Wanting to run a game with low fantasy, dangerous magic, sword-and-sorcery feel. Ran the campaign in Iron Heroes years ago, but wondering if better options now.
I know there were some popular Dungeon Crawl focused games a few years back. Don't remember any of them, though.
Thanks
>>44018826
Bonus points if it's free/ogl
Savage Worlds if done right.
Magic has a one in (however good you are, it's a dice size-based game) chance of backfiring catastrophically, each blow you take could be the lucky one that puts you down, and it's really fucking cheap. Like, ten bucks for the core rules cheap.
>>44018879
Thanks. Will eyeball wikipedia on it. I've heard of a few low-fantasy games in the past but just have been out of gaming too long and my Google-Fu was leading me to strange places.
I want to say one of the Iron Heroes books has rules for running using FantasyCraft and a few other systems. Given how FantasyCraft has grown since Iron Heroes, it might not be a bad way to go.
>>44018826
>A Variant Player's Handbook
>By Monte Cook
HOW MANY OF THESE ARE THERE?
If not just the ones by Cook, how many "Variant Player's Handbooks" for 3.5 are there?
I can do one better.
This should give you an idea of how it plays, especially for a fantasy game. The core book has a bunch of optional rules for getting things exactly how you want them, like nastier damage or not having to count magic points if you're playing a spellcaster.
>>44018901
I really liked Iron Heroes. It drops pretty much all magic for a more thematic and dynamic token system. Combat and non combat encounters are less static and more swinging from chandeliers or climbing big baddies, exchanging tokens for effects so you're not standing still trading blows.
What little magic there is in the game requires sacrifices to be safe to use, even magic items are more like low grade curses with a minor boon than just a healing potion or +1 sword.
>>44018992
It definitely sounds awesome. I immediately went to download it. Monte Cook's Arcana Unearthed (Not to be confused with Unearthed Acana) is pretty sweet too!
In that, instead of traditional character classes, you have a class that's based on your character's connection to the world. For instance, you might have a character that works towards a goal, and he can "smite" anything that prevents him from achieving that goal.
>>44018901
>>44019058
>>44018992
I just posted because I was curious as to how many variants to the 3.5 rules have actually been published. (While 3.5 DOES get a lot of guff, I happen to find most of it's campaigns and variants to be really interesting and worthwhile.)
D&D 5e
>>44018901
Cook didn't actually MAKE Iron Heroes. It was Mike Mearles' and Adam Windsor's baby, Cook just went to bat with the company for them because he was WotC's golden boy at the time.
Having actually MET Cook a couple times, he's a genuinely nice guy with a lot of love for the hobby. His rules are mediocre to crap, but he's still a good guy.
>>44019088
It depends on how you count d20-based games. Actual "this is an alternate PHB" games aren't a lot, but there are dozens of self-contained player's books and the like.
Personally, I find that the best 3.5 variants are those that distanced themselves from the base game - True20 or Mutants and Masterminds for example.
>>44019147
I'd say you're right, there.
OP, have you tried the Conan RPG? It's basically D&D, with less magic and rules for being scantly clad...
>>44018826
I like that there are a bunch of variants to each weapon.
You have to respect a game that gives you 5 different kinds of cudgel.
>>44018901
>FantasyCraft
Dude never really gets tired of making games.
>>44018927
Nice. Lieber's books are on my shelf waiting to be read.
Also, I go to the store and have 10 replies. Most of my /tg/ threads die aborted deaths.
>>44018992
Yeah, that's why I used it. I wanted a low magic game with dangerous magic when it's used, where players could face some nasty monsters but have to do it without Vancian Magic and Magic Swords +Argh. Opinions of the game have slipped in the years since, though, plus I sold my books and will have to reacquire the game if I use it again.
>>44019058
>Monte Cook's Arcana Unearthed (Not to be confused with Unearthed Acana
This has always annoyed me.
>>44019088
The OGL really blew the doors open for people. Everything was being made as a D20 game for a while.
>>44019179
It's on a mental list to check out. Conan is kind of the definitive low fantasy work to many people. Not sure what the setting and such of the RPG are, though. For all I know, all weapons could be primitive spears or characters could have air ships.
To be fair, the post-Howard Conan books did a lot to make Conan's setting of Hyboria/Cimmeria a little uneven. Not to mention the movies.
>>44018826
OP here.
For anyone who doesn't know Iron Heroes and doesn't care to look it up, Iron Heroes was essentially a 3.5 variant that emphasized martial combat (usually with token based action economy), de-emphasizing magic. The only magic class in the core book is Arcanist, and essentially characters can easily go mad using it.
The setting is generic, as DMs should make it their own, but essentially mankind had some dark master in the past and has only in the last few generations started to come into its own.
Gritty, low-magic dark fantasy in most cases. Fun times.
>>44018826
Iron Heroes is horrible.
>>44019894
The fact that many people have this opinion is why this post is asking for suggestions of similar games.
RuneQuest is a great low-fantasy game if you like crunchy combat.
>>44020416
Depends on the setting. Glorantha isn't really what I'd call low fantasy.
>>44018826
Follow-up question.
Are any of these suited to Play-by-Post?
>>44018901
Do you ever look up into the heavens and count the stars?
>>44021545
Coming soon from Monte Cook, "Star Counting, a 3.5 Variant Player's Guide"
>>44018826
Well, looks dead. Thanks for the help guys. Will check out Savage Worlds, Conan, FantasyCraft, and RuneQuest.
Also did some more googling and found suggestions for DungeonWorld, Riddle of Steel, and a couple others.
Thanks
Some version of RuneQuest, I personally prefer RQ6. It has magic of the low and high variety but they're entirely optional and the game features a robust combat system.
>>44020730
Mythic Britain or Pendragon then.
>>44024851
Best of luck, anon.
