Low Magic Campaigns?

[jbuck]

After my current campaign is over i wanted to start running a much less magic based campaign than normal D&D. Because I'm relativly new to the hobby i don't know what would be the best system to use for this, I've heard that Iron Heroes can be good for this sort of campaign, if it is what books do you need to run it? if not then what system would you suggest?

Thanks

 

[Stormborn]

Iron Heroes can be a great way to keep the same realtive power level as standard DnD but eliminate or lower the level of magic. If you go with that you need on the one book, although I would recommend getting the Iron Heroes Revised PDF as it incorporates the errata. There are other books, such as a GMs guide, but none of them are neccesary.

Another option is Grim Tales, which takes a tool kit apporach in one book and has guidelines for running different types of games with different levels of magic (and lethality, and horror, and other stuff.)


However, before you get too many answers you are going to want to describe what "low magic" means to you. Low frequency, low power level, or what?

 

[Desdichado]

My setting has bounced around between various rulesets over the years, and it is definately lower magic.

Currently I'm--not running it actually; another guy in our group is running Age of Worms. But my current favored ruleset is d20 Modern + d20 Past. I use the Shadow Stalkers(TM) campaign model, but really any of them are quite a bit lower magic than D&D.

The nice thing about it is that d20 Modern has the Modern SRD--if you don't already have it, you actually don't need to buy the book. And you can get d20 Past for dirt cheap if you order from an Amazon used book salesman. I think I got mine for less than $10, including S&H.

The other nice thing is that it's 100% compatible with all your D&D monster books and whatnot. You have to make allowances for the average lower party strength, and you have to do something about the pacing without plentiful magical healing, but it still works exactly as it's supposed to.

 

[Plane Sailing]

Another nice example of a low magic campaign would be Conan OGL from Mongoose.

As Stormborn says though - the key issue is 'what exactly do you mean by low magic?'

Conan is one example, Lord of the Rings is another.

Another option is very little magic of any kind, another is few magic items but spellcasters are OK, another is that magic is prevalent but none of it is immensely powerful (a la RQ2)...

Iron Heroes is great (although complex) for heroes taking on pretty magical monsters with just their own abilities, although I've heard that there were problems with the one arcane caster they included.

Black Company campaign setting is an interesting one where (it seems to me) that magic takes more of a back seat, but there is a wonderful range of masterwork improvements to weapons that can make some items stand out in the way that magic items might in a conventional D&D campaign.



Cheers

 

[Stormborn]

Didnt think of it at the time but d20 Modern is another excellent way to do a low magic campaign, and as has been pointed out everything thing you need is online for free.

 

[Galethorn]

I'm of the opinion that if you want to use D20 modern, you should just go ahead and use Grim Tales, which is, for all intents and purposes, D20 modern with the obligatory modern stuff taken out, plus all kinds of stuff available for other sorts of campaigns. I ran three short low-magic fantasy campaigns with Grim Tales, and everybody had a real blast.

Of course, I gave up on Grim Tales a while ago and switched to True20, and haven't looked back, but I won't say that you should switch as well. Grim Tales is a damned solid game, and it's a lot easier (virtually effortless, in fact) to convert things to from D20 modern and D&D than it is to do the same in True20 (which, admittedly, is pretty easy, because most of the monsters I want have already been converted in the True20 Bestiary).

 

[MrFilthyIke]

Ditch d20, go the Warhammer Fantasy RPG for your low magic needs (just ignore the magic section, it's easy enough to do ).

 

[Aus_Snow]

Unless you want to do it the hard way (and believe me, I know what that can be like with this), certainly take a look at Iron Heroes (if you like little to no magic, as much crunch as D&D 3e, plenty of fan support, and some third party products), True20 (if you like low to medium magic, less crunch than D&D 3e [I'd say "rules-medium", FWIW], plenty of fan support, some third party products, and a multi-genre system as a possible plus), a less well-known and well-supported d20/OGL variant [like Conan, Black Company, Thieves' World, Grim Tales, etc.] or yeah, possibly something altogether different. . . Er, sorry for being a bit vague towards the end there.

For Iron Heroes, you pretty much only need the single corebook, though getting Mastering Iron Heroes would be the next thing, IMO.

For True20, you basically need True20 Adventure Roleplaying (again, the single corebook), but adding the True20 Companion is something I would highly recommend.


There are a number of good options, so it comes down to requriements and taste, essentially.

 

[Emirikol]

You can go out and buy a bunch of new books and hope that your players will do the same or you can solve the same problems with a couple house rules.

(I'll go into specifics shortly)



jh

SILENTLY WISHING THERE WAS A SEPERATE FORUM FOR LOWER-MAGIC CAMPAIGNS

 

[DonTadow]

I ran the latter part of mycampaign low magic and iron heroes rocks. HOwever, Iron heroes ha sa sucky magic system. Search the iron heroes fan sites for variants that work better.

This year, I"m running a low-mid magic campaign with Steampunk OGL. Very cool ritiual magic system that puts realistic constraints on magic. The cleric class is actually a low magic healer with no magic, just the ability to turn undead and heal. Then there are three magic/occultist classice. Divne, arcane and nature.
Instead of getting spells at each level the players get an option to increase the power of their focus. Their focus starts off with the ability to hold three spells. A ritual is performed to put the spell into the focus (which takes time). Once the spell is in the focus, a roll is needed to discharge it. As the magic users grow in level they have the option of increasing the power of their focus.

Do keep in mind though that this setting has a heavy steampunk flavor to it. Though I"m running it with a bastardized Burning Sky campaign