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May 22nd, 2021, 21:42 #21
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I'm a fairly vocal fanboy for the FG ruleset (disclaimer, I'm a playtester for the development group although personally I'm about as technically knowledgeable as the average rock).
I've been running a game every other weekend for about a year. I've been playing in a game the every other weekend for more than a year (whenever the ruleset came out).
I am NOT a big fan of massive automation in the rulesets so the Conan table is perfect for my style of play. I don't know how you could automate it to the level of 5e without causing a nervous breakdown for the GM having to constantly pull back on the computer not being able to recognize all of the variables in the 2d20 ruleset. "No, I did not want to spend that Momentum on damage, I wanted to spend it on pulling this cool maneuver. Should I reroll, GM?" The 2d20 rules are designed for every action to be a bargaining session between the GM and the player. That's the "cool" factor for them. I'm constantly adjusting the 5e automation results in my 5e games because the software cannot handle the variables in that system. 2d20 is exponentially more complex in possible outcomes (but ironically easier to play as the game flows). Too much automation actually slows down the game IMHO when it takes the place of GM judgment.
I also play in FGC because I have a lot of issues in FGU (for all rulesets). The CoreRPG sets have an easier time in FGC. That being said as FGU developed, the 2d20 ruleset had to constantly be tweaked. The developers adjusted accordingly at a fairly quick response time (some people disagree and think they were slow; my reactionary and snotty response: I say get a life, these guys are working all the time on this ruleset). Also all of the FGU rulesets have weird font issues right now (I'm looking at you, AD&D 2e and Pathfinder 2e!)... The Conan FGU set previously had a couple of columns displaced... The other game systems are worse because in some areas you can't see the fields at all. I could live with it (if I were forced to run it in FGU in the first place).Last edited by ProfDogg; May 22nd, 2021 at 21:46.
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May 23rd, 2021, 02:41 #22
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Thanks for taking the time to reply and providing your viewpoint.
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May 23rd, 2021, 02:50 #23
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Happy to do so... BTW I suggest possibly taking advantage of SmiteWorks very generous return policy. If you ask for a refund in 30 days you get it (no questions asked). Try it for a month and if you can't get the knack of it early on then feel free to message me and I'll give you some pointers or show you how I set up my games (hint: it's not hard, as I said, I'm no tech genius).
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May 23rd, 2021, 14:28 #24
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Since Some more stuff on the tiles and some examples of things I mentioned.
The white lines as I said are for using them with the Monolith game.
The white dots (circles) are used for range determination in the Conan Monolith board game and you a measure from the dots (circles) to determine range. Otherwise you can get a range difference of 1 or 2 in some cases depending on where you measure from. I have set up an example to show this.
A pict warrior is firing a bow a warrior in a swamp. If you measure from the dots the pict is 2 away from the warrior if I do just a straight line from the pict to the warrior the distance is 3 away from the pict. (It is barely passing through one area but that is sufficient to increase it if you were measuring.
Range Example.jpg
The map image is part of Gate of the Swamp by Battleboard Maps. The creator has it in a version for use in the Conan Monolith board game, a square grid version, and one with no markings. The creator also has a swamp map that adds on to it. The link to them on DtRPG is bellow if your interested in them. The Gate of the Swamp for Conan also had a quickstart fully playable PDF version of the Conan Monolith boardgame in it which has a pict village map that is part of it. The full Monolith board game has multiple boards and others in expansions or it.
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/browse/...ESPROJECT-MAPS
Note: that in some cases the range is less if measuring from the circle and in others it isn’t and sometimes the lines are barely passing through some areas.
One other problem with the Conan ruleset that I forgot to mention is that you can have both a portrait and a token assigned to a layer character but you can’t see the token except in the combat tracker and you can’t clear it. You can change it by dragging another token over. And it can be moved on to a map.
A few other things about the board game boards and the Conan tiles. One of the boards for the Monolith board game is a port and ship made from the Conan tiles or the ship board for the board game can be attached to it to expand the board. The boardgame also has “planks” and other things as that can be added to a map so a ship can have ways to get on and off of it. The ship’s can also be used to make boarding maps.
It is possible to get copies of the images the other boards for the boardgame if you want to use them as maps for the Conan RPG. If you look around. The dots and area lines in some cases don’t show up on some I noticed.
I’ve attached an example of a reduced image of the Khitai Tower Monolith board game map showing it looks in Fantasy Grounds. The map has a basement and roof level that is not shown in the screenshot.
Tower Map.jpg
Some of the Conan tiles can be combined in different ways to make different maps. The ship tiles can make different ships for examples.
A lot of the Conan Monolith board game fans have made additional boards for the game with the markings that can be downloaded.
The other tilesets Modiphius makes for other games are unmarked, except for the Star Trek Adventures ones. The STA ones have zone markings on them for use with the Red Alert rules for that game. The also use them as normal zones in the Starter Set adventure. If you’re wondering about how usable they are with each other.
I was able to get pngs of a lot of the Monolith boardgame tokens to make a token module for the Conan RPG by looking around on the board game forums and getting images from board game scenario PDFs with Adobe Elements. I’m still missing some of the boardgame tokens. I have over 50 tokens. See image for a sample.
Monolith tokens sample.png
So I highly recommend you check out the Conan Monolith board game sites and forum for it as you can get a lot of stuff you can use in the RPG even if you don't have the boardgame.
Modiphius does have official Conan character tokens like I said and I’ve attached a screenshot of some of them. You can get them on Roll20’s store and set them up as a token module for use in Fantasy Grounds.
Official Conan Tokens.jpg
I would personally, if I only could get 1 version of the tiles, get the PDFs or the Roll20 version of them tiles as you can't combine the separate tiles in Fantasy Grounds Classic and you can easily resize them and combine them with other tiles and if you ever get the Monolith boardgame you can use them with it.
If you also need help making a token module let me know. The token template is missing a line that is needed in newer versions of Fantasy grounds last time I checked and I had trouble making a module and using some downloaded modules cause of this.Last edited by Jay_NOLA; May 23rd, 2021 at 14:37.
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May 23rd, 2021, 15:06 #25
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I did the same thing and converted the Roll20 tokens into a mod file... Only my true and tried methodology failed so I ended up finally just dragging-and-dropping them into an exported module from within FG (it took forever on another set that had 200 Tokens I use - the Malmsturm set). What line did you discover is missing? I'd like to go back to the less tedious method...
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May 23rd, 2021, 17:11 #26
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You need a category line in the definitions now for token modules. I've attached the one I used for the Conan Roll20 tokens. Also, you have to use the word and instead of & in the name and author categories if your module is using an ampersand.
For the thumbnail I used the roll 20 image for it png form reduced a bit.
I also shortened the tokne names up a little so they are now for example:
Alchemist.png
Dancer.png
Highwayman.png
Very long names and certain characters can cause problems in Fantasy grounds tokens names.
If you have token module that isn't working thta you downlloaded from the forums or a website you most likely need to add in the category line of the module.
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May 24th, 2021, 00:50 #27
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May 24th, 2021, 21:07 #28
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Fantastic info thanks.
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May 24th, 2021, 21:08 #29
I disagree with the statement that the zone indicators aren't for the RPG, and that the Monolith Sourcebook makes it clear that is the case. Yes, the dots are for the boardgame, but the zones are absolutely interchangeable - and reading the various comments throughout the Monolith sourcebook completely suggests this. I can see where the confusion might come from, but I haven't read anything that clearly states that the zones are purely for the boardgame. For example, on page 94: "One of the most exciting aspects of the crossover between the boardgame and roleplaying game is the new tile sets. These tiles function perfectly for roleplaying adventures, but because they have been marked with special zones, they are also useful for the boardgame." - it doesn't say "they have been marked with special zones purely for the boardgame - it says that those special zones are "also useful for the boardgame".
Disagreements aside - ultimately, even if the original zone design on the RPG tiles was for the boardgame, they are completely useful in the RPG game (at least in mine and it also sounds like ShotGun Jolly's); without them I have to explain to my players where the zones are, and keep explaining that during encounters, or draw them on the map beforehand. Currently I extract the images from the PDFs, which come with the zones, and use these as-is in my Conan 2d20 game - using the zones for RPG zones, which the RPG system is designed to use for encounters. I doubt I'll buy the FG version of the tiles until they come with the zones as provided in the original product.
In the end, as mentioned on page 39 of the Monolith sourcebook (emphasis mine): "The gamemaster should feel free to implement these resources where pertinent. When using the maps and tiles, the gamemaster should explain and discuss with the players where particular zones begin and end.
However, neither player or gamemaster should feel constrained by what is printed on the maps; these should support gameplay, not limit it." Therefore, no one way is 100% right for every Conan 2d20 RPG game played - having the option to use both (with and without zones) would be great...
EDIT: Reading through early posts in the original RPG Kickstarter, they refer to the movement area markings being "similar" to the Monolith boardgame: "[the tiles] will have movement areas marked which are similar to Monolith's Conan boardgame tiles." ( update #16 ) plus "...and can be used for other games as well, such as the upcoming Conan miniatures game from Monolith (especially as they are marked with similar movement areas, not squares)." ( update #2 ) and "The tiles will have ... our normal printed movement areas which are similar to the Monolith boardgames tiles." ( update #19 ) So, this tells me that the design decision from the start was that the zones were for the Conan 2d20 RPG, but were also designed to be "similar" to the boardgame, therefore allowing them to be used with both.Last edited by Trenloe; May 25th, 2021 at 08:16.
Private Messages: My inbox is forever filling up with PMs. Please don't send me PMs unless they are actually private/personal messages. General FG questions should be asked in the forums - don't be afraid, the FG community don't bite and you're giving everyone the chance to respond and learn!
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May 25th, 2021, 02:06 #30
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Hopefully if they add the zone markings, they will also have the ones without. Seems the easiest way to keep both sides happy.
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