Whats a good system for lower intensity magic found in a lot of classic fantasy?
Stuff like Sagas, Arthurian legend, Conan and Tolkein?
Where magic exists, but its usually pretty subdued. mostly shit like prophecies and curses, swords that are uncannily keen, fear and courage effects. A far seeing crystal ball here and a cast illusion there. And a flaming sword or bolt of lightning being far and away an exception rather than a rule.
I want to know if there is something that tries to evoke this sense that magic is mostly slightly escapades into the unknown rather than full blown command of supernatural forces.
The one game, though not tabletop, that I have felt has done this really well is the Roguelike "Sil" where magic is in smithing and songs. and most songs do things like make light glow brighter or make you have a slight bonus to attack each time you slay something. In some ways slight exaggerations of reality rather than full on explicit paranormal manipulation.
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Stupid questions like this summon the 'LiteraryLord' aka Bumphomosexual and I'd rather not enable that creepy autistic c**t. Go ask this in one of the several already-up 'dumb question about fantasy genre conventions broadly' you homosexual.
rude, but ok, you have a thread in mind for me? I gave concrete examples Of what im after, both thematically and mechanically.
>Not engaging in effort threads just because some rentfree homosexual might show up.
The absolute state.
>"effort thread"
>can't use Google
>can't use the archives
>can't use /r/ or /wsr/
>can't make his own game in a hobby revolving around making what you want
>can't spell "subtle"
>"spoonfeed plz gaiz halp"
>"effort thread"
for modern /tg/ standards it's an effort thread
>Stuff like Sagas
Fate of the Norns: Ragnarok
>Arthurian legend
Pendragon
>Conan
Conan: Adventures in an Age Undreamed Of
>Tolkein
The One Ring RPG
thanks.
Check out Barbarians of Lemuria. Wizards in that system are more "sacrifice the virgin on this specific moment of this specific night in order to receive a slight magical advantage" and less "I cast fireball".
yah, i remember reading that and liking its magnitude system. Where the dm works out the reitive cost for a relative effect. And the more powerful the more caviats and particulars that are required. Making magic feel weighty both to do a d try to opose.
I remember it being kind of open ended though, thats not a bad thing at all, maybe the later additions filled out the example lists more.
Rule 1: no wizard PCs
Rule 2: you as the GM keep magic toned down.
Check out the upcoming Mythic Bastionland, especially for Arthurian legend. Most games derived from Into the Odd or the lighter OSR-hacks should get close to the feel you want, and are perhaps a little less open-ended then Barbarians. For a quick and dirty low-fantasy dungeon crawler you can play right away, I'd vote for Cairn, which you can find for free on drivethru or itch.
Real world.
Rule of thumb for real world magic/k: If you can see it, it's not magic(k).
>sudtle
It really depends on the flavour. I have a magic system where my druid does subtle Gandalf shit like soothing high tempers, swearing binding oaths, or turning into animals. But then in the exact same magic system I’ve got artificers making magical stress-balls, lie detectors, and rune-based temporary transfiguration. Same effects, different fluff and (methods of activating said effects)
my setting
Luck.
For it to be faithful to Conan for example, there would be a lot of "you just die, no save" spells if anyone manages to land one on you. I recall some guy trying to slap Conan with a blackened smoking hand, and while Conan slapped that away/dodged or whatever, the implication was that if it had landed he'd been dead on the spot.