D&D 5E D&D and who it's aimed at

[Retreater]

Well, because you have the protagonist who overturns the bad guys and ushers in a period of peace and prosperity?

Peasants barely eking out a marginal existence? Where do you find that in Conan? Conan is filled with peasants getting along perfectly fine in towns and farms and mostly living out their lives normally. There's no blasted earth, no famine, wars are generally local no large diseases. What dystopia?

If we're talking about the stories, Conan was a miserable king. He hated the corruption of civilization.
You had the dead empires of Stygia. The barbaric
Picts.
I don't know if what you're reading was de Camp's Conan or something, but Howard's was exceptionally bleak - a world perpetually spiralling to darkness.

 

[Umbran]

Well, because you have the protagonist who overturns the bad guys and ushers in a period of peace and prosperity?

But the world he starts in then is run by the dad guys, isn't it?

There's no blasted earth

Weird, when most of Conan the Barbarian seems to take place in the desert.

no famine, wars are generally local no large diseases. What dystopia?

"Civilization, ancient and wicked. Have you ever seen it before?"

Yeah, a happy, well-adjusted culture in a verdant land where folks generally have enough...

 

[Hussar]

Oh, by dystopian, you mean medieval. Ok.

 

[Vaalingrade]

Oh, by dystopian, you mean medieval. Ok.

Traditional Mud Ages Medieval depictions are 1000% dystopian.

 

[Greg Benage]

Oh, by dystopian, you mean medieval. Ok.

According to Wikipedia: "Dystopias are often characterized by rampant fear or distress,[3] tyrannical governments, environmental disaster,[4] or other characteristics associated with a cataclysmic decline in society." That is, like, a really good one-sentence description of the Hyborian Age.

As for the happy farmers, they would have been largely serfs or slaves.

 

[Scribe]

According to Wikipedia: "Dystopias are often characterized by rampant fear or distress,[3] tyrannical governments, environmental disaster,[4] or other characteristics associated with a cataclysmic decline in society." That is, like, a really good one-sentence description of the Hyborian Age.

Whenever Wizards gets around to it, thats what I'm talking about.

 

[lingual]

What awesome RPGs that appeal to Conan are being produced in Socialist states.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

Whenever Wizards gets around to it, thats what I'm talking about.

Most of Ravenloft would qualify as a Dystopia.

 

[Scribe]

Most of Ravenloft would qualify as a Dystopia.

Yes, but it lacks the visual hook and the presentation left something wanting.

I'm not pretending to be easy to please here.

 

[Older Beholder]

I thought Dark Sun was more Sword and Sandals than Sword and Sorcery? (just kidding)

I don't think you need desert for Sword and Sorcery, adventures like Tomb of Annihilation and Rime of the Frostmaiden could both work as part of the genre if you wanted.