I'm not a expert on low fantasy TTRPGs and I was thinking if anons play them and what are their opinions and their favorites? What you recomend? Pic related is what made me think to ask this, the world of low fantasy in TTRPG seems interesting, but I suppose not all player like it

>>96030918 (OP)
GURPS

>>96031007
I hoped something more than GURPS, not that I don't like it, I play both 3rd and 4th edition. Just tought there were more games.

>>96030918 (OP)
You need to actually define what you mean by "low fantasy," because the term has been bastardized to the point of near uselessness.

>>96030918 (OP)
Ah, yes, casually summoning minions out of thin air and polymorphing into a velociraptor, staples of low fantasy....

>>96032576
People on this board think that The Witcher, Warhammer Fantasy, and Game of Thrones are all low fantasy. It's a term completely without meaning anymore.

Some of you all need to be educated.
Fantasy is how far from our world the setting is.
Magic is how magical the setting is.

Game of Thrones is high fantasy, low magic.
Warcraft is high fantasy, high magic.
Call of Cthulhu is low fantasy, low magic.

I think he means grounded fantasy with low fantasy. Magic is rare and the world functions mostly like a more or less bastardized version of european middle ages. there are different religions and so on, but basically they work similar. witcher, gothic and game of thrones fall in that category.

>>96033385
Magic isn't rare in either or gothic or The Witcher.

>>96033458
well it's not high magic either.
only the priest caste and alchemists (to some degree) have access to it in gothic. in witcher it is similar.

>>96033458
In The Witcher, for humans, magic is still relatively rare, and even magical creatures are uncommon (due to witchers killing so many of them).
Supernatural things are the exception, as they are in GoT.

the dark eye is more or less like this. magic and the gods are more common than in the witcher, but it is still a grounded setting.

>>96032416
>>96032629
Yeah maybe even myself I used the wrong term, but what I mean is a grounded world with magic that is hard to reach I mean if you wan to become a wizard it'll be hard and maybe you ened 2 years to learn just how to produce sparks with your hands. while there are magic monsters but not much, while races even few, infact like gothic.
A game where Magic is powerful but only kept by few and the method to cast magic you have to use a cathalist and you're not born with it.
>>96033385
You explained maybe even better.

Warhammer Fantasy RPG is the go to recommendation and I've been having quite a bit of fun with 4e. Player magic is tiny and super expensive in xp, world magic is just corruption mutating things and you. Fantastical enough to not be historical at all, it's its own setting, but not something you want to be burdened with.

>>96030918 (OP)
Grounded Fantasy I think is what you mean, or plausible fanasy, one where magic follows a kind of logic. Fable fantasy is how I call my prefered setting, were magic is part of it all but without wizards throwing fireballs around (tough they can get summoned fireballs like the bombs from FF to act as one!).

>>96030918 (OP)
proper low fantasy is like conan the barbarian. Magic is shamanic ghost communing shit, giant monsters are as rare as a winning mega millions lotta ticket and most combat involves good old swords and bows. No magic artifacts, warlords are powerful due to a mass of bodies they can throw at problems, cults are underground and most likely to come for you while you sleep, titties are everywhere and only through the power of muscles and steel can you find glory.

The Dark Eye

>>96038376
lmao

>>96030918 (OP)
As the setting itself? Harn. The setting's concept is "you decide how much fantasy you want".
As a system itself though HarnMaster is... you might as well run GURPS and go full medieval simulationist.

>>96032781
I don't know if resurrection and zombie armies is low magic.

>>96038376
what you're describing doesn't really sound like Conan.

>>96045223
Depends. Is it a once-in-history apocalyptic event? Or does it happen every other year or two?

>>96030918 (OP)
>Gothic
>Especially II
>MUH LOW FANTASINIO!

>>96045943
For most of it it feels low fantasy (atleast for the most memorable parts of it). The high fantasy stuff is taking place in the backgrounds, or is really mundane.

>>96045346
This. I don't know why it's so common for secondaries to invoke Conan to push their overly-specific vision of fantasy without having ever read his stories.

D&D 3.5 but everyone plays an NPC class, only one person can be an Adept or Magewright, and everyone has to roll checks not shit themselves to death every hour.

>>96045978
Let's write it down, ok?
>Fantasy races
>Functional, learnable magic
>To the point a random petty thief can master it
>And other random schmucks use plentiful, omnipresent magical artifacts
>Magical knights as a result of above
>Fantastic beasts of all kinds and shapes
>Undead, both created and naturally-occuring
>Magical constructs in case you don't like the rotting corpses
>Magical metals with both mundane and supernatural properties in single package
>Eldritch beings aplenty, and you, a random petty thief, just killed one of them
>Cults, ancient conspiracies and pacts with and over the supernatural
Gee, what a lowly low fantasy world it is! I guess as long as we ignore all the actual fucking setting, we can all pretend it's same level as vanilla M&B when it comes to low fantasy stuff.
I will never understand the sort of mental gymnastics Gothic fandom makes to claim their setting of choice isn't standard fare heroic fantasy (as in - escapistic story AND of fantasy genre) in both a high-magic and high-fantasy world. But then this is a game favoured by Poles and autistic Germans, so either of them admitting they had fun or played something outlandish and thus gay borders on impossible.

>>96030918 (OP)
>>96032416
Remember kids
>low fantasy
Set in our world, but with fantastic elements
>high fantasy
Set in a world not ours, with fantastic elements

Gothic is High Fantasy, so are The Witcher, Warhammer and Game of Thrones.

>>96047362
Listen, you're right, but a bunch of people are going to argue that you're wrong. That's why I think high/low magic, sword and Sorcery, dark fantasy, or a direct comparison to other media you want to replicate the feel of are a lot more useful than the high/low dichotomy.

>>96047046
Anon. I never said Gothic is low fantasy. I said that throughout much of the game, it feels low fantasy so some people lump the whole thing in with low fantasy. It's obviously high fantasy, but with a mudcore aesthetic. First thing you do is harvest turnips to buy the dirty clothes of a random farmer.

>>96047046
>their setting of choice isn't standard fare heroic fantasy
Gothic 1 isn't. Since you are just some snarky asshole who's only goal is to escape the prison.

Wow OP here, like how the argument is going, i'm learning a lot from all of you anons, both what is thematically Low fantasy and new RPGs, anyway I found "The Dark Eye 1st ed" in my language (lucky that by searching for it mine was one of the few countries that got a translation), really digging the game and I love Old Rpgs since I discovered BECMI, this game fit like a glove.
Anyway When I choose Gothic I didn't tought it wasn't low fantasy, it felt like one
>Only humans
>few fantasy races
>Undead creatures occour seems naturally
>Magic can only be casted through runes and magic litterature
>Magic is treated with knowledge and studying the arts instead of beign born with it and wave your hands at random and something appear.
Sorry if i got it wrong.
Anyway I like this thread how is going.
For me Low fantasy was always what I percived mundane or infact with "low fantasy" tropes, like there are humans but not elves or dwarves or similar, or like there is magic but is complicated and doesn't give what you expect.

>>96054048
What language? The Dark Eye 1 is really old, the current version is 5 (although many still swear by 4), maybe those are translated too? There is a lot of material for the world still being released. The fanwiki is really good, but sadly (for you) it is only in German.

>>96054167
When someone mentioned the Dark Eye, like many started by wikipedia it had a thread in my language and said that was only translated the first edition when it came out to Nethelands and Italy, I'm italian the name of the game was changed to "A gaze into darkness(Uno sguardo nel buio)" and I found out there still a wiki of first edition and communities in italy about the first edition and the 5th edition came out even here and has improved over the years I read.

>>96054538
>there still a wiki of first edition and communities in italy about the first edition
That's honestly pretty funny and charming at the same time.

Hope you have fun with the setting, Itabro.

>>96047046
>But then this is a game favoured by Poles and autistic Germans
The Homo Sovieticus longs for the Gulag.

>>96032629
It's very easy to run an WFRP game where your PCs never come within a mile of any wizard, dwarf, elf, orc, enchanted object, magic potion, etc.

>>96055716
>It's totally a low magic setting if you just ignore everything about the setting!

Poland, please go home. You're drunk.

>>96055740
Yes. What's your problem?

OP wants to run a low-magic game. That can exist in a setting where lots of magic happens other places.

It's like how in a cyberpunk game your PCs don't normally encounter tanks.

>>96055740
>how can African kids starve if there is all this food I have here on the other end of the world?
Anon, "setting" is not equivalent to "universe".

>>96055789
>>96055882
Weird. When I play in a game in the Warhammer setting, it's because I want to play a game in the Warhammer setting, not pretend that the old world is actually some other setting.

But you do you, I guess.

In wfrp, if you start the game using regular chargen rules, none of your wizards/witches will be able to cast any spells until 5-6 sessions in. Thats pretty low fantasy i think.

>>96056094
I don't know, I never played Warhammer, I'm just making a distinction.

>>96056123
That isn't true. If you get or chose one of the spellcaster types you can spend your starting xp to get the lowest level spells right out of the gate.

>>96055789
No, it'd be like if you ran cyberpunk and took out cyberwear. Magic, cultists, dark gods, monsters and demihumans are all part of the setting. Could you ignore that and just have the players fighting bandits for 20 sessions? I guess so, but why? To what end?

>>96056188
Those are petty spells, not real spells. And you need 100xp to buy the talent...

>>96056258
And you have 100 xp to start out with. And petty spells are still magic.

>>96030918 (OP)
Genesys

>>96056285
not exactly...
+20xp for random race
+50xp for random attributes
+25xp for random star sign
you have a very low chance of rolling wizard/witch on the career table so if you pick one instead of rolling you'll only start with 95xp.

>>96058863
>+20xp for random race
doesn't random race potentialy exclude you from playing wizard at all? IIRC the career is only available to humans and elves, but not halflings and dwarves

>>96056212
>guess so, but why? To what end?

Maybe because you want to run a low fucking fantasy game and you're looking for a good system.

And yes, I've seen people use cyberpunk games without all the cyberpunk shit when looking for games that handle guns, melee, and stealth all together pretty well.

>>96059382
yes, but since you have a more or less 95% chance of rolling a human/elf you should always roll on the random race table and take the extra xp.

>>96058863
Im thinking of second edition. In 2e, you just get 100 xp with which to buy your first advance.

The one time I played 4e, we were porting characters over from a different system, and started with extra xp.

Why do people always forget that this is a TTRPG, not a computer game, and you can ask your players to just not pick a wizard, or to limit them to minor spells to start.

Why do people always forget that terms and phrases have meaning? So if someone starts a thread asking for "low fantasy TRRPGs" or if people try to have a conversation about "low fantasy settings", saying "[high fantasy setting's] rules can be used to run a low fantasy game" is useless both because it's contrary to the spirit of the prompt and also because you can apply the same method to literally any ruleset or setting. You can set a game in the Forgotten Realms and have it take place in some backwater hamlet where the players are all dirt farmers who never encounter so much as a goblin. You can run a Dresden Files or Harry Potter game where the players are all muggles in some random Brazilian village. You can run a game set in the Marvel universe where the players are mundane samurai mercenaries in a normal Mexican city under Spanish rule. The same goes for literally any system or setting. That doesn't mean that all TTRPGs are low-fantasy TTRPGs.

>>96061351
>games can only be played in precisely the way that they are written

Go back to your console.

>>96061351
Systems are ultimately just interfaces to interact with a given fictional setting. If the interface works well enough for another setting without needing to make concessions, why not continue to use the interface?

>>96062154
I would say "ignoring major games systems" constitute concessions.

>>96062166
By concessions I mean concessions with the setting you want to play, not with the system you are using. Sure you can also find another system, but if the system you are using is capable of portraying the things you want to do without being a detriment to them, you might aswell use the system you and your players are familiar with.