I am in the middle of building a Non-Magic setting for a future campaign I'm going to run.
The Setting has no magic, at least none at the beginning. The idea is that the Players are part of the 3rd Crusade lead by King Richard the Lionhearted. However a dark force has distorted events and magic is seeping into the world little by little. Eventually the Players will discover magic and "unlock" magic using classes by their own actions, but in the beginning it's a non-magic game.
I'm already making a few adjustments to account for the group not having access to any kind of magic. I'm going to be using the Vigor/Wounds system and the Armor as Damage Reduction rules from Ultimate Combat. Made a few tweaks to allow Vigor to recover a little more frequently (Rest for 1 hour recovers Character level+Con modifier points of Vigor) and expanded the use of the Heal skill for recovering Wounds and such.
I've also done some historical research online and even manged to get my hands on an old 2nd edition Crusade sourcebook. (To my surprise, King Richard was a jackass).
But I was wondering if I could get some input from others in case I missed something that'll get my group unjustly killed before they get to the good stuff.
There are quite a few threads about low-magic campaigns here on the boards. They may give you some ideas :-)
I would stay away from historical names, places, etc. You have a really good chance of offending players when you do. Take the basic plot, but change the names to Pathfinder equivalents.
I would stay away from historical names, places, etc. You have a really good chance of offending players when you do. Take the basic plot, but change the names to Pathfinder equivalents.
I'm not worried on that point, been playing with these guys for more than 20 years. Takes a lot to offend them
An idea I've been playing around with, mostly for low-magic campaigns, would be to introduce customized masterwork weapons (I have to find a better name, suggestions?) that have been forged to grant an advantage that is not quite as strong as a magical enchantment would be. This was rather inspired by some of the legends of swords made of specific materials or crafting methods (e.g. Damascus Steel). These would replace the standard magical weapons with something less powerful and more akin to real-life.
For example swords that have a critical range that's 18-20 instead of 19-20. Not as powerful as an actual Keen enchantment but still cool enough for PCs that have no magical equipment.
Other examples: weapons that deal damage as if they were a size larger, weapons that gain one of the other weapon qualities (trip, disarm etc..), weapons that ignore a bit of DR (like maces against real-life armor)
An idea I've been playing around with, mostly for low-magic campaigns, would be to introduce customized masterwork weapons (I have to find a better name, suggestions?) that have been forged to grant an advantage that is not quite as strong as a magical enchantment would be. This was rather inspired by some of the legends of swords made of specific materials or crafting methods (e.g. Damascus Steel). These would replace the standard magical weapons with something less powerful and more akin to real-life.
For example swords that have a critical range that's 18-20 instead of 19-20. Not as powerful as an actual Keen enchantment but still cool enough for PCs that have no magical equipment.
Other examples: weapons that deal damage as if they were a size larger, weapons that gain one of the other weapon qualities (trip, disarm etc..), weapons that ignore a bit of DR (like maces against real-life armor)
I like that, more mundane quality weapons since there is no magic. Plus gives me an excuse to tinker with the base crafting system a bit (which I think we all know needs it).
I've got a SGG bullet PDF with non-magical weapon qualities I can add in
A special quality material would be Toledan steel (Toledo,Spain)
You want the players to start off using low quality equipment so they can advance through the ranks.
Low quality armor and weapons and equipment. Available to everyone having a -1 to damage or to hit and a vulnerability of -1 vs. damage type. or a -1 on skillcheck or function. This represents the massive amounts of equipment needed and the lack of time to produce them.
Normal quality armor and weapons and equipment. Available to Low ranking nobles, the common clergy (priests) and a few skilled craftsmen of armour and weapons.
Masterwork armor and weapons and equipment. Available to high ranking nobles, high ranking clergy (bishop) and Master craftsmen.
Special material armor and weapons and equipment. Available to Royalty, top rank clergy (cardinal) and unique NPC's (the royal assasin, general, etc.) Materials may grant DR vs. several Damage types or lower weight or higher Skillchecks (Quite-big-but-not-BIG Bad had some nice suggestions as well).
Remember that Food was not a common commodity as well as drinkable water. the closer you got to the holy land (i.e. desert) the more pressing the drinking shortage became.
Language was definetly a problem. Several countries and languages were together. All nobles will speak French and some low ranking nobles might speak some common language. The low ranking clergy will speak some common language and Latin. The high ranking clergy will speak French and Latin (maybe even a common language). Royalty will most likely speak French only.
It is likely that that royalty is not that smart, but will be surrounded by intelligent counseler, high ranking clergy and high ranking nobles (like a marquis).
Rank-----------------------Title-----------------------adress
none-----------------------peasant---------------------filth
1--------------------------citizen---------------------Porter,Burgher
2--------------------------baron-----------------------Sir <name>
3--------------------------count-----------------------Lord <name>
4--------------------------marquiz---------------------your excelence (name)
5--------------------------prince----------------------prince <name>
6--------------------------King------------------------your royal highness
I like that, more mundane quality weapons since there is no magic. Plus gives me an excuse to tinker with the base crafting system a bit (which I think we all know needs it).
Wayyyyy back in 3.5 I was working on a prestige class that focused on crafting and using all manner of (non-magical) weapons). I also included a whole weapon design system, based on the way most of the weapons in 3.5 seemed to be designed, as well as some new concepts of my own.
Here's the link if you're interested. It's based on 'Weapon Quality Points', which could be spent on higher damage dice, critical range and qualities like trip. You could easily use it to make some enhanced mundane weapons.Be warned, it's at least 6 years old, from back in 3.5 and English is not my native tongue, so there may be some spelling errors or clumsy grammar and terminology (also the formatting doesn't seem to have survived the uploading to google drive).
I really should update the document for PF as most of the principles of weapon design seem to be the same.
One of the latest print Dragon magazines had variant masterwork benefits.
On weapons what I've decided to do is come up with a number of Masterwork Qualities that can be added to a weapon when they are made
Fine Balance = +1 bonus to hit
Fine Edge = +1 bonus to damage (Slashing only)
Penetrating = Reduce Armor DR by half (Piercing weapons only)
Heavy = -1 penalty to hit but +2 Bonus to damage. +10% to weight (Bashing only)
Basket Hilt = +1 Shield bonus to Defense when used with Full Defense, Fighting Defensively or Combat Expertise
Springy = +2 CMD vs. Disarm and Sunder
Durable= +25% hit points
Reinforced = +1 Hardness
You could also add 'Weighed' as the most common weapons against armored knights were bludgeoning. They broke bone even through armor. As an added bonus, the bludgeoning weapon often sprung back from the metal, setting it up for a second attack.
Yes and the Flail (basically a ball attached with several links of chain to a short staff) was created to reach around a shield, as to ignore it. Maybe you can do something with that as well? (I'd think of a +1 to hit vs. someone who employs a shield)
And I'd state that the 'heavy' condition on a wweapon would only work on bludgeoning weapons.
In order to make sure not all frontline warriors start using 'heavy' equipment adjustments (as they can easily afford that with their BAB) you might wanna add the rule you gain an extra -1 to hit (from fatigue) after a certain amount of rounds fighting. Perhaps after the number of constitution in rounds? It would still give an edge in a short fight but if a prolonged fight is taking place you might wanna use another weapon.
In matters of strategy and tactics.
Arabs use mares as mounts, while european knight used stallions (generally speaking) that must have given some problems every now and then. And is maybe a nice story hook for ya.
Crusaders knights use heavy armor while Arabs generally did not use metal armors and shields. In the sun the metal gets way too hot and would make you drink way too much (and water is scarce).
The Crusaders would go to war in 3 batalions (3 being the divine number), that did not coordinate with each other.
The Arabs obviously had great knowledge of science, tactics and strategy. Also they employed camels as load animals and sometimes as mounts and the camel gives an enormous strategical advantage to the Arabs as they can go without water for as much as two weeks.
Basically this comes down too: The Crusaders charge into battle without tactics and are better protected.
The Arabs use all kind of battlefield tactics like hammer and anvil, pincer movements and flanking. And also the hit and run tactics: Imagine a unit of camelriders armed with bows mostly that will attack and fade into the desert and be gone for days or even weeks and then striking again. Anyone foolishly enough to track them will be in serious trouble as they run into water problems in the desert. Maybe the legend of the Ghostriders can be made of such a unit. White clothing for sun protection and the camel (surely the devils creature) can easily be believed by the superstitious Crusaders as being demons or ghosts. That would seriously damage morale (story hook??)
As the war prolonged the Crusaders will have learned more from their enemies in ways of strategy and tactics.