So, I think I’ll buy Wanderer DriveThru RPG sometime during April (one of the self-isolation reads).
What can you say about the contents, specially the gazetteer section and the bestiary?
Great question!
First, I want you to buy it, no matter what I might say! Conan 2d20 is shaping up to be my personal “holy grail” of gaming, and I want Modiphius to be continually rewarded for this achievement.
That said, I recently started determining which of the Conan accessories I absolutely must have in print, being a backer and receiving all digital copies but preferring print for reading and general use. You’re asking about The Gazetteer and Encounters, but I’ve found my personal greatest use to come straight out of the back of the books, which usually contains mechanics for mini games and tables for the GM for adventure generation.
This one had little for me. Headings such as “The Lotus Road” and “Journeys and Travel Rules,” though evocative, don’t contain tables for narrative generation (such as the Heist tables in Conan the Thief), providing, instead, mere advice. Nothing wrong with this, just not anything that adds to my particular game.
I haven’t read much of this, and I don’t get much out of gazetteers (focusing, in my game, on the emerging story and not on canonical setting material), but I will have to read soon about Kosala, since a PC in my game is from there. The gazetteer is pages and pages of text, not a lot of art, and appears full of evocative story hints—such as pure blooded Lemurians still living in the Hyrkanian hills.
Glancing through the Encounters, a lot of Eagles and Hawks and (notably) a martial artist, even though one is not available as an Archetype. I was surprised not to see a Djinn. Is that in another book? I don’t really read these straight through, but tend to pick and choose by immediate need.
Incidentally, the tomes, so far, that I’ve deemed essential for my physical library are these:
Conan the Thief
Conan the Barbarian unnecessary indulgence only because I’m so into Vikings
Conan the Pirate
Conan the Mercenary
Forthcoming in print:
Conan the King
Kull of Atlantis
P.S. Sorry I’ve been so unhelpful specific to your questions. If I feel like reading rpg material soon, I’ll explore Wanderer some more.
Kull of Atlantis? I love that.
Will CtW also be a physical book?