5e 'Conan' Barbarian Primal Path

 Here's a quick take on the missing 'Conan' primal path from 5e. There's an implicit sexism to Conan, which I've incorporated into the design. So go ahead and be a female Conan and rescue some prince or something. In this sense, it works pretty well as a kind of Amazon.


Stranger in a Strange Land
At 3rd level, when you adopt this path, you choose 2 bonus languages which you have picked up to survive (including abilty to read and write in those tongues). You gain a bonus language at 6th, 10th and 14th levels.  Also, you are considered dangerous and strange by civilised men, gaining advantage on intimdation checks amongst them.

 Cat amongst the Pigeons.
At 3rd level, when you adopt this path, you may enter a state of savage, uncaring joy when you make a Reckless Attack. After a successful hit , you may keep attacking as long as you keep hitting. Each hit after the first costs d4 hp, then 2d4 hp, then 4d4, then 8d4...(representing your lack of care for your own safety and defence). This state ignores damage resistance provided by entering a rage.

Savage Allure
  Beginning at 6th level, you gain advantage on attempts to seduce or command. Civilised enemies tend want to capture you, rather than kill (probably to torture you to death).

 Stirred by Beauty
Starting at 10th level, you Crit on a 19 or 20 and apply an extra damage die to said Crit. This bonus only applies whenever you are attempting to protect, rescue or aid a member of the opposite sex.

Know, oh Prince...
At 14th level, you gain advantage on any stunt like manoeuvres when you rage. The stakes of a failed stunt, must always be high (DM's discretion) to qualify for this effect.

The Estate: A horrible LotFP setting/game/brain expulsion.

The Estate is maybe Belfast in the early 70s or perhaps Manchester in the late 80s, or it could be Glasgow in the mid 90s. It is streets and tips and cornershops and cellars. It is Sectarian Pubs, brothels, Catholic bedrooms. It is warehouse raves and rusty parks and canal bridges. It is disused cotton factories,  family kitchens,yards backing onto alleys and empty football pitches.

People keep  pretending they can leave,  but they can't. They collect and hoard hearts. They don't know why. Monsters live in places,  but there's no acknowledgement. It's always night.Nobody ever remembers the monsters.  They are unrecognisable, psych, horrors.

The TV always has something to watch.

If you try to leave,  somebody appears in a car and begins chasing you.

There are hidden ways out. Voivodja is a good bet. The gatekeepers, if such exist, probably want hearts. Yeah, they're a bit like hearts in Zelda.

You have grown up here. Or maybe you haven't (there's nothing stopping this being an awful kind of demi plane...like Ravenloft meets Trainspotting).  Somebody told you you can leave with enough hearts.  Everyone thinks you're mad and that there's no problem.

For now, we can use LotFP as our basis.You could definitely have published LotFP  adventures happen here, but you'd obviously modify them to fit. Everything is re-skinned, in British neuroses (for the purposes of this idea, neuroses is skin). Everything is twisted by the worst fears of the British middle classes....the nightmares they imagine are perpetrated by the 'lower orders'.

    Valentina Ferrandes 'Council Estate'

Clerics are drag queens (you already know what these are America)

Fighters are local hard men

Rogues are scallies

Wizards are crusties .

There are no direct damage spells. Plus the wizard or cleric must be high as fuck. Did it really happen? I don't know. Maybe we imagined the whole thing.



XP is gained on a £ for £ basis. However,  XP will not get you off the estate.

The police arrive when the estate stress meter reaches a certain point (let's say 10). Different actions, cause more stress. Certain actions decrease stress.  The police are obviously Pigs in Uniforms. They beat and maim wantonly. Those they arrest, are never seen again.

The Estate is randomly generated.

Potions and such, are rendered as local alternatives eg: special brew super strength lager. Interesting because the players are relying upon the DMs interpretation of local myths.

...which is precisely the the point.

But this is my game haze,  so the laws of my experience (?) prevail.

Biscuit factories, rat infested tow paths, super market closes at 9.
Serial killer's attics, defaced mosques, Chinese chip shops.
Shite fairgrounds, guard dogs in car parks, stalled developments.

Steps to Play

1. Generate estate. Use a die drop method on the chart below if you like. It will probably work. Connect wth lines. Make those lines streets.
2. Generate characters
3. Stress level at zero
4. Take characters out into the streets,  played as a crawl.

Yes, there's some grim stuff on here. Rape, for instance. I'm not sure how one could approach the idea of urban monstrosity without considering that (to use another example) paedophiles are a part of British, urban myth/nightmare (and awful truth).



I don't know if it's playable yet. I'll give it a go and maybe write about it.