What Conan Taught Me About Star Trek Adventures

With the news from Modiphius, this post seems timely.

Our group ran "The Pit of Kutallu" just before the holiday season. "The Pit of Kutallu" is an adventure module for Robert C. Howard's Conan published by Modiphius in 2017 for Free RPG Day. The version of 2d20 it uses feels like the same model car as Star Trek Adventures, but after somebody dropped in a turbocharger. Our group burned through Momentum, Fortune, and Doom with abandon compared to our use of the corresponding meta currencies in Star Trek Adventures. The players were also bolder and less deliberate, even after they started paying the price in Stress and Harms to their characters.

Granted, the quick start rules in "The Pit of Kutallu" are stripped down compared to those in the Conan core book. And I ran this explicitly as a one shot. And swords and sorcery is another whole genre away from space opera. And a Free RPG Day adventure is going to be mostly fights. But I felt that there was something about the contrast between the two experiences to be examined. I put my observations and questions online and got some handy advice on running 2d20 in the future. Thanks in particular to @muttley@dice.camp and betatester at the Modiphius forums for their observations.

Momentum

Momentum in Conan models a swords and sorcery world where player characters are capable of cutting their way through waves of enemies. Buying extra dice with Momentum is cheaper in Conan than in other 2d20 games. This makes it easier land hits and succeed at tests. Rolling more dice generates more Momentum, leading to a loop where players have more Momentum at their disposal at any given time. This loop quickened the pace, making the fights feel more exciting without losing their tactical aspects.

The Momentum pool depletes faster in Conan than in Star Trek Adventures. Our group told me this pressured them into a "use it or lose it" mentality. Fights in "The Pit of Kutallu" usually ended with an empty Momentum pool due to use rather than depletion.

Getting some of that faster pace in Star Trek Adventures involves priming the pump on the Momentum pool.

• "Close-Knit Crew" is a Talent from the Player's Guide that allows a player character to generate Momentum if the pool is too low at the start of a new scene.
• There are ways for a Human player character to finagle "Spirit of Discovery" to trade a point of Determination in to bump up the Momentum pool by three. The player just has to find a way to use a Value or Directive for the Determination spend. A pilot character will likely have a Value related to vehicle operation that can used during a travel scene. Likewise, a science officer may have a Value that can trigger when seeking out new information.
• Supporting Characters can help generate Momentum by providing an assist during a task. Assistance effectively gives players three dice instead of two for rolling against a task and for generating Momentum. Even uncontrolled Supporting Characters can provide assistance.
• A player character in the Commanding Officer role on the bridge can use "Rally" to generate Momentum. The core book is explicit about this being the purpose of the "Rally" action. Groups where the Captain is a Supporting Character can still use "Rally" even if the Captain is uncontrolled as it is a Difficulty 0 task, but a player character must still use an action to suggest that the Captain speak to the crew. Alternately, a player character Executive Officer can use "Rally" themselves.

Doom & Threat

Doom (Conan) and Threat (Star Trek Adventures) are thematically named equivalents to Momentum for the gamemaster. Doom generates faster than Threat due to how Reactions work in Conan. Reactions to parry or dodge attacks beyond the first in a round are paid for by adding to the Doom pool. This gives the players a choice between building up the Doom pool or suffering damage to their characters.

The steady trickle of Doom getting added to the pool slowly raised the stakes throughout the game. I was able to use the resulting pile of Doom to dial up the danger at the climax. Adding to the Doom pool may have an immediate benefit for the players, but there are longer term costs involved. The process gives the players a say in the amount of danger their characters will be confronting.

Players in Star Trek Adventures are often reluctant to add to the Threat pool and there are fewer ways to generate it. I find myself hoarding the initial Threat pool until the ending scene. However, there seem to be more ways to produce Threat and that heightened sense of risk than I was aware of.

• A NPC leader can issue orders to the other NPCs at the start of a scene or during a fight. This is a Difficulty 0 task for the NPC leader that should generate one or two points of Threat. This is balanced by the need for the NPC leader to use an action to perform this task.
• Some NPCs automatically generate Threat simply be showing up. The final boss of "The Pit of Kutallu" has its own Doom pool that it can use up before helping itself to the regular one.

Fortune & Determination

Fortune (Conan) is both more plentiful and easier to use than Determination (Star Trek Adventures). Linking the use of Determination with a Value or Directive makes it challenging to put into play. The single point a player character starts an adventure with encourages players to hoard it to the point of leaving it untouched. On the other hand, Conan player characters get three points of Fortune and can earn more points fairly easily. Fortune points flowed freely throughout "The Pit of Kutallu" with the only concern being saving one for the climax.

• As mentioned above, "Spirit of Discovery" is a Talent that a Human player character can use to pump up the Momentum pool by three in exchange for a point of Determination.
• I'll have to talk with our group about making sure the Values of the player characters are flexible enough to cover a variety of situations.
• I also have to continue to find ways of using Values, Directives, and Determination in our Star Trek Adventures game.

I'd welcome any other suggestions or observations about how to use elements of this system. I hope that this point is handy for other 2d20 gamemasters.