How would one go about in making combat in a very low magic setting (like ASoIaF or LOTR) fun? I'm thinking about starting a world like that, but without healers and mages to switch-up terrain or crazy gnome gadgets it seems like combat might get too boring. Perhaps I should make combat really challenging and unforgiving so that my players would avoid it (like any person would do if their universe didn't have healers or priests that would ressurrect you)?
Play Strike! with no magic and tactical grid combat.
>>47689641
Play something other than DnD.
>>47689641
Introduce primitive guns.
>>47690199
>OP suggests games that aren't D&D
>gets told not to play D&D
D&D apparently causes brain damage in people who don't like it.
>>47689641
Play Song of Swordsor Riddle of Steelincredibly intense, dangerous combat where small mistakes can cost you an arm or a leg-or your head.
Encounter design is probably more important for keeping fights interesting than the system itself unless it's one of those systems where the players are deciding if there's a chandelier to drop on an enemy themselves
But I don't exactly see why you need magic to make combat interesting in any system I've played before
>>47689648
Stop shilling Strike!
Why does /tg/ keep shilling Strike!?
>>47690362
I don't get the impression it's an overwhelming amount of people on /tg/. Every once in a while I see someone recommending it followed by a post like yours
You know we have these entire genres of novels written by bored Englishmen which have absolutely no magic, but lots of people stabbing each other.
This is assuming you've gotten past the stage where you give reasons for your players to fight beyond "well, it seemed like a fun idea at the time".
>>47689641
Tome of Battle, mah Nignogomir. Ban Desert Wind and Shadow Hand (and possibly Devoted Spirit, if you're one of those people who are stupid enough to think healing has to be inherently magical) and you're pretty much good to go.
>>47690362
It's a meme, just like recommending GURPS.
>>47690362
>>47690404
It's basically the devs. They've even ousted themselves a couple of times when pressed.
I think they're still in denial about the fact that nobody can take their system seriously after reading what the core mechanic works like.
>>47690500
The only Strike writer guy who identifies himself is 2hu and even he says the whole noncombat side of the game is shit.
>>47690507
I meant as in, when someone says "you fucking devs stop shilling strike fgs" there have on multiple occasions been responses akin to "we're gonna keep shilling it and you can't stop us"
I'm not saying they left their address and phone number.
>>47689641
I would go for GURPS or BRP/RQ6 for that, magic is optional and the combat tends to be fast and deadly (rq6 is fun and cinematical when you get the basics right too).
>>47690621
That's not saying they're a dev.
>>47689641
>Perhaps I should make combat really challenging and unforgiving so that my players would avoid it (like any person would do if their universe didn't have healers or priests that would ressurrect you)?
Yes. That. Do that.
You're not supposed to run combat-heavy games in those kinds of systems, because people just end up dead.
The entire point of a low-magic, gritty setting is that things should feel tense, dangerous and believable, turning it all videogamey again would ruin it.
I play in a group that more or less exclusively play high-lethality, low or no magic games, and the payoff is that things end up feeling more real. When there's a risk, you plan around it, you solve most things socially, you act like a real person would, and when there's a proper fight, it's a huge event that often changes things a lot. Entire sessions can go without more combat than someone getting punched, leading up to the boiling point when there's outright hostility and weapons drawn, and you know it's do or die.
