Low Fantasy

[Gellion]

I posted a thread asking what people on these boards considered high fantasy now i am going to do the same for low fantasy.

To me low fantasy means little or almost no magic, thus magic items are rare, and so are magical creatures.

Personally I think it defeats the purpose of the game to play a low fantasy game, but that is just my opinion.

 

[BiggusGeekus]

Fair enough.

Some people like it because it puts the characters more at risk (no ressurection) makes the game more about the characters (fewer magic items to distract) and requires less suspension of disbelief (less magic in general).

 

[EricNoah]

I like low fantasy settings and rules because they can help tell tales where the heroes aren't all that much more powerful than ordinary people.

I'm not sure low fantasy necessarily means low-magic. It could mean rare-magic. Magic used for strange and fantastic uses, rather than replacing what we think of as modern-day conveniences. No bags of holding, no spells to translate unknown tongues, no unseen servants. I could very easily see, though, the common man having a religious charm or symbol he had blessed at church last week that could somehow get him out of a dangerous jam by granting a temporary bonus to AC or temporary hp or a bonus to a skill or something. Yet at the same time I might want to constrict the upper end of magic a bit, too. So magic, in this case, could be a way of bringing the mighty a bit lower and the humble a bit higher -- resulting in them being closer to gether in power.

 

[Mercule]

I like low fantasy because, whether magic is low powered or high, it's rare and actually feels special. I really hate it when magic becomes everyday.

If you want it boiled down succinctly, I don't think that magic should ever be mundane. High fantasy often does just that by overstocking.

 

[hong]

I like low fantasy because, whether magic is low powered or high, it's rare and actually feels special. I really hate it when magic becomes everyday.

If you want it boiled down succinctly, I don't think that magic should ever be mundane. High fantasy often does just that by overstocking.

You need to expand your horizons.

 

[DeadlyUematsu]

The kind of low fantasy setting I can truly appreciate would be probably be based on legendary Russia. Lots of petty magic and shapechanging warriors.

 

[EricNoah]

You need to expand your horizons.

And you might, just *might*, need to stop telling people what they need to do!

 

[Agback]

G'day

For me, 'low fantasy' is different from 'low magic'. And I like having a lot of terms with different meanings rather than a slew of exact synonyms. Low fantasy is distinguish from high fantasy not by having less magic alone, but also by having less of everything fantastical, specifically a setting other than the real ("primary") world.

Thus, Roberta MacAvoy's (excellent) Trio for Lute is higher-magic than Lord of the Rings, but lower fantasy, since it is set in a particular place in the actual Piedmont, Provence, and Grenada, at a real moment in history.

Now my taste definitely runs to lower magic than seems to be common in D&D campaigns, and for that reason I often use systems more suited to a low-magic campaign, such as DragonQuest 2nd edition, C&S 3rd edition, and ForeSight. But although I like a bit of historical or contemporary fantasy every now and again, I would by no means say that I prefer it to high fantasy in a completely fictitious setting.

My favourite high fantasy campaigns have been set in my Gehennum setting, which would not accommodate D&D characters without quite a lot of work. (I usually use modified ForeSight for Gehennum campaigns.)

My favourite low fantasy campaigns would I guess be my Knights of St John campaign which I set on Cyprus and parts east and south, beginning at dawn on the 23rd of June 1291 (run using C&S), and an untitled campaign that was set in the Rhône Valley from Candlemass 1122 (run using DQ). I would run either of those using D&D 3E if anyone asked.

Regards,


Agback

 

[WayneLigon]

I've never much cared for Low Fantasy, probably because everytime I've played in a so-called Low Fantasy game, it was terrible; 'Low Fantasy' basically translated to 'You are effectively first level forever, while all the NPC's around you and all the creatures you meet are at least seventh'. I know it's not suppossed to mean that, but after the fifth or sixth time the horse throws you, you start to be a little cautious around that horse.

 

[Mark]

And you might, just *might*, need to stop telling people what they need to do!

If he knows what you mean...