High Magic Lowlives is a Science Fantasy Tabletop RPG about wizard school dropouts who get into trouble with the Immortal Aristocracy to make coin and build their #brand. You can find it at gemroomgames.itch.io/hml
Like old school RPGs this is a game about a crew of weirdos finding subterranean vaults filled with treasure, kicking down doors, beating up guards, setting off traps, and taking home as much coin as you can carry.
Like new school RPGs the mechanics are simple, drive the story forward, and don’t rely on a ton of preparation in advance.
Unlike any RPG you’ve ever played before (probably!) you can get paid for livestreaming your fight against the jack-o-lantern queen of zabraxas. Your companions would probably prefer you help them survive the fight, but they’ll forgive you when you capture their critical hit for all to see.
Clocking in at over 18,000 words, High Magic Lowlives includes:
- A unique system for making up monsters on the fly
- A traditional six-attribute system to more easily use OSR adventures
- A flexible setting with 22 unique backgrounds
- A table named “d666 dating profiles”
- Rules where getting a prosthetic doesn’t make you worse at magic
- Speaking of magic, domain-based spellcasting that rewards creativity without breaking the game
- Character creation that helps you answer the question: why am I hanging out with these idiots anyhow?
- An alignment system that defines the universe along the two most important philosophical axis of our time: Jock/Nerd and Prep/Goth
- Guidance on how to run combat initiative-free!
“This game is based (in part) on World of Dungeons and Blades in the Dark, and I’m delighted to see the way they’ve been incorporated as well as the very clever tweaks and interpretations into something new. If you like WoDu or Blades, I recommend it.”
- John Harper