What's a good low magic TTRPG?
Looking for something that can still make players feel like fantasy heroes, but not in the anime/final fantasy style of blasting beams at stuff.
I still want magic in the setting, but as something more mysterious and dangerous rather than a tool anyone can just use.
The people I play with are smart (engineering and physics students mostly), but don't like rule autism.
We're currently playing 5e and it feels that most of the enjoyment comes from the DM's heavy homebrewing, but he's clearly getting tired of it.
Ironsworn sounds like it could fit, it's very light outside of solo play though
Keep the magic to the little things. Both the hedge sort of magic that skirts mere natural understanding (herbal lore, alchemy, etc), and the real deal sort of magic (sorcery, horrific magic, etc) that not everyone can do, or find, or even wants to find. Magic is scary. It is the momentous.
Your players should rarely start off with magic. Keep true sorcerers to the likes of enemies or sagely guides. These figures are few and very far between.
Something like asoiaf would probably fit your grit bill—but the magic in that more or less amounts to ‘talk to your ST’, like doing a dangerous ritual, or a lone and mild ability, like seeing through the eyes of a bird.
I talked about this on Ganker the other day when someone asked.
(him)
(me)
GoT magic sucks though because magic users will always get sworded by martials and there is basically no combat magic at all
I know nothing about GoT, but to me it feels like "combat magic" is almost always bullshit
>no combat magic
Define combat magic. We’ve seen a man’s head explode, and a skin changer spontaneously combusted. Granted, those were extraordinary occurrences, and the magic doesn’t always respond or answer the way you want it to.
Magic in asoiaf is subtle as well as brutal, in the sense that it either fricks you over or it doesn’t. There is no middle ground. It is also a cruel butthole, and appears to value blood and sacrifice, or suffering.
Sorcerers fight with cunning, not martial skill. Poison, divination, illusion, sheer sorcerous assassination, etc. You either get to them, or they get to you, or nobody gets to anybody at all. Some sorcerers can see you coming, while others have influence surrounding them.
The sorcerer who can kill someone from afar, while rare, is a *terrifying* enemy.
You have people capable of hopping into the bodies of wild beasts like dire wolves and snow bears and shadow cats and you think there isn’t any magic that can be used for violence?
>GoT magic sucks though because magic users will always get sworded by martials
That's the exact opposite of sucking.
Why should magic be combative when it can dodge combat altogether? Red priests staring into their fires, foreseeing ambushes and assassination attempts. That is pretty powerful.
Also what
said. How the hell are you surviving being mauled by a fricking polar bear (controlled by someone) without heavy armor and plentiful luck?
got is gay lol
Your best bet is to take a setting/system that *doesn't* have magic, and then just homebrew magic items in.
This is just an example, you don't have to use this game, but I ran an Honor+Intrigue game, which is nominally grounded, and added in a supernatural storyline. the rulebook even encourages this.
when magic is sparse it feels more special. When characters have very limited access to magic items, spells, and whatnot, it makes them feel like those things are more integral to their character and they're actually likely to use them more.
I think using a system that is fully non-magical, as suggested by , may work. Half the trouble in making magic feel MAGICAL lies in that all the things magic can do have to be written down somewhere in a rulebook. A rulebook which your players can consult, read, show to you, and say "Look, see, I can do this exact thing with magic."
Using a system which *doesn't* have magic to start very much means that magic becomes fully narrative, and by definition limited to that level of magic which the players (and especially the GM) agree to permit. Magic doesn't have fixed, regular effects, but instead become specific powers which may or may not work in particular circumstances.
And if you want *low* magic, a good way to do it is make magic *low reliability.* Nothing kills the low-magic feeling like just being able to cast a spell every day, and have that spell do the exact same thing without fail.
As several others in this thread have said, Barbarians of Lemuria (with the 2d10 target 12 variant as suggested by
) and the Modiphius 2d20 Conan system are both great suggestions. Conan in particular is good for the setting, which clearly operates as if magic weren't a thing in terms of cities, politics, history, and expectations of what people can do, which helps make magic feel weird and wonderous when it does finally show up - it isn't just impressive, it breaks the rules.
And some Sword & Soul art for you, as a treat.
Gonna post a bit more art because I can and I like it.
A bit more of the vibe
>Nothing kills the low-magic feeling like just being able to cast a spell every day, and have that spell do the exact same thing without fail.
Spellbooks are like cellphones.
Spells are like apps.
I hate it.
Try Barbarians of Lemuria if you want rule-light sword-and-sorcery.
Mythras if you want something heavier.
I really dig the old Mongoose Conan d20 game. If your players are used to D&D that might be the best bet. I used to play it all the time, and it was all heroic low-magic stuff.
There's also the newer 2d20 Conan from Modiphus. Never played it but I've heard a few people singing its praise.
These are great suggestions. I never played the Mongoose game but I can second both Barbarians of Lemuria and Conan 2d20. Both are (as the names imply) far more heavy into the sword and sorcery side of fantasy, rather than the kitchen-sink fantasy that D&D tends to favor. Both have fairly limited rules for PCs with magic, with sorcery generally being in the realm of NPC-abilities. Barbarians of Lemuria is the less crunchy of the two, and more suited to one-shots (it's also mapless). I'd use Conan 2d20 for a longer games or if you tend towards liking crunchier stuff.
>I really dig the old Mongoose Conan d20 game. If your players are used to D&D that might be the best bet. I used to play it all the time, and it was all heroic low-magic stuff.
Yeah, it's good, especially if you are coming from D&D. There are some things to watch out for in magic - summoning - but otherwise it's pretty reasonably setup in such a way that without eating babies you are never going to be even close to normal D&D wizards.
Came to suggest Barbarians of Lemuria as well. Glad to see it already brought up.
>Barbarians of Lemuria
Yeah but, like, can you play in a party without a healer?
Because magic users being an essential part of the balance in D&D is the main obstacle to it being used for low magic and sword and sorcery (aside from being a shit system)
Yes, you can play it without a healer.
BoL includes a bit of after battle recovery, boosted by party members with the Physician background. It doesn't totally invalidate armor and caution (you only recover half the damage you received, the rest is Lasting damage and heals 1 point per day) but it does give you a lot more staying power than you'd expect.
Note that even 'Physician 0' in one of your 4 careers would be sufficient to make Physician checks. BoL and its daughters make combat fairly perilous, but if you survive and aren't an idiot, fairly likely to see another day. Word of advice if you do Honor + Intrigue: pawns with guns are not to be sneered at. That system has Tome of Intriguing Options for more lethal combat/healing.
Do you have that book?
This anon
provided the Duelist's Guide, which is included in the Tome, but I can't find the latter.
Sorcery, RAW, can't heal. It's the only sort of spell excluded that way.
d6 Fantasy is pretty good. It's very straightforward Attribute+Skill roll in d6, count them together. If you want multiple actions per round drop 1 die from every action. If your penalty is higher than your dice pool you can't do those type of actions.
So something like attacking with a sword is Agility plus Melee Combat, let's say you have 3d and 3d in them - you roll 6d6 and if its higher than your opponent's defense you hit him and roll for damage. The default assumptions are pretty brutal and Conan like - if you are not a trained fighter, have no armor and don't have the strength you probably won't be able to take more than two decent hits, and also won't be able to defend yourself. Though DM can play with suggested options to make it less lethal.
As for magic it's done as a skill roll over difficulty. And you can create your own spells. Thing is while you can create powerful spells the best ones will always come at a price in either time, rare ingredients, rituals, need for support casters and so on. Another problem is that combat spells need you to also be, well, an able combatant. You can learn all the magic missiles in the world but if you can't hit the broad side of a barn they would be absolutely useless.You can make a spell that doesn't need a skill to attack but that's gonna be either a weak or a difficult spell. Most of the time it's much easier to go for support and trickery as a wizard. You can make a warmage but that needs a lot of dedication.
Literally just outlaw full casters and give out more single use items. Half casters don't get spells past level 5.
Almost all systems have less magic than 5e. Symbaroum, Cypher, Fantasy AGE, SotDL, etc etc. Not sure if they are "low magic" but definitely less magic
SOTDL isnt low magic or less magic than 5e. Even core book, you're absolutely shitting spells by level 3, and if you include any of the optional first path stuff it gets nuts really fast.
>OP complains about homebrewing 5e annoying his GM
>'keep playing 5e, just homebrew it more'
Blocking classes isn't homebrewing moron. No effort required
And of course you have to throw out half the monsters, any concept of magic items, any adventure. OP does not want 'just play 5e,' go pander your hasbro sloppa elsewhere.
You don't have very good reading comprehension do you? I suggest night school.
Read OP again. He doesn't want a magic-free setting with mundane monsters and no artifacts. He just wants magic to not be a trivial part of daily life. He wants magic to be magical. As long as players have limited magic ability that means magic items and monsters retain a sense of mystery. Now those magic scrolls and potions are insane curiosities rather than some schoolkids hobby.
NTA, but if OPs DM is already tired of trying to make 5e work, a different strategy to try to make 5e work probably won't satisfy, so I can see why he's canvassing for other options to consider.
It's unclear if he's getting tired of homebrewing or tired of 5e. I proposed a solution that solves the former problem, because it is a zero effort fix.
I would definitely suggest using different systems, but sometimes a quick fix is ideal in case they were missing sessions from the problem.
It means trashing ~50% of available classes. The goal is low magic, not no magic. Half casters would fit fine in a low magic setting. They don't even have cantrips (besides warlock) and never get spells over 5th level (besides warlock), along with slower spell progression. Spellcaster subclasses get cantrips, but have no spells over 4th. They don't even get 4th level until 18.
Your assessment of half/subcasters trivializing magic is off the mark. They have significantly less magic and their presence allows the setting to ingrain the notion that magic is rare by their limited use being a source of awe.
? He just wants magic to not be a trivial part of daily life
Within 5e, that basically means trashing 2/3 of the available classes immediately. Or 3/4 if you include Monk.
But you can't just stop there, because many of subclasses for Barbarian, Fighter, Monk, and Rogue that trivialize it as well.
At a certain point, it's better to just stop and accept that a system isn't actually designed for a setting, and simply bite the bullet on learning something new instead of trying to hammer it into something it's not.
Even AD&D would be a better suggestion than 5e homebrew when it comes to a low magic setting.
I don't see how you don't get 'the GM is tired of homebrewing Hasbro slop.' Maybe you don't WANT to get it, I hear your employers' sales numbers are down.
Make higher quality posts
Once you get a few skill points your chances of failure are miniscule. The percentages aren't granular enough.
Having most rolls contested slows play and reduces the importance of player rolls.
These things combine to make an unsatisfying experience where player roll success is practically a given then the target of the action invalidates their ability
>Chances of failure are miniscule.
You mean on easy tasks? TDMs can quickly cancel out a few skill ranks and a middling stat. Its not really a system where you're always rolling unmodified against your ability score, every task should be assigned a difficulty. It's not like ICRPG.
Yes, you can set difficulty for many tasks. That doesn't come into play for most contested actions, though. Combat rarely would have a difficulty mod
Yeah, combats mostly contested. I thought we were talking skill use.
...combat uses skills my brother in christ
Outside of combat (nearly all) tasks should have difficulty modifiers, unless theyre directly opposed checks.
Inside combat, yes there are more opposed checks. But the whole game is not combat. And I said I would look because I was pretty sure I saw something for reducing the opposed checks in combat to speed things up.
... so I'm not really sure what you're shitting yourself over. The fact that is used the phrase 'skill use' to mean things beyond combat, because most skills are not combat skills? What's the problem here?
Most skills are not combat skills.
Most skill rolls are, depending on the game.
'skill use' implies the skills you're rolling, not the ones in the book.
Yes, yes. I understand the whole game isn't combat. But most games will involve combat as a third pillar, and I want my table to be stable
Looking for what I originally saw. An optional rule? A pyramid article? I forget, and can't find it right now.
This one comes makes high vs high opposed checks less tedious.
>I recall a tip in Roleplayer magazine; allow (or mandate) a subtraction from the attack giving an equal subtraction from the defence. So the long slog of 16 to hit, 14 to defend becomes 12 to attack, 10 to defend; much quicker to get a result. Call it 'bright sunlight penalty' if you need to.
>Another good effect of this is that skill over 16 actually becomes valuable without agonizing over which Hit Location to go for.
https://rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/19425/how-to-make-gurps-combat-fast
And I thought I saw something similar. Maybe it was a scan of the original article he was referring to. That would help a lot though.
At this point in my failed search (I looked for like 10 minutes, just got back) I would just be asking GURPSgen for ways to speed up opposed checks in combat and see if anyone can point me in the right direction.
Reminds me of another "issue"
RAW you can always choose a random hit location for no penalty. This is always superior to any other attack style besides when an enemy is immune to damage from certain hit locations.
This rule problem is easily fixed, but it's weird it exists. Shit, RAW if you use random hit location you could win every fight easily because the rules say the target fails to defend on a successful random hit location attack's unmodified roll.
That paragraph is so terribly written
Yeah. Although I like a lot of the underlying desin behind GURPS, I think their business decisions he past 20 years have been mostly moronic; and I would not consider basic set anywhere close to "it just werks" levels of polish. Even the stuff that works *fine* once you iron it out, often has you jumping around cross-referencing shit in multiple locations before you've worked out the procedure.
There's a reason that I (as someone who likes GURPS) openly say "bruh, never start with basic set, and never run a game wih only basic set". I would (and have) recommended people start with the previous edition's standalone hellboy rpg before recommending basic set.
GURPS general tends to lean hard in the other direction of course.
I've honestly only ever used GURPS for gazeteer content, or for subsystems that I found useful. Like the semi-hard planet generation system.
I'm sure I saw an option to speed that up in combat though. I'll look in a bit.
>I still want magic in the setting, but as something more mysterious and dangerous rather than a tool anyone can just use.
>The people I play with are smart (engineering and physics students mostly), but don't like rule autism.
Barbarians of Lemuria. Use the 2d10 vs. 12 (or some prefer 13) houserule. 2d6 is best for short games at most.
If you want a different era, Honor + Intrigue is an excellent daughter system derived from Barbarians of Lemuria intended to service fans of swashbuckling pulp. So everything from Three Musketeers, Zorro, or The Sea Hawk to - if you want supernatural stuff - Solomon Kane. Combat is more dynamic than BoL due to the maneuvers and advantage + composure system.
If swashbuckling adventures are bad, I don't want to be good.
You can actually do the whole 'strip off the other guy's clothes' thing in H+I via the Tag! maneuver. Target his belt. Or his facial hair.
Humiliating a foe is one thing, but damaging the 'do is just unchivalrous.
After reading it over, I was surprised to find that the mix of maneuvers, fencing school styles, combat repartee, and the use of Yielding Advantage to avoid strikes in lieu of using armor, I think the Honor + Intrigue combat system could be used very well for a Wuxia / Martial Arts system as well. Have a bit of secretive magic and "Qi techniques" here and there and you could make a very good low-magic setting in the distant east with it.
Sure, no reason why not. Stunts for taking out tons of mooks also fits what you want.
Any chance you have links to pdfs?
The Sword of Cepheus based purely on the pic you posted. It's a retroclone of classic Traveller, using the 2d6 system of Traveller and it's all about oldschool Sword and Sorcery type games.
Worlds without number is a campaign advice book with a fairly simple system attached and low magic as the base of the implied setting
Low fantasy gaming is a direct reaction to the latest edition of D&D and is all about what the title says. Goes up to level 12 and is a nice little system.
Forbidden Lands is another option but unlike the others i havent played even a single one-shot but i hear it mentioned a lot.
Then there is Castles and Crusades the first low fantasy/oldschool subversion of the 3.5 version of D&D.
Mythras Classic fantasy is a d100 system meant to emulate AD&D 2e vibes so it deserves a mention as well.
Fantasycraft is a D&D 3.5 hack that gets referenced a lot around here that spins a more narrative approach to the game. Very modular and simple to run.
There is always d6 fantasy as well or you could go really oldschool and check out BasicFantasy rpg.
Barbarians of lemuria are also a classic for Conan style games
Low magic gaming is pretty solid.
Cool take on clerics and the dark and dangerous magic table is a cool mechanic.
DCC Lankhmar is perfect for low fantasy.
There's also always GURPS if he wants to put in the work and enjoys the flexibility and crunch, or D6 if he wants to keep things simple.
https://goodman-games.com/store/product/dungeon-crawl-classics-lankhmar-boxed-set/
mentioned DCC Lankhmar and I'll second that, as well as vanilla DCC since that errs more on the low fantasy/horror end of Appendix N than latter day D&D
Play some old-school game like Stormbringer or Pendragon. If you're more into classic, pulp, sword & sorcery, there are various Conan games (2d20, d20, GURPS), or derivatives (Barbarians of Lemuria and whatever the Savage World sword & sorcery setting is called).
Which Stormbringer version would you recommend?
The very first ttrpg I played was Stormbringer but I was like 8 years old so I don't remember shit about it other than the insane decadent race and the guys with wings.
Elric! or Stormbringer 5th Ed.
You can play WFRP like this without too much trouble.
Very easily, mechanically speaking. Though the setting itself is high magic so you'd want to be in a quieter corner or else just use the mechanics.
If you stay out of Altdorf, setting shouldn't post a big problem.
The books talk about it a little, and try to emphasize how unusual and extravagant WFB is compared to the RPG.
The setting as presented in WHFR is quite different from the one in WHFB or in the books. The magic is very weak compared to the literal battlefield-changing artillery, and similarly the high-level warriors seem to be far less capable of slaughtering hordes of people. It's easy to just consider them two different versions of the same setting instead of trying to fit them together. Just doesn't work.
Another rules light option could be Jaws of the six serpents. Mages need to draw their power from somewhere like the environment (leaving it barren) or living things (by sacrificing them).
The One Ring 2e
the Modiphus Conan 2d20 should actually be right up your alley. Combat can be pretty brutal and does never leave the pulp theme behind You roll enough dice but it's not too crunchy. It's heavily depended on a meta currency, that is the one point where the system may rub someone the wrong way. (Personally I liked it, but to really work it requires the players to embrace it).
Also mental damage is nicely baked into the system, so you can do eldritch horror or just scare some thugs away by doing something like holding up the cut off head of their leader.
Magic is the single best low fantasy implementation imho. It's all the cool mystic stuff, no magic missile or the like, but you always pay a price (literally your mental health) and put yourself in some risk. You can also do grand stuff, but that requires setup, has plenty more risks and costs and at the end of the day you're still just a dude who dies from an common arrow.
What you want is Conan 2d20. It’s exactly what you want.
Once again I shill for Harnmaster
>Harnmaster
I don't think I've ever heard of this. Care to elaborate on what might make the system work, anon?
In no particular order
D20 conan.
Gurps conan.
Stormbringer.
Hârnmaster.
Maybe Rolemaster.
> Conan
Watched the 80s movies for the first time a couple days ago, and it felt strangely comfy.
I'd like that as a ttrpg setting, with less silly sex
Conan without sex is a sad, sad thing. If your swords & sorcery barbarian doesn't end an adventure with a thick-bodied maiden thrown over his shoulder and his sword notched from killing literally an entire tribe of subhumanoids, are you even playing s&s?
(It's Basil Poledouris's score which does the heavy lifting for the film.)
Can confirm. I liked the Momoa Conan film okay, but then I watched a fan cut that upped the pacing and swapped out the soundtrack for Poledouris' Conan score, and my god - it was so much better.
Link? It's not a legendary film, but I was pleasantly surprised by it.
Ill see if I can find it. Those fan edits don't always stay online for long.
https://ifdb.fanedit.org/savage-sword-of-conan-mask-of-archeron/
Its that one. As for a download link... I'm still looking.
https://archive.org/details/savage-sword-of-conan-mask-of-archeron-1080p-agent-9
There you go.
Thanks, brah.
I didn't say without sex, just with less sex. It's just weird af to talk about sex stuff while roleplaying.
Ive played the conan rpg. Its aleight if you stay away from romance and stick to brothels and play it casually.
>You spend all the money you earned on your last adventure on ale and prostitutes for the next two weeks. Ahahahaha. Good times. But around the time you're running out of money again.....
What if you're playing a female character? Or a cultist type with weird beliefs.
Haven't played much, just wondering how would those scenarios would play out if the other pcs are all about the fun sex with prostitutes.
>Female character
You can hire male prostitutes? If youre a female character who would chum around with Conan while adventuring, youre not a homemaker.
>Cultist
Sure. Conan had priests with him in a few of the short stories. Generally not cultists. But sure. Just let them do something else with their downtime.
My point wasnt that sex with prostitutes has to be the reward for adventuring, just that it's not awkward when you limit the sex "RP" to being a quickly glossed over, meaningless downtime action done between adventures.
(But prostitutes are a good way to have them burn through their money and have a motive to go adventuring again).
For the priest / cultist
, that money could be directly given to their church. They probably don't need to pay for lodgings, so they *could* stay behind, but adventuring again could get them more money for their cult.
>If youre a female character who would chum around with Conan while adventuring, youre not a homemaker.
More like that it seems weird a hot (assuming, who ever plays as old hags?) adventurer woman would actually pay for sex.
Ah. Fair enough. Sure. You could just pick up some guy in the tavern rather than pay for prostitutes. I dunno. You could try to come up with something else for the female barbarians to spend their money on.
>Old hag
I was more thinking 'kindof ugly from repeated broken noses and covered in battle scars, thanks to your chosen line of work'.
You don't have to be paying for sex to be carousing and fricking loose people. Can't think of a time Conan ever bought sex, but he spent money like water screwing anything with breasts and a fat ass, anyway.
I doubt he ever paid directly for sex, but often it's more like buying shit to enjoy alongside the b***hes he'd frick
Pendragon and The One Ring (either edition).
Pendragon has you start as mortal knights but as you gain glory you can become legends with all the power that comes with it. It also encourages you to be treasure seekers because wealth really matters in the game.
The One Ring works because even if you play as an elf or dwarf you might have some magical talent, but you won't be out there slinging spells. Magic is accumulated either through equipment, or through gaining wisdom that reveals a greater understanding of the world through your culture's lenses.
If your group likes 5E, you could have a very short list of 1st level spells and restrict some of the classes for players.
NPC Villains could have a few 2nd or even 3rd level spells, and it could work. Extending the casting time on certain spells would also work.
Just don't do this. Nobody likes this. Nobody likes "hacking" 5E to low magic. It wasn't designed to be low magic. Your players won't like it when they play it. You need to start from low magic from the get-go with a system that appropriately models it.
Isn't the lotr 5e spinoff redesigned to do this if youre determined to stick to mechsnics that look like 5e? Thats probably a less sloppy choice (wouldnt be my pick though)
Absolutely. Playing 5e-inspired settings is fine. You just have to re-vamp the *entire* set of player options. Simply paring down the spell list and removing certain spells like "goodberry" doesn't fix the problem of 5e high fantasy. You are much, much better off playing a system that is intended to be low fantasy.
What's a fun way to have magic oriented classes in low magic systems?
I'd like to play a "wizard" who's actually squishy and less of a glass cannon but more of an unpredictable support, who might only use magic rarely due to its dangers.
Barbarians of Lemuria does this. The counter-balance is that the sorcerer can just make up their own spells as is convenient (with GM approval, so you need well-behaved players and GMs).
It depends a lot on the system and the assumed level of competence. Some of the Warhammer rpgs have highly dangerous magic, though applied properly certainly still lends itself to a glass cannon. Though due to the danger, that obviously means anyone with spells is more often going to be using a weapon in most circumstances.
In other cases though, proper low magic might be better suited to pure utility or slower rituals, with more of a level of baseline competence. Someone who might be able to talk to animals, but can still be a decent archer or whatnot.
It might even be a system like Call of Cthulhu where theoretically anyone can use magic, some of which is useful in a fight, but one's sanity is at risk if you actually do so. Though that's also a system where being skilled in a fight isn't even a default assumption.
FATAL unironically
> low magic
> rolling for AC
Considering the range of values, that's definitely magical
How low do you want your magic to be?
At one end of the spectrum we have 5e where its normal to have the entire party cast a spell each every six seconds. So let's assume that is high magic.
What if a spell was cast only once or twice an encounter, is that low magic? It's lower than the highest of high magics.
What about once or twice a session? Or once, maybe twice an adventure?
How about never? The players never have magic on their side. Is that low enough?
I need details here OP. 'Low magic' is a little vague about expectations.
It's more about the types of magic than about how much magic is around, I guess.
Reliable magic with clear effects that people can use in their daily life without fear (for healing or utility) => high magic setting.
Having magic be much rarer (you need specific components or conditions that are hard to get, such as being very high level), and/or much less reliable, and/or much weaker makes it feel low magic.
I made the thread right after I watched the 80s Conan movie for the first time, I liked magic there, where the main evil guy had mind control powers that often seemed super subtle, and the good wizard knew about rituals (that were super dangerous).
Main evil guy could turn into a snake too, but that felt more about random weirdness than anything practical. Still, this was the big bad, yet those types of powers are pretty much level 1 or 2 spells in DND 5e.
If you like the kind of magic that is expressed in Conan then why not play Conan?
I might, I'm just very new to ttrpgs (only started playing a couple months ago for the first time)
If you are new to ttrpgs I would advice to approach with a more open mind. Don't assume that just because you like the magic expressed in Conan more than in Harry Patter when watching a film that it will translate into enjoying a similar ttrpg, and further more don't assume that you know what you will or will not like before you have thoroughly tried it. Give systems that you normally would put down a try. Somebody felt compelled to write the system in that way, and others have been compelled to try it. It may not end up being to your liking, but it may be that you uncover something unexpected that you enjoy.
I'm not hating anything on principle, I'm just looking for something that seems closer to what I generally enjoy more.
>Give systems that you normally would put down a try.
There's a lot to try, so I'll just try what seems more appealing first.
What youre saying you want magic wise sounds a lot like the custom magic system in d20 conan (not '2d20 Conan' I haven't played that one).
If you grab the vault though, it has several conan rpgs, including d20 conan.
I already thanked you in that thread, but thanks again
Kek. I assumed you were a different guy. You're welcome again.
If I may, if you are new to TTRPGs it's absolutely the perfect time to learn Conan. Trust me, OP, it's what you are looking for. It's also a good time to learn before you have to unlearn any of the bad habits created by 5e brainrot.
Pic not related. My dog Biscuit.
>Biscuit
So it finally happened.
t. Ganker
Deadlands
Barbarians of Lemuria,, or its swashbuckling cousin, Honor + Intrigue. WFRP 2e or maybe 4e (I don't like 4e personally) would also work.
>Honor + Intrigue
Are these in the share thread?
Honor + Intrigue is one system (that's just how its name is stylized). It should be there, it was last time I saw. But I bought my copy and I don't regret the purchase.
Under what heading? I searched for them but could't find them.
I still can't find them. Someone help me out?
Its probably in the vault but I'm not at my PC to check.
The vault is back up?
It never died. Just the mega people were using to share the torrents more conveniently. Torrents are resilient like that. People are just moronic. I shared an encoded magnet link I grabbed on btdig.com. You should be able to just connect to it and get going.
Here it is again.
Encoded magnet link. But you can also go find it on btdig or another dht search engine for yourself.
bWFnbmV0Oj94dD11cm46YnRpaDo2YzBlOWZlYTQ3YTEyZDA5YjkwNmM2NGQyNzEwYjA2ZTNjNWM5MDkwJmRuPVRoZStWYXVsdDorVG9ycmVudCtGaWxlcyZ0cj11ZHA6Ly90cmFja2VyLm9wZW5iaXR0b3JyZW50LmNvbTo4MCZ0cj11ZHA6Ly90cmFja2VyLm9wZW50cmFja3Iub3JnOjEzMzcvYW5ub3VuY2U=
If it wont connect or something, I still have the torrent files, I suppose I could upload them somewhere. I kept offering every time I saw an OP whining about the vault being "dead" but nobody was interested.
As I said, people are moronic.
Someone said they couldnt get my encoded magnet to work.
I'm so thankful for you, anons
Someone said my vault magnet link didnt work for them and provided a different hash. I havent had a chance to check it. It was this hash.
3597f16e239aeb8f8524a1a1c4e4725a0a96b470
It works beautifully, anon. Thank you again.
YW.
Mine (the 64 bit encoded one) was to the index torrent that gives you the official torrents for all of the vault, not just the rpg book vault (novels and audiobooks too, and I think maybe a wargame vault, I forget. But the little one that helps you get the other ones).
I dont know which one this one is (
). I just copy pasted it from the other guy in case my link was really broken. He might have linked specifically to the rpg book vault.
Gurps
Pick the tech level you want and you are good to go
Don't let players use magic, and have it be rare and hard to explain or just straight up evil
> but rule autism
Gurps being hard to understand is a meme, and at lower tech levels it becomes even easier
Personally my issue with GURPS is the lack of unique abilities/actions out of the box.
Sure, techniques and modifiers are a thorough solution, but not an elegant one.
Do you mean powers? Theres a lot of powers. And a mountain of more specific modified powers.
I'm talking about the Basic Set. Once you start discussing supplements you are already outside the realm of "elegant solutions".
Also I was not encompassing in order to be concise. I also have issues with the 3d6 system and the heavy reliance on contested rolls.
Overall I appreciate GURPS conceptual design and have ran it, but I don't think it's a very fun system
Basic set is not a cleanly playable game by itself. Trying to use it as such will be an exercise in frustration. View it as a hefty rules reference tome to add to your genre splat of choice and youll have a better time. For some stupid reason they designed basic set for "gurps 3e players who have been playing for a decade already" rather than for newbies. Anyone who tells you to run gurps with just basic set, as a non-longtime gurps player from previous editions is setting you up for a bad and tedious time before you get anything running.
Dungeon Fantasy would surely make the barrier to entry easier. But it doesn't solve OP's issues and it doesn't solve my problems with 3d6 or contested rolls
Dungeon fantasy is not what I would recommend for Conan-esque fantasy, no. It's more like GURPS AD&D.
What are your problems with 3d6 and contested rolls?
>I dont think its a very fun system
I suspect I would conclude the same if I ran it with just basic set. I'm glad I started with the Dungeon Fantasy RPG boxed set.
Wouldn't a bunch of powers make it more magical or anime-y though?
I'm not talking about "powers" per se. I'm talking about unique actions/triggers.
Is a sneak attack a "power"?
Borderline
>What's a good low magic TTRPG?
unironicaly the goblin slayer TRPG
it has on it magic and magic is REALY fricking powerful
you can only use 3 times in a day IF you roll a good character and your character gets REALY fricking tired, making him a easy target
the whole combat is based on how prepared and tired you are
sword is king, bows are for suport, magic is the last straw you can pull in case of giant shit. otherwise stab it with a knife
but stabing things can dull the blade, you need to use the enemy weapons agaisnt them, throw your axe, and grab the spear on the floor
Warhammer fantasy role play 2E is a low power low magic system where its very easy to not have a single spell caster in the part or even encounter one for the first chapter of a campaign.
even if you have a starting spell caster their only real damage spell is casting arcane bolt which is onpar with shooting a bow. their real strength comes in casting things like fog lights and sleep.
You could play an entire WFRP campaign and never actually encounter any spellcasters and still have fun.
Conan 2d20?
I'm very grateful to the people who are posting megnet link, but I'm still struggling to find Honor + Intrigue and its splatbooks. I don't have the space to download a terrabyte of books, and I can't navigate the torrent to find H+I. Spare some help for your resident moron?
I got you, anon
https://files.catbox.moe/7xdcsi.pdf
https://files.catbox.moe/uh3k7l.pdf
https://files.catbox.moe/0sya6p.pdf
https://files.catbox.moe/oktv8i.pdf
https://files.catbox.moe/8q2zxt.pdf
https://files.catbox.moe/xhhztk.pdf
Godspeed. And pay it forward to another anon. When they ask, deliver.
Thank you kindly! I have found and am attaching the Duelist's Guide as thanks for your help.
Does anyone have the Tome of Intriguing Options?
Thanks Anon, has been trying to get those for a while and whenever someone was saying "it's in X" I could never manage to find it in "X".
Fricking finally, a working link, bless you.
The Sword & Sorcery Codex has a few Boons & Flaws you may or may not like for BoL or so, if you do use that system. It was specifically made to be a companion for Everywhen/BoL.
Bumping this question.
I'm stupid; I meant this question.
How compatible are Barbarians of Lemuria and Honor + Intrigue?
They're sister systems. H+I was based on BoL.
Broadly compatible. If you've played BoL, H+I's biggest changes are in a much more sophisticated combat system, which includes an 'Advantage' system and a 'Composure' system, along with special maneuvers anyone can perform. The upswing is it's very easy for a player to just say "I want to do this," and the GM can just find the move and tell them what stats to roll. Also, it makes ALL of the character's stats combat-relevant for different tactics, which encourages spreading points and growth out. Advantage is a way to tank hits without taking damage (and also, potentially, to lose without dying), as well as a means by which to get an...advantage in combat (you can 'press the advantage' to gain certain benefits). Composure is basically morale, as it gets shaken, your rolls take maluses.
Magic has been further subdivided, which provides more options for a heroic user of the arcane, should you choose to include such. Animals are broadly similar to BoL, but their damage grows more slowly with size in exchange for more frequently getting special abilities. A lot of animals (and monsters) also cause an automatic composure check, which is an x-factor.