2023 Character Creation Challenge Day 3: Low Fantasy Gaming

In late 2021 when I was checking the blogs that had participated in the 1st Character Creation Challenge, I came across a blog that I didn’t have on my list yet. One of the games he had used was Low Fantasy Gaming. His descriptions intrigued me enough that when DriveThruRPG had a sale on the game, I snatched it up. I wanted to use it for a future challenge.

Low Fantasy Gaming is an RPG system that borrows from various D&D clones with a little hint of Dungeon Crawl Classics. Spell casters and magic items are rare. Clerics are called Cultists and the Artificer is a class you can choose from. Yes, even rules for black powder weapons. Mega-monsters are also very rare as well. While Halflings, Dwarves and Elves are available as possible races, the bulk of the population in the game are human. Half-Orcs are called Half-Skorn.

Creating a character starts with the steps listed on page 9. There is an alternate option to create 3-4 random level zero characters, but I’m going to stick with a single 1st level character. The attributes presented in Low Fantasy Gaming are Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Perception, Willpower (mental toughness) and Charisma. Each character starts with one automatic 15 to use on an attribute. The remaining attributes are determined by rolling 4d6 and using the highest three. Once the six rolls have been made, the player selects which attribute gets which score. Using this method, I ended up with some pretty good scores with nothing over 15, so I could be just about anything. I’m sticking with human in the spirit of the game, so no racial adjustments and looking over the classes I selected Ranger. The final attribute scores are STR 14, DEX 15, CON 14, INT 13, WIL 12, PER 15 and CHA 9. There is also a luck score which is 10 + half the level rounded up. So starting the character gets 11. Lucks are used for both savings throws and luck checks (such as a second chance when your skill roll fails). Each time the character successfully uses luck, it gets reduced by one point and can be regained through rest. At first level, hit points are automatically at max for their class which is a philosophy I have used recently in a Basic Fantasy session. So my ranger has 9 HP to start.

The ranger starts out with three skills, Animal Lore, Wilderness Lore, Stealth. He can also choose three from a list of skills the class might use. I selected Apothecary (I figured he would know about the herbs used to treat illness while in the wilderness), Athletics (climbing trees) and Detection (spotting things while hunting). With my +1 INT modifier, I can select an additional language besides common so I selected Elvish. The rules also state at 1st level my ranger gets a beast companion between adventures (I didn’t choose something because I would have asked the GM to roleplay something out on this) and a special ability called Rangecraft. This provided a variety of one time effects that he could encounter while out in the wilderness or in combat.

The next item on the character creation list is to write up a background or randomly roll a party bond. The list was provided for quick and easy party cohesion. The rules recommended rolling a D20 twice and selecting and select the one that fits or sounds like fun. I’m up for rolling more dice. The first roll was to have the party members be bodyguards for some type of lord. The second was to have the party be the survivors of a mercenary company that was destroyed by bitter rivals. I liked the second one so I wrote that down.

3D6 x 10 for starting gold (had I been a fighter, it would have been 5D6 X 10) resulted in 120GP. I liked that the rules had gear rarity rules. I may use them in other fantasy style games. After looking at the gear packs listed in the equipment section, I selected the one for the ranger. Nothing too fancy with the weapons, a long sword, dagger and longbow. Since he needs to be stealthy in the wilderness he wears studded leather. I believe this character is ready.

Golarth was hired by the Hand of Dovar Mercenary Group as a scout. While returning from a scouting mission they discovered that the rival band, the Silver Blades, had attacked the camp. Golarth and his companions had managed to just barely escape downriver on a small boat. The party is now trying to make their fortune in the world while staying one step ahead of the Silver Blades.

Afterthoughts:

I could see this game being used to roleplay the Castlevania animated series that came out recently. I’ve also thought about a campaign where magic is rare and this might be the system for it. At a minimum, there are a lot of concept from this ruleset that I may steal for other games.

Additional Notes:

I had another participant send me an email with a link to their blog with their #CharacterCreationChallenge entries. I’ve added it to the Character Creation Challenge site. As more are discovered, I will continue to add them to the list.

Follow up to Star Frontiers from yesterday. When I had posted the character in a Star Frontiers fan discord server the other members provided me with some feedback. I had completed all of the steps (my weapons would have been provided by the company that hired me to be a troubleshooter) but I did misread one item. When selecting my starting skills, one of the skills must be from my chosen PSA and the other can be any skill. So the character I made yesterday would have been altered slightly before I used him in a game.

Coming Up Next:

Tiny Spies

This article is open for discussion on the TardisCaptain dot Com Discord server.