# New Conan RPG Announced-ish tags: #thoughts #game/rpg/on-mighty-thews #game/rpg/ironsworn #game/rpg/swords-of-the-serpentine #game/rpg/barbarians-of-lemuria From "The Site Formerly Known As Twitter": ![](https://twitter.com/JonMarkHicks/status/1800409866638688423) Well -- that needed a response, right? --- Okay. So here's my question: Do we really actually *need* another Conan TTRPG? After all, there have been several already. One in pretty recent memory. None of which have done particularly well, though they had the potential to. Modiphus did their **Robert E Howard's Conan: Adventures In An Age Undreamed Of** using their 2D20 in-house game system (Momentum) and… It did *okay* but it was in no way a barnburner after the fact. I don't often see it referenced even in the "best of" lists of their own games. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/modiphius/robert-e-howards-conan-roleplaying-game In fact, it's not even listed on their website in the US anymore as purchasable. That license burnt in under a year. (Ironically, **John Carter of Mars** is definitely up and it uses Momentum as well. https://modiphius.net/en-us/collections/john-carter-of-mars ) [Monolith games currently does the Conan adventure wargame](https://monolithedition.com/en/portfolio/conan/) which – is okay, I guess. But looking at a four panel GM screen doesn't put me in the mind of *Conan the Barbarian* or even *Conan the King*. *Conan the Chartered Accountant* doesn't seem to hit the center of the space. Comments suggest that the new Monolith system is more streamlined than the Momentum system, but that's not really saying a whole lot. Again, that GM screen would seem to suggest *"streamlined and cinematic pulp"* isn't exactly on tap. I realize this is probably something that has grown out of the fact that the company already has the license it may simply want to get into RPGs to try and capitalize on the collapse of available licensed Conan content in the space… But given the usual price point of their work and the complexity we can see on the table, I'm skeptical of the results. I'm also skeptical of the thinking behind putting out a TTRPG for a licensed setting where the licensor has proven that they are willing to pull the offering in about a year and after that point you will never be able to sell even the PDFs of the game you spent time and effort writing and publishing. That's *no bueno.* There are are a ton of already extant RPGs that would be great for someone to do a licensed sourcebook for or which don't really need that level of writing put in. ![[On Mighty Thews (cover).jpg]] **[[On Mighty Thews]]** is an excellent example. Out-of-the-box, it's ready to go. (As if the title didn't give it away.) https://onmightythews.com ![[Barbarians of Lemuria (cover).jpg]] **[[Barbarians of Lemuria]]** is literally exactly in that space and does a pretty fine job of being relatively lightweight, knows exactly what it wants to do, and is bold and in your face about it. https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/144526/Barbarians-of-Lemuria-Mythic-Edition ![[Swords of the Serpentine (cover).jpg]] Are you really into the Conan stories where he hunts down sorcerers, gets caught up in smuggling, or does some surreptitious poking around? **[[Swords of the Serpentine]]** exists. It leverages Gumshoe, so you know the investigation part works pretty well. https://pelgranepress.com/product/swords-of-the-serpentine/ ![[Ironsworn (cover).jpg]] And if you just want to jump on with the recognition that Conan tends to be a bit of a loner except for maybe a couple of companions – pick up a map of Hyboria, throw down your copy of **[[Ironsworn]]**, and you're off to the races. All for the low low price of free. https://www.ironswornrpg.com/products-ironsworn Frankly, I'm not sure we need another high cost, high production value, custom-written system Conan RPG. That very well may be abandoned in under a year again. What I'd much rather see is a system neutral, RPG-forward Conan sourcebook intended for use with anything. A Conan *gaming encyclopedia*, as it were, with maybe a few pages of random oracles for each section/area/faction described and then turn you loose to integrate it into whatever you happen to be playing. That would be far more likely to get my money.