A sword and sorcery style RP, but not the standard Tolkien-style world.

Magic, though once a powerful and completely controllable energy, has declined over a period of centuries to a point where it is dangerous and unreliable. This has caused most of the old civilizations of the world to slowly crumble and finally collapse, as the use of magic had been integral to everything from national defence to communication and even bureaucracy.

As the world stands now, most people are learning to get along without magic- there are some small towns that don't actually believe in it. Wizards and spellcasters are often looked at as mad, dangerous individuals- though capable of wielding great power, almost every mage with any amount of experience bears permanent magical scarring at best, or more commonly disfiguration or even some level of disability, ranging from petrified eyes to having had limbs blown off. Due to the danger involved, few choose to pursue the arcane arts- this in turn leads to an astoundingly small number of people capable of creating magic items.

This is not a setting where you scrape together two thousand gold and buy a +1 longsword. A magic weapon is likely to be very, very old, and the enchantments may have decayed or mutated over time, making them unpredictable.

As enchanted arms and armour have become less common, the monstrous races of the world have begun to come into their own. Without having to deal with bane weapons or armour that can protect their foes from their inhuman strength, races such as ogres and minotaurs and gnolls have begun to cut out lands of their own. Some of the common races (Humans, Elves, Dwarves, etc.) have tried to fight them back in the way that their ancestors would have, but others have changed with the time and begun to accept these races they once would have called monsters. It is not uncommon to see an Ogre drinking next to a human in an Inn, with a kobold barkeeper and an Elven serving girl. Halfbreeds have also become far more common, including mixes that would have been regarded as abominations once upon a time.

Currently, the world is still in something of a dark age. There is no kingdom or empire, only scattered towns and the occasional fortress city. Bands of raiders plague the roads, and petty bandit chieftains take slaves where they can and cut out bloody little domains of their own before being violently overthrown. Within the ruins of the ancient empires of the world, there is still treasure to be found- enchanted objects and gold, but the danger of these places has so far kept would-be adventurers out, or kept their broken bodies within after they fail. 

Anyone interested? Still need to come up with an actual plot, but I wanna do a more gritty fantasy world. Think less Anime, more "Iron Heroes D&D"