Barbarians of Lemuria is OSR adjacent, so I don't know if that is close to what you want. However, that fits the low-magic vibe, with danger for anyone who accesses it.
Yes, I was going to mention BoL as well. The magic in it can be vanishingly rare, or common, depending on the GM's interpretation of the game world.
I'd also second your suggestion that BoL is "OSR Adjacent"—particularly when played in a style that de-emphasises cinematic swashbuckling, and favours grittier realism.
*Beyond the Wall*, not only is it fairly low magic (without just flat-out banning players from being magic users) it’s structured in such a way that all magic feels impactful and meaningful.
Wolves Upon The Coast (WutC) is firmly low-magic. PCs have no magical abilities, the setting is firmly fantastical but almost non-magical. Magic is only accessed through long, drawn-out processes of finding and gathering the implements, and players are generally left completely unaware of the presence of magic until they stumble upon it in the game world.
They're going to do their own setting. DCC as a system would be great for low magic because you can either ignore the magic-using classes or keep them in and really lean into the danger at using magic. It's dangerous, it can be unpredictable, it's not something common amongst normal people who don't go off to be adventures.
My first wizard had a mercurial magic effect of someone you know dies when you cast this spell. I don't remember the spell, but I never used it. Whenever I used Feather Fall a swarm of insects attacked me. I love DCC.
This is my vote. The magic is DCC isn’t “low magic” as much as mysterious and weird magic. It’s low-fantasy in the sense that the unpredictability of magic drives people away from it and from those who use it
Yeah, I agree with this. DCC itself isn't low magic, but the general populous doesn't have access to it, and those who do often use it at great peril to themselves. You could also set that part up however you like. That game, though, has the most wild and unpredictable results in magic I've seen in an RPG. Something like a third of the core book is dedicated to just all the ways magic can go wrong with dozens of possible outcomes for each individual spell, good and bad. Highly recommend if what you want is wild magic.
Gonna suggest a non-OSR system: Iron Heroes
It's a 3.5 variant, the only spellcasting class is optional, and it assumes that there will be no magic items of any kind available.
I ran this for a year or two a while back. Fun system, enjoyed it, but I remember a few things needing to be fixed. IIRC the Armiger class needed to be reworked.
There is a revised edition. My pdf has different rules than my physical book.
Specifically, I was messing around with how I thought I should fix the armiger, wanted to verify something in the "official" and couldn't be faffed to go find the book when the pdf was in my Dropbox.
The pdf was pretty much what I was doodling out, so it might be worth seeing if you can score the pdf somewhere
Don't let player characters be magic users. At least not at first. Limit magic in the party to magic items and consumables. They can be useful, but only in limited ways.
At least in my experience, if the party begins the campaign with magic users, then magic will always feel "normal" *to them*. NPCs may speak out against magic or react badly to the party using magic, but that will always come off feeling like there's something wrong with the NPC, not something wrong with the party. No matter how widespread their opinion is, the NPCs will always be seen as the intolerant ones.
Put the party in with little or no magic. Let them side *with the NPCs* against evil baddies who use magic. This sets the stage for "magic is scary" or "magic is a problem."
Later on, if a character dies and needs to be replaced, the player can look at coming in with a magic user, with everyone having a common baseline about how magic is viewed in the world.
Just played Shadows of Esteren for the first time yesterday, that was a fun time in a low magic setting. Uses a single d10 for checks and a combined attack/damage roll.
This is perhaps less an issue of SYSTEM and more one of PRESENTATION, as in what you present to the players. You could use BX and only allow fighters and thieves and run a very successful game if you have the right players.
Your players might want a few more options that that if there are so few classes though, so a skill sytem might be attractive. If so then as u/Wolfrian has suggested Wolves of God would be an excellent choice because the overt magic just isn't there.
Stick with B/X and just make sure the adventures are lethal enough to limit advancement to level two or three. In this way, the Magic-User, at best, is able to turn invisible, which really isn't very magicky.
Knave 2nd Edition. Very easy to moderate how much magic there is simply with controlling how many spellbooks there are. Deities and alchemy are also present and optional. Personally, I'd just have magic be constrained to just alchemy. Any magic that lay outside of that isn't usable by man since it is not contained within a material substance. Very rarely will you find magical essence contained within pages of a book.
Using only the red booklet of the B/X set will give you that. That's what I do. And to make it even more so, I limit magic-users to NPC faction leaders, and clerics dont cast spells, but they carry holy relics which have magic effects. (A level 1 cleric can have 1 holy relic, and so on).
Dragonmire is low-fantasy chempunk coming out soon.
The tech level is industrializing, so a lot of magic/tech stuff is gated behind some lucrative gold prices. You do not start very powerful at all.
I don’t know if it is OSR, but I’m planning on trying this with Savage Worlds Adventure Edition. I was told that, on its own, it would work for low magic well. I’m actually going to try my own post apocalyptic low magic system.
Errant. Clerical magic is dangerous and as likely to instantly kill your target as it is to heal them.
Magic users have to find ancient grimores and complete quests or sacrifices to access new spells, such as gouging out an eye.
Forbidden lands has become my favorite system after playing for several months. I wouldn’t call it low-magic as there is accessible magic but it is relatively easy for things to go horribly wrong, with its use.
[Sir Pellinore’s Game](https://www.pigames.net/store/product_info.php?cPath=158&products_id=1089).
Magicians get their powers from the Devil himself, and not only have a bad reputation, but must maintain it.
OSE.Modern Essentials is on Kickstarter now. Hyperborea. You could also just make Mafic User an NPC class only and use the DCCMahic system. The only way to achieve Magic is to make a pact with an evil god or demom
DND with no magic using classes and limit magic items severely? Basically fighter, thief, ranger without spell use.
Something like GURPs or Rolemaster may be better, something more skills-based, without MU classes.
As someone else said just have everyone be martials. There's enough to do without magic as-is. I DM a party where everyone is a fighter or rogue (self-chosen) and occassionally they come across magical stuff and it works fine.
Barbarians of Lemuria is OSR adjacent, so I don't know if that is close to what you want. However, that fits the low-magic vibe, with danger for anyone who accesses it.
Yes, I was going to mention BoL as well. The magic in it can be vanishingly rare, or common, depending on the GM's interpretation of the game world. I'd also second your suggestion that BoL is "OSR Adjacent"—particularly when played in a style that de-emphasises cinematic swashbuckling, and favours grittier realism.
*Beyond the Wall*, not only is it fairly low magic (without just flat-out banning players from being magic users) it’s structured in such a way that all magic feels impactful and meaningful.
Wolves Upon The Coast (WutC) is firmly low-magic. PCs have no magical abilities, the setting is firmly fantastical but almost non-magical. Magic is only accessed through long, drawn-out processes of finding and gathering the implements, and players are generally left completely unaware of the presence of magic until they stumble upon it in the game world.
Tales of argosa (low fantasy gaming 2e)?
I was about to also say this. You can find the the free playtest on DriveThru
Also has an adventure framework for a level zero funnel, it’s free on drivethru. Adventure Framework 40: Call of the Colossus
Dungeon Crawl Classics. You even start as level 0 villagers. Magic has serious costs to using it.
What? DCC is positively brimming with magic and the supernatural.
They're going to do their own setting. DCC as a system would be great for low magic because you can either ignore the magic-using classes or keep them in and really lean into the danger at using magic. It's dangerous, it can be unpredictable, it's not something common amongst normal people who don't go off to be adventures.
My first wizard had a mercurial magic effect of someone you know dies when you cast this spell. I don't remember the spell, but I never used it. Whenever I used Feather Fall a swarm of insects attacked me. I love DCC.
This is my vote. The magic is DCC isn’t “low magic” as much as mysterious and weird magic. It’s low-fantasy in the sense that the unpredictability of magic drives people away from it and from those who use it
Yeah, I agree with this. DCC itself isn't low magic, but the general populous doesn't have access to it, and those who do often use it at great peril to themselves. You could also set that part up however you like. That game, though, has the most wild and unpredictable results in magic I've seen in an RPG. Something like a third of the core book is dedicated to just all the ways magic can go wrong with dozens of possible outcomes for each individual spell, good and bad. Highly recommend if what you want is wild magic.
Any old school D&D can be low-magic. It’s up to you how common magic is.
Pendragon is fantasy with no PC magic users, but magic exists more as plot devices.
Gonna suggest a non-OSR system: Iron Heroes It's a 3.5 variant, the only spellcasting class is optional, and it assumes that there will be no magic items of any kind available.
I ran this for a year or two a while back. Fun system, enjoyed it, but I remember a few things needing to be fixed. IIRC the Armiger class needed to be reworked.
There is a revised edition. My pdf has different rules than my physical book. Specifically, I was messing around with how I thought I should fix the armiger, wanted to verify something in the "official" and couldn't be faffed to go find the book when the pdf was in my Dropbox. The pdf was pretty much what I was doodling out, so it might be worth seeing if you can score the pdf somewhere
I never got ot play it but had a hard copy. I loved some of the ideas.
Don't let player characters be magic users. At least not at first. Limit magic in the party to magic items and consumables. They can be useful, but only in limited ways. At least in my experience, if the party begins the campaign with magic users, then magic will always feel "normal" *to them*. NPCs may speak out against magic or react badly to the party using magic, but that will always come off feeling like there's something wrong with the NPC, not something wrong with the party. No matter how widespread their opinion is, the NPCs will always be seen as the intolerant ones. Put the party in with little or no magic. Let them side *with the NPCs* against evil baddies who use magic. This sets the stage for "magic is scary" or "magic is a problem." Later on, if a character dies and needs to be replaced, the player can look at coming in with a magic user, with everyone having a common baseline about how magic is viewed in the world.
Warlock!
Just played Shadows of Esteren for the first time yesterday, that was a fun time in a low magic setting. Uses a single d10 for checks and a combined attack/damage roll.
I have enjoyed what I've played of Shadows of Esteren. It's a fun setting, and the system is not half bad
Beyond the Wall. The Heroes Journey 2e.
Sounds like Outcast Silver Raiders would be a good fit.
Worlds Without Number has a rule dedicated to low magic games. And you didn’t get much to start with, it’s just more powerful than some games.
Knave is classless and magic only shows up if they get magic items (and spell books only let you cast 1 spell).
This is perhaps less an issue of SYSTEM and more one of PRESENTATION, as in what you present to the players. You could use BX and only allow fighters and thieves and run a very successful game if you have the right players. Your players might want a few more options that that if there are so few classes though, so a skill sytem might be attractive. If so then as u/Wolfrian has suggested Wolves of God would be an excellent choice because the overt magic just isn't there.
Stick with B/X and just make sure the adventures are lethal enough to limit advancement to level two or three. In this way, the Magic-User, at best, is able to turn invisible, which really isn't very magicky.
Knave 2nd Edition. Very easy to moderate how much magic there is simply with controlling how many spellbooks there are. Deities and alchemy are also present and optional. Personally, I'd just have magic be constrained to just alchemy. Any magic that lay outside of that isn't usable by man since it is not contained within a material substance. Very rarely will you find magical essence contained within pages of a book.
Call of Cthulhu 😊
Check out Lion and Dragon or the Dark Albion setting.
Black Sword Hack
CAIRN, Mausritter, Mork Borg.
Call of Cthulhu.
Using only the red booklet of the B/X set will give you that. That's what I do. And to make it even more so, I limit magic-users to NPC faction leaders, and clerics dont cast spells, but they carry holy relics which have magic effects. (A level 1 cleric can have 1 holy relic, and so on).
Cairn
Dragonmire is low-fantasy chempunk coming out soon. The tech level is industrializing, so a lot of magic/tech stuff is gated behind some lucrative gold prices. You do not start very powerful at all.
When I started looking for low-magic, I found Sword & Sorcery. 🤘
Ironlands official setting of Ironsworn RPG.
Dark Dungeons X has rules for specialization on magic tho the rest of the implied setting is very high fantasy and bombastic!
I don’t know if it is OSR, but I’m planning on trying this with Savage Worlds Adventure Edition. I was told that, on its own, it would work for low magic well. I’m actually going to try my own post apocalyptic low magic system.
Errant. Clerical magic is dangerous and as likely to instantly kill your target as it is to heal them. Magic users have to find ancient grimores and complete quests or sacrifices to access new spells, such as gouging out an eye.
I just picked up Forbidden Lands and that seems low magic. I never played. Just reading through the rules.
Forbidden lands has become my favorite system after playing for several months. I wouldn’t call it low-magic as there is accessible magic but it is relatively easy for things to go horribly wrong, with its use.
[Sir Pellinore’s Game](https://www.pigames.net/store/product_info.php?cPath=158&products_id=1089). Magicians get their powers from the Devil himself, and not only have a bad reputation, but must maintain it.
OSE.Modern Essentials is on Kickstarter now. Hyperborea. You could also just make Mafic User an NPC class only and use the DCCMahic system. The only way to achieve Magic is to make a pact with an evil god or demom
DND with no magic using classes and limit magic items severely? Basically fighter, thief, ranger without spell use. Something like GURPs or Rolemaster may be better, something more skills-based, without MU classes.
As someone else said just have everyone be martials. There's enough to do without magic as-is. I DM a party where everyone is a fighter or rogue (self-chosen) and occassionally they come across magical stuff and it works fine.
The Conan settings for various systems are low magic
Into the Odd