Best Low Magic System ?

[The Levitator]

My next campaigns will definitely be the Conan D20 by Mongoose. The magic system is exactly what I was looking for!

 

[Emirikol]

Conan's got some interesting stuff, plus there's a lot of book and comic background. I've become increasingly interested in the Warhammer Fantasy role play however. Characters seem to bear more depth and the world is dark and gritty.

THere is a lot of material out for COnan now (if that's your thing).

It seems 4E talks about moving towards a darker world, but as long as FR is their flagship, I doubt it could happen.

jh

 

[The Levitator]

Hey Emirikol!

Great to see ya over here at Enworld! I'm super excited about starting a Conan campaign, but I have a slight problem. I'm addicted to DM Genie (in addition to my MT addiction), so I need to convert it to the Conan ruleset before we can dig in. It's taking me a while, but I hope to have a functional campaign set up in DM Genie in the next couple of months.

 

[Khairn]

My favorites would be ...

Riddle of Steel
Grim Tales
Artesia

Artesia was a particularly pleasant surprise. I was never a fan of the Fuzion system, but Artesia made it sing.

 

[DungeonMaester]

GURPS

---Rusty

 

[Aus_Snow]

Artesia was a particularly pleasant surprise. I was never a fan of the Fuzion system, but Artesia made it sing.

I would echo that, more or less. However, I wouldn't call it 'low magic', in the sense of 'rare magic' at least. Definitely 'lower impact magic' and 'more subtle magic' (than D&D) on the whole, however.

The upcoming A Song of Ice & Fire RPG from Green Ronin sounds very cool indeed, and about as 'low magic' as you can get, if you are just using the core book (which, at launch in August(?) is all there will be.) Even with whatever even slightly magical supplement(s) that might come out at some stage, I doubt it will ever be anything but rather low magic. But anyway, that is a few months away. . .

If you don't mind d20 as a base, Legends of Sorcery from RPGObjects can add different levels of magic as you prefer, to the base (d20) system of your choosing. It also contains specific classes for 'low magic' and 'medium magic' settings (with the assumption that D&D classes or the like can be used when 'high magic' is called for.) Very neat, really. And just about any d20 (e.g., D&D 3e) spell can be used, with no modification necessary. By the sounds of it, you might like to raise the casting difficulty and spell rarity (and maybe penalties for failure) further than is the case with their suggested 'low magic' settings.

Another interesting option along similar lines is Imperial Age Magick (from Adamant Entertainment.) Based on d20 Modern, but easily adaptable to most other d20 systems. Despite being (obviously) very Victorian, it could happily lend itself to medieval, without much fuss. Magic can be quite difficult and/or dangerous with these variants. And that might suit.

Conan the Roleplaying Game could certainly work, for the magic if not for every other feature..

Grim Tales, also as mentioned, could do the trick. So could Mutants & Masterminds, the more I look at it (no really, trust me! I am becoming a new convert, mind you . . .) - and probably a number of other flexible d20 systems.

I can't really think of a system I like much, that's totally non-d20, and easily usable for low-magic medieval-styled fantasy. :\ I'll think it over a bit more, but hm. . . that's both surprising and disturbing.

 

[Matrix Sorcica]

I recommend Saga Sword & Sorcery, which is a conversion for using SWSE for sword & sorcery.
Great stuff - and free!
http://www.gneech.com/swordandsorcery/