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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Emirikol" data-source="post: 2739774" data-attributes="member: 10638">Hyboria:  World Of Conan The BarbarianI'm really glad you brought this topic up.  If you're going to switch from high magic (Greyhawk or any D&D campaign for that matter) to low magic (Lankhmar or Hyboria), you've got to not just swap things.  You've got to have grit that you can't find in high magic campaigns.  It has to be rough around the edges, grimy, dusty, rusty, decayed.  Think of your low magic campaign like any given Nine Inch Nails song.  It's about rot and corrosion.  Stuff don't work right no more so it's squeaky and not so fine-tuned (so to speak).Now, onto the grit:1.  FORGET ABOUT REFINED CULTURE.  Get rid of high elves and their high arts.  Start thinking about the stank, lower races and how they get by in what we would call "THE REAL WORLD."2.  Add all the dark stuff.  Beautiful female slaves, murderous warriors, prostitution in the churches, superstitious populace with torches and pitchforks, rampant possession by 'spirits' and basic carnal desires and reactions.  All priests are out there to control the public and get rich (and make dark pacts with the devil).  All wizards will die at the hands of some experiment summoning Beelzwebul gone bad.  All warriors are cut from steel.3.  Magic doesn't have rules like in regular D&D.  Sure the PC's magic is always going to have the D&D rules, but it needs to be known that magic isn't a refined science and occasionally, a crazy NPC sorcerer (around 5th level) is going to be summoning dark and terrible things that only an archmage in standard D&D would summon.4.  Magic in low-magic worlds has more to do with superstition and fear (thus enchantment and summoning spells rather than fireball and magic missile).  Raise dead?  Heh, yea right.  You wouldn't want your body raised from the dead.  What returns 'aint' what was you..see Pet Cemetary.Magic is some kind of 'American Possession' that needs to be owned, shopped for or purchased on a spree.  Get away from the 'american possession' attitude and you'll see what I mean.Although I've seen brilliant DM's do brilliant things with 'magic' in their games, you can't tell me that there isn't a way to do the exact same thing in a lower magic world.  Read a few ORIGINAL CONAN stories and you'll see.Rules:1.  NO PC CAN START 1st LEVEL AS A SPELLCASTER (offer a non-spellcasting ranger for variety)2.  All magic is arcane and the gods probably don't exist.  Yea, clerics get screwed in armor.  Get over it ya' sissy.3.  There are no magic shops and most magic dies when the wizard dies.4.  People heal faster and there is access to healing potions GALORE, but other potions and items are very hard to come by.  In fact, no character can have more permanent magic items from game to game than 1 per 3 levels.5.  NO ITEM IS MAGIC UNTIL +4.  Anything less is just a superior masterwork item or something that play's trickery on you (i.e. something with a contraption for fire or poison).  Monsters that can be hit by magic are pretty rare, but RUN when you see them..or figure out at least 3 other ways to send them back to the grave or other plane.6.  Adventures are not just a series of "ZOO DUNGEONS" with every monster A-Z because the DM isn't creative enough to come up with REAL NPC OPPONENTS.  WHat I do is use the monster stats and just tell the players that it's a person and then say,"Wow, it must be a FEAT or ABILITY you just haven't seen yet..perhaps it's a lost art from the jungles..oh well, are you going to fight or run?"7.  Come up with more 'fun' encouragements for people to fear nature rather than magic and I'll show you a world worth living in.8.  Use poison, stun, trip, sunder, and precarious fighting positions to challenge your players rather than 'just another wizard with just another spell.'We've had a blast playing in the world of CONAN using the D&D rules (I fricking HATE the Conan RPG rules because they're trivial changes just so you can't use any of your D*D books you purchased..forget that).If anyone's interested, I can email you the house rules we use.Also, if you've never used the Iron Heroes stuff, that's probably the way I'd lean in the future.jh..</blockquote>

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