What is the best low-magic fantasy system?

[aramis erak]

King Arthur Pendragon. a 1d20 BRP derivative. All PC's Knights. Knights of Charlemagne is the same

Dragon Warriors - still a magic heavy setting, but lower key. (and it appears you are aware of that...) Most eolla use 1d20 ≤ (attack - defense)

Romance of the Perilous Land - this could very easily be seen as a pseudoclone built off of DW. It uses opposed rolls (lower successful roll). It's more streamlined, fewer exceptions to the core mechanic.

 

[Jd Smith1]

Romance of the Perilous Land - this could very easily be seen as a pseudoclone built off of DW. It uses opposed rolls (lower successful roll). It's more streamlined, fewer exceptions to the core mechanic.

I had never heard of Romance; at $1.99 for a Kindle copy (I don't buy any hard copy RPG items anymore), I'll certainly give it a look!

 

[3catcircus]

Harnmaster Gold.

 

[Sir Brennen]

The Fantasy Trip is a system from the time of 1E, recently revived with a very successful Kickstarter. You could easily run a low magic game with it, and even the default setting doesn't nearly approach D&D levels of super-powerful spells flying around on a regular basis.

 

[Ath'kethin]

The one game I'm surprised not to have seen mentioned is Modiphius' Conan: Adventures in an Age Undreamed Of. It's on the higher side of complexity (less than Gurps, more than Runequest or Mythras) and it is very much Sword & Sorcery, but it does low-magic rather well.

I was going to make the same recommendation. It's a great system.

Though in my experience "low fantasy" is more a matter of managing player expectations and worldbuilding more than anything else. I've run low-magic sword & sorcery games using 5e with no problems at all, though for that purpose I really prefer RC era D&D just because it's more modular and doesn't drown players in endless mechanical options.

 

[3catcircus]

I was going to make the same recommendation. It's a great system.

Though in my experience "low fantasy" is more a matter of managing player expectations and worldbuilding more than anything else. I've run low-magic sword & sorcery games using 5e with no problems at all, though for that purpose I really prefer RC era D&D just because it's more modular and doesn't drown players in endless mechanical options.

True - "low magic" sword & sorcery is vastly different than "low magic" western european medieval.

 

[Ath'kethin]

True - "low magic" sword & sorcery is vastly different than "low magic" western european medieval.

True dat.

Another prime piece of the puzzle is simply establishing the attitude that magic is dangerous or at least adversarial. No real mechanical changes need to be made; just ban full casters and maybe even partials and have magic be something only villains/enemies use. I ran an awesome Primeval Thule 5e game with those stipulations - though I did allow PC warlocks in that one.

For a European medieval setting just ban casters, full stop. Maybe allow the Magic Initiate feat if you feel daring. And that's all part of what I mean about managing players expectations and worldbuilding.

Don't get me wrong; there are other systems that have more of those features "baked in." But it's all absolutely doable with D&D if a person doesn't want to shell out for a new game.

 

[Jd Smith1]

I'm going to stick with Adventures in Middle Earth, using only the classes listed in the setting book, which means no spellcaster PCs.

That ought to do the trick.

 

[aramis erak]

I'm going to stick with Adventures in Middle Earth, using only the classes listed in the setting book, which means no spellcaster PCs.

That ought to do the trick.

There are differences between «low magic» and «low-power magic»...

The former is usually inclusive of the latter, but not always. Some of the best low-magic fantasy is simply slow-but-potent.

Tolkien is the latter. It's chock full of magic. very small and subtle magics. TOR replicates these, and AIME emulates TOR. Barely perceptible, unless you look for it. Not all magic is spells

While I've got AIME, I've not run it (and found it a bit of a mess, organizationally), but it looks to recreate that low-power but pervasive magic.

 

[Dormammu]

Harnmaster Gold.

A bold, yet sexy, recommendation.