Forbidden Lands

[payn]

I'm not talking anything as big as a Fireball or Wish. I mean even something on par with low-level OSR spells or petty magic from Warhammer Fantasy (i.e. Firebolt, Magic Missile, Spider Climb, Web, Fog Cloud, etc.) The stuff in Forbidden Lands is way, way less impressive than even these low-level spells.
And I'm good with them having costs to cast, critical spell failures, etc.
But without this magical basis, I can't run a "typical fantasy" world. Forget about running Isle of Dread or Dark Sun with the magic system in Forbidden Lands.

I think that's intentional not to be able to run those things. I wouldn't compare it to D&D because on that road only lies disappointment.

 

[Blue Orange]

I'll second that. It has a very old school all races hate each other kill on sight vibe.

You could always house rule that away right?

If anything, you're more likely to have conflict between similar groups of humanoids because they are competing over the same resources--the dwarves don't want to kick the elves out of the forest. They don't want to live there.

 

[payn]

You could always house rule that away right?

If anything, you're more likely to have conflict between similar groups of humanoids because they are competing over the same resources--the dwarves don't want to kick the elves out of the forest. They don't want to live there.

We did and it was fine. Though, the animosity amongst the races was the only thing the setting focused on. So, it ended up being vanilla-ville as a setting.

 

[Yora]

I've been thinking for a while how cool it could be to run a campaign like Conan Exiles (or Kenshi). Forbidden Lands seems like a pretty good looking option for that. The magic seems quite fitting for Conan, and there's already a base building and resource system.

While I am not sure how robust those systems are, I don't think you'd really want them particularly complex in an RPG. Kingdom management with spreadsheets can be a really fun game on computers, but that's a game for one person. When playing an RPG with a group where no player is supposed to be the boss, the bookkeeping stuff needs to be pretty quick and painless. Securing and raiding resources in the wilderness and weeding out threats to the stronghold is what should be happening during play.

 

[Retreater]

See, my complaint is that magic in TTRPG fantasy is way too high to run what I often consider a "typical fantasy" world, so this is a welcome change of pace.

Cool. It's a great system if that fits your interests.
For me, it's really the only downside (well, not including the bland setting with the terrible racial relationships - which I find easier to get around).

 

[Yora]

Are there any resources for additional class talents and spells? There's a good amount of them, but for customizing a setting, more to pick from is always nice.

 

[Retreater]

Are there any resources for additional class talents and spells? There's a good amount of them, but for customizing a setting, more to pick from is always nice.

The Bitter Reach campaign (set in the frozen north) has some elemental magic and other character options.
I'm not sure about fan-created stuff or 3PP content.

 

[Bluenose]

The Bitter Reach campaign (set in the frozen north) has some elemental magic and other character options.
I'm not sure about fan-created stuff or 3PP content.

There's a small collection of additional professions, 3 iirc. And a couple of adventures that add a spell. I think the Bloodmarch supplement was supposed to have a few additional spells, or at least I think that was mentioned in the kickstarter. But not a lot.

 

[Umbran]

Since nobody makes generic systems anymore...

Looks at the Cortex Prime, Cypher System, Savage Worlds, and Fate books on the shelf

Looks at Yora

You sound awful sure of that.

 

[Yora]

I don't know how to tell you this, but...

those are old!

Cypher is the only one that isn't getting close to 20 yet.