So, my experience goes back to the time of AD&D 1st edition. I took some time off in the nineties, and then, got into 3.0, 3.5, and PF. I've recently been pouring over 5th edition and Primeval Thule, a lot of OSR, DCC, LotFP, 13th Age, etc. stuff, trying to find a means to incorporate all aspects into my world building concepts, which are heavily influenced by the likes of Moorecock, Lovecraft, and Howard. It's been a long time since I've DM'd, GM'd, refereed , what have you, and I've never run a game on a VTT, but I'm thinking about it. Anyway, I'm looking for feedback on my concepts regarding a gritty, magically dangerous world. Most people look at these concepts as low fantasy and/or low arcane. I'm trying to avoid that. Certainly this world's most common adventurers will be Barbarians , Rogues, Fighters, no casting rangers (don't worry, they're not nerfed and would get 2D6 HD) , and absolutely no Paladins. That being said , casters, whether diviners, animists, or arcanists, would be allowed, but with great power comes a great price to paid. That price is blood, chaos, and insanity. Why? Because all magic in this world, whether the wielder knows it or not, comes from The Old Gods (Cthulhu), feral nature spirits, demonic forces , or the denizens of Hell itself. Sacrifices for healing, and all healing spells are concentration and ritual based sacrifices. Meaning, it's not bloody likely you could perform it in combat. Also, no resurrection spells of ANY kind. You die? You die. The variant gritty rules for healing as per the DMG. Variant injury rules as per DMG. Madness rolls for all spells that increase as spell levels increase. Chaotic expectations of magic. Think Wild Magic surges, but more balanced towards malevolence. Arcane casters, with the exception of bards (which I'm considering removing altogether) will be wrapped up into one class , which will be referred to as sorcerers in the common vernacular , but will in fact be wizards for all practical purposes, with some warlock and sorcerer traits available to those so inclined and not afraid of even more side effects. This is classic S&S stuff. Magic is dangerous, and the world is cynical, decadent, and brutal. I've got my overarching concepts pretty fleshed out, I just want some effective criticisms from anyone who's dealt with such before and what was either good, or bad about it. Should I just remove magic completely? Making it something only NPC's can wield? Other things about my concepts are, if any are familiar with classic S&S and Lovecraft horror, is how shockingly base and barbaric the cultures are/were. Howard created Conan depicting a period that would be similar to my ideals (the ending of the bronze age, where basically the Cimmerians [The Continental Celts] were the first people who knew how to smelt iron into steel alloy); a land later invaded by more strategically advanced militaristic city states where slavery, sexual assaults, racism, and torture were ways to simply pass the time between acts of genocide. What's this mean? I'm simply throwing out the idea that, were I to ultimately decide to run a campaign setting such as this, and would folks be OK with that level of possibly offensive scenarios? I'm still on the fence about this, as everyone seems to be more inclined towards high fantasy and/or heroic fantasy rather than playing in a brutal, gritty and hypermasculine world where magic might be rare, but fucking dangerous to all involved, and there's no "good" guys. In fact, the good guys might actually be just as bad. In the words of Ash, "Good? Bad? I'm the guy with the gun." This is a world where gold gives you power and violence and subterfuge are the best means to get it. Come combats can't be avoided, but some absolutely should be. I've already fleshed out the use of gold for the martial classes. Such as they can train in martial feats for gold, something no other classes can do. I'm considering going back to OD&D and utilizing treasure obtained during adventuring as XP's. Also considering AD&D's original Barbarian caveat in UA as having an extreme prejudice against magic of all kinds. And allotting xp's for destroyed magical items. Drug use (most potions would fall into this category) would likely be rampant, and comes with its own cost benefit analysis. Anyway, if anyone has attempted similar, let me know how it went, this is still in it's infancy but I'd like other's points of view. Thanks, Alex PS: A word about druids in this world.....with some of the historical Continental/Celtibernian aspects of human sacrifices and cannibalism involved......... <a href="http://goblinpunch.blogspot.com/2014/09/7-myths-everyone-believes-about-druids.html" rel="nofollow">http://goblinpunch.blogspot.com/2014/09/7-myths-everyone-believes-about-druids.html</a>
