Dark age fantasy vs the standard high fantasy of pathfinder/

[kiwleyu]

What things would you focus on in a fantasy game set in more of a dark age setting as opposed to the high medieval fantasy that pathfinder/D&D assume? I am talking tone, quest and monster type stuff, not what mechanical system to use.

[kiralon]

Survival, resources like food and weapons would be scarce, life would be cheap with the odd beacon of light town here and there, with places full of nasties everywhere, like forests between villages full of wolves or bandits preying on people. Places that hang/burn people just because they looked different or disagreed with the wrong person.

But it really depends on how dark you want to go, but little supplies and less money makes it hard. Make magic/items banned or regulated by the ruler so you have to have license to use it and nobody expects the inquisition.

[Library Ogre]

First of all, define "Dark Age fantasy". Dark Ages isn't really a historical term, so narrowing it down to what you mean is pretty essential.

If you mean roughly 6th-10th century technologically:

Limit armor. Top of the line armor in this time, in Europe, is going to be a chain hauberk with leather pants and a spangen helm with a chainmail neck guard... the heavy armors have not been invented. Banded armor, the lorica segmentata, is a thing of the past. Shields are very important (but poorly dealt with in Palladium)

Going along with that, you need to put some stops on magic, simply because armor is about what the martial types get. Palladium magic has a ton of problems, but when you reduce armor a lot, it gets even further ahead.

[glitterboy2098]

First of all, define "Dark Age fantasy". Dark Ages isn't really a historical term, so narrowing it down to what you mean is pretty essential.

If you mean roughly 6th-10th century technologically:

Limit armor. Top of the line armor in this time, in Europe, is going to be a chain hauberk with leather pants and a spangen helm with a chainmail neck guard... the heavy armors have not been invented. Banded armor, the lorica segmentata, is a thing of the past. Shields are very important (but poorly dealt with in Palladium)

Going along with that, you need to put some stops on magic, simply because armor is about what the martial types get. Palladium magic has a ton of problems, but when you reduce armor a lot, it gets even further ahead.

sounds about right. also worth noting:
there would be few large kingdoms. and a lot more small kingdoms and city-states (basically where in a later medieval inspired setting you'd see dukes and counts and barons, you'd get kings.). almost none of them will be using stone build castles, instead you'll see a lot more "turf and timber" fortifications. hillforts, motte and bailey, etc. you'll also see a lot less standalone castles, with most fortifications being built to defend communities, either directly fortified towns or as strongholds for several nearby communities to flee to. these latter types will often be employed as the homes of the local kings.

these reduced fortifications will be very difficult to defeat.. because the armies of the kingdoms will be relatively tiny. a few thousand men at the upper end, several hundred being more common. because the population is a lot lower, and the communities can't spare much in the way of manpower for the army. so there will be a lot more reliance on the retinues of the king and his nobles, which will also be relatively small. these retinues will usually have the best armor and weapons, and usually horses, whether they fight as cavalry or not. but on their own these retinues are only good for raiding, for full war you have to draw from your general population, usually with each noble recruiting a levy from their village. these levies usually had no armor (at most just some thicker cloth coats), often not even a helmet, but will usually have a spear, simple wooden shield, and sometimes a bow. war fighting is a lot less set-piece battles and a lot more sieges and raiding, in part because logistics are by the nature of the society, limited. no one has the excess of production needed to support a logistical corps, so foraging from villages and fields is the order of the day, and there is only a limited period of time in which an army can be on campaign (generally spring and summer.. as come fall the villagers will start deserting to go home to their farms if they're close to home, while the rest of the army will usually shack up in a town somewhere to survive the winter as best they can) there would be no such thing as a standing army, or trained ones with standardized equipment and unit sizes. it would be an army made up of retinues of retinues.

speaking of castles and armies, while you will see a lot of small kingdoms, expect there to be regional "high kings" who have welded alliances of kings together to the point that in the event of an outside threat, they can rally large forces to meet it. these high kings were also usually the court to which disputes between lower kings brought their disputes to be settled (either before or after raiding and warfare had occurred)

[Kraynic]

I think this can cover a pretty broad variety of gaming.

As mentioned above, you likely have a bunch of smaller political entities, which can lead to quite a lot of skulduggery and intrigue. If your players go for political intrigue, rebellions, assassination attempts, plots to discredit rivals, etc., then you could lean into that aspect of things. Even without the political angle, there are certain to be bandits, dangerous animals, and maybe the occasional eldritch horror to deal with if you are dealing with magic at all. Dealing with this sort of thing long enough in a certain political region would probably lead to being granted land (with or without tenants in place), and ending up being responsible for part of the realm you have been adventuring in (and being subject to then being embroiled in politics).

What wars are going on in your world? While there aren't always large wars going on, it is likely someone somewhere is fighting over who's grandfather really did control that one river valley. Joining or sabotaging the war effort of one side or the other (or both) should be an option in this sort of setting if that is something you and your players are into.

What kind of trade routes exist in your world? What kind of dangers are faced in your world to move goods from one place to another? That is another area of adventure that you might focus on. Not only does this incorporate the dangers of animals, crossing political boundaries, bandits, maybe eldritch horrors, but also weather/climate. Just depends on whether those things are at all interesting to you and your players.

A couple books that come to mind right off for inspiration would be "The Black Arrow" by Robert Louis Stevenson and "The Walking Drum" by Louis L'Amour (one of his few non-western titles).

I have run something somewhat similar in concept, but did so in the Palladium world. I used the 1E fantasy rules, in which magic is more easily countered by martial characters than it is in other games. There is a mention in the books that some believe the use of magic is tied to the Old Ones and will eventually lead to their release. Instead of that being a belief held by a few, I made that a known fact for that particular game. That cut magic use down to the magic innately known by magical creatures, or those creatures or people that are evil/insane enough to make use of power they know comes from the Old Ones and would lead to their return. The only "safe" magics were those of Mind Mages, Healers, and Druids (which are shape shifters and animal influencers in 1E).