and cobble them togejter in a framework and start writing. 

7 minutes ago, Draker said:

So do we assume by creating an account on this website that we will receive an e-mail prompting us to pay for shipping, or is there some place to register separately? NM, I stepped away from post for a few hours and then posted to find hundreds of responses since.

Yup. We will send the email on or around January 15th. It'll be sent to whatever email you have used to sign up to this forum. 

@Grizzlyface I'll respond in more detail later, but I like some of these ideas. 

@drmauric I wrote the Update, so I called us dogs. Haha

8 hours ago, Primeval said:

I have an idea for bringing Yogah in, woke up with a head filled with scenario ideas and he would fit in perfectly. The scenario would probably fit in the early middle of the campaign, so he could be used subsequently if wanted/needed. Looking forward to sharing it later in the week!

 

Edit: starting to sketch things on the scenario editor page....Amra Conan is a KS exclusive from King Pledge, correct? I think he makes the most sense to use but want to be clear he is really usable given the materials we are trying to stick to. 

 

Also, I  think its a good idea to choose one Conan and stick with him through the campaign. 

 

Well, many believe that we should avoid proxies altogether. In that case we'd only be pulling from the Heroes listed In my last post...

I'm looking forward to hearing what ideas you have for Yogah. 

On 1/7/2018 at 6:42 AM, kasper said:

I would like to see as many linked scenarios / mini-campaigns as possible. My group is playing through the Legend of the Devil in Iron campaign right now and it is awesome. We also really enjoyed the two linked scenarios in the Khitai expansion. We actually  prefer these to the one-off scenarios in general. Something to do with experiencing a bit more of a story and just getting that slight feel of a roleplaying vibe going.

 

Aquilonia and Red Nails are my personal favorites by the way...

This is something we're going to do in Batman, and are probably going to do with Conan, as well. I already have some specific Ideas about it. Campaigns are indeed fun. Also, have you seen what we're putting together with the Community Generated campaign? Have a look under news. 

Hey all, 

If you frequent Facebook, you may want to join us here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/122756415089041/?ref=bookmarks

10 hours ago, Carlosspicyweener said:

Sorry to Interrupt. Just wanted to tell you that I love the idea of this campaign and I subscibed to this...

Thanks, Carlos. Glad you dig it. If you want to play test, let us know...

8 hours ago, Ken said:

Regarding proxies, if our intention is to make this accessible to non-KS players, each proxy provides a extra step required to play. If everyone adds one or two proxy requirements to their scenario, it will add up. I for one will not be using proxies for this reason. (As much as I really want to use all of the King pledge goodies.) Also, we might want to consider including whatever needs to be proxied in the campaign PDF so the user doesn't have to download two resources.

 

By the way, the map I intend to use (Stygia + Half Ship) is not available in the Conan Scenario editor website. Does anyone have any suggestions? Are there other tools available? I can always Photoshop what I need, but that Scenario editor is so convenient I hate to spend my time with graphics rather than playtesting.

I hear you about the proxies and am totally cool with throwing the idea away. I think offering possible subs is a better way to go. Yogah, Conan, Hadrathus, Niord, Inkhmet, and Shentu could be our main pool and we could use Shevatas and Belit if necessary. If you think about it Shentu, from a storytelling point of view, could show up in scenario 1 as he's from Khitai or Hyrkania or wherever your imagination takes you. Inkhmet could show up the first time the assassins show up too. Perhaps he has a vendetta with Thoth and wants revenge or something. As we've already decided, Yogah could be around in the beginning, or hell, we could keep him around beyond that if we want. Howard had ghosts in his stories and he had them aid Conan on a number of occassions, so he could work beyond scenario one. Might be cool to bring him back for one of the last scenarios or something, finally paying Conan back for how the Cimmerian helped end his misery. That just leaves Niord. Perhaps he shows up at the time of the Nordheim map and then is used beyond that point. Maybe even before. It doesn't really matter. we can make it work. I'm totally fine with that pool of heroes. Plus, if we just use core box, expansion and retail tiles, that's still quite a lot (don't forget Witch Hunters and Crossbowmen). If anyone needs the stats for any of these, I can send photos, and then it would just be the designer doing the proxy if you don't have the expansion stuff. 

Something else to think of too: if one of these Heroes lacks a particular skill, such as evasive or leadership, and you really want it in play as a mechanic, you could always assign that skill to one of the Heroes in the scenario description. If you don't assign more than one, I don't think that's difficult to track. 

as for the map in the editor, Ken, I'm not sure how we'll solve that, but I'm sure we can if you really want to add the boat into play. 

7 hours ago, drmauric said:

I agree. 100% I'd prefer to avoid proxies,  for me printing off a bunch of stuff is a major turn off. However I understand why an individual writer may want to. (sooo many goodies!)

We definately need to make any necessary proxies easy to access.

 

However, recommending substitutions is a different issue. I think it would be cool, where possible, and if a writer wants to, to offer Substitution Recommendations for their particular scenario from the Stretch Goals, Exclusives, Artist Boxes, whatever. Like maybe use the Demon of the Earth instead of the Dark Demon. A different Conan, whatever. This may be a great way for the writer to keep his freedom and use all his goodies but keeping the primary focus on the Non-KS components, and offering suggestions for those who have everything. Keeps it appealing for everyone.

Yes, to substitution options. they don't hurt at all. 

@Neil Amswych, as I said, we will do that, and people may use your ideas, but at this point they are not locked into doing so. 

So far, when you're thinking about your individual scenarios, here's what we've kind of decided. 

-4 Heroes

-Try to focus mainly on the 3 big expansions and base box materials. King Materials are available on the Overlord, so those can be used. Try to avoid stretch goals, but if it's an overlord tile and you really want to use it, players can proxy by creating their own proxy tiles base on the printed info in the scenario description. 

-Heroes to use: Amra Conan, regular Conan, Yag (he's technically dead, but we're writing him in with our creative gymnastics), Hadrathus (to be used in most scenarios as he's the narrative through-line), Zelata, Inkhmet, Niord, Shentu... Belit, N'gora, Shevatas, are able to be used, but they are technically dead. So we may want to use them as stand ins, or just ignore the fact that they're dead and don't write too much about them in the scenario itself. 

story: very loose at this point. the Overlord is taking on the role of Thoth-Amon. He will not be included in every scenario (probably just the last) but his minions will be. As of now we want the Dark Demon to be his hunter. We also are thinking about having the assassins show up in a few scenarios to do his bidding. As of now, our tale starts in Khitai (possibly) with Hadrathus learning about Thoth's plan. The rest of our tale takes place across the world. The final two scenarios will  both be the final battle, where Thoth faces Conan. Depending on what happens in the previous scenarios the (whether the Heroes or Overlord does better) players will play A or B. A= fight in Stygia where Conan takes the fight to Thoth. This one might be a little easier for the Heroes. B= Thoth magically bombs Tarantia and you fight it out in the ruins map. This might be tougher for the Heroes. It's debatable whether we give any edge balance wise, or just let the progression rewards dictate this. (there will likely be a level up feature before this last scenario is played) All the in-between scenarios are open as far as what you want to write. Ken will be writing the Stygia scenario, I'll be tackling Nordheim, and Neil and Dan are doing Khitai. Primevil is looking at base box materials. This does not mean these are now off limits. You write what you want and we'll fit it in before anyone starts to write. (You can also use whatever tiles and minis from whatever sets you like, regardless of map. Just make it make sense).  If we have 3 in Khitai but we know what they will be about before the writing begins, that's all good. Same with base box, stygia and Nordheim. Feel free to have a look at my original loose outline or Neil's for ideas. We will pull this together once we have everyone's ideas together. try to have your pitch done by Sunday

Progression: We have a few ideas for this. Some include bonus gems, equipment cards (though weapons and armor should be up to the scenario designer), troops and minion bonuses, one-time stat increases. Your ideas are welcome. 

What did I miss? @Ken @drmauric @Primeval @Neil Amswych 

And I think @Neil Amswych your general framework is a good one, but perhaps a bit long. This depends on how many we have writing. I want to keep this manageable and I want to have enough of us thoroughly test these. I'd like to see perhaps two exceptions to the linear progression - one in the early part and one at the end as per the two different finales. 

And @Neil Amswych your ideas can certainly be mined and used by those who like. I just don't want anyone feeling they must use any particular idea at this point.