d20 low-power sourcebooks?

[Heretic Apostate]

Aside from Grim-n-Gritty, what other sourcebooks (paid or freebie) out there concentrate on "slightly more fantasy than reality," rather than "wow, I too can do wire fu"?

Epic fantasy can be fun. But sometimes, I want to play in a setting where a dragons don't grow to be the size of 747s, where a mage can't decimate an army on his own, and similar high-level D&D stuff.

But I'm too cheap to invest in another rule set, so I'm hoping to find it in d20 form.

 

[Will]

Well, I'm working on a PDF product along these lines. Hopefully it'll be ready in a month or so.

 

[Red Spire Press]

Aside from Grim-n-Gritty, what other sourcebooks (paid or freebie) out there concentrate on "slightly more fantasy than reality," rather than "wow, I too can do wire fu"?

Epic fantasy can be fun. But sometimes, I want to play in a setting where a dragons don't grow to be the size of 747s, where a mage can't decimate an army on his own, and similar high-level D&D stuff.

But I'm too cheap to invest in another rule set, so I'm hoping to find it in d20 form.

You might be intersted in Dark Legacies, which we're releasing next year. Low-magic and gritty but also sophisticated. In the meantime you can check out the URL below for info. Cheers.

 

[Macbeth]

Skull and Bones: take the PHB, throw out all of the magic users, through in a few new classes, only two of which are at all magical (and these are low powered magic. likely best as plot devices). Great, low magic, swashbuckling stuff. The only downside is that if you aren't looking for swashbuckling it won't be as useful.

 

[Heretic Apostate]

Dark Legacies sounds interesting. It's not another steam/magic mixture, like the one from Witch Fire, is it?

As for any swashbuckling stuff, I'll pass... While I do envision a setting that is more high renaissance than middle ages, I've never been happy with swashbuckling books...

 

[trancejeremy]

Sovereign Stone d20 might do the trick. It's more medium power than low-power, but you could simply put a cap on levels. (It does have big dragons though).

You could also simply just use NPC classes for everyone. That would tone things down quite a bit, especially spell casters.

 

[trancejeremy]

Fading Suns d20 would also possibly work. It's technically a Science Fiction game, but it's sort of like the Dark Ages in space.

 

[Wraith101]

Ars Magica is a fairly low power rule system (very easy to modify) and it is free to. I think youcan get free pdf from rpgnet.com

Of course it uses a different system but I am using the magic system with standard dnd and it gives the game a nice low-powered feel. Magic cannot dominate unless you achieve VERY high levels.

If you want to use a different system HarnWorld is usefull.

 

[zenld]

Check out the Midnight setting from Fantasy Flight Games. Low magic, very dark fantasy. Some old classes, some new, including a replacement arcane caster (the core spellcasters are gone), the only divine magic is evil and anyone can cast spells - if they spend the feats. Also, casting can hurt, a lot.

zen

 

[Red Spire Press]

double post