[3.X] Running a Game of Thrones game.

[Vin Robinson]

Hello playground. I have always been obsessed with running a very low / no magic game as I think magic should be incredibly rare and powerful rather than an every day occurrence. I understand that doing this with Dungeons and Dragons effectively strips out more than half of the game, but it is what myself and my gaming group is familiar with.

I bounced this idea off of them and they loved it, but playing in the Game of Thrones setting has them completely thrilled out of their minds, and suddenly they can't wait to finish the campaign we are currently playing.

There are lots of ideas I have floating around, but the easiest would be to have them be Rangers of the Night's Watch. There would be lots to do on both sides of the wall, and perhaps eventually I could have them take control of one of the abandoned castles along the wall and see what they do with it.

The Classes I can think of without spellcasting or would be easy to make have no spellcasting are: Barbarian, Fighter, Rogue, Ranger, maybe Paladin, Martial(For a bardy-type), the Pathfinder Alchemist refluffed as maesters that use non-magical herbalism maybe? And Knight/Cavalier.

Another thing I was kicking around would be to have them have their first few levels in NPC classes (Aristocrat, Warrior, Expert, Commoner) and then use the regular classes for prestige.

I also think I might cap the level in a pseudo-E6 way to make sure that attack rolls don't massively outpace the AC of things.

To overcome the usual need for magical healing I was thinking of using the Vitality and Wound Points variant (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/adventuring/vitalityAndWoundPoints.htm) having your vitality points return to you with an hour of rest instead of a night, and having your wounds heal at a natural rate with heal skill assistance.

Anything else to consider? I'm just looking to bounce some ideas off people here.

[Urpriest]

Any particular reason you don't want to use the existing Game of Thrones RPG? It's even d20 if I'm remembering right.

Alchemists, even at low level, do really flashy stuff. I don't think they'd work for Maester-esque herbalists.

[Valdor]

Was just about to say exactly what Urpriest said. If you didnt know, they already do have a d20 system Game of Thrones role playing games. They already have stats for a lot of the major characters as well as everything you need to know about making a noble or a base born characters. They also have a different regional bonuses depending on where your from in the Seven Kingdoms. The only problem is they do not have anything past the first book.

to answer your actual question though, you do have the right idea for the most part. Especially with the wound and vitality points instead of straight hit points. Also maybe using the variant of armor as damage reduction would be also feel more towards the theme. I would also suggest if you do not already do so, using a low point by system so that nobody is super human strong or anything like that straight from the beginning. That is really all that comes to my head at this moment.

[Gemini476]

Any particular reason you don't want to use the existing Game of Thrones RPG? It's even d20 if I'm remembering right.

Alchemists, even at low level, do really flashy stuff. I don't think they'd work for Maester-esque herbalists.

There is a Game of Thrones RPG, yes, but it's not that good.

The good one is the Song of Ice and Fire Role Playing Game. It has rules for intrigue, lethal combat, and an awesome House creation system!

I never got around to playing not, sadly, but the rules were easy enough to learn. Just roll a bunch of d6, with some similar mechanics to the D&DNext Advantage/Disadvantage system.

[Helcack]

I played in one a while back using D&D. We used the normal healing rules and just made it so people had to rest for days to recover(it was actually really cool) and the armour as DR was awesome. We were working for littlefinger secretly doing all the behind the scenes stuff that was going on in the books but wasn't explicitly detailed as to how they happened. It was quite fun, and I agree that low magic games are awesomesauce.

[IronFist]

I suggest you use Green Ronin's Song of Ice and Fire Roleplaying. It's an excellent game system that really catches the setting's feel.

I specially like the house creation rules.

[IdleMuse]

Seconding NOT using the d20 Game of Thrones; it's quite old, and, while each class is well thought out, there's so little variety between characters, you really have to stretch to create mechanical variance.

Oh, and armour-as-DR doesn't work, at all.