Like it or lump it, agree or disagree… here are my thoughts on the Official Fantasy Grounds Ruleset for Conan.
Very good review as usual JollyGM! Objective, with examples and demonstrates knowledge in the Fantasy Grounds’ capabilities and usage.
Unfortunately, this is something I can’t say about the developers of the ruleset. It is in mediocre quality and does not translate well the awesomeness of the Conan world. Layout work on the PC sheet is very good and intuitive, but the art is bad and too “Greek” and smells of Conan by Mongoose rather than Conan 2d20. The color PC sheet by Modiphius is fabulous and assets could be reused to make really awesome looking ruleset… but no.
Reference Manual is the worst implementation - hard to use, no art and full of encoding issues for Unity, despite being available for months and the fix is to replace certain codes in the XML as I did for other commercial works.
Combat Tracker sucks, the great pulp-action combat system of Conan is severely handicapped by lack of any automation and quality of life for GM. You and I discussed how to handle minions and groups and so far nothing has been done by the devs. I don’t even dare to dream of things such as automatic hit & damage calculation, taking into account wound levels and etc.
No clear plans for the products - several months since launch and there is no single product released except the Core Book… really? I personally converted 3 books for 2 weeks casual work for our community ruleset and here we have licensed product.
I am big fan of Conan and the 2d20 edition, have all published and digital books and plan to follow the line to the very end. Unfortunately, this ruleset is in as you said in beta state and must be reworked to be on par with the game is should support.
Despite the harsh words, I know the ruleset can be awesome, but it needs a lot of work. At the moment my group and few other potential buyers decided not to buy any future product in this line unless the core is sorted.
Agreed, to put it harshly. It shouldn’t have released in this state and I won’t touch anything they put their name to on FG.
I can accept lacking rulesets or rulesets without the support they deserve to a point, Symbaroum is far from where I wish it to be. BUT the devs there actually tried and it shows, it is also usable.
If the foundry vtt community came out with a character sheet and doom / fortune tracker for conan there would be no reason to use the FG one at all imo (and I usually advocate FG’s strengths)
Thanks for the feedback! @lostsanityreturned @Valyar
I was skeptical when the ruleset was first released, and I kept my major concerns quiet for several months. Now, this may sound silly, But I stopped running Conan 2D20 games on fantasy grounds, as I wanted to support the ruleset and also fantasy grounds. But I wanted to give the devs time to address the concerns. So I waited.
Its been months, so I said its time to start playing again… and many of the issues were not addressed at all… So I decided to start using the ruleset in games that I stream live on twitch, and many of the issues are being noticed by the players and we discuss them. And I take notes. So, there is documented evidence and its not just Valyar’s and I, and a very few vocal others who are trying to get things addressed.
I spoke to 1 dev directly, and he seems willing to listen. But I have read responses from other Devs on FG forums, (one in particular) and all I sense is “Wounded Ego” and a lack of effort to listen to very valid concerns.
Sad thing is, I love this line… and I want to play it using Fantasy Grounds Unity… But, its just so difficult for me as a GM to use and have fun with… in its current state.
None of this is done meant to offend or shame, and I am doing my hardest to be constructive. Who knows what is going on behind the close doors of the developers lives, etc. But, the important thing is, the more we document this and share it, the less someone can say that they did not know.
My only concern, and in fact if it happens I will demand a refund from Fantasy Grounds is they could release another ruleset for another 2D20 system and have implemented the fixes that were pointed out, and not in the Conan ruleset.
Yeah, that would be a full refund for me if that happens.
initially I bought fantasy ground especially for the conan rules set and since the corebook, nothing! I have the feeling that I have been cheated. I created a long campaign (imported on FG), I have all the extras PDF book (I did the kickstarter) and yet I was ready to pay for FG extensions, but nothing and above all no communication from FG or nerd eyes industrie !
I think Nerd Eye Industries isn’t a good choice for Conan. You see other rulesets on Fantasy Grounds getting so much content and love while Conan gets basically nothing. I wish Modiphius would give the job to someone else. We would really appreciate it.
Does anyone here follow this?
@Ethan @Modiphius-Lloyd
I don’t even know what Fantasy Grounds is