Headed Immediately to the Stygian Abyss of the Garbage Can Comes...

Conan the Collectible Card Game. Comic Images, who currently publishes the Raw Deal WWE Collectible Card Game, will be releasing a Conan card game in the near future. As noted by gamingreport.com the game will have 55 card starter decks (at $10.99) and 11 card booster packs (at $3.49). This would have been huge news 13 years ago, but the barbarian will have to overcome significant market forces to be competative in the current CCG marketplace. It might have been nice if Comic Images had asked themselves the following question, "Just how big is the Conan fanbase and of those how many are interested in a Collectible Card Game?"

This isn't to say that the mighty Cimmerian doesn't have any market clout, he does, but I find it hard to imagine that there is muc CCG appeal here. Imagine the following:

Howard Fan 1: Okay, I tap Conan the Reaver who decides to attack your Juma the Unyielding card.
Howard Fan 2: I "sacrifice" Juma in order to play Conan the Avenger from my hand to intercept your Reaver. I pump his strength with the Thulsa Doom card from the Kull expansion, while increasing the Avenger's strength with the "By This Axe I Rule Card."
Howard Fan 1: But you have forgotten that I had played the "Red Nails" card which prevents you from playing Kull expansion cards during combats.
Howard Fan 2: Ah, but I had played the Ashton card which allows me to ignore all modifying cards if they prevent the play of Atlantean modifiers. This, plus the fact that I had played the Tower of the Elephant location card means that I get to add Juma's strength to the Avenger card because Elephant makes all sacrifices increase the player of Thulsa Doom's character's strength.
Howard Fan 2: Fine. I activate Aquilonian princess, who prevents Juma from being sacrificed because she must be sacrificed instead.
Howard Fan 1: Okay. Who wins. Conan or Conan?

Any time the resolution of a game ends with who is tougher Conan or Conan, I think the playability is a little lacking.

Now if Fantasy Flight were releasing this as an expansion of their Call of Cthulhu card game...that I'd play. How you ask? Well, Clark Ashton Smith, Robert E. Howard, and H.P. Lovecraft used to take elements from each other's writing and add it to their own tales. They had a kind of "shared universe" if you will. That would be interesting, but Conan vs. Conan should only be a conversation referring to the quality of various adaptations (i.e. which Conan movies/comics/RPGs are better).