So I've been following the AoW and everyone's entertaining posts about their takes on Diamond Lake and the Free City. I really enjoy the hard-bitten, Deadwood-style feeling that you get in the AoW, which got me thinking - what books/articles would you use to create a more "gritty" world in D&D?
I don't know about specific articles (well, maybe I will after I give it some thought), but to make D&D more gritty (something I will be doing in my next campaign), here are my suggestions:
--use the "massive" damage rule from d20 modern instead of the flat 50 pts rule for D&D
--eliminate magic items, totally--for everyone (they make the game SO COMPLICATED!) (Won't that make the magic weapon spell achieve a new level of relevance, huh?)
--adopt the DR armor/active/passive armor rules from Iron Heroes
--adopt the critical hit system from the new Dragon compendium (I haven't seen it, but I loved the old system and I trust Erik & crew to do a good job with it)
--eliminate prestige classes
--make magic more flexible and open-ended, yet less cartoon and special effects like...hard to explain, but spells that replicate modern conveniences and give "power-ups" aren't really in my classic definition of fantasy. Ideally, spells would have almost no relevance once swords started clashing, except to summon extraplanar creatures. I think of gritty magic more along the lines of Moorcock, Conan, as opposed to the flash-bang superhero stuff of D&D. Epic rituals, arcane mysteries, mysterious schools of wizardry and arcane advisors to Kings...that kind of stuff...not walking 81mm mortars.
--oh yeah--no healing spells either...Raise Dead? Okay...but healing should be slow and healing magic should be based on herbalism (Kingsfoil anyone?) and not what it is now.
I'm not saying I'm against any of the concepts of classical D&D and its game concepts. These are just my ideas for making a game more gritty.
One thing I've done in the past was give a flat rate for hit points. For starters you get your con at first level (so your class plays no part in how many hitpoints you have starting off), then after that if you get a d4 for hit points you get 1+con modifier, if you use d6 you get 2+con modifier, d8 is 3+con modifier, d10 is 4+con modifier and d12 is 5+con modifier. This gives people slieghtly less hit points than average per level. They start off a little tougher at lower levels so you can throw a little more their way at the beginning without having to worry about dead PCs, but at higher levels they will have much less hitpoints, lowering the inhuman toughness characters have once they get some experience under their belt.
what books/articles would you use to create a more "gritty" world in D&D?
I have used >>this<< in the past, and may use it in the future (thanks Ken Hood), though I would probably modify it again. I will say this: constructs under this system become absolutely lethal.
I'm not sure what gaming rules can be used to create a "gritty" game. Perhaps some of the Heroes of Horror or Ravenloft rules would help with that.
To make a campaign gritty, make sure you try to paint that picture with your own style of narration and storytelling. I'm not sure if any rules can create that. Inject that flavor into your campaign through the setting and the various NPCs introduced to the PCs.
what books/articles would you use to create a more "gritty" world in D&D?
My man have you ever heard of David Gemmell?
if not you should read some of his books he wrote Legend:the chronicles of druss, and The Swords of Night and Day. THey could give you ideas about a "gritty" world of D&D as all the magic was ritualistic and shamanistic. Or if they were being very flashy about it, it happened in dream worlds. There were also joinings and such, where the shamans would meld a beast and a man to make a...well a joining. He has to be one of the best authors around.anyways i know you posted this a while ago but if you ever check it, make sure you at least read one of his books and if you have read one of his books you know that they are addictive. Its like cocaine once you start you can't stop!
well at least for me they were
later
To make a campaign gritty, make sure you try to paint that picture with your own style of narration and storytelling. I'm not sure if any rules can create that. Inject that flavor into your campaign through the setting and the various NPCs introduced to the PCs.
I'm with the Crust on this one. I've played and DMed with the same 1st edition rules. The games I played in, whith my friend DMing, was the grittiest fantasy I've ever heard of. And when I DM, it always turns out fairy-tale-like.
I don't exactly know what it takes though... In my friends'game, we usually had conflicts with human (or humanoid) NPCs. The monsters were usually kept for the battle at the end, or for a big obstacle on our way there. As for my games, I tend to use a lot of monsters (random encounters outside the city walls, explore a cave and find monsters, heck there are even monsters inside the city sometimes!). Maybe you can make the story more gritty by putting fewer monsters and keeping it more down to earth (i.e.: believable).
Just a thought.
Ultradan
*nods at Ultradan's post*
I don't use any special rulesets or change the world any for my gritty games. It's just a change in storytelling. The grittiest, most horrifying game noir I ever played was set in an unchanged Forgotten Realms.
-Amber S.
Gritty is subjective but I think it requires taking things in more detail and having grittier challenges. For example not rescuing the princess from a evil lord, but finding a princess that ran away from home, drugs, slavery, poverty, add magic to the mix and you've got gritty fantasy. More complicated characters are helpful too, perhaps removing alignment - at least for most creatures - so they don't broadcast what they are.
Make hit points equal to Constitution. They never increase. Any single injury that deals more than 1/2 max HP (rounded-up) in damage causes a permanent impairment like reduced stats or a destroyed or crippled limb or organ if a Fort save (DC 10 + amount of damage dealt by the injury) is failed. No magic can raise the dead.
I'd also check with your players to make sure it's what they want to play. I was in a game once where the DM tried to make things "gritty" by making it really easy for us to die with no chance of resurrection. All that happened was that we died repeatedly and had to make up new characters, and eventually stopped caring about our characters because we knew we were doomed. It became the opposite of gritty - just farcical.
-Amber S.
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Hmm, yes... my curent DM is running an Eberron game that mostly consists of fights two or so above our CR... deaths are frequent, player backstories seemingly meaningless, and no one fight seems special when we always are on the brink of death and defeat.
The two two character deaths so far have occured in the first round in one hit (non-crit w/ a greatsword due to a min/maxed NPC 2 levels higher) and the second one was my own character (37 dmg at 3rd level from 4 arrows- two in surprise round and two before I got to act).
I think the DM is shooting for gritty, but all he ends up with is a frustrated group of players who feel well over their heads in every fight and who can't reliably care about their characters considering how likely it is we may die... Very frustrating.