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Currently I am in about 2/3 of the Baldur's Gate 3 campaign in local coop with my wife and I've started Pillars of Eternity 2 on my own. And...it's not that I don't enjoy gameplay in these games, but worldbuilding, particularly in BG3 is so high-fantasy, so unbearably bombastic that I find it totally ridiculous and not relatable at all. Everyone communes with gods on a daily basis, go through literal hells and heavens, gets resurrected every Thursday, and it was when



appeared in BG3, that I just rolled my eyes, gave up on treating this game as story driven, and I just concentrated on mechanical gameplay+more grounded subquests.

When it comes to TT RPGs I've never played D&D, I've always been a WFRP guy, so more fighting against hunger and peasants wanting to kill you for your shoes, than dragons. Is D&D so over the top mind-numbingly, ridiculously epic at all cost by design?

I guess that's why I loved the Witcher games, as they followed the books' worldbuilding - mild fantasy elements are so much more striking and eerie when presented on the background of relatively normal lives of "medieval" people. And it is more intriguing when you get a contract for a monster, but you don't actually know whether it's really a monster or a rival village playing a trick on poor, impressionable peasants or something like that.

So, any low fantasy, WFRP/Witcher like worlds in cRPGs that you recommend?

D+D has always been like that in view - lots of Magic, monsters, gods adn such - Imean its called Dungeons and Dragons not hovels and peasants

Its a little too magical fro me but I enjoy the story and the characters in BG games including the new one.

WFRP can be many things - yes you can start as a lowly person but even in 1st ed your carrer path could end as a very powerful figure - even a Wizard Lord and the original camapign again starts low key but by the end you are mixing with the Elector Counts and the Emperor and deciding their fate. I have played and ran alot of WFRP and love the setting because you can be many things - I have played lowly mercenaries trying to get by and a vampire lady....

In terms of the Crpgs hwoever I can't help but hope there is one for what you like.

Not played the Witcher as the TV series put me off.

If you want to, you could give "Drakensang" a shot. It's currently accessible on steam for 1,99€
https://store.steampowered.com/app/12640/Drakensang/

A german cRPG, a bit nerdy, but I have good memories of it.
One little disclaimer: the first few hours might feel a bit too low fantasy. You mostly fight stuff like rats and wolves and the like and the story needs a bit of time to really get rolling, but then (in my memory) it gets a lot better. The end of the story is a bit more high fantasy, but overall 80% of the game are pretty based compared to what DnD throws around. Also skills and talents outside of combat play a more pronounced roll then elsewhere and the magic system is again more on the lower side of fantasy and one does not feel like gimping oneself if one decides NOT to play a mage.

The graphic is not up to todays standards anymore, but OK.

Two games immediately come to mind, one recent and one old.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance and Darklands.

When it comes to TT RPGs I've never played D&D, I've always been a WFRP guy, so more fighting against hunger and peasants wanting to kill you for your shoes, than dragons. Is D&D so over the top mind-numbingly, ridiculously epic at all cost by design?

It doesn't have to be, but it usually is, especially 21st century D&D.
Once upon a time it took a while to work up to stabbing gods in the face, so you could avoid it if you wanted to.

Unfortunately the CRPG industry takes EPIC!!!! and World-ending!!!! as the default normal.

Thanks, guys. I forgot about Kingdom Come, I think this will be my next port of call, even though it's not fantasy at all. It should be a nice break from 'gods for breakfast, other dimensions for lunch' type of stories.

Pathfinder and Tyranny should be a bit lower on the scale or at least more restrained. You should check them out if you haven't already.

I prefer low-magic settings too.
If You are OK with more tactical gameplay, than I recommedn Mount and Blade (vanilla is actually in fictional world with zero magic) or Battle Brothers (low magic, there are some monstrous/magic using enemies, but for most of the game focus is on fight with humans and magical items are quite rare).

I also came here to suggest Battle Brothers. It is light on story, relying on random events more than anything else, but very low fantasy, and challenging.

Perhaps check out War Tales as it is so low fantasy, there's no magic in combat, and IIRC the most magic you get could be in items or some environmental quests.