D&D 3E/3.5 3.5e/PF/OGL Low-Magic Campaign Resources and Ideas

[_Michael_]

Probably goes without saying, but I'll say it anyway...

Use what you want from my stuff, ignore what you don't, and if I published stuff you think is stupid... you're probably right. I'm not offended if you think some of my stuff is bad. Use what you find useful, ignore the rest.

Nah, I rarely find anything that actual work goes into stupid. Might not find it useful, but I understand that such is just a matter of personal need and tastes and isn't really an author's fault. Often, the mechanics behind certain things are interesting just in themselves because they can be tweaked and massaged to suit a given need. I really appreciate the effort that you all put into it because I've tried my hand and producing stuff, and my goodness, it's a lot of work.

 

[Pedantic]

I have to say, I'm not terribly interested in a low magic setting, but I really love this kind of resource discussion, and the general ethos behind all of it. This whole thread is so nostalgic for the 3e glory days, gathering a bunch of different mechanics from a variety of sources and piercing together the stuff that makes a particular idea or setting go feels exactly like what I want RPG discussion to be.

I'm excited to go look through so many of these supplements. I hope that campaign/setting guide comes together @_Michael_ , I'd love to read it.

 

[_Michael_]

I have to say, I'm not terribly interested in a low magic setting, but I really love this kind of resource discussion, and the general ethos behind all of it. This whole thread is so nostalgic for the 3e glory days, gathering a bunch of different mechanics from a variety of sources and piercing together the stuff that makes a particular idea or setting go feels exactly like what I want RPG discussion to be.

I'm excited to go look through so many of these supplements. I hope that campaign/setting guide comes together @_Michael_ , I'd love to read it.

Thank you! I'm actually going to revise and expand it a bit more. So much is still up in the air, and I only have about 15% of the main continent mapped. The problem with that is, I had about half of it done, and it's super-detailed, but I wanted to zoom in a bit and go section by section. I'm actually compiling short 1 page descriptions of all the cities and towns, too, just to put a few named NPCs in that characters are most likely to encounter, with options to fill in the rest by GMs. I'll definitely keep you posted if you like, but it's liable to be a rough draft quality pending further revisions.

I don't know if anyone is aware, but there are a few excellent books out there for low-magic side adventure stuff. One off the top of my head (and sitting on my shelf) is called, Tournaments, Fairs, and Taverns, and I love it's rules for jousts and other games found at carnivals and fairs. I love that not everything has to revolve around high magic in order to make a compelling adventure, too. Dark Furies Publishing has some nice stuff, too--their Masterwork Maps series are gorgeously illustrated. I only wish they were in color.

 

[Alzrius]

Thank you! I'm actually going to revise and expand it a bit more. So much is still up in the air, and I only have about 15% of the main continent mapped. The problem with that is, I had about half of it done, and it's super-detailed, but I wanted to zoom in a bit and go section by section. I'm actually compiling short 1 page descriptions of all the cities and towns, too, just to put a few named NPCs in that characters are most likely to encounter, with options to fill in the rest by GMs. I'll definitely keep you posted if you like, but it's liable to be a rough draft quality pending further revisions.

I don't know if anyone is aware, but there are a few excellent books out there for low-magic side adventure stuff. One off the top of my head (and sitting on my shelf) is called, Tournaments, Fairs, and Taverns, and I love it's rules for jousts and other games found at carnivals and fairs. I love that not everything has to revolve around high magic in order to make a compelling adventure, too. Dark Furies Publishing has some nice stuff, too--their Masterwork Maps series are gorgeously illustrated. I only wish they were in color.

Things like this remind me of a campaign world I wanted to generate, which was basically an excuse to make a setting that threw in basically every supplement I found interesting. It was supposed to be a massive (i.e. Jupiter-sized) planet, with dozens of extremely large continents broken up by even larger oceans. Its having normal gravity would be explained by it being hollow inside (albeit well within an expansive Underdark), and it would be massively detailed.

Needless to say, I doubt any part of it will ever be written down, but it's a fun dream...

 

[Alzrius]

I mentioned this on another thread, and realized I should bring it up here, too.

Kenzer Co.'s Goods and Gear: The Ultimate Adventurer's Guide lives up to its name. I honestly don't think there's a better equipment book for any iteration of the d20 System, as it has not only weapons and armor, but things like clothing, coinage, food, musical instruments, transportation services, etc. It's technically all set in their Tellene campaign setting, but if anything that makes it more grounded (and easy to reskin).

None of it, as I recall, is Open Game Content though, since they produced their stuff under license from WotC in the wake of their settlement over WotC reprinting Knights of the Dinner Table for the Dragon Magazine CD-ROM Archive, so take note of that.

I mention all of that because when you run a low-magic game, mundane gear becomes that much more important, and this is definitely a book that excels in that regard (and also, all of the musical instruments, despite being non-magical, have a special effect for bards who use them, which is very cool).

 

[_Michael_]

Things like this remind me of a campaign world I wanted to generate, which was basically an excuse to make a setting that threw in basically every supplement I found interesting. It was supposed to be a massive (i.e. Jupiter-sized) planet, with dozens of extremely large continents broken up by even larger oceans. Its having normal gravity would be explained by it being hollow inside (albeit well within an expansive Underdark), and it would be massively detailed.

Needless to say, I doubt any part of it will ever be written down, but it's a fun dream...

Listen, if you're going to be in my head, at least quit drinking all the soda! lmao

I have my own version of the hollow-earth (Orphalis) and the Underdark (the Evergloom, which is not quite as dark as there's a lot of glowing fungi as a result of an empire of myconians...see attached photos) complete with my own version of drow called the Ebynai who worship a dragon deity, and there's three main continents (Corthesia in the northern hemisphere, Arkenheim in the center, and Norvälis in the southern hemisphere).

Spoiler

I mentioned this on another thread, and realized I should bring it up here, too.

Kenzer Co.'s Goods and Gear: The Ultimate Adventurer's Guide lives up to its name. I honestly don't think there's a better equipment book for any iteration of the d20 System, as it has not only weapons and armor, but things like clothing, coinage, food, musical instruments, transportation services, etc. It's technically all set in their Tellene campaign setting, but if anything that makes it more grounded (and easy to reskin).

None of it, as I recall, is Open Game Content though, since they produced their stuff under license from WotC in the wake of their settlement over WotC reprinting Knights of the Dinner Table for the Dragon Magazine CD-ROM Archive, so take note of that.

I mention all of that because when you run a low-magic game, mundane gear becomes that much more important, and this is definitely a book that excels in that regard (and also, all of the musical instruments, despite being non-magical, have a special effect for bards who use them, which is very cool).

Maybe I can massage it a bit to avoid copyright violations, or maybe they'll be nice enough to let me use it since I'm highly unlikely to see any profit regardless. This why I loved that book, Ultimate Game Designer's Companion, because they had so much extra stuff for equipment. I was a pack rat in game of odds and ends, and we always ended up obtaining a barrel-shaped wagon that would securely hold our stuff and that we could sleep in.

Anyone know of any material that deals with wagons like those? The gypsy wagons that look like medieval RVs? lol Mundane equipment definitely becomes important when you don't deal with a lot of magic.

 

[_Michael_]

Just found a ton of publications by Top Fashion Games and Dark Quest Games that have all kinds of mundane goodies in them, from Stupid Fantasy Laws to charts of random junk players can find in pouches, crates and barrels and more, all on DriveThruRPG.

Great resource material for low-magic campaigns. Especially the Stupid Fantasy Laws series of mini-books to harass your players with dumb laws based on superstitious nonsense to drain their money. In a low-magic campaign setting, I imagine such superstitious laws would abound. I just wish they had the SFL series in an omnibus.

I've also found AI generators like Gemini can generate lists of mundane stuff, too, like book titles and other odds and ends.

Any other ideas for filler materials like these that you've come across?

 

[Alzrius]

Just found a ton of publications by Top Fashion Games and Dark Quest Games that have all kinds of mundane goodies in them, from Stupid Fantasy Laws to charts of random junk players can find in pouches, crates and barrels and more, all on DriveThruRPG.

Great resource material for low-magic campaigns. Especially the Stupid Fantasy Laws series of mini-books to harass your players with dumb laws based on superstitious nonsense to drain their money. In a low-magic campaign setting, I imagine such superstitious laws would abound. I just wish they had the SFL series in an omnibus.

I've also found AI generators like Gemini can generate lists of mundane stuff, too, like book titles and other odds and ends.

Any other ideas for filler materials like these that you've come across?

As a general rule, I focus more on system-specific materials than system-agnostic ones, if only because I prefer for things to be tailored to my game system of choice (i.e. the d20 System).

That said, there are plenty of exceptions and things which I've gotten a lot of use out of, mostly for where I need specifics in a certain general category, like Jason J. Patterson's Random Fruit tables or Ennead Games' Gemstone Generator.

Actually, now that I think about it, Ennead Games makes a lot of tables for things like that, and they're all pretty useful, since quite a few of them are on related topics. I recall quite liking their Empire Builder bundle, for instance.

 

[xoth.publishing]

So, at the suggestion of @rabindranath72, I figured I'd make a sort of repository thread specifically for posting ideas and resources to use from the 3.5e/PF/OGL material to run low-magic campaigns.

Low-magic campaigns, you say? For 3.5E and Pathfinder, you say? I feel I have to mention the FREE Player's Guide to the World of Xoth for Pathfinder which is a 60-page PDF that contains chapters on the Races, Cultures, Classes, Swords, Sorcery, Cults, Lands, and Legends of Xoth; in short, everything you need to roll up a character and start playing in the World of Xoth, or a similar low-magic setting:

xoth.net publishing - sword and sorcery roleplaying adventures

Xoth.Net Publishing - Sword and sorcery roleplaying adventures

xoth.net

Enjoy!

 

[_Michael_]

Low-magic campaigns, you say? For 3.5E and Pathfinder, you say? I feel I have to mention the FREE Player's Guide to the World of Xoth for Pathfinder which is a 60-page PDF that contains chapters on the Races, Cultures, Classes, Swords, Sorcery, Cults, Lands, and Legends of Xoth; in short, everything you need to roll up a character and start playing in the World of Xoth, or a similar low-magic setting:

xoth.net publishing - sword and sorcery roleplaying adventures

Xoth.Net Publishing - Sword and sorcery roleplaying adventures

xoth.net

Enjoy!

I really feel like my own game world is going to be closer to this where there aren't as well-defined differences between the alignments, especially since it's much more humanocentric with elves and other fey creatures much rarer. Dwarves and halflings are much more common in human lands, and even then, they're not a regular sight. Thanks for the link! This is going to be fun to pore through!