Fantasy-Less HERO?

[Jkeown]

Has anyone every tried running FH without any fantasy elements? Just a bunch of guys hanging out in Mercia c. 1200, doing what Henry, George or John tells them to do?

 

If so... what did you leave in? Monsters? Perhaps only those that appear in heraldry? Or not even those? I'm planning on buying Here Be Dragons for just this purpose.

[L. Marcus]

Re: Fantasy-Less HERO?

 

Mercia wasn't around in the 1200s. ^^

[Steve]

Re: Fantasy-Less HERO?

 

This sounds to me like Low Fantasy. You could have some rare beasts in hidden corners of the world, and that would probably be the limit of what you could add. Other humans would be the enemies, so it might be more of a political drama or mercenaries fighting for one petty noble against another.

[Lucius]

Re: Fantasy-Less HERO?

 

I've never played a strictly mundane, strictly historical game.

 

I have played once, and ran once, a strictly mundane, ahistorical game. But the one I ran was in GURPS.

 

No "monsters," just normal beasts and human opponents.

 

Lucius Alexander

 

Not even a palindromedary

[Kraven Kor]

Re: Fantasy-Less HERO?

 

I played a one-shot at a convention that was basically just "Knights vs. Zombies" with the zombies as the only paranormal / "fantasy" element. There was an NPC Priest with some implied 'blessings' he gave us but it wasn't clear if there was any in-game effect. The GM pulled it off fairly well, but not sure how it would have worked as an ongoing campaign.

[Kraven Kor]

Re: Fantasy-Less HERO?

 

And I am trying to keep my current campaign as 'less fantastical' for a Fantasy campaign. They are mostly fighting other humans or 'mundane' monsters (giant scorpions, dinosaurs, etc.) rather than undead and dragons and beholders or whatever.

[tkdguy]

Re: Fantasy-Less HERO?

 

I did that several years back. I didn't run a historical campaign because I wanted to mix rapier fencing with kung fu, so I made an alternate world loosely based on Europe but with a few Asian elements. I described it as "The Three Musketeers mixed with Enter the Dragon." I couldn't figure out how magic fit in my campaign, so I took a friend's advice and dropped it altogether. Fantasy races and creatures were also dropped.

 

I was satisfied with my design, but it was too low fantasy for my players. I modernized it and made it more film noir, which went over a little better.

[RexMundi]

Re: Fantasy-Less HERO?

 

Did Similar to what TDK described, but then I had also been a big fan of Flashing Blades and Bushido back in the FGU days so piling that all into HERO worked well. Adventure at the end of a pointy object is a lot of fun.

 

~Rex

[Steve]

Re: Fantasy-Less HERO?

 

The Three Musketeers is probably one of the better examples of Low Fantasy, now that I consider it. There's fantastic swordplay and derring-do, but no magic.

 

And the Cardinal makes a great enemy.

[tkdguy]

Re: Fantasy-Less HERO?

 

One of the characters was a former monk, now outlawed (the players all decided to play outlaws). He heard about a plot to assassinate an archbishop, his former superior. He attempted to help the archbishop but was betrayed by him. The look on the player's face was priceless. That was my fault, though, as I neglected to tell the players that treachery and corruption were rife in the campaign.

[Steve]

Re: Fantasy-Less HERO?

 

Robin Hood would be another good example of Fantasy Hero without the magic.

[RexMundi]

Re: Fantasy-Less HERO?

 

Count of Monte Cristo, Pathfinder, Eaters of the Dead.

 

~Rex

[tkdguy]

Re: Fantasy-Less HERO?

 

Robin Hood would be another good example of Fantasy Hero without the magic.

 

There was a Robin Hood supplement for Fantasy HERO/Rolemaster/MERP. It's a great resource, and I used it for my campaign.

[Old Man]

Re: Fantasy-Less HERO?

 

The main reason I've never run a completely magic-free campaign is that FH is lethal enough without taking out the healing potions. The closest I ever got was a players-as-PCs pathetically low fantasy game. The first encounter was with a goblin that might as well have been a boss fight, from which we had to flee because one of us took an impairing wound. Good times.

[CrosshairCollie]

Re: Fantasy-Less HERO?

 

The main reason I've never run a completely magic-free campaign is that FH is lethal enough without taking out the healing potions. The closest I ever got was a players-as-PCs pathetically low fantasy game. The first encounter was with a goblin that might as well have been a boss fight' date=' from which we had to flee because one of us took an impairing wound. Good times.[/quote']

 

I once had to send some PCs on a quest for a Troll Knuckle Ring (aka Ring of Regeneration) because one of the PCs always wound up on the wrong side of a boxcars KA damage roll, so I know what you mean. And, personally ... I've no interest in a totally mundane game, regardless of genre. I need some fantastic element in there to interest me, be it magic, super-powers, sci-fi tech, SOMETHING. If I wanted to deal with a totally mundane world ... I'd go outside.

[AmadanNaBriona]

Re: Fantasy-Less HERO?

 

I've done this, and probably will do so again.

Safe to say, however, that our gaming was heavily influenced by both histories like The Steel Bonnets and historical fiction, like Morgan Llywellyn's many books based on various Irish myths

Even in very real world low fantasy wonder can abound. "Real" magic is mostly science arrived at by trial and error rather than the scientific method. To a culture that has never seen steel may be amazed at the rain of sparks a flint and steel can produce, compared to the speed of a bow drill. Add a little sleight of hand and showmanship and you're a firegod. Hypnotism is another good example.

We've discovered enough isolated remnant populations of otherwise extinct lifeforms to make it almost probable that the occasional rare left over megafauna makes its way into legend as a monster. As RexMundi mentioned before: Eaters of the Dead (a.k.a. The 13th Warrior). An isolated valley harboring a small direwolf population (the rovers from which spawn barghest and black dog legends for miles around), a 50 foot crocodillian hunting coastal waters is a pretty credible sea serpent.

Another great example just occurred to me... Brotherhood of the Wolf

[Old Man]

Re: Fantasy-Less HERO?

 

I once had to send some PCs on a quest for a Troll Knuckle Ring (aka Ring of Regeneration) because one of the PCs always wound up on the wrong side of a boxcars KA damage roll' date=' so I know what you mean. And, personally ... I've no interest in a totally mundane game, regardless of genre. I need some fantastic element in there to interest me, be it magic, super-powers, sci-fi tech, SOMETHING. If I wanted to deal with a totally mundane world ... I'd go outside.[/quote']

 

Certainly the low-magic portion of the campaign didn't last very long. The GM was forced to dump a containerload of magic items on our sorry @sses in order to make us survivable. That was the campaign where I had the magic sword that gave a big STR bonus as long as I wielded it... which led to some interesting situations when I needed to hold on to something with two hands.

[Markdoc]

Re: Fantasy-Less HERO?

 

Yeah, I've played in and run no-magic fantasy (NMF) or almost-no-magic fantasy (ANMF). It's always been a blast.

Off the top of my head:

 

Played in:

A party of monks sent to investigate murders in a remote monastery in 15th century Spain. A short campaign of about 4 sessions, inspired by the Name of the Rose. It turned out to be ANMF: it was a typical political/murder mystery, except the final bad guy turned out to be a vampire.

A party of warriors sent to escort a noble maiden to her intended husband for a political marriage. That involved (interestingly enough) a trip from Hwicce to North Mercia! Also a sort of one-off: it was two sessions if I recall rightly - mostly fighting, a little political intrigue and also ANMF - we met a troll at one point, trying to escape our enemies by fleeing into deserted swamplands.

Knights in the first Crusade. This was a longer campaign, running for about a year of regular play. We marched on Jerusalem, took part in the siege and the sack (to the distress of the GM, we behaved like typical crusaders, grabbing as much loot as we could, and almost getting into a fight with Raymond of Toulouse's followers about hanging our banner on the Holy Sepulchure). After the taking of Jerusalem, we got a grant of land in Transjordan that we set about subduing. Lots of fighting, but also heavy on politics and (first time in a game for me) economics. Setting up and running a barony isn't cheap! We actually played sessions based around things like "We need tradesmen if this town is ever going to flourish! Do we try to hire them, or steal them from the infidels?" Totally NMF and an all-round excellent game.

 

I've run:

Vikings in Ireland, sort of 10th century-ish. This was bait and switch. The first part of the game (which in total ran for about 6 months) was NMF: viking raiders vs, Irish warriors. After a couple of months the players - inevitably - got in over their heads and died on the battle field. Then for the last part of the game - the PCs' souls are collected by the Valkyries and told they have a task before they can enter Valhalla - they must sneak into Jotunheim and recover a magic cup, something that no-one who has "has the smell of the Æsir on him could do". Despite the mythic theme, this was mostly ANMF: there were giants and giant wolves and bears, but most problems were still solved either by talking, or stabbing, or running away. There were no PC spellcasters, magic weapons, etc.

Samurai in Japan, 15th century. This was a long-ish campaign, running about 80 sessions spread out over about 4 years. It was ANMF, despite appearances by an evil wizard, undead, a demon, a Tengu, a magic sword and four (possibly five) ghosts. Plus, at the end, The Dragon. Basically, the fantastic elements popped up every now and then, but in most cases, they were in the background, providing flavour. 90% of the game involved political intrigue, solving mysteries, martial arts and a big ol' war. I think this is my favourite of all the campaigns I have run, and it beats me how people say that a game can't be interesting without more overt fantasy.

 

cheers, Mark

[Steve]

Re: Fantasy-Less HERO?

 

Some examples of Low Fantasy with probably the bare minimum of magic would be the movies "Ladyhawk" and "The Princess Bride."

[Orion]

Re: Fantasy-Less HERO?

 

I've wanted to do straight historic fiction, but couldn't find anyone else interested. I'd use the Lionheart product from Columbia Games, as it has the maps and people and everything already detailed for me.

 

In many ways, a low fantasy and a no magic campaign can be very similar. Whether or not magic exists is immaterial - the character's belief in magic is the key. There may actually be no magic, but that won't stop most people from being highly superstitious and overly religious. They still do spells, make love potions, read entrails, and pray for miracles from the gods. Sometimes the princess does fall in love with the hero. But was it the love potion, or does she just like tall guys in chainmail? Everyone knows that monsters live in *that* valley, and so no one ever goes there. Besides, they are too busy fighting off the Saracens to care about griffons and dragons. Killing orcs is fun....but no different than killing the pagan barbarians on the frontier.