Conan [Monolith Boardgame] - KS over and funded

[Funghy-Fipps]

Looks fantastic and I am interested, although I must agree with Scurv that the gameplay is very similar to Matakishi's 'Crom' rules.

[matakishi]

Well, you can't copyright mechanics so good luck to them.  I'll be interested to see how they handle missile fire. I'll look at the video later when I have some time.

[Giger]

I was only really interested in the miniatures primarily but after watching the vid I think it's going to be a good game in it's own right, looks fun.

[matakishi]

Well, I watched it.

It's not really like CROM, there's all sorts of extra (unnecessary) stuff glued on to the basic premise.
I'm afraid the video bored me quite early on once it started listing the things you couldn't do and the extra points to do this and the free points to do that etc.
Whilst on the surface this seems to make each character 'unique' all it actually does is make sure each character is played the same no matter who's controlling them. I still prefer player choice over scripted bonuses, maybe it's my old school roleplaying background lurking under the surface.

Anyway, the miniatures look nice, particularly the Picts who could so easily have been awful. Hopefully I'll be able to pick some up. Games like this don't seem to last long in the shops unfortunately, 2nd printings just don't seem to happen (I'm still after DOOM at a decent price) but I'll keep an eye out for the first flush of eBay madness before it disappears for ever.

I'm looking forward to the reports from those that have backed it.

[Eithriall]

Yeah, the gameplay with the pool system seems similar but in CHQ, heroes have an energy pool (represented by "gems") and a fatigue pool.
During their turn, the heroes can activate or rest :
If they activate, they can spend "gems" from their energy pool to do all sorts of actions : move, fight (melee or distance), defend, pick a lock, reroll, etc. They regain a small amount of energy each turn, and a bigger amount if they decide to rest and not do anything during their turn.

When they take an action, they throw a number of dice equal to the number of gems they put in their action. Each energy gem spent will allow heroes to move one zone (except some places where you need to spend two), or to roll a die to attack, parry or dodge, cast spells, pick locks, etc...
Heroes may spend as many energy as they want for one action, and do as many actions as they want in a turn, but they'll need to manage their limited energy pool.

When characters are wounded, they lose gems...If they lose all their gems, they die.

There are three different kinds of dice : yellow (the weaker dice), orange (medium) and red (strong). Each character has a color based on their specialty: Conan throws red dice in combat while the Sorcerer throws yellow dice in combat; the thief throws red dice in Manipulation actions, while Conan throws orange dice; etc.
Yellow: fail, fail, fail, 1 success, 1 success, 2 successes
Orange: fail, fail, 1 success, 1 success, 2 successes, 2 successes
Red: fail, 1 success, 1 success, 2 successes , 2 successes, 3 successes

Each Heroes character have special abilities and equipments. They give different bonuses, to move, to attack etc....
Example for Shevatas (the thief) :
Equipement : he 's got a kriss which gives him one additional yellow die, with a free reroll in melee attacks. It gives no defense bonus, and gives him one additional yellow die if it is thrown in a ranged attack.
Abilities : He's uncatchable = The hero ignores all movement penalties. Normally enemies in an area make you spend additional energy if you want to go through it. Shevatas can just pass as if they weren't there...

[beefcake]

Well, you can't copyright mechanics so good luck to them.  I'll be interested to see how they handle missile fire. I'll look at the video later when I have some time.

I'm pretty sure you can patent them though.

[matakishi]

I'm pretty sure you can patent them though.

It's not worth the bother. And as far as I know it's never been successfully done.

[matakishi]

What I mean is, if characters are given a move bonus or an attack bonus, then they'll use them and they'll be looking for ways to use them most of the time. It dictates what they do during a game. Of course they can choose not to use them but then they're limiting themselves because those benefits have been factored in to the balance (you'd hope) of the characters. So there isn't an alternate 'good' way to do things for those characters, they either follow their pre-determined archetype or they loose out in the points/actions balance. Choosing a path through a scenario that differs from their given 'strengths' is a losing gambit.

Give every character the option, decided by their player, of what to do and then make it possible to assign resources to those actions independent of any 'edges' and the characters can choose their own tactics and play style. Conan can sneak a long way and maybe avoid combat if he wants, Subutai can attack full-on. So long as Subutai allocates enough to the attack he can succeed. The point is there is no penalty for going against type, no 'bonuses' are lost by not using them because they weren't there in the first place.

The single most common criticism of CROM I receive is that all the characters are the same. There usually follows a length list of suggested improvements centering around different weapons, armour and special abilities. People who do this haven't played the game with other people (or at all) because if they had they'd have seen how different each character is because they're not a list of perks but instead 'enablers' (hideous word) for the players to interact with the scenario. And every player does that differently. I've played many, many games of CROM and no scenario ever plays out the same. Every character does unexpected things and behaves differently. This is because the players have control of the game, not the other way around.

I hope that clarifies it a little. I don't want to get into this here as it's a derailment of the topic but feel free to message me or start another topic on this, I can waffle on for days about it

[FramFramson]

What I mean is, if characters are given a move bonus or an attack bonus, then they'll use them and they'll be looking for ways to use them most of the time. It dictates what they do during a game. Of course they can choose not to use them but then they're limiting themselves because those benefits have been factored in to the balance (you'd hope) of the characters. So there isn't an alternate 'good' way to do things for those characters, they either follow their pre-determined archetype or they loose out in the points/actions balance. Choosing a path through a scenario that differs from their given 'strengths' is a losing gambit.

Give every character the option, decided by their player, of what to do and then make it possible to assign resources to those actions independent of any 'edges' and the characters can choose their own tactics and play style. Conan can sneak a long way and maybe avoid combat if he wants, Subutai can attack full-on. So long as Subutai allocates enough to the attack he can succeed. The point is there is no penalty for going against type, no 'bonuses' are lost by not using them because they weren't there in the first place.

The single most common criticism of CROM I receive is that all the characters are the same. There usually follows a length list of suggested improvements centering around different weapons, armour and special abilities. People who do this haven't played the game with other people (or at all) because if they had they'd have seen how different each character is because they're not a list of perks but instead 'enablers' (hideous word) for the players to interact with the scenario. And every player does that differently. I've played many, many games of CROM and no scenario ever plays out the same. Every character does unexpected things and behaves differently. This is because the players have control of the game, not the other way around.

I hope that clarifies it a little. I don't want to get into this here as it's a derailment of the topic but feel free to message me or start another topic on this, I can waffle on for days about it

I find that one clever way of doing things is to play the reverse and define a character by his negative, though this only works in non-binary systems.

Let's say characters have five options, including an all out attack and sneaking around. Well, instead of giving the big, loud, heavy fellow a bonus to all-out attack (which as you rightly point out puts players on min-max rails), you simply say he is not allowed to sneak around, or not even prohibiting it, but receiving a penalty.

All other options are free and equal so the player still has four choices they can freely make and if you only do it as a penalty, they can technically choose the less-advantageous option as well, if they think it's worth the higher risk of failure. But you've still created a feeling of distinctness in the rules, that this character is a big oaf who doesn't has the same inherent abilities as a sneak thief or ranger.

[beefcake]

It's not worth the bother. And as far as I know it's never been successfully done.

didn't say it was worth it, just that you could do it.
Word of mouth would get around anyway just saying "this is just a rehash of..."
Fluff is usually a good thing for a game to differentiate it SOBH being an exception to this.

[Eithriall]

If you patent game systems, i'm sur you can end most of 80% of the production of existing games ! Or fear to be attacked for plagiarism...so many games with identical system, rules or little variations...

Anyway, here's a review found on the BGG by Olivier Prevot. He has tested the game in Essen :

The game in itself looked like a prototype but very advanced. The map (Pict camp) was gorgeous, the figurines were beautiful, the drawings of the characters were great also. You could see it was a prototype by the back of the cards, aid cards and things like that.
All 4 of the testers were completly new to the game, and only I had literary knowledge of Conan.
The explanations took around 10 minutes as we were introduced to original mechanics, quite a short time for this kind of game.

We played Valeria, Shevatas and Conan (of course!^^) trying to save the king's beautiful daughter (sorry can't remember their names) from the picts.

Our characters have 10 energy (11 conan) which they will use, during their turn, for various actions like movement (you have a free base movement value between 2 and 4), melee attack, range attack, lock-pick chest/traps. You will also need energy to reroll your dice (when you want) or to defend agains attacks during the "Overlord's" turn. As you only regain 2 energies at the start of your turn you have to be very careful when spending. You can also decide to take a breath (no actions) and regain 5 energies instead of 2.

We can also have encumberment issues with too many heavy equipments which slows you down or prohibits you from certain actions (no swimming with those 4 swords and 2 armors...).

Each character has unique equipment and a unique set of skills. Conan can tear down wooden walls and when doing a lot of damage transfers it to another target if the first is killed, etc, etc... Shevatas is a gifted lock-picker, cannot be surrounded and has natural armor. Valeria not quite sure except she had attack/defense powers : ah yes she can handle 2 weapons for attack and/or defense.

There are 3 types of dice : yellow (least powerful), orange and red (most powerful). All 3 characters do not use the same type of dice depending on the action : Conan has red dice for attack but yellow for lock-picking, opposite of Shevatas for example.

During our adventure we can find new equipment in the various chests if we opened them.

On his side the Overlord has 7 different enemy tile +1 event tile on a board. He also has 10 energies but regains 5 at the start of his turn.
All the enemy tiles are laid in front of him in a predetermined order. The one on the left cost 1 energy to active ALL figurines of that family and the one on the right 8 energies! The enemy figurines have movement, attack, armor (armor is a fixed number, defense is a die roll), hit points and powers (if needed).
He cannot activate more than 2 enemy families per turn. each time he actives a family he takes it's tile and puts it completely on the right, sliding the others.

The Overlord can of course add energy to move more, for a stronger attack, to reroll, and to defend when the heroes attacks.

So each the heroes and the Overlord have to manage/optimize their energy. Another team we saw spent all their energy if their first turn... Let's say they did not find the game very enjoyable...

Love the game!  The atmosphere, the look, the mechanics...
Love the ways to manage the energy for both heroes and Overlords, the dice chucking the equipment, player powers, the overall simplicity (compared to other games of the same genre) and quickness : 90 minutes all in all at the Essen fair, rules explanations included! So probably 60 minutes next time.

[Eithriall]

Another review from Essen Spiel 2014 (in german) :

http://www.brueckenkopf-online.com/?p=124273

On the pictures you can see a Conan miniature who will not be in the final game (as written in the 1st page of this thread).
And among the Picts, miniatures of the princess to rescue, Valeria with 2 swords, Zogar Sag the pictish shaman, the strangler Baal-Pteor (from the Shadows in Zamboula novel) used here instead of beast-men sculptures and some giant wolfs (Zelata's wolf) used here instead of future hyenas sculptures. The snake sculpture used here is not the one planed for CHQ.

This game is only a prototype.

[Too Bo Coo]

I am sad to hear that p1 Conan will not be the mini.... He looks great.  Do you know if this will ever be released?

[Eithriall]

I am sad to hear that p1 Conan will not be the mini.... He looks great.  Do you know if this will ever be released?

No, i don't think so.
This Conan miniature project is now abandoned because it's property of the 1st publisher (Space Cowboys) that was working on the game development at it's early start with Fred Henry (game designer). The publisher is now Monolith especially created for this game between Fred Henry and the french studio Bombyx.

Here's a small teasing of the first official Conan sculpture for this game :

[Too Bo Coo]

No, i don't think so.
This Conan miniature project is now abandoned because it's property of the 1st publisher (Space Cowboys) that was working on the game development at it's early start with Fred Henry (game designer). The publisher is now Monolith especially created for this game between Fred Henry and the french studio Bombyx.

Here's a small teasing of the first official Conan sculpture for this game :

Bummer.....  That model more or less fits what i think Conan would look like.  On the other hand, this looks very promising!

Thanks for all the info and updates Mate!