Low Magic Fantasy Sign-Up

[IHateMakingNames]

Opening Story: Lord Von Terrence is hiring anyone willing to protect him on a convoy. He is taking a large amount of fine goods to some nobility. However, because of the unusually high price he is offering, and the fact that he is going himself, rumors have spread that he has something of great value with him. Many have taken his offer to receive their small fortunes for being guards. Others have decided to try and go for the full fortune and steal from him during the convoy. A particularly greedy thief, Hohem Flor, is hiring his own force to rob the entire convey, taking the bigger prize for himself.

Further Story: PCs will be the guards or the robbers. It doesn't particularly matter after the opening act, since circumstances will heavily suggest the two work together. The group will be stranded in harsh, probably magical, environments and will probably want to survive; possibly dealing with other issues.

Examples include unfortunate encounter with a pair of trolls during bandit raid, resulting in Terrence getting taken, with obvious hefty reward for a joint rescue. Attack happening in a spirit infested forest, and damage during the fight enrages forest spirit. Secret cargo includes nobility child, and nobility is looking for him with an army. No decision yet on what will quite happen, but will probably be a mix of things to create choices.

Magic: Low magic setting, within people. Most magic exists in the form of common potions and powders, created through parts of magical creatures. These potions or dust can range from healing minor wounds to creating love to creating an explosion. Magically inclined humans can enchant objects with magical properties with parts of magic creatures. Rarer, more magically inclined people can create things like a burst of light or a fireball.

Alchemist are people who make the potions and powders. They aren't magic in any way; they just know what to mix to get desired results. Enchanters are people who enchant items. Combining their own little magic with magic creature bits they can give objects temporary magical properties. Wizards are people who can do their own magic. They can do much better enchanting, and weak unaided magic.

Enchants are things like bursting into flames, increased hardiness, creating a sound, basically anything that isn't too much. No 50 foot flamethrowers, but a sword can catch on fire or create bursts of flames. Objects can have more than one enchantment at a time, but putting too much magic into one thing will create bad results. Enchantments only last for a certain amount of time because of this; either used a certain amount of times, or magic just wears out after awhile. You can expect a full adventure out of a freshly enchanted items from a good Enchanter. Anyone can use an enchanted item, not just magically inclined people. For activation, you will it to do it's enchantment. People can feel if an object is enchanted or not by feel.

The above also applies for potions, except their decay over time is much less.

Mythical Creatures: Most of the mythical creatures are a mix of two or more normal animals with some sort of magical property. These creatures are created by natural spirits for certain tasks. Some of these breed and spread on their own. Most of these are very regionally based. These are the most common ingredient for magical items.

Natural spirits are things like the embodiment of a forest, lady of the sea, or protector of the raccoons. They exist through some natural source (The forest, the sea, big ol' group of raccoons) and will die if their source is destroyed. Have control over it, as well as magical powers. These spirits are sentient and can understand all creatures. Most encounters between spirits are humans results in the death of one of the sides. Humans want the resources that the spirit exists around. Spirits are rare, so most village and cities don't settle near them, but a few exist when the spirit and humans make a deal, or the spirit feels unthreatened.

None spirit related creatures exist, but are equally as rare. These are more powerful creatures, like ogres, trolls, cocktrice, manticore, and other creatures of legend. When people venture into unexplored regions, they may encounter one of these. If it is a passive creature, they bring back stories about a glimpse of the beast. When it's aggressive, any survivors bring back warnings. On top of these creatures are dragons, which are considered the most powerful creatures in the world. Most are animal life, but dragons are intelligent and can understand humans. For the most part these creatures avoid human contact, either by running or killing any that try to settle near their nests. While dangerous and rare, they are highly valued for creating magical items.

90% of people do not encounter anything past the mix of animals. 5% are the people who live in areas trading with a spirit. The other 5% are hunters who seek out magical creatures for profit.*

*Figures are made up to represent point.

Technology: Medieval times, with castles. Along with medieval technology, due to magic potions and dusts often replace other tools, like burning powder instead of flint. Middle age Europe is the base for anything I'll make. Common technology from anywhere in the world at that time (Up to early teen-hundreds) is acceptable.


Characters: Note before the sheet. Story calls for working together despite starting on opposite sides, but both sides are initially working for money. Also we don't need both sides, just figured I'd offer up both for more variety. Just don't be a super vigilant defender of justice, or a crazy violent highway bandit. If going for bandit preferably get hired by Hohem, though coincidental independent robbery is fine.

Name: What they call you
Gender: Innie or outie
Age: Number of years after birth
Appearance: What you look like.
Guard/Bandit: Which one are you for the opening.
Occupation: Do something besides guard for hire/highway bandit?
Skills: What are you good at?
Equipment: What you brought for the trip. Note that guards are provided with a horse and their own supplies, while bandits aren't provided anything.
History: What happened before the heist.
Extra: Something else you want to add.