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View Full Version : Lookign for an RPG System - Low Fantasy.



Gamgee
2012-05-30, 11:52 PM
I'm looking for a different style of rpg. I want some fantasy elements in place, but toned down. 3.5 is good for having some fun, but I want something a little more grounded. I want to evoke something along the lines of Conan the Barbarian crossed with the Witcher series of games. Maybe just a dash of Game of Thrones.

It's fine if it starts as a high fantasy system, but can be easily adjusted down or simply not use large parts of it.

3.5 is just way too balanced around magical swords and a linear progression for the type of game I want to play that will emphasis the adventure more than the loot. Although there will be a little of that.

Edit
So far as candidates I have:
Dragon Warriors - Serpent King Games
A Song of Fire and Ice ROleplay
Harnmaster

Can anyone tell me of these which would most likely fit what I am looking for? Or if you have other suggestions.

NikitaDarkstar
2012-05-31, 12:42 AM
You might want to look into Iron Heroes. It basically is DnD with little to no magic and more options for combat. Still it has a different feel but not enough to be completely alien.

Just a fair warning though, since it runs with little to no magic (there is a mage type of class but it's completely optional) there's also no magic gear, meaning gearing up can be difficult unless you house-rule something. But other than that it's a fun system, even if it can be somewhat tedious over forums. But face-to-face I don't see that being an issue.

Here's a link. http://www.montecook.com/cgi-bin/page.cgi?iron-lore

Gamgee
2012-05-31, 12:46 AM
Oh I don't care if its familiar at all or not. I've got experience with a few different systems. Though I will look into that one.

Menteith
2012-05-31, 12:54 AM
The Song of Ice and Fire RPG isn't a bad option either. I've run it before, and while it feels very, very similar to D&D3.5, every class in it is built to be able to contribute in a low magic setting. You'd have to refluff a good deal of it, though.

EDIT - It may actually be called the Game of Thrones RPG. I'll check when I have access to the book >.<.

Dexam
2012-05-31, 01:08 AM
Of the suggested candidates, the only one I have played is Hârnmaster, and I have to say that I'm a big fan of the mechanics of the system. I think they suit a gritty, semi-realistic setting: combat is dangerous and often best avoided; armour, shields, and parrying are useful; wounds actually apply penalties instead of just a hit point reduction and heal slowly (even with magic); and magic itself is risky.

Probably the biggest disadvantage of the system is that it can be a little heavy on the book-keeping side. Each wound has to be tracked separately, as does each skill usage for training purposes. There is also the potential problem that if the players go into it with a D&D 3.5 mindset their characters are going to die frequently until they change their playing style - the system can be quite lethal to characters if they're not careful.

Gamgee
2012-05-31, 01:11 AM
Of the suggested candidates, the only one I have played is Hârnmaster, and I have to say that I'm a big fan of the mechanics of the system. I think they suit a gritty, semi-realistic setting: combat is dangerous and often best avoided; armour, shields, and parrying are useful; wounds actually apply penalties instead of just a hit point reduction and heal slowly (even with magic); and magic itself is risky.

Probably the biggest disadvantage of the system is that it can be a little heavy on the book-keeping side. Each wound has to be tracked separately, as does each skill usage for training purposes. There is also the potential problem that if the players go into it with a D&D 3.5 mindset their characters are going to die frequently until they change their playing style - the system can be quite lethal to characters if they're not careful.
We've played Deathwatch. The toughest challenge they were up against is a Gene Stealer Lord and his brood. They got attacked in a narrow tunnel on both sides by hundreds of things that could kill them in one hit. The lord was firing off psychic lance attacks. Point is they should have died, but because they planned through the attack by placing down explosives in advance. And making use of squad based powers and generally being smart they defeated them without a scratch.

So they are pretty smart when they have to be. Hence why I am looking for a game to try with them that isn't 3.5.

Siegel
2012-05-31, 01:43 AM
Burning Wheel? IF you like Harn then there is a Burning Harn hack out there.

Gamgee
2012-05-31, 01:57 AM
Ooo, burning wheel looks so good.

I think I've narrowed it down to Harnmaster > Burning Wheel > A Riddle of Steel.

J.Gellert
2012-05-31, 02:11 AM
Conan RPG (D20) :smallbiggrin:

Gamgee
2012-05-31, 02:19 AM
Conan RPG (D20) :smallbiggrin:
I have this, I love it. I want to play a game of it. Except all of them hated it. Though in part it was due to one player who decided to play a slutty noble heiress. Yea... you can see where it got off track. -_-

But they will refuse to give it a new chance.

king.com
2012-05-31, 02:54 AM
Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay? Never actually played it myself but heard nothing but good things if you want low fantasy roleplaying.

Knaight
2012-05-31, 02:58 AM
On the lighter end, there are a few good options. Barbarians of Lemuria, Jaws of the Six Serpents, and Lamentation of the Flame Princess are all extremely Conanesque, and good games besides. If the game won't be out for a while, Blood Sweat and Steel should be out soon*, and is a fair bit crunchier.

*Maybe.

Yora
2012-05-31, 04:34 AM
I want to evoke something along the lines of Conan the Barbarian crossed with the Witcher series of games.

Dragon Age! :smallbiggrin:

That pretty much hits the spot of the kind of games I want to run, and from all the systems I looked into, Dragon Age RPG seemed to be the clear prime candidate.

Driderman
2012-05-31, 05:14 AM
Barbarians of Lemuria and, as always, Savage World would be my suggestions.
Both low-magic, mechanics-light systems that focus on quick and gritty combat resolution.
Both very good for Conan-esque "Sword and not-so-much Sorcery" settings in my opinion

Morty
2012-05-31, 05:20 AM
All the systems I'd suggest have been mentioned already, but GURPS does low fantasy pretty well if you play on low tech level and with low point values for your characters.

Grail
2012-05-31, 06:27 AM
Maelstrom (http://www.arion-games.com/maelstrom/maelstrom.html)
This is a very quick to learn, fun to play RPG based in a 16th century England complete with evil spirits and Magick. It was originally published in the mid-80's and has had a recent reboot with a Maelstrom Companion and a few other bits and pieces as well as some published adventures. Easy to convert into a true fantasy setting. The Magic system is completely open-ended and works on the manipulation of reality and probability.
I love this game.

True 20 (http://true20.com/)
This is a 3.5 derivative, but is a generic game system. Combat is epic and brutally dangerous at the same time. Magic has been morphed into supernatural powers that are individually like some kind of super spell, where each power can do multiple things. Saying that, dropping magic altogether, or nerfing the power is super simple, and straight forward. There are some Quickstart rules (http://true20.com/support/2006/04/true20-quick-start-rules.php) that outline the basic fundamentals of the system.
This is another great game.

Gamgee
2012-05-31, 08:35 AM
Looking over a whole bunch of systems in a really short time span, the ones to catch my attention the most for what I'm looking to play is Harnmaster and Riddle of Steel. So I will likely pick up both of those, they've impressed me so much.

Though hopefully in the future I can try out Burning Wheel and all of the others mentioned.

Edit
Looked at Riddle of Steel prices, damn. Might have to go Burning Wheel out of practicality.

Siegel
2012-05-31, 08:43 AM
Looking over a whole bunch of systems in a really short time span, the ones to catch my attention the most for what I'm looking to play is Harnmaster and Riddle of Steel. So I will likely pick up both of those, they've impressed me so much.

Though hopefully in the future I can try out Burning Wheel and all of the others mentioned.

Edit
Looked at Riddle of Steel prices, damn. Might have to go Burning Wheel out of practicality.

Feel free to ask about it. I love the system.

Gamgee
2012-05-31, 08:53 AM
Feel free to ask about it. I love the system.
Looked up Burning Wheel, it is so dirt cheap I can grab it anyways. Weee inexpensive RPG's!

Edit
How lethal is the combat? Just a broad overview if you will.

Totally Guy
2012-05-31, 09:09 AM
Looked at Riddle of Steel prices, damn. Might have to go Burning Wheel out of practicality.

Jake Norwood, the Riddle of Steel guy, wrote the foreword for the new Burning Wheel edition. It looks like the pair share a good deal of their philosophies. He seems to like it.

Siegel
2012-05-31, 09:15 AM
Looked up Burning Wheel, it is so dirt cheap I can grab it anyways. Weee inexpensive RPG's!

Edit
How lethal is the combat? Just a broad overview if you will.

Combat can end really quickly but it's hard to flat out kill a guy. Knocking him out or scareing him away is easy. Beware of Longbows...

Gamgee
2012-05-31, 09:38 AM
Combat can end really quickly but it's hard to flat out kill a guy. Knocking him out or scareing him away is easy. Beware of Longbows...
Any rules for generating monsters? While I don't intend for them to be an every day thing in my game, I still want them there.

Edit
Hmm... sound like the combat is a little forgiving then. This could actually be a good thing.

dsmiles
2012-05-31, 10:57 AM
I'm going to chime in here. Rolemaster/H.A.R.P. is an excellent and extremely modular (though also extremely rules-heavy) system. Unwanted components can easily be deleted, such as fantasy races and magic.

Gamgee
2012-05-31, 01:01 PM
I went with Burning Wheel. If I and my players don't like it we can go to Harnmaster. It's a pretty daunting book at 600 pages, now onwards to reading.

Totally Guy
2012-05-31, 01:12 PM
The first 70 pages are the most important ones.

It may not look it at first but it really is the foundation of the structure.

Gamgee
2012-05-31, 02:09 PM
The first 70 pages are the most important ones.

It may not look it at first but it really is the foundation of the structure.
I'm only 17 page sin and its all starting to click in place, I can see once you get the hang of it that it's going to be quite the elegant and under rated system.

Empedocles
2012-05-31, 08:59 PM
A free RPG in progress that might help you:

The Third Kingdom. (http://www.thirdkingdomgame.com/)

You might only use parts of it, like the fairly brilliant development point system, but definitely worth a look for mid/low fantasy. The thing is, most everyone in this game has some magic, but the magic is very Game of Thrones-esque (subtle) and limited.

Gamgee
2012-05-31, 11:54 PM
Read the first 74 pages, my god. This is one of the best RPG's I have ever read in my life. I don't know if it is the best, but it's certainly in the top 5. Hell it might make top 3 in play. I thought my players would hesitate to like it, but one look and they were impressed. The ones I showed it to at least.

It looks great, do not regret adding it to my collection even if it never gets used. Which seems impossible at this point.

Psikerlord
2016-06-22, 07:31 AM
I dont mean to toot my own horn, but I suggest Low Fantasy Gaming (disclosure: I wrote it!)

http://https://lowfantasygaming.com/2016/05/ (https://lowfantasygaming.com/2016/05/")

It's a D&D variant, OSR/modern hybrid, low magic (dark and dangerous magic too), only one magic user class (amalgamated spell list), 4 martial classes (bard, barbarian, fighter, rogue), martial exploits, roll equal or under attribute for misc actions, gritty/injuries, 12th level max, reroll pool, luck attribute, and other bits and pieces, including a "Party Retreat" rule and fun chase rules.

Anyhoo, just thought I would throw LFG into the mix of options.

Cheers.

Lacco
2016-06-22, 03:23 PM
I'd second Riddle of Steel.

Or Blade of the Iron Throne.

Or even Song of Steel...

...BoIT and SoS (:smallbiggrin:) are successor games.

Koo Rehtorb
2016-06-22, 03:52 PM
Any rules for generating monsters? While I don't intend for them to be an every day thing in my game, I still want them there.

Edit
Hmm... sound like the combat is a little forgiving then. This could actually be a good thing.

As an addendum... it's impossible to kill a PC in Burning Wheel that the player doesn't want killed. They can do the equivalent of spending a trivial amount of xp to declare that their character doesn't die. That being said, if you're at the point of invoking that rule what you're doing is choosing between "My character dies" and "My character is probably in a coma for somewhere in the neighbourhood of two years and probably crippled after that." Combat is best avoided if you have any other choice as it is extremely dangerous. Characters can and will drop from a single lucky hit.

As an additional suggestion, if you want something even grittier, there's also Torchbearer. It's built off the same framework as Burning Wheel, but it's tuned for playing a party of friendless murderhobos delving into dungeons to recover loot so they can afford to survive in a world that hates them. It's explicitly designed for dungeon crawling and does an amazing job with it.

goto124
2016-06-23, 02:17 AM
choosing between "My character dies" and "My character is probably in a coma for somewhere in the neighbourhood of two years and probably crippled after that."

What do you do in the two years time? Roll up a new character?Doesn't seem much different from death.

Mutazoia
2016-06-23, 02:26 AM
I would have to second Iron Heroes. We ran a Conan style game with this, did not house-rule in any magic at all, and it worked just fine. Your combat abilities more than make up for the lack of magic weapons/armor.

Koo Rehtorb
2016-06-23, 09:14 AM
What do you do in the two years time? Roll up a new character?Doesn't seem much different from death.

Depends what's happening, really. Make a new character or do a time skip, if the situation permits.

LibraryOgre
2016-06-23, 09:22 AM
Hackmaster.

Hackmaster Basic is free for getting your feet wet, but the game is fantastic. Well designed, with a seconds-based initiative system. The standard magic types are present, but more balanced against warrior types. Attributes are generally lower, but they matter in several different ways, and it's frequently a good idea to carry a shield so you don't get killed quite so easily.

The core world, the Kingdoms of Kalamar, is designed from a standpoint of realism... or, at least, realism when one bears in mind that monsters and magic are real. The hobgoblins as several kingdoms. Humans have a variety of languages and ethnic groups, and the history of the rise and fall of human empires is important in the game if you want it to be.

Koo Rehtorb
2016-06-23, 09:26 AM
And, just because I like the section, here's the passage from the book.


The system described above is intended to be painful and ugly. Characters are meant to feel like corporal beings, vulnerable to harm. Most will suffer one good wound and find themselves unable to continue; after being pierced with a sword, a character's will to fight drops dramatically. In game-mechanical terms: Less dice are rolled and a tough Steel test is required.

This feel is deliberate in the mechanics and meant to set the mood of the game. Pain is a real thing for characters in this game, and it is something the players should remain aware of. It is possible, of course, to build a character who is highly resistant to pain, but he would be the anomaly and not the rule. for most of us, one good injury and we are in trouble.

I take the time to describe this here because I know it influences play. It seems like a rule in our games: when swords and drawn nobody flinches. We assume we'll take our whacks and then it will be over, neat and clean. That is not the case in this game. Combined with the scripted melee system, injury is ugly and messy. It seriously affects game play - characters can be forced out of action for long periods of time, or even removed from play entirely.

After such a stark warning, this may seem odd to say, but Burning Wheel is not a deadly game. More often than not, a character is injured and drops out of the fight. It's uncommon for one to be killed outright. Which, again, is the exact intent of these rules.

So be aware that your characters exist in a world where a single sword thrust or bow shot can mean something. And let that knowledge drive ferocious and desperate battles!

LibraryOgre
2016-06-23, 10:47 AM
The Mod Wonder: Well, my face is red. It was pointed out that this is a bit necro'd. Like, a lot necro'd. So, closed.