I had a happy day yesterday, walking the hills and moors around Derwent Edge and the resevoirs below. It’s a favourite site, beautiful surrounds and a mix between clear trails and out of the way walking on the edges. On the top you are enveloped by a wonderful silence that reminds you how much we are continually surrounded by noise.
Although this was largely a dress rehearsal for a post retirement walk, a taste of the simple delights to come, when I could be allocating a work portfolio to reorganised teams, my thoughts also turned to low fantasy RPGs. High fantasy is completely covered by my D&D 4th Edition collection, with other worthy contenders jumping up and down in the background. But lower powered fantasy, with a grittier edge has many options and most that I really like. My thoughts were turning towards a fantasy campaign for 2022, that acted as a counterpoint to the rich and magical fantasy of my ongoing 4e game. Perhaps one that would see expression through the ‘Carved in Stone’ of Pictland?
I thought about OpenQuest, with some of my own tweaks. A light d100 game, or possibly Mythras itself. Woodland brought me to Sword of Cepheus, and my own proposed take on that. 2d6 and why not? As I returned from the marshy moors I remembered The One Ring and my yet to be fulfilled 2nd Edition Kickstarter books. The buzz around this version is that it has made a great game even better. I’m really looking forward to holding and reading the books. The final easy going trail had me mentally designing a simplified True20 game with 10 levels/advancements and a simpler skill progression system.
Only now, as I nurse tired ‘lockdown legs’, do I remember all the others that could find play. My embarrassing stack of Trudvang Chronicles remains a tempatation, and reckon I could make the system work well enough. Snowsaga could make for a great little campaign. Forbidden Lands is in the frame, which leans on that OSRy exploration and PC fragiity, but with the Free League system underpinning everything. Keltia is an obvious one to lift off the shelf, having had a lot of convention fun with it’s Viking game kin, Yggdrasil. Stonetop, a PbtA hearth fantasy is yet to come from Kickstarter, but already looks excellent. Out of the Ashes, Dr Mitch’s ‘Liminal’ expansion to a time of fantasy rebuilding has definite possibilities, and circles me back to a Cepheus engine inspired game.
So, writing my own low level fantasy game rules is a bit daft. I have lots on my shelves and lots still to come through the letterbox. The question is, which remote wilderness will the game get me wandering?
