buzz said:I'm with Hong on this one.
Anyway, enough with deifnitions... What I'd really like to know is why "low magic" and "grim & gritty" seem to be such a holy grail among gamers. It may not be as common here, but over at RPG.net, these terms come up all the time--granted, embracing "low n' gritty" seems to go part-and-parcel with the general "hat of d02" over there.
Still, there seems to be this kind of mania, this covetous twinkle gamers get in their eye when it's mentioned that a game is "grim" and "low magic."
How come?
I think many gamers (me included) like the fact that Grim and Gritty and LOw Magic games require the players to use their own abilities and cunning and not resolve problems with a simple spell or magic items
Grim N Gritty world design is also easier than a well thought out D&D world-- I am not talking about a generic D&D world (its uh like a ren faire with dragons) but a world that makes sense. Given the relative power of some Wyrms they could raise whole cities. A decent high level adventuring party can kill small towns
At very high or epic levels charcters are supermen (err ok Superbeings) and untouchable except by massive armies, uber monsters or other supers
In regular D&D Magic spells like Raise Dead,Create Food and Water, Plant Growth and even Cure Light Wounds can change the world in ways (keep in mind that a Cure Light can take a commoner from Near Death to Hale and Hearty in a day) change the world in ways that boggle the mind
Low Magic allows DM's to say "Ok this is like Imperial Rome or Medieval France or whatever" and minimize the impact of magic. Magic becomes wonderous and not an alternate technology.
As for Grim and Gritty well D&D combat is very escalatory (i.e Today Orcs Tommorow Gnoll Next Month Great Wyrm) and a lot of G&G DM's want Orcs to be threatening and any level without making Orc Superheros or Big Monsters (See above).
Combat in D&D is deadly at matched levels but if there is a level dichotomy D&D comabt is a massacre (standard military unit as per the DMG is mostly 1st level warriors -- if they meet a party of Adventurers of 9th level or a big monster they die -- easy as that)
GNG allows DM"s to make monsters much scarrier (a troll is terrifying under GNG) and regular encounters more tense
When they are combined it pushes the focus of the campaign away from combat and more to interaction of a different sorts (stealth, intrigue, social whatever)
Before anybody blows a gasket I know not all D&D games are mostly combat.
But IMO a lot of GNG DM's and players have been stung with hackfest games they didn't enjoy and want to use rules reinforcment to cut back on combat
The rule in GNG is "if you want to live a long time avoid combat"
This is not satisfactory to a lot of gamers but tastes very
As for myself I prefer Grim and Gritty -- but YMMV