Recommendation for Low Fantasy rulesystem

[lachancery]

The next campaign I'd like to run would be in a low fantasy setting where magic would be rare and difficult to use.

I'm looking for recommendation of which of the ruleset currently supported by Fantasy Grounds would be good for such setting.

[JohnD]

It is d20 based but the magic system is custom... The Black Company setting book from Green Ronin has some of what you might want to look at. Also has insanity rules based on witnessing magic, using magic or being exposed to horrific situations or "fantastic" creatures like undead.

[damned]

iron heroes?
although the ruleset is not actively supported there may well be significant bugs in it now?

[Andraax]

You can use Castles & Crusades, and use the "Mana" type spell casting with a low mana value for spellcasters.

[Trenloe]

The next campaign I'd like to run would be in a low fantasy setting where magic would be rare and difficult to use.

I'm looking for recommendation of which of the ruleset currently supported by Fantasy Grounds would be good for such setting.

I've been thinking of this for a while, as I've been toying with the idea of running Jim Pinto's King for a Day which is a gritty, low fantasy horror toolbox campaign: https://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/produ...King-for-a-Day

The campaign is system agnostic so I had to make a decision of which ruleset to use. I leant towards Pathfinder as I am most familiar with that and am confident in throwing together NPCs on the fly and being able to predict challenge levels etc.. I'd use the slow XP track to make all character level progression slower than usual. I also wanted to keep magic low so I thought of a few things that could be done:

• Restrict caster levels - either to a maximum or restrict level progression. i.e. 1 caster level per 2 or even 3 character levels.
• Restrict certain spells.
• Restrict healing magic. Remove channel?
• if magic was harder to cast introduce higher spell miscast chances? Or a table that shows spell casting results - perhaps use a form of reverse metamagic to give reduced forms of a spell result.
• reduce availability of magic items, or restrict/eliminate certain types.

The main issue I had with the above would be that players would not want to play a magic using character at all, as they would be severely "nerfed" - but perhaps that might be your main idea?

I was also concerned that I'd struggle to find players for a slow XP progression low magic campaign. Personally I enjoy the challenge and edge of your seat feeling when playing low level characters, but I know a lot of people like to get out of the low levels quickly.

And, I was wondering how little healing magic would effect the pace of a Pathfinder game. A wilderness sandbox generally doesn't have dungeon crawls and multiple encounters all in one day, so the need to keep a party going encounter after encounter is not really needed. But I thought that the campaign might move very slowly if the PCs had to spend a week recovering from a tough encounter.

In the end, I think you can use most any system, and make a decision on how magic is handled. I'd go with a system that you are comfortable with so that you are more familiar with it and can predict the impact on the game.

[Doswelk]

I'd go with Savage Worlds (no surprise there), all you do is add a setting rule to control magic, for example for each Power Point the spell costs to cast add a -1 penalty to the spell casting roll, or for each 1 power point (or two) a spell requires it takes a full round to cast, so a 3 power point heal would take 3 combat rounds to cast.

[Dakadin]

GURPS also works well with low fantasy.

[phantomwhale]

Runequest 6's new setting, "The Realm", is a really nice low magic setting.

Brings back feelings of Conan the Barbarian (which RQ always did) with divine miracles and barbarian shamans both rare and scary in their magic use, and the use of SORCERY is a work of purest evil and chaos.

I really like the level of magic. One of my players looked disappointed as he'd come to the table to play "the mage" (*waves fist at DnD*)

[Valarian]

Everyone is going to recommend their favourite system here. Really, a low magic setting can be run with whichever system you wish. Your decision as a GM is what magic to allow the PCs. As far as established settings go, I'd say that the Conan setting is probably the best established for sword & sorcery games. Another interesting setting is that of Midnight - a D&D or Tolkien type world after the bad guy has won. Magic, in this setting, is extremely dangerous to use. It's like setting off a flare to let the bad guys know that you are there.

[grapper]

I really like the idea of a low magic setting. It fits the feel of classic fantasy books and movies I loved as a kid. The idea I have, which I hope to try out one day, is to take a system (probably D&D) and "reskin" it to low fantasy setting.

World
What would go away is all the support structure in society. No magic item shops, no temples filled with high level clerics, no friendly wizard acadamy, etc. Magic is something the average person has never seen. Most magic is controlled by evil forces (this makes open use of magic by the players potentially dangerous). To compensate for the expected magic "loot", instead of finding a new +2 flaming sword characters would instead find ways to "unlock the magic potential" in that cool sword they found 3 levels ago and instead of just being a +1 sword it is now a +2 flaming sword, etc. Another option would be to go with the innate bonus system that was proposed in the 4E books.

Classes
I wouldn't want to tinker with the classes too much, since they are typically balanced to give every "class" a somewhat equal footing. The argument there would be that the PCs are the heroes of the story and have exceptional abilities. I might ban some classes outright, if I can't find a way to work them into the setting, but I think most could be made to work. Magic is rare and powerful, but then the PC characters are rare and powerful too, so it fits.

Races
I would reskin these too. Elves would become humans with elf-like features, dwarves are stocky people, etc. This would change the lore, but mechanically they would mostly be the same, although I might tweak some special abilities. I might also ban some of the more "out there" races if I can't make their mechanics fit the setting. Similarly, monster races would be altered as well. Orcs and goblins are just bandits and thugs.

In any case, this is an idea I've been mulling over for some time, but I haven't actually sat down to work out any details yet. It's a more work to set up than having a pre-made system, but it would be something you can do with a ruleset you already know, which in some sense may be a bit easier than learning something completely new.