1 The Storm-Born

A Barbarian playbook for the shining city-states. Written against Wizards & Lizards v0.10 (BETA, not yet playtested).

The shining cities have their goddesses and their fine manners. You have something older. You come from the wild marches beyond the painted walls, the storm-wracked coasts and the high cold passes, where the only law is weather and strength, and the only prayer is a roar. When the fighting starts and the soldier reaches for his stance and the knight for her oath, you reach for the fury already waiting in your blood, and you let it out.

1.1 You Burn Hot

Your gift is rage: you spend your own churning nerve, your stress, to kindle a fury that makes you hit harder, shrug off wounds that would fell another, and fear nothing at all. You tank not with plate and parries but by being too angry and too tough to fall. You are not subtle. While the fury holds, little can stop you, and when it gutters out you are spent, but the fight is usually over by then.

1.2 Make Your Barbarian

Your Might begins at +2. Agility, Wits, and Presence begin at +0; the tables below will raise them.

You begin with:

• Hit Points 18 (the hardiest of any company).
• Speed 2.
• Stress 4 + your Presence (your rage runs on it; the rising stress is the rising fury).
• Defense = Agility + shield + cover. You favor light armor or none; iron cages the fury.
• A great weapon or paired weapons, and the Rage within you (below).
• Wayfaring, the wild-born’s knack for living off hard country and never losing the trail.

Now walk the tables. Roll or choose; take what each one grants.

1.2.1 What wild land bred you? (1d6)

1. The storm-lashed northern coast, where you raided from a longboat. (+1 Might · Seafaring)
2. The high cold passes and their goat-paths. (+1 Agility · Climbing)
3. The deep faewood, where you tracked what others only fled. (+1 Wits · Tracking)
4. The horse-plains, where you were born in the saddle. (+1 Agility · Riding)
5. The ash-barrens around a dead volcano. (+1 Might · Endurance)
6. A fallen city the wild took back, and you its last child. (+1 Wits · Old Lore)

1.2.2 Where does your fury come from? (1d6)

1. A beast-spirit your people honor, whose roar you borrow. (skill: Beast-Lore)
2. A grief that never cooled. (skill: Resolve)
3. The storm itself, which you have always heard calling. (skill: Weather-Sense)
4. A battle-song your kin sing into the fight. (skill: Song)
5. The blood of something not wholly human in your line. (skill: Intimidation)
6. Simple, honest joy in the fight. (skill: Brawling)

1.2.3 Who tempers you?

Choose another player’s character, the one who can talk you down, or knows when not to. Once per session, when your rage would carry you to harm an ally or a helpless foe, they may check you with a word, and you steady, losing no stress for it.

1.2.4 Your wild token (1d6)

1. A great axe notched past counting. A Heavy weapon (5 damage, knocks Prone), yet so balanced in your grip you swing it one-handed, freeing your other hand.
2. A cloak of a beast you killed bare-handed. Those who see you charge may have to Endure fear.
3. A necklace of foes’ teeth. Once per day, ignore a condition for one round.
4. War-paint in your people’s signs. While raging, your Defense does not suffer for it.
5. A horn that carries for miles. Once per fight, your roar Staggers every foe that hears it.
6. An old scar that should have killed you. Your Hit Points rise by 4.

1.3 Rage

Your fury is your engine, and it runs on stress:

• Enter a Rage (free, on your activation, 1 stress): until the fight ends or you are Downed, you deal +2 damage in melee, you shrug off 2 damage from every hit (after armor), and you cannot be Frightened. But you attack only in melee, you cannot Defend or work fine tasks, and your Defense drops by 1, you are all attack.
• Each round you stay raging, mark 1 stress at the start of your activation. When you cannot pay, or choose to stop, the rage ends and you are Shaken until you rest, the price of burning so hot.

Rage is not finesse. You will not parry, you will not trip and disarm and dance; you will hit the thing in front of you until it stops moving, and you will still be standing when it does.

1.4 Advanced Actions

You have Rage already. Choose one more now; you will gain others as you rise.

• Reckless Assault. While raging, you may strike with abandon: +2 more damage on a hit, but attacks against you are at +2 until your next activation.
• Thick Hide. Your skin is armor 1 even bare, and 2 while you rage.
• Frenzy. While raging, your first extra attack each activation ignores the Multiple Attack Penalty.
• Unstoppable. The first time each fight you would be Downed while raging, you instead stay up at 1 Hit Point until the end of your next activation.
• Intimidating Roar. Spend an action to roar: each foe that can hear you must Endure (Presence) or be Frightened.
• Sweep. (2 actions, heavy weapon.) One great arc catches two foes within reach: roll a Strike against each, the second at no Multiple Attack Penalty. Mark 1 stress to carry the swing into a third foe as well.

1.5 Your Actions

Like every adventurer you have the shared actions, roll 3d6, add the attribute, read the ladder (8- miss, 9-12 partial, 13-17 success, 18+ critical):

Strike (Might) · Shoot (Agility) · Defend (Agility) · Maneuver (Might/Agility) · Endure (the fitting attribute) · Skill (use one of your skills). And you may always mark stress to push a roll, resist a blow, or feed your Rage.

1.6 As You Rise

You grow over five levels. At 2nd and 4th level you gain a new skill and a new Advanced Action, a fiercer fury, a harder hide, a louder roar. At 3rd and 5th level you raise an attribute (to a cap of +3) and your blows hit harder still. You will never be the careful one.