Are RPGs with absolutely no magic (or very very little or unpowered magic) still capable of being interesting settings?

>game strips what non-wizards can do
>adds immutable options players can't tweak aside from "I can cast this spell without talking sometimes!" bullshit
If you're going to advocate "magic lets you do more" as an argument at least pick a good fantasy RPG.

Absolutely. In fact, some of the best RPGs I've played have no magic at all as a core part of the game, in any form (i.e. no psionics, "science," super powers, "hacking," "martial arts")

Magic, regardless of its trappings, is generally just a lazy way of giving your game the appearance of depth or a sense of novelty.

I've yet to play a game that has a magic system I actually enjoyed and can respect.

Please, keep posting. This kind of retarded autism is honestly rare in such a pure form. You are actually a brainless motherfucker, and I want to thank your mother for loosening the straps on your helmet enough that you are able to post here.

This.
One of the most fun games I ever ran was actually a Mad Max universe game run with WoD rules. Just a bunch of players being chased by a big bodybuilder guy with twin grenade launchers on top of a road train that only blasted "Love Train" by the O'Jays.

It entirely depends on what you want from an RP though. The best game I ever played in that didn't have magic was another WoD game where I was just a dad trying to reconnect with his estranged 14 year old son by taking him up to the snow for a week. It was a great game.

Jesus this so hard, hell go play a system other than D&D and 40k if you honestly believe op's question has some merit to it

Well, I had a post-apocalyptic game where the only "magic" was the weird monsters and latent psionics, but they came up very rarely. The game centered around them getting medicine from the city for their abandoned village, fighting against the people living in the hospital, finding out the girl who led those people was being hunted by a cult of people who believed that she could help them awaken their god, and how they let their friends and family die if they got into danger because they believed it was god "choosing" them to join him, and they ended up running from the cult, and now we are preparing for the second arc of the story. Some of the best RP I've ever done, and there was one, maybe two instances of magic in the form of mind-reading psionics? And all this girl can really do is read minds with eye contact, get visions, and occasionally just stare off into space and know how many opponents are inside the building they are about to capture, for example.

So no, I don't think magic is necessary to make a story interesting. Because if you cut out the actual psionics the story would only get marginally less interesting. And none of the characters have any magic at all.

Yes

The Excalibur movie is an excellent example of low level magic in an interesting setting.

Merlin and Morgana didn't have to be throwing around fireballs to be interesting

Yes. Absolutely. What're you, stupid?

I knew there were a few dumb people on Veeky Forums, but I never knew Veeky Forums was this collectively stupid.

If any of you had two brain cells to rub together, you'd realize RPGs with no magic systems in them are horrifically over-simplified affairs where only one or two stat columns dictate the entire adventure.

Think about it: How often are you going to be rolling against some kind of "perception" stat or something similar? It's because of that EVERYONE will take and max out Perception, which reduces interesting circumstances the GM can surprise the players with. In a game world with magic, a simple invisibility spell is all that's needed to foil such a simplistic skill roll.

And this goes for all other skills. Players will simply maximize the skills/abilities they can solve the most problems with, meaning some variation of a "Melee" or "Ranged/Firearms" skill will be maxed and then used as often as possible to solve any and all problems.

Even if you exclude combat, how often will players roll using a "Persuasion" or "Negotiation" skill or some variation thereof? Why would you develop any other aspect of their character when so much is covered under one umbrella of just a few skills?

This is why magical systems introduce a NEEDED complexity into a game, otherwise it gets too simplistic and thus boring. Like the afore-mentioned invisibility example, melee skills can be countered in a variety of different spells and so can ranged attacks. Persuasion and other Charisma skills will lose to a simple Charm spell. It's this dynamic that introduces an additional dimension that encourages players to load more tools into their toolbox then just pumping a few skills and attributes alone. A "magical" dimension becomes an additional consideration in all problem-solving events.

I'm not advocating for the superiority of magic either, so save all your links to "Angel Summoner and BMX Kid". Magic too can be countered.

>Are RPGs with absolutely no magic (or very very little or unpowered magic) still capable of being interesting settings?

that depends on whether or not you think magic is needed for a setting to be interesting.

>magic is better than not magic, therefore it is more interesting
please stop posting

>turns out its bait

Somehow I'm disappointed

yeah just throw them in the second world war and let them try to survive

...

have a (you), on the house

No.