Open Legend is the new hot Universal Role-playing Game from Seventh Sphere. We’ve talked about it a couple of times so far during their Kickstarter campaign, and today we’re back with a look at the Core mechanic (I do like games that have a core mechanic, “One mechanic to rule them all” so to speak), and the character creation process. Open Legend is a story first game, and anytime the player or the GM pick up the dice, it’s always for a specific, story driven reason. Let’s take a closer look at the core mechanic, and the character creation process.
The Core mechanic for Open Legend is called the Action Roll. Those of you familiar with the D20 system will see familiarity, but Open Legend spices up the Action. When you make an Action Roll as a player, you are going to roll a D20, and then roll the attribute dice for the attribute associated with the Action you’re attempting. The most important thing to remember about an Action Roll is that it will ALWAYS move the story forward. Even if the check is below the Challenge Rating, the GM can decide that the player succeeds with a twist (a new plot element) or that the check failed, but the story moves forward in a different direction.
Trying to Jump a cliff? Roll a D20, your might Attribute Dice and see what the number looks like.
Want to talk your way into that bored noble’s pants? Same mechanic, but it probably uses your persuasion instead of your Might.
Shooting a gun? Same mechanic, but uses agility.
Want to roast a guy with a magnificent fireball? Same mechanic but it uses the Energy Attribute.
Every task you should expect to perform in the game is covered by the Action Roll mechanic, which is a simple way of determining how the story progresses. You get to roll your dice, and the dice are going to directly affect the outcome of what you’re doing. Importantly to me, it clearly identifies for a player what attributes they are going to want to pump up. You can see what Action Rolls you imagine your character performing regularly, and you can adjust your attributes accordingly. This is one of the first times i can remember where the system clearly incentivizes a player to build their attributes to suit their character while making it a character that makes sense mechanically and holistically.
Simple mechanics don’t mean a simple game, and Open Legend offers a wonderful array of options without overwhelming a player with too many options. I like that a lot, and it makes an especially interesting game for introducing new players to role-playing games as well. To me, it hits the sweet spot of enough options to give players choices without burying them in subsystems.
I frequently (this makes twice now) say that the best way to determine the overall complexity of a game is to take a look at the character creation system and build yourself a character. You can discover a lot about the game’s complexity level and its ease of play. If character creation is easy on you as a player, it’s a good bet that it’s going to be easy on you to play the game. Let’s see how Open Legend does it’s thing.
Like most roleplaying games, Open Legend encourages you as a player to come up with the concept for what you want your character to be. Now, the thing to keep in mind for Open Legend is that you will probably need an idea of what setting you are playing in, and what the available choices are for building a character. Some concepts and ideas work better in some settings than others. A Space Opera Smuggler looking for his princess isn’t going to work in a game of modern horror survival for example. This should be a quick conversation with your Game Master, about what kind of game he or she is running and you’re off to the races.
Let’s pretend that RyRy told me he was running a game and i was expected to make a character for the game. He tells me it’s a high fantasy setting where technology is slowly starting to progress towards a level of parity with magic, and the current struggle is between a magocracy that fears this technological revolution. Techs are currently fighting a war in the shadows against these ruling magi, and the countryside is a powderkeg waiting for the first spark to set the whole thing ablaze. (Ry Ry, please make this setting).
He also lets me know that we as a group are playing the Tech side of this conflict, so think resistance fighters, rebels, and techs as ideas for characters. Alongside this, the nobility are split fairly evenly down the middle when it comes to which side they support, so this adds an intrigue component to this game setting as well.
With this setting idea in mind, i have an idea of the type of character i want to put together. I envision that there are more radical techs out there, guys tinkering with lightning guns, or flamethrowers (think Skaven from the Warhammer Fantasy World and you’re in the ballpark) or all manner of exotic weaponry. My character is working on a different sort of a problem, how to fix the ecological devastation that the long term use of magic has inflicted in areas of the setting. There are vast wastelands where wild magic roams free, corrupting everything it touches.
The character i am creating is pursuing a method/process/maguffin to undo this ecological devastation and bring prosperity back to the land. WIth that in mind, let’s take a look at the attributes i am probably going to look for.
I am going with the Well rounded hero attributes, which means i have 2 level 4 attributes, 3 level 3 attributes., and 2 level 1 attributes.
The three physical attributes, Agility, Fortitude, and Might, are equally useful to my character, but aren’t areas that i am willing to sink things in. I leave those attribute levels at 0, and move on to the mental attributes
There are four mental attributes, Learning, Logic, Perception, and Will. Each one of them could be useful to my Character (Whose name will come to me eventually), but i know that Learning and Logic are essential to my design. I put my two level four attributes in them, and i put a Level 3 attribute in Perception and a level 1 attribute in Will.
So far my Attributes look like
Agility 0
Fortitude 0
Fortitude 0
Might 0
Learning 4
Logic 4
Perception 3
Will 1
Social Attributes are next. Consisting of Deception, Persuasion, and Presence, these represent the key aspects of social interaction that most characters will use on any basis. I’m not seeing the tech i am building as being Super Social, but i think he has a quiet authority to him, and give him a level 1 attribute in Presence.
Now My Attributes look like
Agility 0
Fortitude 0
Fortitude 0
Might 0
Learning 4
Logic 4
Perception 3
Will 1
Deception 0
Persuasion 0
Presence 1
Now we move onto the supernatural attributes, and these represent extraordinary abilities and powers outside of what we should normally expect from people. There are eight of these, Alteration, Creation, Energy, Entropy, Influence, Movement,Prescience and Protection. Technology in the context of this setting is still a supernatural power, so i see that i want to power up Alteration (changing one thing into another to root out the corruption) and Creation (The divine healing power to cleanse the corruption). I put my last two level 3 attributes into it, and now my character’s attributes look like this. The Attribute Dice are listed in parentheses, and any number without a parenthetical value doesn’t have attribute dice to contribute.
Agility 0
Fortitude 0
Fortitude 0
Might 0
Learning 4 (1D10)
Logic 4 (1D10)
Perception 3 (1D8)
Will 1 (1D4)
Deception 0
Persuasion 0
Presence 1 (1D4)
Alteration 3 (1D8)
Creation 3 (1D8)
Energy 0
Entropy 0
Influence 0
Movement 0
Prescience 0
Protection 0
Now onto Defenses
Toughness is a measure of your character’s resistance to injury and illness. My character isn’t particularly resistant (Fortitude of 0) meaning his Toughness Defense is 10
Evasion is a measure of your zigzaggedness (Yes it’s a real word). My character, not being particularly physical, (Agility 0) has an Evasion of 10
Resolve is a measure of your mental ability to shrug off stressors and external influences. My character is a little sterner in this area (Will 1, Presence 1) and has a Resolve of 12.
Hit points are calculated next, and represent your ability to take damage before being incapacitated or killed. My character is rather fragile, (Fortitude 0, Will 1, Presence 1) and ends up with 14 Hit Points. I also have a Base Speed of 30 feet per round.
Now we’re looking like this
Attributes
Agility 0
Fortitude 0
Fortitude 0
Might 0
Learning 4 (1D10)
Logic 4 (1D10)
Perception 3 (1D8)
Will 1 (1D4)
Deception 0
Persuasion 0
Presence 1 (1D4)
Alteration 3 (1D8)
Creation 3 (1D8)
Energy 0
Entropy 0
Influence 0
Movement 0
Prescience 0
Protection 0
Defenses
Toughness: 10
Evasion: 10
Resolve: 12
Hit Points: 14
Speed 30 feeet
Speaking of feets, let’s take a second to talk about feats. Feats represent additional areas of expertise or options that are available to characters. Ranging from combat maneuvers, boon access, to social interactivity and knowledge, you can get a lot done with Feats. Every starting character starts with 6 feat points to buy stuff.
Now i opt to pick up Knowledge at Tier 3 (for 6 points). My area of Expertise is Technology, meaning that my character is probably one of the most capable techs of his generation, and he has broadly applicable knowledge in this area of science.
Keep in mind you get 3 more feat points at every level, so you can grow into ideas and options as you level up.
Gear:
Now this is the section that would be very helpful to have as a setting piece, but even within the basics in the character creation document, i can get some work done.
For a weapon, i’m going to take a Hand CrossBow (wealth 2), and explain it as some technological gizmo that works exactly like a hand crossbow.
I don’t have the fortitude bonus to carry a shield or wear armor, so life’s going to be tricky for my fragile body.
I’m going to take a mage’s pack and explain it as a tech’s pack, meaning it has all the stuff i need to be a tech in the field, like my tool kit, some spare parts, lubricants tiny goggles etc.
With that, i can’t think of any other gear i’ll need to be an adventurer, and move on to describing my character. Well, i’ve waited long enough. I think that at least least one area of this particular setting has a heavy Germanic influence, so i want a solid Germanic name for my character and settle on Heiden. Heiden offers no surname, but he’s from the village of Franduil, so he is Heiden Franduil according to the traditions of his people (only the Nobles have their family names).
The folk of this region are ostensibly human, but have two distinctive characteristics. Their skin is universally the color of white marble, and they have an extra digit on hands and feet, as well as an extra segment (for a total of four) in each digit. (Extra long fingers and toes, with the a second index digit that broadens both hands and feet.
Socially, Heiden is a man who would rather not get involved in the conflict that’s brewing between the Diamond Circlet (the Magocracy) and the citizenry. He would much rather be pursuing his research on the magic crisis. He’s also the first one to offer a compromise or try to play peacemaker. He doesn’t like violence and prefers to let better people than him come together to manage tensions and crises.
Secretly, Heiden has discovered the location of an ancient artifact that he believes will guide him to the answer to his research question, but he must travel far and wide to find this artifact before it falls into the wrong hands and dooms the world.
For Perks, i select the Merchant and the Scholar choices, because Heiden is both of these things. He has access to the grey market channels that other Techs are using to put together their gizmos and he’s a recognized expert on the topic and often visits other schools and places of learning to offer advice and wisdom.
For Flaws, i opt to go with the Pacifist (because Heiden genuinely believes that all lives have a higher purpose than dying violently) to the point where he will only hurt another person if it’s required to save someone else’s life.
The second Flaw i’m considering creating my own. Tentatively titled Driven Heiden has a goal that he has to accomplish, and doesn’t easily divert from his goal. Barring any other Immediately overwhelming need, he will press forward on his goal to find the artifact before it falls into the wrong hands.
And Now we’ve got a mechanically complete, ready to play character. He could just as easily be a merchant prince/scholar/healer in another setting using the same character sheet.
Well, let’s take a breath, see how the Kickstarter for Open Legend is doing, and we’ll see you all back here later.
Game On, Game Fans
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