Ever Gamed No-Magic Or Low-Magic Fantasy?

[Hobgoblin]

The Pendragon RPG was a very cool Arthurian campaign with almost no magic - none at all, if that fits your fancy. There was a lot going for that game, but I never managed to convince other players to try it out.

I bought that in PDF fairly recently, in the hope that the kids might fancy playing it when they're older - or that I can persuade my (very) occasional gaming group to give it a go. It looks tremendous.

[Cubs]

I enjoyed Pendragon, balancing out the virtues/vices with genuine consequences to decisions in or out of character. I also liked the 'between games' sequences of random events, like jousting. It always tickled me that it didn't try to be a 'historical' Arthurian setting, but went a much more Hollywood route, mixing the native Britons (Cymric) with Norman-like knights, Saxons and Vikings!

[John Tailby]

One of the big challenges with low or no magic fantasy is healing. Most D&D players are used to instant healing so that they can have mega battles each day.

Without magical healing you take days to recover from any kind of injury even bruising takes a long time to fade and there would be a high risk of infection from injuries which could easily prove fatal.

[Cacique Caribe]

Great points!  And all this time I thought I was the only one who felt that way.

I guess I look at magic in a game (or even a movie, for that matter) more as a spice or a condiment instead of the main ingredient.  Less is more. 

My personal view, of course.

[dadlamassu]

In most of our fantasy games magic is present but limited as the magic users have spells based on their alignment and purpose in our "world" so battle magic like "terror beam", "missile deflecting zone" etc are rare but natural stuff like "crop blight", "guilt blush" etc are common.  Mind you, if the wizard is daft enough to get involved in battles he finds that his life expectancy is short!

In one game the players were in grave danger from a dragon they were hunting.  The player of the magic user was inventive - cast "impose vertigo" and the dragon crashed to earth and was finished off by the rest of the party while it was stunned.

Magic is present, is rare and can occasionally be useful in battle.

[Gallahad]

Even back in Warhammer 6th Ed we always only allowed low level spells.
Today my two favorite games are 1) A homebrew Conan set of rules where the only magic is old artifacts (could be explained by better materials, etc.) and sorecerors spending the whole game trying to summon horrible creatures from other dimensions.
2) A Song of Ice and Fire by CMON. This is the best rank and flank game I've played in a while. And no in game magic that I know of.