Conan RPG's....which ones are out there???

[YPU]

I agree that even just in general, the savage worlds engine is well suited for the genre.

[Hobgoblin]

I agree with what others have said here - what matters is genre emulation rather than Hyborian specifics (stats, etc.). As KGatch113 intimates, D&D is quite a poor fit because powerful (high-level) characters won't be troubled by beasts and beings that Conan has to avoid (the lions in Tower of the Elephant, for example).

And YPU makes an excellent point about most "sword and sorcery" stories being essentially lightly reskinned Conan (which is why Barbarians of Lemuria is such a good fit - it's designed for the world of Thongor of Lemuria, who is essentially Lin Carter's tribute act to Conan).

While D&D isn't a great fit, RuneQuest and its descendants (BRP, Mythras, OpenQuest, etc.) are: the introduction to the classic RuneQuest second edition noted that the game's heroes are "Fafhrds, Conans and Rustums" rather than Arthurs, Lancelots and Galahads. The RQ lineage preserves the sense of danger so that a mere guardsman can still be a threat to a powerful character (you can always get lucky with a single arrow or slingstone ...).

But RQ, Mythras et al. are quite complex, crunchy games, and you can just as easily emulate the genre with something much lighter (like Barbarians of Lemuria) or with something in between (Savage Worlds, as YPU noted).

A very nice bit of genre emulation that Barbarians of Lemuria has built in is the squandering of treasure - players are encouraged to describe how they drank, gambled or otherwise squandered their last lot of loot in order to earn advancement points. So the game's set up to return the PCs to the default Conan-ish position of being penniless and in need of a patron ...

[DivisMal]

Savage Worlds can do the hero against a horde situation very well. It has a setting "Beasts & Barbarians" which  is basically Conan with the serial numbers filed off.

Beasts and Barbarians is cool. I got several for the books to use as wargaming references. SW is actually a wargame with some RPG on top.

[YPU]

Beasts and Barbarians is cool. I got several for the books to use as wargaming references. SW is actually a wargame with some RPG on top.

you are missing a layer. It was the deadlands RPG first, then simplified for use in the great rail wars wargame (anybody played that? Those new plastic cowboys get me itching to give it a shot maybe) which then was evolved again into the savage worlds engine (and again used for deadlands) its a nice little cycle.

[DivisMal]

you are missing a layer. It was the deadlands RPG first, then simplified for use in the great rail wars wargame (anybody played that? Those new plastic cowboys get me itching to give it a shot maybe) which then was evolved again into the savage worlds engine (and again used for deadlands) its a nice little cycle.

I just didn’t want to go too much ot. 😉The Deadlands TT is actually really great. Actually so great that they substituted the rather complicated RPG engine of Deadlands with it.

Anyway, it’s a great toolbox for pulpy heroes!

[Elbows]

I think Dungeon Worlds could do Conan pretty well - but it's the antithesis of D&D.  It's one $17 book...and not a "money making machine" like D&D.

The GM and characters are responsible for the setting, the story, etc.  In fact, one of the DW games I ran was actually pretty Conan in theme now that I think about it.

[Hobgoblin]

I think Dungeon Worlds could do Conan pretty well - but it's the antithesis of D&D.  It's one $17 book...and not a "money making machine" like D&D.

The GM and characters are responsible for the setting, the story, etc.  In fact, one of the DW games I ran was actually pretty Conan in theme now that I think about it.

Good call! The Powered by the Apocalypse freewheeling/cooperative style is well suited (Barbarians of Lemuria has a bit of that - players can spend points to (e.g.) find ways out of the cell they're locked in, and so on.

There are other PbtA games that might get even closer than Dungeon World, though: Hyborian Saga and World of Conan, which you can download free on the author's site here.

[Elbows]

Yep, even better.  I'm not familiar with the other PBTA titles, but just that style of game is...super-open ended.  Not the kind of "mother may I?" approach that modern D&D is setting up for people.

[Hobgoblin]

Yes - and the "players create the world" approach is a natural fit for sword-and-sorcery settings, which are generally lightly sketched and don't have Middle-earth levels of detail. For a Conan game, all you'd need to do is to give the players a printout of Howard's The Hyborian Age to read (and refer to during the game if needed), and you'd be off and away!

[DivisMal]

That is something I didn’t know. Thanks for pointing it out!
A vague bell rings when reading about the system, and I like the idea of giving the players some freedom. That’s how we had most fun with rpgs back in the 90s.