Character Creation

Discuss your concepts, but if you all want to play the exact same thing, go for it.

If I plan it, I'd veer towards a petty thief on the run from the law. However, I'm sorely tempted to just roll for everything on the tables in the core book.

Are there any preferences from the group/GM?

Preferences? Well, no not really. It's a wilderness exploration, with some possibly hostile, possibly friendly NPC tribes to deal with.

We'll need to come up with a reason for you all traveling into the far south. I can have a GMPC with you at the start of that helps. Maybe he hired you all despite your backgrounds. That's a little weak, but if left to it, I'll set up a reason to bind you to the task.

I like @Phil_Ozzy_Fer's idea of a random roll. There is a character generator here: Character Generator

Is there anything in the area that would lure adventurers? Secret knowledge? Treasure? A lost estate?

Secret knowledge and treasure are both key drivers for the mission.

I think I would prefer to choose as this will be my first time playing Conan, I'm leaning towards a pirate or maybe a mercenary.

I strongly favour every party member having a tie to at least one or two other party members.

While I'm not really opposed to random charactercreation, I have been playing around with that character creator, and the results are... unfocused.

If you all would like more background before settling on characters, I'll tackle that tomorrow morning, and post a sample introduction that you can imagine yourself fitting into.

Nobody responded so I didn't do it, haha.

Okay, seriously though, a Kushite man named Otawla has hired a team of teamsters (NPC laborers) to come with him into the the remote jungles of Zukundu. You've been hired as problem solvers, either as guards or as survival specialists or sages. Maybe one or two of you were sold to him under slavery. You took a ship to the coast of a forbidding land and were ferried to the shore. A three week journey into an unfamiliar jungle gets us to the start of the action.

That's just what we needed! Thanks

Great! I am thinking of a Zingaran Pirate - maybe the survivor of a shipwrecked freebooter vessel that has has joined the group.

@dankel, that's weird! I had randomly rolled up the same. How about we both survived the shipwreck?

My character, as it stands, is a scholar from Stygia who is plying his trade as a purveyor of knowledge between Koth and Shem - but who has plenty of reasons to put some distance between himself and his homeland, and other reasons to seek out ancient secrets - enough to brave the wildernesses beyond Kush.

Wicked ideas fit right into my memories of similar Conan stories.

A quick note of note I thought was funny, I had started sketching out my character on Friday (the 13th) and rolled 3(!) 13s.

:-O - burn the witch

Another Pirate?

Yes

I have other character concepts, so don't worry if you want to be the only pirate in the jungle :-)

No, I don't mind, what nationality?

Zingaran

I 'll do something else, I think two Zingaran pirates is a bit samey for me, as I've never played this game before. I had another concept, of a Gunderland mercenary, which I'll do instead.

Nothing wrong with two people from the same country with the same job. Similarities give an opportunity to provide meaningful contrasts!

How is everyone doing? There's one character submitted. Anybody need assistance?

@dankel, you stay as the Zingaran pirate if you wish, I'm going to roll up something else

I think I'm ok. I've just got to do that attributes, and then I'm good to go. I'll have it done today.

Sorry for any delay (and sorry for being awkward about my character) I will do my character over the next few evenings and have it up on Friday at the latest.

I've been trying to make a thief with some people skills, but the character creation system seems to favour crippling overspecialisation.

While specialization does shine in 2d20, you generally have fairly good odds on a lot of rolls. There will be a place for 'face' skills in the adventure, as there are potentially friendly natives that can become good allies.

My character has reasonable people skills and baller lore skills, but will get absolutely murdered in combat.

How much XP flows to let us round out in play?

Probably a fair bit. I have no interest in keeping you weak and kitteny ad infinitum.

Have added my character - formatting has not worked great so will need to tidy it up at some point. Also have not allocated all talents yet

Excellent. I'll review the four characters and post an intro scene either tonight or tomorrow. Carabas can join in when he is ready.

Phil_Ozzy_Fer
You don't seem to have applied any skills or things from Archer:

Page 29: "in summary, archetypes grant the following:
■■Career Skill: This adds +2 to Skill Focus and +2 Skill Expertise for the specific skill.
■■Career Talent: This grants one talent associated with the career skill.
■■Mandatory Skills: Each of these four adds +1 to Skill Focus and +1 Skill Expertise.
■■Elective Skills: Both of these each add +1 to Skill Focus and +1 Skill Expertise.
■■Equipment: The character begins with an assort-ment of appropriate gear.

In addition to the equipment listed in each archetype, it is assumed that each character has a basic suit of cloth-ing appropriate to their culture and caste, and a traveling kit of some sort containing whatever personal effects are needed for basic survival, grooming, and personal upkeep. These contents might include a coin purse, basic cutlery, a drinking jack or horn, a comb or brush, cosmetic items, or other small personal effects. Additionally, if encountered in the wild, the character likely has enough rations (food, drink, etc.) to survive for at least a few days."

Archer
CAREER SKILL: +2 Expertise and +2 Focus in the Ranged Weapons skill
CAREER TALENT: Accurate (see page 77)
MANDATORY SKILLS: +1 Expertise and +1 Focus to Animal Handling, Observation, Stealth, and Survival
ELECTIVE SKILLS: +1 Expertise and +1 Focus to two of the following skills: Acrobatics, Athletics, or Melee
EQUIPMENT:
■■ Bow and reloads (2)
■■ Choice of one of the following: a padded gambeson and trousers (Armor 1: Torso/Arms/Legs); a brigan-dine vest and trousers (Armor 2: Torso/Legs); or a mail vest (Armor 3: Torso; Noisy)
■■ Helmet (Armor 3: Head; Heavy)
■■ Melee weapon of choice
■■ A riding horse or donkey

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Similarly, Nature and Education and then freebie points are to be spent

The other characters look mostly good, nothing really stands out as missing.

For a couple of you, this format might help, but I'm easy.

I'm going to bow out.

I just can't seem to be able to get into the spirit of things. Sorry.

You bet Carabas, thanks for the note.

ok, i'll go back over it, Qralloq

Let me know if you want me to break it into a few decision points. The book isn't laid out concisely for character building.

I'm not sure what you mean by "decision points", but I'll go back over what I put on my sheet and re-organize everything to include more information. Since it's probably more efficient, I'll replicate the layout of the Custom sheet you'd posted.

Here's my revised character. Does this look better? I haven't transferred the data over to the Custom sheet on GP, but I will if it looks ok now. Let me know.

I never responded but this looks good, Phil.

You could probably just add these images to your sheet and not worry about re-typing anything.