Low Fantasy and The Curse Of Strahd

[2D6GREATAXE]

Sooo my BFF, fellow player and sometimes DM has seen some rules and settings for a low fantasy 5e play style guide, while I find the idea abhorrent if its something our group wants to do who am I to limit the fun.

He has pondered the idea of using Curse of Strahd as a possible setting for the low fantasy mechanic. What I would like to know is, whether people who have already played The Curse of Strahd think it will work?

No spoilers please!

P.S this is my first post so I hope I have put this in the correct section.

thanks

[Unoriginal]

Sooo my BFF, fellow player and sometimes DM has seen some rules and settings for a low fantasy 5e play style guide, while I find the idea abhorrent if its something our group wants to do who am I to limit the fun.

He has pondered the idea of using Curse of Strahd as a possible setting for the low fantasy mechanic. What I would like to know is, whether people who have already played The Curse of Strahd think it will work?

No spoilers please!

P.S this is my first post so I hope I have put this in the correct section.

thanks

I haven't played it, but Curse of Strahd is very much not fit for low fantasy.

Well, I suppose it depends what your friend defines as "low fantasy".

[GooeyChewie]

Unless we have vastly different definitions of “low fantasy,” Ravenloft (and by extension Curse of Strahd) is not a low fantasy setting.

[SirGraystone]

Without spoiling the story, Curse of Strahd as a more gothic/horror feeling then the other campaigns. It could do well in a low fantasy or more renaissance setting but it does have lots of dangerous encounters with creatures having resistance to non magical attack.

Some like werewolves can be harm by silver weapon, but some other like vampire spawn could be deadly. So some adjustments would be needed. The only really high magic part I would probably remove from the story is the Amber Temple.

[Unoriginal]

One could argue D&D's vampires and werewolves aren't low fantasy.

[2D6GREATAXE]

One could argue D&D's vampires and werewolves aren't low fantasy.

This was my thoughts.

[2D6GREATAXE]

thanks for the reply's Giants.

I too felt CoS was not the best setting to try this I will pass the sentiments along.

[smcmike]

What, exactly, is “low fantasy?”

[2D6GREATAXE]

What, exactly, is “low fantasy?”

A world where magic and spells are incredibly rear.
Think the first book of a Song of Fire and Ice.
Rather than being dragonS there is like A dragon.

there's a great video on web DM about low magic/fantasy and how to implement it into 5E. Like I said earlier though, its not my cup of tea.

[GooeyChewie]

What, exactly, is “low fantasy?”

“Low” refers to the amount of fantastical elements within the fantasy. A low-fantasy setting will likely feature a human-dominated world with only limited magic. It’s a pretty loose term, so I can see how one person might consider Ravenloft low fantasy and another not apply the same term.

[smcmike]

I looked it up after asking. Maybe I should try the reverse next time!

I can see why CoS might look like potential low fantasy. If you take “low fantasy” to mean a generally realistic world with intrusive fantastic elements, horror as a genre fits almost entirely within low fantasy, and CoS is horror.

[SirGraystone]

A world where magic and spells are incredibly rear.
Think the first book of a Song of Fire and Ice.
Rather than being dragonS there is like A dragon.

there's a great video on web DM about low magic/fantasy and how to implement it into 5E. Like I said earlier though, its not my cup of tea.

By that definition none of WotC campaign books are low fantasy.

[Red Bear]

I'm not sure what you mean exactly but I would say it's kinda low fantasy, It's not game of thrones low fantasy but it's probably one of the lowest fantasy of the published 5e adventures, no dwarfs, no orcs, no magic item store, no spellcaster that cast spells for money in every city, no temple with clerics that heal you in every city etc.

[Temperjoke]

Honestly, OP, it would take a lot of work for someone to try and convert any published 5e adventure into a "low fantasy" setting. Curse of Strahd is probably the easiest of all of them, if you ignore everything that makes it Curse of Strahd.

Your DM would be better served just world building and using maps from a published adventure.