Help with starting low-magic campaign?

[Malin Genie]

I've decided to try starting a low-magic campaign, as an experiment to give the party a different kind of experience to the usual. It will be a small party (2-3 players)

I thought I might start with the 'spellcasting classes only every second level' (which I remember reading as an idea here long before the Complete Warrior book came out!) and correspondingly lower-power magic items. I had also planned to make it a more demi/humanocentric game, with non-humanoid 'monsters' rare and 'magical' (or spellcasting) ones even more so.

Does anyone here have some experience with running low-magic campaigns? I'd appreciate any hints, rules ideas, warnings about potential 'trouble-spots' etc anyone could provide.

Thanks!
genie

 

[Silveras]

The biggest is to keep the CRs lower than usual for the levels as the PCs advance. Limited magic means the PCs will be weaker-than-expected against ANY foe of a CR higher than 1.

Magical healing will be less available ... so the party will need to rest more often, and the Heal skill will become more important.

Death is also a good deal more permanent. Fewer clerics who can cast Raise Dead, Resurrection, or True Resurrection means fewer people come back. Fewer high-level Druids means less Reincarnation spells, too.

The rest depends on how you plan to be "low magic". I have always run my campaigns, 1st-3rd edition, with a fairly tight fist on magic treasure. Nobody in my games (after my 3rd year of playing) considered a +1 sword to be much less significant than a +2 or +3.

Low magic can be done in a couple of ways: magic is scarce but powerful, or magic is weak but plentiful.

I prefer the "scarce but powerful" approach, myself. That means I don't adjust the PC classes, but I do reduce the availability of magic treasure and NPCs from whom the PC mages can learn their skills. In the core rules, Large Cities have 3 Wizards of 10th-13th level; in my world, a Large City might have 1 Wizard of 8th-11th level. This means that scrolls, potions, and other magic items are more rare than the tables in the DMG suggest.

Of course, that also means that PCs in my world fight more Humanoids with Fighter and Rogue levels than they do actual "monsters". When they *do* meet a real "monster-type" creature, it is usually one of the big encounters of the adventure.

 

[Malin Genie]

Thanks, that definitely gives me a few more starting ideas. I was tending more towards a 'weak and scarce' approach myself - one where spells, magic items and mentors would all be difficult to find, and the level of magic thrown around by both PCs and NPCs less.

 

[Iron_Chef]

Conan The RPG would solve ALL your problems for low magic rules AND setting. It also works good for similar settings like Lankhmar and Thieves' World; both of which I'm also working on converting to Conan rules.

Also, I have two complete Conan campaign starters and a bunch of adventure seeds, along with many resources in my GM's Guide To Creating Hyborian Age Adventures:
http://www.mongoosepublishing.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=1331

 

[Malin Genie]

Thanks Iron_Chef ... hadn't really thought about running a Hyperborian campaign, although it could be fun ...

BTW the link you gave me is down - I don't know if it's a temporary server thing, I'll try again in the morning.

 

[Ylis]

I think having magic users level up every other level is a little harsh. I understand why you would do this, but this penalty is much stiffer for spellcasters than any other class. I mean, come on. They have 4hp and not much along the lines of protection until they start getting decent spells.

I usually start things this way: I have the player roll d100. If he gets 99 or 00, he gets to play the magic-user. Otherwise, he doesn't. That way, they advance normally, but they are rare. Just a suggestion.

I also tend to favor the "rare magic" approach. And I also love the roleplaying penalty-type system (where magic is usable, but governing agents in the world cause penalties for magic users). I've just started running a game in the new Khan's Press setting ElfClash, and it's proven to be a game where the GM has the option of having a low or high magic game, but where using magic means death. That's a pretty good deterrant in my eyes

I also agree about Conan, if you like low-magic....a setting like this or ElfClash could help solve your problem.

 

[Malin Genie]

Ylis - when I say 'spellcasting classes only every second level' I'm not suggesting that casters level up at half the rate, but that they are forced to multiclass with non-caster classes because they can only level up in a spellcasting class every second level (so it's not as if a 6th level character would be a 3rd level wizard - they might be a Ftr/Wiz 3/3 or a Rog/Wiz 3/3 or an Exp/Wiz 3/3 etc)

The percentile roll is a little too reminiscent of 1E psionics (shudder...) and I like allowing players to create, within the rules, whatever type of character they want, even if very unusual, so it probably wouldn't work for me.

 

[Red Spire Press]

http://www.redspirepress.com

 

[Iron_Chef]

Thanks Iron_Chef ... hadn't really thought about running a Hyperborian campaign, although it could be fun ...

BTW the link you gave me is down - I don't know if it's a temporary server thing, I'll try again in the morning.

The link to my Conan GM Guide works; I just checked it. Here it is again:
http://www.mongoosepublishing.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=1331
Problem on your end, maybe? The site's been up all night (like me!).

Even if you don't use the Hyborian Age setting, you can still use the rules in any low magic setting. That's the beauty of it.

 

[tonym]

...warnings about potential 'trouble-spots' etc anyone could provide.

Warnings about potential trouble spots? Okay.

As a player, I think it is very easy for a DM to 'RAILROAD' a party in a low-magic campaign....because, without a good amount of magic, the PCs actions become more predictable. And because the PCs actions become more predictable, the DM may be inclined to 'predict' and anticipate the PCs actions overly much....and then, the next thing you know, you have a party of RAILROADED PCs.

So, that's my warning. Avoid catching the "I want to run a LOW MAGIC campaign so I can RAILROAD the PCs into the kind of story I WANT and I'm sick of them being creative and surprising me" disease.

Ug. Sorry. Touchy subject.


Tony