Tell me about your low magic campaign.

[der_kluge]

Yea, maybe I'm in a rut, but that's ok.

I hear a lot of talk around these here parts about low magic campaigns, and the different ways in which people are implementing them. So, I want to know - which ruleset you are using, and I want to know about the actual world itself. Is it weird and high fantasy, or did you opt for a more medieval traditional style?

Myself, I think I will try HARP (probably with some customizations) and I intend to create a world with kings and knights, and peasantry, with fantasy races mixed in for good measure. Few monsters, but I will probably use creatures like Bullywugs, and dire animals, and maybe the rare dragon or two. But Beholders and Mind Flayers (or equally weird things) will be out. I intend to make liberal use of undead, but for the most part it will be a political kind of campaign, and the PCs will be forced into a robin-hood style game where they fight oppression from tyrannical rulers. I'm still working on a suitably interesting, and not bland history of the world.

 

[AFGNCAAP]

Lankhmar ala D&D 3.5 + UA

The low-magic campaign that I ran was a test run of my 3.5 conversion of Lankhmar. It seemed to do OK, though there wasn't much player interest due to the low-magic setting (& since my game was the "off" game, which was played when another DM wasn't running Eberron).

It was humans-only (except 1 player could have a Nehwon Ghoul PC), & I used the generic classes from Unearthed Arcana. No divine spellcasters, but the type of magic used by spellcasters determined which attribute was used: Wisdom for white magic, Intelligence for black magic, and Charisma for elemental (fire, water/ice, air/electricity, earth/acid) magic.

Magic items are extremely rare; stick with masterwork stuff & one-use/expendable items for the most part, and maybe start handing out the odd +1 or +2 bonus item not until after the PCs reach 10th level. However, don't throw the PCs up against opponents that would need a lot of magic to defeat, either; more often than not, the main foes are other characters, wild animals, and the occasional weird creature.

It has its own flavor, but IMHO, it works.

 

[Silver Moon]

Mine is a wild west world, set in 1882, with the D&D races and religions on it. It is very low magic, as most spellcasters are 5th or below and magic itself tends to be used secretively.

 

[Galethorn]

Yril

I'll talk about my first setting, Yril, first...

It's a fairly 'generic' fantasy setting when you look at it as a whole (elves and dwarves, magic, and a dark-age/medieval european overtone), but the devil is in the details, as they say. Basically, I've tried to make the social/political system as realistic as possible. I think of it as Middle Earth, but with more emphasis on humans, much less involvement of elves historically, and with a more 'down to earth' perspective for stories/campaigns.

The races are human (five or six subgroups), elf (just one kind), dwarf, giant (they'd be called half-giants in any standard D&D-style setting), Grovekin (elf-dryad-human mix), Gnome (only the forest variety, and they're the only PC-race member of the 'pure fey races'), General Fey (sprites, dryads, nymphs, etc., along with centaurs and the like), Goblins ('monster' race), Orcs (big goblins), and Trolls (gigantic orcs).

The rules system is Grim Tales with a few minor modifications, including VP/WP and Armor as DR.

Magic items are very uncommon, but most of the major noble houses have an ancestral weapon or two, along with plenty of dwarf-made 'semi-magical' (i.e. high-quality) weapons to be found in the loosely scattered mountain holds from long-passed ages. Scrolls are all but non-existant, woundrous items are a no-no, and potions are more alchemical than truly spell-based.

Spellcasters are very, very, very rare among humans (resricted to the high-up members of one particular priesthood, and 1/1000 human children who have elf blood), and a little less common than in D&D/Greyhawk/FR for the other races, albeit with far more subtle spells.

Here's the list of monsters that could only exist in fantasy; dragons (number less than 10 in the world), undead (spirits, animate corpses, and ringwraith-like creatures), and a race of immortal demigod-like beings who range in power from 'mid level D&D wizard' to 'sauron if he had the ring'.

Now, here's the somewhat larger list of 'monsters' which are anatomically possible; Unglai (elephant-pig-rhino creatures that were bred by the giants in the distant past), Husir (kodiak-sized otters), all manner of bigger-than-usual animals, orcs and goblins and trolls, and various creatures that didn't survive the rise of humans in real life.

I've been running my current campaign on Yril for about...oh, 7 months real-time, one month game-time. So far, the group has managed to 1.) Drive evil spirits from a forest, 2.) Compete in--and win most of the events at--a tourney, 3.) Brave a river-canyon with bloodthirsty brigands on the banks, on naught but a decrepit barge, and 4.) Begin learning who lies at the heart of the treasonous activities going on in a besieged city...at the moment, they've managed to infiltrate a thieves' guild which is suspected to be working for the besiegers...

Next on 'what Galethorn posts';
Theudland: the New Setting...

 

[JSlump59]

Low Magic is Good

My least favorite thing about D & D is characters who cease being characters, and instead become a vehicle for adventuring magic items. Play your character .. you are playing a character, not a sword.

IMHO

A chincy DM

 

[nopantsyet]

The Zakh Destiny

[Campaign Completed]

There is no magic in the material plane. Magic only exists in the two coexistant planes, the opposed planes of Chaos and Dreams. Very powerful magic, however, can pass from either plane into the material plane at certain planar fissures. These create zones of intense artifact-level magic. The rest of the world is devoid of magic. The planes are very difficult for inhabitants of the material world to tolerate for long--they are too alien in nature.

It is a young world that has not yet been named by its primitive inhabitants. The greater part of the lands is occupied by the five tribes of the Vek, the barbarians of the badlands, who struggle against the harsh land. The survive by strength, and by wit.

The only spellcasting class that was allowed was druid, the player roleplayed the druidic magic as herbalism, and did so phenomenally. All of the other PCs had at least one level of barbarian, but I allowed them to swap out Rage for a bonus feat.

I think all of their opponents on the material plane were human, giant or some kind of beast. The planes were a different story, but like I said--the PCs couldn't stand it there for long. It actually bugged my players too. They were relieved to get back.

 

[Desdichado]

Mine is more weird; Edgar Rice Burroughs meets Robert E. Howard and H.P. Lovecraft in a dark alley. You can read all about it right here.

As for a more medieval world, you certainly have a lot of options for something like that, which makes it fun.

 

[GlassJaw]

Grim Tales - the only way to fly.

Other than the PHB, this is the most complete rulebook I've seen along with being the most original at the same time. If you want to go low-magic, it's the only way to go IMO.

I've discussed my campaign in here a bit because it will be the first low-magic campaign that I've run.

Essentially, it's a mix of Conan, Dune, Mad Max, and Cthulhu. The setting is harsh (think Tibet or Mongolia). The playable races are human, orc, and half-orc. Humans and orcs live without any racial animosity. At some point in history, they put aside their differences. There are various tribes scattered across the region along with large city-states ruled by a strict house system. The players will start as members of one of these tribes (they can choose). Each tribe has its own set of skills, modifiers, and starting gear. I'll also be incorporating Chaositech and Steam & Steel which will be in the hands on the bad guys.

 

[warlord]

How does your Wild West campaign work i'd be intrested in hearing about it.

 

[Doug McCrae]

Play your character .. you are playing a character, not a sword.

You're right. The GM played my talking sword, Ironbright, which had a paladin's personality. I played is wielder catgirl Airu.

Though I did think it would be an interesting twist if the sword was played by another player. Of the two of us I'd say it was the more powerful.