I'm a United States Marine and most of the guys/gals I play with are Marines or close friends who listen and play Metal and Hardcore music. The thing I suspect everyone really likes about me running the campaign is that I keep it gritty, realistic, and have it play out like a gritty Vietnam movie. I'm heavily inspired by The Malazan Book of the Fallen, and others of this genre. However there are a few things I'm having some difficulties, I wouldn't consider myself a veteran D&D player so I've mostly been abiding by the rulebooks.
I don't want gold in my campaign to be really common, does anyone have recommendations for converting currency so that it doesn't conflict with fluctuating prices in the rulebook? How do I distribute starting currency to allow players to adapt to a new currency system?
I want magic to be very powerful and rare, I still don't want to limit Classes in this regard but how do I keep a more mundane feel to the rest of the setting If the players are using magic at whim. Do I limit magical items? or do I soften the power or potency of spells/items. Any advice?
I like keeping the danger of death and wounds part of the game, I've had a player's hand infect and had to be amputated to save his life before. Now that player only has one hand. For the more experienced DM's how does handicapping players early on affect their ability to play as the rest of the party grows in power?
Thanks in advance everyone!
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“The harder the world, the fiercer the honour.” ― Steven Erikson, Memories of Ice
2) I like to limit the magical items as well. That is entirely up to you. Maybe you can grant magical items to the party after a really hard quest.
3) For handicaps, I don't recall any table in the DMG, so is still up to you. Here two examples: A character with one hand is obviously incapacitated to use two-weapons fighting style or two-handed weapons. A character with one eye might have limited range for the ranged attacks and/or disavantage for attack comning from the blind side.
I don't want gold in my campaign to be really common, does anyone have recommendations for converting currency so that it doesn't conflict with fluctuating prices in the rulebook? How do I distribute starting currency to allow players to adapt to a new currency system?
Yeah, this one is pretty tough. It really all depends on how rare gold is, but you could try a simple conversion cutting all the prices and starting gold figures in half or any other easy conversion.
Edit: Or where ever the book mentions gold you could consider it silver or bronze pieces and convert it that way.
I want magic to be very powerful and rare, I still don't want to limit Classes in this regard but how do I keep a more mundane feel to the rest of the setting If the players are using magic at whim. Do I limit magical items? or do I soften the power or potency of spells/items. Any advice?
As far as keeping the mundane feel without limiting classes, make every magical thing the players do a specticle. If the party is in town and does a simple cantrip have townspeople react with shock and awe. On the flip side of that have some NPCs become paranoid and maybe even a little hostile when they see the party do simple magic. That way it really lets the players feel both powerful and isolated in that there obviously aren't to many others that do magic like this.
I like keeping the danger of death and wounds part of the game, I've had a player's hand infect and had to be amputated to save his life before. Now that player only has one hand. For the more experienced DM's how does handicapping players early on affect their ability to play as the rest of the party grows in power?
This kind of comes down to the player, at least partially. Some players will be able to play inspite of their character's handicaps better than others. But, if you see that a player is falling behind because of a handicap you can give them some benifits from it. The character without a hand, for example, maybe they could replace thier hand with a hook and get a buff to thier intimidation because of it, or they could come into contact with a villian who has also lost a hand but has replaced it a retractable blade and can attakc it as a bonus action even if the class they are playing wouldn't normally be able to do that. That may be out of place in a more realistic setting but it is just an example.
You might want to take a look at some other game systems as an option. I myself have only played dnd 5e, but I do know that there are other really great games that might fit your group better. Unfortunately, I don't really know what system would be less magic heavy and less gold heavy.
As for advice on keeping the feel of things more mundane, you could have spells that require material components actually need the material components. Do away with the idea of arcane focus and have the players need to either buy the materials or find them. They would only be able to hold a certain amount, and so their use of spells would be less frequent as a result...probably. Of course this would also completely nerf the abilities of magic classes, but then again I've never tried this myself. Just a thought.
As for handicapping, I wouldn't say a player would fall behind in terms of power. Definitely at the beginning, right after said loss, they would be at a huge advantage. But as they level there are ways the characters could over-come this handicap. You could think of it in terms of "well if I lose an arm I just have to learn to fight better with one". As a Marine you should know that things like loss of limb dont keep us from the fight. It might require some clever thinking and maybe a quest or two, but I feel like there are definite ways characters should be able to bounce back from loosing an arm or two.
If you like the low fantasy/grim dark setting you should try out the tactic that Chris Perkins used in DCA to make things more stressful - tease players with long rests. Give them short rests of course, but whenever they have time for long rests interupt it with something. Itll make them constantly feel on the run, cautious, and low on resources.
I would caution against lowering the power of spells as they are specifically balanced against the other classes and could make a spell using character underpowered. Nothing is worse than the Rogue always doing 50 points of damage while you are stuck doing 10 because the dm limited magic. Also means you would have to limit every spell which could be odd if you miss one.
As for wounds it's kinda bad if a player makes their character a certain way spending feats, gold, etc. For it all to become useless because of a wound. Could make the character unplayable or a lot weaker than everyone else.
As for converting gold, just give them copper or something. If you want you can alter the price of goods to that new currency.
Have you ever played Magic the Gathering? There's a plane called Zendikar were magic is on the wild. Like it could be super powerful or nonexistent. (At least that's what how I saw it.) That being said you could create places in your world that interferes with magical abilities. This would keep the magic-users on constant alert for their spells to work.
Another thing you could do is create an Ether Well that they have to drink from in order to keep their magic going. They could fill flasks with this liquid that would be good for X amount of days. Although they would need to drink this maybe once a day depending on how much power you want to give it. It would be a fun thing because if they aren't keeping track of it midway through a fight their magic might start to fail them. Something to think about.
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PbP Character: Stribog Northson(Zendikar/Eberron) "Why chase them when a bolt of lightening goes so much faster"
PbP Character: Vilk Dusza (The Peak's of Winter's Hold)
There's a d20 campaign setting called "Iron Heroes" that I strongly recommend you check out.
You'll have a hard time adapting 5e to a dark / low fantasy genre without breaking it (and thereby advantaging some PCs over others), but there are resources and other rules sets that I think might help you out.
I think lowering the potency of spells is the wrong way to go about it. If you want magic to be a grandiose gesture, its better to magic to actually be grandiose, yknow? Limiting magical artifacts ive found works really well. I try to give mine little backstories when I make them, so that theres some reason its where it is. My players are big into lore, so they enjoy eventually finding those stories out via roleplay and npc encounters. Personally, if im doing a low fantasy world I try to penalize magic in the world itself somehow, be it your classic witch hunters or something more creative. There's some good advice in this thread, let us now what you end up doing!
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A single paladin and a bunch of crazed murder-hobos
I have yet to launch my new campaign as i'm hopping back in forth with a friend of mine DMing Hoard of the Dragon Queen. Once we finish that I should have a new campaign setup with my buddies,...however I may be moving to Seattle here potentially so I may lose my group.
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“The harder the world, the fiercer the honour.” ― Steven Erikson, Memories of Ice
Chapter 9 of the DMG has some variant rules you could look at for ideas. For instance, changing short rests to 8 hrs, and long rests to one week, which lends an air of realism to recovery time. A lot of what I think you're going for can be done through reflavoring. You don't need to necessarily nerf spells, but instead describe their power source or implementation in a way that fits your setting. Maybe there's not a fireball spell, but rather a steam punk style 'pyrotube' that shoots a fireball. Wizards could be a class thay has trained to use these arcanological devices, while sorcerers are just prodigies. Clerics could worship a corporation instead of a deity, and their spells are products of that corporation (advanced pharmaceuticals instead of heal spells...) Also, page 272 of the DMG actually has a randomized table called 'lingering injuries,' which sounds like what you're describing. As to how does an amputee character keep up? Improvise, adapt, and overcome ;)
One of my favorite aspects of D&D is trying to keep the core mechanics while reskinning the descriptions.
I want magic to be very powerful and rare, I still don't want to limit Classes in this regard but how do I keep a more mundane feel to the rest of the setting If the players are using magic at whim. Do I limit magical items? or do I soften the power or potency of spells/items. Any advice?
With magic items you might want to make atunment harder.
So you might have to look into the history of a item to find out how to attune it, some might require you to do special quests or can only be attuned at certain sites. In int case of weapons and armor I would have items that require atunement function as a +1 item as long as they are not attuned.
So for a holy avenger you might have to travel to the tomb of the paladin who originaly wielded it, swear your paladin oat and the spirit of the paladin might aprear and bless you making you able to attune to the holy avenger.
I don't want gold in my campaign to be really common, does anyone have recommendations for converting currency so that it doesn't conflict with fluctuating prices in the rulebook? How do I distribute starting currency to allow players to adapt to a new currency system?
Create a new "gold standard". You can raise the value of gold, like to be equal with platinum. But keep mundane items at their standard value, but describe them in terms of copper and silver. Use trade goods for large purchases. Add a new coin between silver and "high" gold that would be equal to "standard" gold. (like steel or brass) Gold is rare and more precious than standard. Large quantities of money would be heavy and burdensome because you have 10x the number of silver coins or it's bulky trade items.
I want magic to be very powerful and rare, I still don't want to limit Classes in this regard but how do I keep a more mundane feel to the rest of the setting If the players are using magic at whim. Do I limit magical items? or do I soften the power or potency of spells/items. Any advice?
Do not allow common or uncommon magic items. Do not use single bonus items. Every item has multiple features. For example: a +1 weapon that also as a daily spell-like function.
Personally, I wouldn't change classes or spells, but you could limit starting characters to non-spellcasting classes for their first few classes. For example: they would have to take 3 levels of fighter/barbarian/rouge/etc before they could start a level of wizard/cleric.
NPC reactions to magic should be extreme and probably negative. Characters would want to hide magic in public, either because the public feared it or the ruling class has a monopoly on it. (like Dark Sun?)
Magic may be rare for PCs, but maybe there is a species or creature that has higher magic abilities. (spirits?) They are dangerous, but may be bargained with.
I like keeping the danger of death and wounds part of the game, I've had a player's hand infect and had to be amputated to save his life before. Now that player only has one hand. For the more experienced DM's how does handicapping players early on affect their ability to play as the rest of the party grows in power?
Encourage them to learn Medicine and Herbalism kit. Societies without magic or medicine have always found ways to deal with most wounds. Maiming and deformities are accepted as incurable and lived with. Use Disadvantage in these cases, but be careful to not make it too burdensome.
Or allow for spirit magic. PCs and NPCs cannot have the magic needed, but the spirits can make a "deal" with the PCs to provide magic healing. This may lead to quest possibilities.
I want magic to be very powerful and rare, I still don't want to limit Classes in this regard but how do I keep a more mundane feel to the rest of the setting If the players are using magic at whim. Do I limit magical items? or do I soften the power or potency of spells/items. Any advice?
My humble opinion: Make magic a taboo. Maybe monastery took over and banned all mystic magic, but divine magic is OKish. Or maybe all knowledge disappeared in a terrible war; no one left to teach magic to younglings and magic items can only be found in the depths of dangerous dungeons. Limit spells known per level; only allow them to learn new spells if they find a tome or a scroll.
On a side note, describing spell effects with less lights and effects might help. You can't cast Magic Missile without fireworks going all over the place but Summon Monster spell might just make the creature appear out of nowhere; no shiny gates, no sound effects, no nothing.
The 'less gold' issue is solved easily enough by refluffing the currency names. Perhaps silver coins becomes the equivalent of gold ones. Let them be broken into fragments (like some historical coins could be) to represent the silver equivalent. Or add steel. Or something else as the silver equivalent.
Or go full-blown fiat currency, where coins that don't have any innate value 'stand in' for certain amounts of gold, silver, etc. In that manner, gold could be vanishingly rare, but the 'gold piece' represents an amount equal to half a grain, or less. Possession of actual gold could be a criminal offense, as all gold belongs to the king *by law*. People who find new deposits (or ancient stashes) can turn the gold in for a 'finder's fee', getting a number of fiat coins in exchange. Trading in actual gold would be limited to the black market, and would be unbelievably risky.
As for magic being rare and powerful? That depends on exactly what you mean.
If spell casters are simply uncommon, you could restrict players to partial caster options (ranger, paladin, eldritch knight, etc. to represent how difficult it is to find anyone to *train* someone in magic.
If magic itself is extremely rare, maybe limited to artifacts from a long gone age, you could disallow spellcasting classes altogether.
If it is simply rare for spellcasters to achieve great power, you could just never create NPC casters above 3rd level or so, and let any caster-PCs revel in their comparative godlike powers.
For classes, you can remove arcane focuses and component pouches so players would need components for their spells. And reduce semi spellcaster's known spells and spell slots of all spellcasters.
I like keeping the danger of death and wounds part of the game, I've had a player's hand infect and had to be amputated to save his life before. Now that player only has one hand. For the more experienced DM's how does handicapping players early on affect their ability to play as the rest of the party grows in power?
I have to ask. Did the player lose a hand or did his character lose a hand?
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"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both" -- allegedly Benjamin Franklin
Hello all,
I'm a United States Marine and most of the guys/gals I play with are Marines or close friends who listen and play Metal and Hardcore music. The thing I suspect everyone really likes about me running the campaign is that I keep it gritty, realistic, and have it play out like a gritty Vietnam movie. I'm heavily inspired by The Malazan Book of the Fallen, and others of this genre. However there are a few things I'm having some difficulties, I wouldn't consider myself a veteran D&D player so I've mostly been abiding by the rulebooks.
Thanks in advance everyone!
― Steven Erikson, Memories of Ice
here my suggestions:
1) If you want to convert currency or create your currency, here there is a table which set the value of the currency used in D&D with common items.
https://www.dndbeyond.com/compendium/rules/basic-rules/equipment/trade-goods
2) I like to limit the magical items as well. That is entirely up to you. Maybe you can grant magical items to the party after a really hard quest.
3) For handicaps, I don't recall any table in the DMG, so is still up to you. Here two examples: A character with one hand is obviously incapacitated to use two-weapons fighting style or two-handed weapons. A character with one eye might have limited range for the ranged attacks and/or disavantage for attack comning from the blind side.
So you are telling me that a giant monkey can beat the KING OF MONSTERS!? Do you want me to hate you?
You might want to take a look at some other game systems as an option. I myself have only played dnd 5e, but I do know that there are other really great games that might fit your group better. Unfortunately, I don't really know what system would be less magic heavy and less gold heavy.
As for advice on keeping the feel of things more mundane, you could have spells that require material components actually need the material components. Do away with the idea of arcane focus and have the players need to either buy the materials or find them. They would only be able to hold a certain amount, and so their use of spells would be less frequent as a result...probably. Of course this would also completely nerf the abilities of magic classes, but then again I've never tried this myself. Just a thought.
As for handicapping, I wouldn't say a player would fall behind in terms of power. Definitely at the beginning, right after said loss, they would be at a huge advantage. But as they level there are ways the characters could over-come this handicap. You could think of it in terms of "well if I lose an arm I just have to learn to fight better with one". As a Marine you should know that things like loss of limb dont keep us from the fight. It might require some clever thinking and maybe a quest or two, but I feel like there are definite ways characters should be able to bounce back from loosing an arm or two.
Rah
If you like the low fantasy/grim dark setting you should try out the tactic that Chris Perkins used in DCA to make things more stressful - tease players with long rests. Give them short rests of course, but whenever they have time for long rests interupt it with something. Itll make them constantly feel on the run, cautious, and low on resources.
Tryin to make a change :-\
I would caution against lowering the power of spells as they are specifically balanced against the other classes and could make a spell using character underpowered. Nothing is worse than the Rogue always doing 50 points of damage while you are stuck doing 10 because the dm limited magic. Also means you would have to limit every spell which could be odd if you miss one.
As for wounds it's kinda bad if a player makes their character a certain way spending feats, gold, etc. For it all to become useless because of a wound. Could make the character unplayable or a lot weaker than everyone else.
As for converting gold, just give them copper or something. If you want you can alter the price of goods to that new currency.
Have you ever played Magic the Gathering? There's a plane called Zendikar were magic is on the wild. Like it could be super powerful or nonexistent. (At least that's what how I saw it.) That being said you could create places in your world that interferes with magical abilities. This would keep the magic-users on constant alert for their spells to work.
Another thing you could do is create an Ether Well that they have to drink from in order to keep their magic going. They could fill flasks with this liquid that would be good for X amount of days. Although they would need to drink this maybe once a day depending on how much power you want to give it. It would be a fun thing because if they aren't keeping track of it midway through a fight their magic might start to fail them. Something to think about.
There's a d20 campaign setting called "Iron Heroes" that I strongly recommend you check out.
You'll have a hard time adapting 5e to a dark / low fantasy genre without breaking it (and thereby advantaging some PCs over others), but there are resources and other rules sets that I think might help you out.
I think lowering the potency of spells is the wrong way to go about it. If you want magic to be a grandiose gesture, its better to magic to actually be grandiose, yknow? Limiting magical artifacts ive found works really well. I try to give mine little backstories when I make them, so that theres some reason its where it is. My players are big into lore, so they enjoy eventually finding those stories out via roleplay and npc encounters. Personally, if im doing a low fantasy world I try to penalize magic in the world itself somehow, be it your classic witch hunters or something more creative. There's some good advice in this thread, let us now what you end up doing!
A single paladin and a bunch of crazed murder-hobos
I have yet to launch my new campaign as i'm hopping back in forth with a friend of mine DMing Hoard of the Dragon Queen. Once we finish that I should have a new campaign setup with my buddies,...however I may be moving to Seattle here potentially so I may lose my group.
― Steven Erikson, Memories of Ice
Chapter 9 of the DMG has some variant rules you could look at for ideas. For instance, changing short rests to 8 hrs, and long rests to one week, which lends an air of realism to recovery time. A lot of what I think you're going for can be done through reflavoring. You don't need to necessarily nerf spells, but instead describe their power source or implementation in a way that fits your setting. Maybe there's not a fireball spell, but rather a steam punk style 'pyrotube' that shoots a fireball. Wizards could be a class thay has trained to use these arcanological devices, while sorcerers are just prodigies. Clerics could worship a corporation instead of a deity, and their spells are products of that corporation (advanced pharmaceuticals instead of heal spells...) Also, page 272 of the DMG actually has a randomized table called 'lingering injuries,' which sounds like what you're describing. As to how does an amputee character keep up? Improvise, adapt, and overcome ;)
One of my favorite aspects of D&D is trying to keep the core mechanics while reskinning the descriptions.
My humble opinion: Make magic a taboo. Maybe monastery took over and banned all mystic magic, but divine magic is OKish. Or maybe all knowledge disappeared in a terrible war; no one left to teach magic to younglings and magic items can only be found in the depths of dangerous dungeons. Limit spells known per level; only allow them to learn new spells if they find a tome or a scroll.
On a side note, describing spell effects with less lights and effects might help. You can't cast Magic Missile without fireworks going all over the place but Summon Monster spell might just make the creature appear out of nowhere; no shiny gates, no sound effects, no nothing.
The 'less gold' issue is solved easily enough by refluffing the currency names. Perhaps silver coins becomes the equivalent of gold ones. Let them be broken into fragments (like some historical coins could be) to represent the silver equivalent. Or add steel. Or something else as the silver equivalent.
Or go full-blown fiat currency, where coins that don't have any innate value 'stand in' for certain amounts of gold, silver, etc. In that manner, gold could be vanishingly rare, but the 'gold piece' represents an amount equal to half a grain, or less. Possession of actual gold could be a criminal offense, as all gold belongs to the king *by law*. People who find new deposits (or ancient stashes) can turn the gold in for a 'finder's fee', getting a number of fiat coins in exchange. Trading in actual gold would be limited to the black market, and would be unbelievably risky.
As for magic being rare and powerful? That depends on exactly what you mean.
If spell casters are simply uncommon, you could restrict players to partial caster options (ranger, paladin, eldritch knight, etc. to represent how difficult it is to find anyone to *train* someone in magic.
If magic itself is extremely rare, maybe limited to artifacts from a long gone age, you could disallow spellcasting classes altogether.
If it is simply rare for spellcasters to achieve great power, you could just never create NPC casters above 3rd level or so, and let any caster-PCs revel in their comparative godlike powers.
For classes, you can remove arcane focuses and component pouches so players would need components for their spells. And reduce semi spellcaster's known spells and spell slots of all spellcasters.
"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both" -- allegedly Benjamin Franklin
Tooltips (Help/aid)
Just do a lot of reskinning.
wizard= protochemists
certain spells with splash damage can be reskinned as different explosives used during the industrial era
and there’s a lingering injury table in the dmg
If you can find any Dark Sun material - it's low magic, gold and even metal is rare. It's quite dangerous.
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