Low Fantasy?

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tkdco2
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Low Fantasy?

Post by tkdco2 »

How would you handle low fantasy campaigns? In my solo game set in Middle-earth, I ditched the magic-user and renamed clerics as healers. Healers can heal 1d3 hit points per day; their spells will be redefined as abilities. I'm still fine-tuning this system. I may allow elves to be fighter/healers, although I may include bards and rangers as additional classes.

Any other ideas?
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Wing_department
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Re: Low Fantasy?

Post by Wing_department »

My BFRPG campaign is also low-fantasy. It's been going for almost a year and here is how I handle my low-magic world:
1. When it comes to magical items, I ask myself one question: "Could its effect be achieved without magic?". The answer is "yes" more often than one might think.
- Instant healing potions? In my world there is non-magical red moss, which is to be rubbed into a wound and it heals 1d4HP an hour after use.
- +1 Swords? Those aren't magical, they are just manufactured by the best swordsmiths which makes them more balanced and easier to use. If you need the magical property to damage ghosts, you might come up with a mundane metal which works on ghosts in your world.

2. I didn't ditch magic-users. But I changed them significantly and they are pretty much a different class. The spells have generally weaker effects than their listed counterparts. Magic-Users can cast spells they know as many times per day as they want but every casting requires a roll. Critical success makes the effect of the spell stronger than expected and a critical miss... is exciting :D
See, natural one turns the spell against the players. You wanted to heal? On a 1 you deal damage! You wanted to shoot a fiery missile? On a 1 it explodes in your hands beforu you hurl it.
The above method makes players think twice before casting a spell and it makes sense in the world that there aren't many reality-bending magic users which make you think "Why won't they solve all the party's problems?"

3. The suggested amount of money to be given to the PCs is too much for low-fantasy... At least in my opinion. I give less money but also divide the cost of equipment by 10. It's an unnecessary homerule but I like when my players get 10 gold pieces and say to themselves "We are rich!"

4. Lastly, I use magical races as rarely as I can. In most cases they can be simply made humans or one of the other three standard classes. Instead of red caps I used canibalistic halflings. Most races like kobolds, frogmen, goblins, hobgoblins, orcs and even trolls can be simply called "human", be given the same stats as their original versions and it will make sense.
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Dimirag
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Re: Low Fantasy?

Post by Dimirag »

Magic items would be super rare but more unique.
Cap spells at some level, maybe 3rd.
Spells don't increase their powers by caster level.
Magic Users would have some extra non-magical goodies and modified XP to balance their overall new limits and special abilities.
Sorry for any misspelling or writing error, I am not a native English speaker
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tkdco2
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Re: Low Fantasy?

Post by tkdco2 »

One idea I had but never tested is that you can use nonmagical weapons against creatures that require magic to hit by the book. However, you have a -1 to hit penalty for every +1 required to hit that creature. Use the -1 penalty if no specific bonus is specified. That way you can keep magic weapons rare and the monsters challenging.
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Dimirag
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Re: Low Fantasy?

Post by Dimirag »

In BFRPG there is no minimum bonus required to hit special monsters, they are vulnerable to mundane, silver, or magical weapon, so you can have magical weapons with no bonus, or yes, use a penalty for attack and damage.
Depending on the actual monster you could have specific rules for non-vulnerable damage, like fast healing, half damage, etc...
Sorry for any misspelling or writing error, I am not a native English speaker
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Solomoriah
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Re: Low Fantasy?

Post by Solomoriah »

Note that some monsters are hit only by magical weapons because of their magical nature (incorporeal spectres, for example) while others are made of materials not easily harmed with mundane weapons (iron golem, living statue, etc.).
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tkdco2
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Re: Low Fantasy?

Post by tkdco2 »

Perhaps I can also halve the damage done by nonmagical weapons. If coupled with a -1 penalty to hit, it would make even low hit dice monsters like shadows harder to defeat.

I am thinking of making monsters rare, especially the powerful ones. An owlbear may be the first of its kind, newly created by a mad wizard. Same thing with golems, etc. That would make the monsters more exotic, But fighting humans and animals almost exclusively will not be interesting to many players. Add threats like beast men or snake men, using stat blocks from various humanoids.
spielemusik
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Re: Low Fantasy?

Post by spielemusik »

I'm a little late to the party here, but I've got some thoughts on low fantasy and game systems like BFRPG. By nature of the system, games like BFRPG have high fantasy baked into the ruleset. The genre of high fantasy and the rules are very much entwined. I'm not saying you can't tailor the game to your tastes, but sword & sorcery and high fantasy are almost expected.

Low fantasy can have different connotations as well. To me, a low fantasy setting is one where magic is rare, as are monsters (which would make them even more fantastic to a degree). Humans take center stage. You could definitely run a low fantasy game using BFRPG, it would more or less require a bit of scaling back on class / race options, and a very selective approach to monsters, at least in my view of a low fantasy game.

I'd start with allowing just human pcs - thieves or fighters, or some of the supplemental classes like scouts and rangers, barbarians etc. Adversaries would mostly be human npcs, bandits & brigands, barbarian tribes, wild beasts / animals etc... Any fantastic monsters would be rare and certainly terrifying for the pcs, so an element of dark fantasy would also be part of my low fantasy game. You could come across rumors of a powerful dark sorcerer that does magic, even perhaps a necromancer with undead minions, but these types of enemies would not be prevalent. Magic and magical items would be approached with fear and distrust. Gritty urban adventures revolving around thieves' guilds missions could be another avenue for adventure. Hexcrawling and wilderness adventures would support a quest for that ultra-rare magical item. Potions like healing would be very expensive and also rare.
Kane
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Re: Low Fantasy?

Post by Kane »

Other than the piles of magic available to PCs, D&D is rather low fantasy - characters are dramatically less capable than Conan or Legolas, at least for a while. The only suggestion I have, beyond whittling down magic, is making sure (as the DM) to make it possible for players to use their wits and abilities in creative ways, to help overcome the lack of firepower and healing. I assume your bad guys are lower in magical power, too, so that will help the imbalance.

Oh, and it's often useful to have guilds, King's Rangers, that sort of thing to help players have resources and responsibilities, which both gives them a needed advantage in finding info/hirelings with the right skills and provides them with friendly and safe places to recover. The details depend on the setting, if you take a cue from Runequest having public cults and family can serve a similar function.

No magic means less flexibility overall, and some higher level dungeons are virtual suicide without sorcery and magic items. So you'll want to be careful to make sure the encounters are plausible to get through without magic, or avoidable, to make up for the missing tools.
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