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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Water Bob" data-source="post: 6020653" data-attributes="member: 92305">For the last few years, I've been running a campaign set during the Hyborian Age using the CONAN RPG rules.  I've posted about it a bit in this forum. Some would argue that Conan's universe is high fantasy, and in some ways, highly magical, too.  What it is, though, is a sub-genre of fantasy called Sword & Sorcery. You could use it as a semi-model for your game, picking and choosing what you like. In the Conan RPG, sorcery is extremely rare.  Most people go their entire lives without seeing magic first hand.  Though, they know it exists.  They do.  Because there are whispers about it.  There are stories that frighten children and keep adults from wandering too far from home. Then, there's the priests.  Some of these men of the gods have amazing abilities, but people don't look at most of these acts as examples of sorcery.  No, they're miracles! In my Conan game, I keep the players' exposure to magic very limited.  Since I don't have a sorcerer in our group, it's only the bad guys who have magic--and that's only some of the time. There are no magical weapons.  The PCs all have various qualities of normal weapons.  Well, that's not exactly true.  There are some magical weapons, but these are more like D&D relics.  I should say that there are no mundane magical weapons.  In D&D terms, this means that all the +1 and +3 swords are gone.  Only the Holy Avengers and the like remain in the game world--and these are typically the object of campains.  And even if/when a magical weapon is obtained, not every PC in the group will  have one.  Most likely, there will only be one magical item.  Period. When I convert a D&D adventure for my Conan campaign, I strip out all the high fantasy stuff.  I typically like low level D&D adventures because these have less sophisticated magical encounters in them.  Gone are the Gelatinous Cubes and Rust Monsters.  Gone are the demi humans (I usually turn those into different races of humans).  Gone of the Magic Mouths and magical traps.  And so forth. I'd probably keep a Wyvern, or a Giant Spider, but even then, I'd keep these encounters sparse.  My PCs won't move from fantastic animal to fantastic monster every hour of their overland trip.  In the last adventure that I converted, I took a black dragon and turned him into a demon--just by describing him differently and slightly changing his abilities.  I pretty much used the same stats, though.  If you like, you can <a href="http://www.enworld.org/forum/d-d-legacy-discussion/328834-gms-closet-conan-rpg-3.html#post6011038" target="_blank">read about the choices I made for conversion HERE</a>. PC mages (sorcerers in the Conan game) are tricky.  To play them true to the universe, there should either be no PC mages, or the PC mage should dominate the campaign's "story".  Magic (sorcery) is rare, and those who know how to wield it are special (sorcerers).  There are no run-of-the-mill D&D mage types, and certainly you won't find a socerer in every town as is usually possible in most D&D fantasy universes. In a way, the low-magic universe is like Lord of the Rings.  Who used magic in that story?  That would be Gandalf and a few, very powerful, others (mostly foes).  The same is true in the various Conan stories.  Sorcery exists, but it's ancient and dark and cryptic, gritty and unnatural.  Most people shun away from sorcerery. In the Conan game, a character must make a Fear Save (called Terror of the Unknown) EVERY TIME he sees an unnatural creature for the first time.  This is because unnatural things are rare.  You wouldn't have to make the Terror save the first time you saw a pack of wolves, even if they're about to eat you alive.  But, you would have to make the save if the man you have just slain begins to wiggle, then stands back up to fight you again.  And, you'd have to make the save if you saw a skeleton digging its way out of its grave.  If you saw something like a Wyvern flying through the sky, you'd have to make the save. That's very un-D&D-like, and it goes to support the low-magic feel of the Conan game universe.  You might consider something similar for your game. You can still let your players find goodies.  Just don't allow it so often.  Make them work harder for what they find.  Keep wealth rewards low.  And, never let them find magic unless it is the object of their quest. If you're stingy with rewards, the players will greatly appreciate a set of chain mail when they finally find some.   In the Conan game, weapons have more important statistics other than damage.  They have armor piercing ratings as well.  So, in your game, a long sword doesn't have to be a long sword, the same as that other long sword.  Give a bonus to its Critical Threat Range.  Allow a +1 attack (only) if it is very balanced.  Have long swords with different, but similar damage ratings (1d8, 1d6+1, 1d4+2 are ideas).  Introduce weapons made of different materials.  The best are made of steel, but there are also iron and bronze weapons.  Make some weapons and armor "exotic" in some areas and "martial" in others.  Give primitives primitive quality weapons. I think this route is much more interesting than +1, +2, and +3 longswords, anyway. Healing might be a problem in your game if there are no potions of healing and no magical spells.  Consider healing surges or fast recovery of hit points after a fight (say...maybe a number of hit points equal to the character's level plus CON bonus is returned to the character within 30 minutes of the fight). In the Conan game, there is a Short Term Care option under the Heal skill.  A DC 15 Heal check, using this option, basicaly simulates the cleaning and binding of wounds after a battle.  A successful check returns a number of hit point to the injured character equal to the Character's Level + CON modifier, to a minimum of one. And, this can be performed once after every combat engagement.  It's like drinking a potion of healing or having a priest lay Cure Light Wounds on you once per combat engagement. In additon, natural healing is increased.  If you sleep for 8 hours, you get 3 + Character Level + CON mod hit points returned.  If you do nothing but heal for an entire 24 hours, you get double that amount.  If you've got a doctor/nurse/healer person to take care of the injured, then that person can use the Long Term Care option of the Heal skill to yet again double the amount of hit points returned to the character (Thus, it's possible for a character to regain 4x the recovery points in a 24 hour period.). And then there are little helpers, like herbal concoctions (Acadia seeds, smashed into a paste, return 1d4 hit points) and skill bonus items (Healer's Kit, Herbalist Kit, Triage Kit, Healer's Balm, Healer's Pitch, and so on).  All of this is non-magical. I could go on, but I think you get the idea:  Watch your rewards, watch your monster foes; watch your magic.  Substitute with more mundane things when needed. Hope that helps!  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /></blockquote>

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