Low Fantasy Gaming

A few games today have the playstyle of 5E, but they go way beyond the game and create their own look and feel. Functionally, there is very little difference between 5E and Low Fantasy Gaming (LFG), but in how the game plays and the tone it sets - it is entirely different.

You have the same concepts at play here, rolls with advantage and disadvantage, long and short rests, and all the same sorts of "5E pieces," but they are engineered to work in a completely different way and support the theme and tone the game. These are like the "heavily modded Skyrim" versions of 5E, based on the OGL, and they are true gems to behold.

LFG is the low fantasy version of 5E with less fantastical elements, more human-centric, less magic, lower power level, more lethal, and no magic as technology. It is 5E with the OSR feel. 5E players can drop right in and go. OSR players can get in too. It hits a sweet spot between OSR and 5E that feels very nice, like how Basic Fantasy bridged the 3E and OSR gap; this bridges the 5E and OSR gap.

Less Magic, More Grit

Less magic does not mean less fun. I feel modern D&D has morphed into "Magic: The Gathering: The Roleplaying Game," and magic is way too ordinary, not unique, and is used as a deus ex machina to handwave in modern technology. We need our cellphones, Uber Eats, lattes, convenient long-range travel, social media, and Roombas, so we will just invent "magic versions" of them and not force anyone to live like a primitive.

There are times I feel Pathfinder 2 ventures into this territory too with their heavy steampunk focus, and then there are times I think Pathfinder 2 does not know what it wants to be, so the game kitchen sinks in anything cool and hopes people like them for that. Pathfinder 1e was a kitchen sink game (with steampunk), but it focused more on the classic fantasy aspect of things, and you could easily ignore the high-tech stand-in aspects.

Tone-wise, once low fantasy genre-breaking elements of the game are introduced, it is hard to tell a player no, you can't play a cat folk or a goblin. I had had players who would purposefully pick silly or comedic options when we played dark fantasy, and while it was fun for a while, it felt like a denial of the game's genre or coping mechanism with the darkness. When the dice said "the funny person dies," the game usually ended, or someone got massively upset because their expectations were way off base from the start (and, as I suspect, they didn't want to play dark fantasy but did not want to say anything).

I know the player issue is challenging even bringing it up, but it does happen. This was decades ago, and we have since resolved this and understand each other these days. All is good.

They had this expectation because they were the funny, amorous, unique, crazy, different than the others, or unique ones traveling with the party, they would be immune to bad things that would happen. This is why I love Dungeon Crawl Classics; all those assumptions get tossed into the bin on your first zero-level funnel. Still, you can't force dark fantasy on players, and you need to play with people that love the genre.

Clear Focus

The game sets a maximum of 12 to keep some monsters legendary and brutal. The spells are completely entirely renamed. The classes are new and different. Magic is rare, mysterious, and dangerous. Resting does not instantly heal you. Wounds are dangerous. Death is easy.

The game feels like a reaction many 5E players have with the game being too easy and magic too ordinary and mundane. Seeing a party of players who can't die simply steamroll over every 50-dollar adventure is not fun. It is fun for the players in an empowerment sort of way, but for players who enjoy Elden Ring or Dark Souls style challenges and mysteries, an "easy mode" playstyle is not much fun.

And for dungeon masters, too, it gets boring to constantly see the players wipe out everything, and no one feels danger or any suspense. While I have not run 5E, I have watched quite a bit, and I have played games precisely like this, so I know how it is. Your players expect that they are all but invincible, and if you have a PC death, they naturally feel this is "obviously" DM bias against a player. I prefer games with a built-in higher level of danger and risk and ones that protect a DM where they can point to the genre and say, "dangerous world, in the rules, people die here."

Just Play OSR?

I know. Yeah, the obvious answer is to just play something like Old School Essentials or Dungeon Crawl Classics or any other great new classic B/X RPGs today. Labyrinth Lord. Swords & Wizardry. One of the tremendous AD&D clones. Why play an OSR 5E-like game?

Seeing a 5E game go in a different direction is very cool. The OSR style of play translates across the great game preference divide, and it isn't just an OSR thing. The style of OSR play is more a universal genre to be embraced by everyone, no matter what base set of rules you prefer and are used to.

This game is familiar, and it tweaks what people are used to and creates something cool and new.

Toolkit Options, You Decide

One of the absolute best things about the game is every third level, you get to create a unique feature for your class and character combo with your DM and from your imagination. They give examples, and while some are more rules-based (shield master/maiden giving a +2 AC with shields instead of +1), what you come up with is entirely up to you. The game invites you to tinker and play with the design as your character level and opens up the player's imagination and game designer skills. It could be something simple that means a lot to a player, such as "all horses love me" or "I have awesome tattoos that give me a bonus in reactions to others with body art."

It could be something more high fantasy if that is how your game rolls. The D&D 4's warlock teleportation movement power gets your fancy? Do the group and GM agree to include it? You got it. Poof!

Cool. Whatever. It is all good. Have fun.

This is your game. I would still roll for corruption for a magic-based power like that, though, just for fun, to give the ability a cost, be fair to everyone, and be consistent with the genre.

I love that open invitation to players to be game designers and have the power to customize their play experience.

Similarly, a "corruption" system for magic increases with every spell cast (or magic item used). The corruption effects, by default, all last for some time before they fade away, recede, or disappear. Only a terrible roll will make one permanent. But the corruption effects - by the rules - are all up to the GM. If you wanted to give a player cat ears or a demon tail, you could. If you wish to make them permanent by default, you could. If you want a new effect, you can just make it up. You could if you wanted a second corruption roll to make an effect permanent instead of adding a new one.

Some players feel magical corruption rules are the game designer "designing in" harsh GM punishments into the rules. This strikes a good middle ground, in that by default, most of the time, corruption is not permanent but something to live with for a few months before it fades. There is always a chance it doesn't, but that is rare, and ultimately it is up to the group to decide what they are comfortable with.

Rules Tweaks

The game replaces saving throws with a diminishing (but recoverable) luck attribute. Willpower and perception replace wisdom. Skills give a bonus and use a level-based reroll pool that mitigates the d20's fickleness. All ability scores are rolled equal or under for checks. They have an "exploit" system for heroics (minor, major, and rescues), so a player can try to disarm or know down an opponent when a blow lands. They have degrees of success for all dice rolls. They have "retreat and chase" rules to free up having to make every encounter balanced - you are expected to run at times, and it is smart. You don't know if a character is dead until after the fight when aid is given, and the body is checked.

Luck matters and can also be used as an oracle (with no luck reduction) to see if an old lantern has oil or an old tossed aside backpack has good supplies. Luck can also (with a reduction) be used to tweak unexpected results, like choosing a summoned monster instead of rolling it randomly or finding the same NPC you need in a town. Luck returns slowly, at 1 point per long rest, so it is steadily going down even during an expedition.

The game does a lot of pulp-heroic stuff and makes rulings on many OSR-style conventions to make handling them easy and straightforward. What you lose in "common magic" you more than gain in heroics and the cool stuff you can do during a turn. And it takes an entirely open position on specific combat actions, which in Pathfinder 2 are strictly controlled by tags and conditions. Here they are part of the "exploit system" where you can try to knock an enemy prone, shatter their weapon, stick the beholder in the eye, or do anything you can imagine and not have to check pages of conditions or tags on class features.

If you hit, you can do an "extra thing" - how big that thing is will determine if the heroic action is major (luck) or a minor (ability) check. If a mage falls off the cliff and someone is close, you have a "rescue exploit" that lets you make a DEX check to see if you jump over and grab their hand as a reaction. This even works for insta-death lightning bolts being flung at wounded characters to "push them out of harm's way."

Excellent stuff, and in many other games - not allowed.

The game has the "batteries included" sort of Savage Worlds pulp-adventure coolness built into the rules. And it probably comes from years of 5E play where the players were sitting there and saying, "wouldn't it be cool if...?"

Yes, it would be "cool if," so let's write a game that does that.

The Power is Yours

Part of me feels a party of Low Fantasy Gaming characters - even though they have less magic and lower hit points - is somehow more capable than a party of high-magic 5E contemporaries. Where in 5E, your rogue may hit with a dagger, and you are happy with the 4 hit points of damage, and you feel your turn is done; in LFG, you can attempt to also cut an armor strap with that attack and reduce the enemy's AC for the other players to take advantage of. This sort of "screwing with the enemy" is built into the rules and, as a player, makes me excited to play an LFG character way more than an OSR or 5E character.

Yes, in OSR, you can rule the same thing, but not every GM or player knows how the OSR magic works. Here, it is written into the rules. It is clear as day. Everyone can attempt this. If you are smart and play your turns right, you can actually get away with a lot more than a high magic system, and your characters will end up more empowered than in games that hang magic baubles on you and load you up with "now you can do something cool" feats at certain levels.

Characters here can do way more with less.

And they can do it practically for free.

The powers aren't locked behind a secret "yes, you can play it this way" or a restrictive tag system - it is just there, powered by imagination. You don't need a "magically interrupt and save another magic shield" that costs 50,000gp - every character comes with that ability built-in. Or a luck amulet costing 150,000gp. Or a sword of disarming that costs 35,000gp. Or a class option. Or a feat. Or a unique advantage. Or something locked behind a class power.

The more class options, build choices, powers, spells, and magic items you have, the LESS freedom you have after sorting through them all.

Low Magic = High Freedom

Low magic? Um, yes, if you want to call it that. I look at this game and see all the abilities restrictive game designers tried to hide behind magic items that come as built-in things characters can do. By going low magic, this game tells you, "You have all that built-in, no need for silly magic items."

Low magic here means high freedom.

What is the actual cost? You need to be engaged with the action, pay attention, and use your imagination creatively and inventively. There is always that GM-agreement thing for the action to avoid silliness, but a great GM will know how much fun a system like this encourages and play along with the creative coolness players come up with.

And if your group house rules that martial exploits can also be applied to spellcasting, you get even more options. Use that magic missile (lash of unerring pain in this game); a spellcaster can shoot weapons out of an enemy's hand with a spell. Oops. Things just got more fantastic.

Where other games would have you sorting through the rulebook and saying, "you can't do that," or "it doesn't say you can do that," this one gives you the rules for how it all works.

A Strange Game, but Cool

Yes, the game is low fantasy, but this is a fantastic pulp adventure if played right. Yes, it is low magic, but you can do more with your tools. Yes, the world is dark, but I feel you have more power to fight back against the darkness than in many other games.

And it mentions D&D 4E's "points of light" as an inspiration.

You don't need tons of magic items or tagged unique ability unlocks to be robust and have fun. In fact, having all of that can trick you into relying on "your rules" or "your gear" and take away from the fun you could be having without it. You can have all the magic spells, abilities, and items in the world and still feel relatively powerless. On the flip side, you can be invincible and bored.

Where is the sweet spot, and how do you get there?

By empowering the players' imaginations.