Low-Magic Campaign Experiment

[Angel of Adventure]

1. What happened? Where'd all the stuff people used to be able to do go? How was it lost?

Divine Interference, after a world was crushed following a great war along ethical lines.

4. Where are the other races?

See #1

5. How do people deal with highly magical monsters in a low-magic world, especially if there are lots of the monsters?

They are very, very feared. The stuff of nightmares to keep kiddies in bed at night. Perhaps the average person has never really seen an orc, hobgoblin, etc., let alone a demon, dragon, etc.. Perhaps the monsters know this and use it to their advantage by mostly staying 'below radar.'

6. How does the lowered magic level affect the political situation? Are casters feared, shunned, or prized? Are wizards treated differently than priests? Do priests, wizards or druids have any pull in society?

Priest would probably be the most legitimate and influential, as they can claim spiritual authority. It would be likely that other casters were formally shunned, though perhaps they are highly sought after by those in the upper circles of society. The average person sees magic, outside of their diety, as witchery and black magic.

7. When someone does discover a potent magic item or an unknown spell, how do people react to them? Fear, envy, etc? Are there black markets for magic items? If so, how do they get their supply?

Those within that casting community would definately be envious, though their reactions would be determined by relationships/alignments of those involved. Sure, there could be a 'black market' for such items. It would be very secretive, very centralized, and perhaps only available to those in a certain guild, family, organization, etc.. Perhaps they get their items by assignment from those looking to buy, and/or there is a measure of reflexivity to the relationship; i.e.: you cannot 'buy' only trade, or for every item bought, one must be sold back in the immediate future.

 

[Brain]

A couple of comments on the spell lists:

Persistent Image shows up at both 5th and 6th level on the Wizard list.

Magic Fang is missing from the druid list. It seems like it could take the place of one of the ______ Animal spells on the first level list.

 

[the Jester]

A few more miscellanious notes:

Downtime: The Year 271 Campaign will be paced to take place over the span of months or years. Training rules, extended item creation times and winters will be among the tools used to encourage a slower pace. Travel in winter will be difficult, especially given the possibility of running out of food (and the lack of create food spells), and it is probably wise to let winters pass by as downtime.

Training: Characters must spend time to train when leveling before acquiring skill points, feats, class abilities or spells. Increases in hit points, save bonuses, base attack bonus and ability scores due to character level are gained immediately (without training or rest). A character may either train under a master or train herself.

A character may study under a master to train provided the master has any feats being gained, at least as many ranks as the training character will have in all skills being raised, all spells and class abilities being gained. Training under a master requires 1 week per level being gained (so training for 2nd level requires 2 weeks).

A character training herself requires 2 weeks per level being gained. She must also spend 100 xp per level being gained to train herself. If the character does not have enough xp to pay this cost without losing a level, she still pays the cost and takes the level, but she also acquires a negative level that cannot be gotten rid of until her xp rise to the threshold for her current level. (This represents physical and mental fatigue from the efforts of self-training.)

Other Notes: All characters effectively have the Cling to Life feat. Instead of dying at -10 hp, they die at a negative total equal to their level + their con score. (A character with a combined level + con score of 9 or less instead dies at -10 hp.)

 

[the Jester]

During a character creation session, there were a couple of other issues that came up:

Languages: There will be lots of languages and dialects. Even if Speak Language is cross-class for you, you may learn a language that is closely related to one that you already speak for only one skill point.

Literacy: Nobody starts off literate. Read/Write is a class skill for Knights, Bards, Priests and Wizards. Each alphabet requires a new Read/Write skill.

 

[dungeon blaster]

To provide a context to my following answers, I'll give a short summation of my campaign world.

The current era is a time of lost magic and knowledge (much like your world). In the previous era, Wizards rediscovered the ability to channel magic, and through their own ambition and folly they destroyed nearly everything they had created.

1. What happened? Where'd all the stuff people used to be able to do go? How was it lost?

Nearly all of the old-era Wizards are dead or insane. A huge anti-wizard backlash among the human population resulted in the destruction of the magic schools and the formation of a new religion that villifies Wizards. With the loss of the most knowledgable Wizards, the secrets of magical item creation were generally lost as well.

2. Magic items have a much higher intrinsic value in this system, because money is scarce, items are rare and more likely to be able to do something a spell (known to the general caster populace) can't, etc.

Obviously, magic items are extremely valuable in my world because the secret to their creation is long forgotten. That said, there are a few who remember how to create magical items and continue to create them. There are also goblins who have some information on magical item creation, but lack the actual ability to create them (they were the assistants to the Wizards and observed magic item creation, but were forbidden to learn the practice of magic).

3. I foresee using some alchemical, technlogical, etc. developments as well- for instance, maybe the alchemical healing salve, refinements on sunpowder technology, steam engines, etc.

I flirted with the idea of adding steam power, but decided on limiting technological innovation to clocks, blastfire & guns, and a few other purely mechanical devices. My change of heart came after reading about Eberron and realizing that the author had a very good stance on technology and magic. Still, I incorporate alchemy (although gunpowder does not exist). Unless humans can find a way to regain their magic using capabality, they will eventually turn to technology to better their lives.

4. Where are the other races?

The humans spent the last few hundred years asserting their dominance throughout the continent and the other races are more than a little incensed.

5. How do people deal with highly magical monsters in a low-magic world, especially if there are lots of the monsters?

Highly magical monsters are extremely rare, and some monsters have had their magical abilities weakened or removed. Demons and devils, for example, do not have the same magical capabilities that the MM describes. The more common monsters have few or no magical abilities and tend to be monstrous humanoids, undead, and animals.

6. How does the lowered magic level affect the political situation? Are casters feared, shunned, or prized? Are wizards treated differently than priests? Do priests, wizards or druids have any pull in society?

IMC, Wizards are almost universally feared due to the catastrophe they brought upon the world. Wizard hatred is fueled by the Church of Mengal, the major religion on the continent, which portrays Wizards as demon-worshippers. Priests of Mengal have great influence over society, more so in some nations than in others. Priests of other religions have influence in certain nations, but their influence is not as widespread.

7. When someone does discover a potent magic item or an unknown spell, how do people react to them? Fear, envy, etc? Are there black markets for magic items? If so, how do they get their supply? .

Depends on the item or spell.

 

[the Jester]

Okay, so I'm just bumping this because I have started the campaign and I'm going to make notes as I go along.

Observations after one session:

One thing that was very interesting was the effect that the lowered starting money had on the party. The top AC in the party (of 8!) was 16, iirc. There were maybe two swords in the party; several of the pcs didn't have any money at game start, and so couldn't enter the contests in the harvest faire (including a chicken plucking contest!). I don't think anyone has metal armor.

The party consists of:

Cedric Whitewater (knight 1) (talks with a lisp, complete alcoholic, son of the local lord)
Dahlia (druid 1) (remember the crazy old hermit you hear about in Keep on the Borderlands? That's her)
Cara Reed (bard 1) (vain spoiled girl; daughter of the local retired adventurer)
Fwaigo "Goer" Smith (fighter 1) (Cedric's 'squire', even though Cedric is not technically a knight yet; haircut = mullet)
Jorgen Boatwright (fighter 1) (the village's self-appointed watchman, thinks out loud)
Kyle Lightbow (rogue 1) (elf-blooded; the local lapidary)
Cur Sed Seed (barbarian 1) (half-orc; one of the Outcasts, a group of halfbreeds that, exiled from human community, joined together and formed a nomadic band)
Otis (wizard 1) (one of the apprentices of Xastys the Sorceress, calm and polite)


The first game they mostly did a lot of roleplaying, starting off as nobodies, with one combat to close the session out. They had a few contests at the faire too. It was tons of fun, and the one combat was good and scary. It's going to be fun to be able to use the wienee monsters again after running epic and mid level pcs for so long, too!

I'll post a story hour thread before too long and will link to it here.

 

[Brain]

Yeah, that game was fun. Couple of minor things to add:

I think Jorgen is the one with the mullet.
Dahlia is also Elf-blooded.

 

[Nifft]

I do want to hear more, from Jester & his PCs alike. Please keep us up to date!

Thanks, -- N

 

[the Jester]

Year 271 Campaign Story Hour Here.

 

[the Jester]

Another interesting thing I have to watch very closely as I start planning adventures for this campaign is challenge ratings. The basic CR system makes assumptions that are not always valid for a low-magic setting.

For one thing, npcs won't have nearly the gear level assumed in the standard system. A 10th level fighter might only have an AC of 18 or so, and might have a total attack bonus of +16 rather than on the order of +20. Thus, high level npc bad guys are more attainable challenges. That 10th level fighter would prolly be CR 8 or around there, rather than CR 10.

On the other hand, a CR 8 monster with a high AC, tricky regeneration, lots of magical abilities, etc. might easily be elevated a couple of CRs. It's something I'm trying to watch closely as I work up the adventures for the pcs.