Don’t forget to Raise Difficulties with Doom!
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Just ran an online the other night, with 5 players who are no getting used to the system. As I’m growing in confidence too, I found it easier to make use of the system and Doom, etc, to balance play. One thing I did was use terrain to the advantage of the NPCs, even though this was a side encounter and not a main quest.
I used Bandits, mostly minions, but included a couple of Toughened. I used rooftops to give cover and add difficulty to PC ranged attacks (I didn’t consider this a Doom spend). The attack was at night so I penalised PCs for having light sources and for the attackers not having any. I used Mobs of minions. I used Doom a lot - to go first, to get extra d20s, to increase dofficulty for PCs and to add reinforcements.
The outcome was that one PC remained fully engaged in combat throughout, haivng to use every trick he could think of to avoid Wounds, one (who was already wounded) became so wounded he had to take cover. ‘Second tier’ fighters, who usually do other things (a thief, a would-be sorcerer) had to step up.
Altogether it was very successful, and I ran out of Doom just at the end and at least one PC ran out of Fortune. I think if I used the same tactics with more dangerous npcs (Bandits are pretty easy) this could have been even harder.
My next adventure will include Skeletons and a Nemesis and we’ll see how that goes.
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I like that. Most humans are people who will fight dirty or use an advantage if given the opportunity. Let the PCs pull off similar tactics once in a while as well as long as it makes sense narratively.
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I put the big bad with squads of protection surrounding it. If the players charge the boss, every squad gets an attack of opportunity. Charging through five full squads would be fatal.
I spent doom for boss to go first, then boss cast a spell that seemed to do nothing, when the archer fired on the boss, he hit another PC (spell was an illusion that made the character misread friend and foe)
I had an easy semi-boss whos death started the fight with the real big bads. (5 Serpent men vs. 6 player characters, PCs retreated and took them down one or two at a time, because they were low on momentum and fortune)
My players are mid to high level, so keeping them on their toes is more of a matter of tactics than brute force. This does encourage them to play smart rather than charge in first.
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I have started a number of Conan games recently, two in the last week via Chat on Discord. My players have been finding the battles tough, so much so that I’ve been making most everyone a Minion and keeping them unarmored.
I expect two things are going on. The players are new to the system, so they aren’t cognizant of all their crazy resources and character shields and are still learning even how to use them. Also they’re new characters, largely randomly generated, so there is no min/maxing, and they have a lot of room to grow.
I am a very inexperienced 2D20 GM, so please take my advice with a grain of salt. What I learned from my first sessions: You should keep in your head what fight is for entertainment and which is for challenge, and with that, you will maybe also notice what the big advantage of the 2D20 system is. You might know this, but in many other systems you cooked up some combats that are just for entertainment. Say, you play a Cyberpunk RPG and the lost Rockstar/ fugitive genetic experiment/ informant comes to the players and wants help. Then the bad guys show up. This fight is for only entertainment, the adventure has just started, you don´t want to kill them now. So, you play a bit dumb, if anything goes wrong you fudge some dice etc. In 2D20, you use fights that are only for entertainment to generate doom. Let them stomp the bad guys and don´t care, you don´t need to play dumb, the NPCs have no chance.
So, if you let them face a really important battle, you spent doom like hell to really hurt them. The error I have made in my first session was to constantly burn doom to keep every fight interesting. Just don´t. These fights are only a set-piece and meant for you to get doom. If the serious stuff comes in, you have a massive pool to hurt them. That´s the great advantage of 2D20. You decide when it´s serious and only then you burn your pool.
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The other point is you can easily decide against whom it’s serious as much as when. I’m playing a PBP game where I’m much more familiar with the system and tend to me much more power-gamey than the rest of the group.
The GM and I have spoken about this and we understand the dynamic, but the result is that my character gets a lot more Doom thrown at him then the other characters. Which is fine, because I’m also pulling out way more mechanical tricks to still win.
This ability to dynamically manage tension is the great thing about Doom as a mechanic.
If you find that you get low on Doom, you’re perfectly entitled to do things like put the players on a clock. If they’re sneaking through a hostile castle where the chance for something to go wrong goes up every minute they’re inside nothing stops you saying that, and letting them know “for every 6 in-game minutes you’re inside the castle 1 Doom in generated”.
The other trick is increasing the complication range on tests that are extremely risky or just make them complication tests.
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really cool insight there. Something I hadn’t realised at all. But totally true, now I think about it.
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Also remember theres the rule of «dithering». If the PCs are wasting time doing nothing in their combat turn, the GM gets a point of Doom!
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Gritty realism can be fun, so as long as everyone knows that’s the game.
Many systems have adventures where if the PCs don’t recognize that they are outmatched and run away they will die… contrary to some others were PCs should always win.
As long as people know in advance that you’re playing in “realistic” fashion, should be no problem. Make the Big Bad with PC rules, give him some Nemesis lieutenants and Toughened sergeants, with appropriate minions and have at it.
Not everything has to be a pitched battle either, one trick of most adventure modules in most systems is to make the players expend resources before the final fight… whether it’s days of trekking cross country to reach the lair, or months of political wrangling at court. Make them expend healing, fatigue and spells or reputation, money and favors before the final confrontation.
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Balancing encounters is one of the reasons why I haven’t GMd Conan for some time.
I think that if there isn’t real threat of dying in combat, it is not what I am expecting from the world where Conan lives. I did have two combat oriented chars in a group and they made their way rather easily through the combat encounters 95% of time. I think that nemesis should very tough opponent alone and now they aren’t.
For my 5 cents… Toughened should be basic mobs, nemesis as toughened and something above nemesis to be a real boss. Minions are similar to D&D rats…way too easy imho.
As it was not mentioned, I think doom spend allowed for mobs/squads can help here a bit. Interpose: If an allied creature within Reach is
targeted by an attack, the Mob or Squad may spend
one Doom in order to have the attack targeted against
itself instead.
I can see few mobs can really hinder PC ability to snipe toughened/nemesis enemies.
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I also found that some fights lack a certain challenge. I think most of it lies in the rather disappointing lack of experienced enemies featured in the official rules. For that reason, I have cooked up a few homerules to scale up enemies on the go. Special Abilities and Advancements as outlined in the homerules can simply be added to existing adversaries.
NPC Homerules.pdf (206.2 KB)
In addition to the homerules (which are an ongoing process), I also allow my minions to use reactions to defend as well as use 2d20 when taking actions. Not that it makes them any more dangerous, but it keeps the players on their toes and causes them to spend more doom.
Interesting that you’ve found that. My players have recently suggested I do something similar. As far as I can see, we’re using Doom (I usually finish with none) and they are happy to spend it, but they don’t need to spend if they’re not under pressure.
And if a pc has a battle axe, with it Vicious and Intense qualities, then Toughened foes effectively have 1 Wound and feel like Minions.
This game has changed the way we think about roleplaying and combat. BUT my players have asked for more challenge in battles. And that after a huge battle with half a dozen giant spiders! (Venom rules are so cool…)
Yes, doom spends for enemies are nice, but under the rules as presented, PCs gain more from doom spends than NPCs because their values are higher, they score more crits and once their Momentum fills up, there is seldom a reason to spend more doom, which in essence deprives the GM and makes his NPCs even worse in comparison to the PCs.
The only solution I have found is to scale up NPC values to keep up with higher-skilled NPCs. Also, the combat talents of combat-focussed PCs are a game-changer all by themselves and NPCs usually have no access to those as they are presented. The few special abilities they have make combat go faster (and make it easier for the GM to use what abilities they have, unlike the enormous lists of abilities in, say, Pathfinder), but also deprive them of a lot of effectiveness. Hence I’ll just pack the most useful talents, that every PC would have, into their stat block 
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Good idea!
That could as easily lead to one-hit killed player characters as it does to Nemesis type NPCs.
Conan’s damage system has a very short downward spiral. An NPC with an Intense weapon like an axe and the Talent “Killing Strike” might cause 4 Wounds to a PC in one hit.
I don’t think this is the intention of the Conan 2d20 combat rules at all.
There are plenty rules systems out there, that are deadly or very deadly. Conan has an intentional “asymmetry” between PCs and NPCs, to keep the PCs around a bit longer than in other fantasy RPGs.
Yes, there is a bit of risk… on the other hand, that’s what the fortune points are for. I am also a big fan of the Subdue momentum spend for NPCs. Just think of all the TV series and how often the heroes get knocked out. While it may not always be logical for the enemies to do so, this is not strictly speaking gritty realism, but a chance to test player ingenuity inescaping… or using a fortune point to think of some cool story elements.
Besides, you can’t have it both ways… if you want a challenge for your players, they have to expect being hit with the same kind of stuff they deal out. If they want to just mow through hordes of enemies, you can always use the original rules.
I feel like there is too much emphasis focusing a character to just be a death dealer, use highest damage weapons, etc
The rules allow it and we all know it’s fun to drive your enemies before you and hear the lamentations of their women. But maybe GMs should encourage or even restrict how combat focused characters are and encourage broader skills.
Agree or am I off base?