Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
Homebrew D&D 5e Low Fantasy, Low Magic, Gritty Rules (New Version)
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="GreenTengu" data-source="post: 7364485" data-attributes="member: 6777454"><p>You should get rid of races.</p><p></p><p>Elves, Half-Elves and Gnomes in the very least do not belong in a gritty, low-magic game at all. You can <em>maybe</em> justify Halflings or Dwarfs, but only if you make them far more flawed peoples than generally presented in the game.</p><p></p><p>In fact, it is incredibly weird that you would remove the half-orc. In a more grounded, gritty, dark world, Orcs would probably be far more mixed in with humanity, even if the vast majority of them are generally bad actors. A strain of "humanity" that is far more animalistic, brutish, simple and superstitious could totally fit a dark, gritty world and yet despite that all, in such a grounded world the line blurring them and humanity would be far less distinct than in an idealistic, hyper-magical world where all the good peoples stay in their little box and all the bad people stay in their little box and never shall the two meet.</p><p></p><p>Goblinoids would definitely fit in well do if done correctly-- again, some off-shoot of humans who form an ultra-stringent caste based culture, but however many get cast out of their system and end up slumming it with humans and dwarves, even if no one likes or respects them.</p><p></p><p></p><p>But Elves? The ultimate perfectionist elite race of immortal beings who are far more beautiful and graceful and refined and wise and intelligent and moral and adaptable and ideal who never have to work a single day in their lives which could possibly cause blemishes to their perfect form thanks to their endless well of magic to have all their needs simply met for them at the flick of their fingers? That doesn't belong in a gritty world at all. And the more you take away from that, the more they flat out stop being "elves" at all.</p><p></p><p>The same can more or less be said about Gnomes whose entire shtick is pretty much just being a specialist mage version of Dwarves.</p><p></p><p></p><p>Don't design your world thoughtlessly just because something has been the standard. You want a low magic world? Throw out the peoples whose entire identity revolves around magic and raise the prominence of those who don't. You want the world to be bleak and gray and gritty? Get rid of the peoples that are claimed to be universally good practically without exception and make those that are said to be generally immoral far more common and far more accepted as evil, or simply survival of the fittest mentality, within the world is allowed to be far more successful, if not required to get through another day.</p><p></p><p></p><p>Of course, the ideal thing in this regard would be to get rid of non-human races all together and instead perhaps introduce various cultures so that everyone is just human, just instead of that wide-open human template in the standard game, there are certain versions of the human race based on which culture the character is from.</p><p></p><p>Afterall-- Game of Thrones is pretty much the perfect gritty, grounded, realistic, low-magic fantasy world and didn't in the least bit need to have any dwarves or elfs or halflings... and the non-human races that exist are definitely NPC things as they are very, VERY much non-human and not accepted within human society and do not in the least bit get along with humans under normal circumstances.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="GreenTengu, post: 7364485, member: 6777454"] You should get rid of races. Elves, Half-Elves and Gnomes in the very least do not belong in a gritty, low-magic game at all. You can [I]maybe[/I] justify Halflings or Dwarfs, but only if you make them far more flawed peoples than generally presented in the game. In fact, it is incredibly weird that you would remove the half-orc. In a more grounded, gritty, dark world, Orcs would probably be far more mixed in with humanity, even if the vast majority of them are generally bad actors. A strain of "humanity" that is far more animalistic, brutish, simple and superstitious could totally fit a dark, gritty world and yet despite that all, in such a grounded world the line blurring them and humanity would be far less distinct than in an idealistic, hyper-magical world where all the good peoples stay in their little box and all the bad people stay in their little box and never shall the two meet. Goblinoids would definitely fit in well do if done correctly-- again, some off-shoot of humans who form an ultra-stringent caste based culture, but however many get cast out of their system and end up slumming it with humans and dwarves, even if no one likes or respects them. But Elves? The ultimate perfectionist elite race of immortal beings who are far more beautiful and graceful and refined and wise and intelligent and moral and adaptable and ideal who never have to work a single day in their lives which could possibly cause blemishes to their perfect form thanks to their endless well of magic to have all their needs simply met for them at the flick of their fingers? That doesn't belong in a gritty world at all. And the more you take away from that, the more they flat out stop being "elves" at all. The same can more or less be said about Gnomes whose entire shtick is pretty much just being a specialist mage version of Dwarves. Don't design your world thoughtlessly just because something has been the standard. You want a low magic world? Throw out the peoples whose entire identity revolves around magic and raise the prominence of those who don't. You want the world to be bleak and gray and gritty? Get rid of the peoples that are claimed to be universally good practically without exception and make those that are said to be generally immoral far more common and far more accepted as evil, or simply survival of the fittest mentality, within the world is allowed to be far more successful, if not required to get through another day. Of course, the ideal thing in this regard would be to get rid of non-human races all together and instead perhaps introduce various cultures so that everyone is just human, just instead of that wide-open human template in the standard game, there are certain versions of the human race based on which culture the character is from. Afterall-- Game of Thrones is pretty much the perfect gritty, grounded, realistic, low-magic fantasy world and didn't in the least bit need to have any dwarves or elfs or halflings... and the non-human races that exist are definitely NPC things as they are very, VERY much non-human and not accepted within human society and do not in the least bit get along with humans under normal circumstances. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
Homebrew D&D 5e Low Fantasy, Low Magic, Gritty Rules (New Version)
Top