Legend 1.0: Finally Here!

[Just to Browse]

My only legit complaint is that you guys are keeping ability score modifiers (I hate those things) and that KOM/KDM aren't just baked into the leveling progression. Perhaps Legend 2e will have those? Till then I should be happy with this and DtD.

[Flickerdart]

Ability mods are still useful for a couple of things - a creature may have its pick of KAMs but skills and saving throws are more or less fixed. A creature built around Strength and Constitution will not have much luck with social skills and Will saves, for example.

[afroakuma]

"In this game, yo uare expected to refluff everything!"

No, in this game you are welcomed to refluff everything. You're also perfectly welcome to take everything at face value.

I'm wondering, however. If the fluff is intended to be so mutable, why have it at all in the book? It seems to me that you could just as well have "Dextrous race", "Adaptable Race" and "Hardy Race" instead of "Elf", "Human" and "Dwarf", which are setting specific.

1) Some people rather like it. It's familiar, it's easy to refer to and relate to.
2) The races provided are examples, as far as I see. The game specifically provides outlines for how to make your own, and has the standard complement of tabletop fantasy faces as a quick rule of thumb.

What your main problem seems to be, near as I can tell, is that they cut out some of the Jake but not all of the Jake. Tonally, yes, that can be jarring (any Jake is jarring ) but I don't blame the editors and developers at all for missing things that they've probably come to gloss over as a given while hunting for serious issues that could compromise gameplay. They're not paid to do that; it's all volunteers.

[Suddo]

So I hate to be that guy but you refer to Table 2-1 on page 25 in the Quick Start Guide when you mean to refer to Table 3-1.

Edit: Though the title of the table is correct.

[Geigan]

So I hate to be that guy but you refer to Table 2-1 on page 25 in the Quick Start Guide when you mean to refer to Table 3-1.

Edit: Though the title of the table is correct.

Totally fine, and thanks for the heads up. Help collecting typos is always appreciated. Feel free to log any you find here, on our forums.

[Flickerdart]

So I hate to be that guy but you refer to Table 2-1 on page 25 in the Quick Start Guide when you mean to refer to Table 3-1.

Edit: Though the title of the table is correct.

No, please be that guy, it means we can fix things!

[Just to Browse]

Ability mods are still useful for a couple of things - a creature may have its pick of KAMs but skills and saving throws are more or less fixed. A creature built around Strength and Constitution will not have much luck with social skills and Will saves, for example.

But you can represent those with straight up numbers. Instead of having ability score arrays of 16,16,14,12... and converting those to mods, you can have 3,3,2,1... be the scores.

EDIT: Jake?

[Flickerdart]

But you can represent those with straight up numbers. Instead of having ability score arrays of 16,16,14,12... and converting those to mods, you can have 3,3,2,1... be the scores.

But then how would people be able to roll for random ability scores?

[afroakuma]

EDIT: Jake?

Jake was Legend's former design lead. He was replaced in a perfectly amicable process involving no decapitations or maniacal laughter whatsoever, and large sections were rewritten to remove elements of his style that were considered distracting or counter to the current version's needs.

[Just to Browse]

Was this super-recent, like after February. I'm just surprised I had no idea till now. Especially since he's still listed as creative lead.

[Star_Lord]

Wait a second, so you guys fired Doc Roc?

[Eldan]

You know, I'm reading over it again. After hte discussion in tihs thread, I now find the system a lot easier to swallow after thinking of it as a basic rule system to build a game and setting around instead of a complete game. I mean, I would rewrite a lot of it to fit my own needs, but I'd say as a basic combat, skill and feat system, it should be pretty solid. Not that I'm a good judge of that, mind you, and I'd probably break it again in the process of rewriting it.

So, apologies if I came over as too harsh.

[Draz74]

Wait a second, so you guys fired Doc Roc?

Nah, if I understand correctly, his bosses at his day job invoked some legalistic crap that restricted how much he could be involved with Legend anymore.

He's definitely still on friendly terms with the design team -- which means that they want to give him credit for getting Legend going even though he's been largely severed from the project. Hence keeping him as the "Creative Lead" credit.

[flare'90]

I still find the need of something like a "Hallow Campaign Setting" or something similar, just to give an idea of a possible world for the game.

[Flickerdart]

I still find the need of something like a "Hallow Campaign Setting" or something similar, just to give an idea of a possible world for the game.

There's a sneak peek (PDF) in the extra content section.

[afroakuma]

I still find the need of something like a "Hallow Campaign Setting" or something similar, just to give an idea of a possible world for the game.

Just about anything is a possible world for the game. I think there was even a homebrew Artificer thing for running Legend Eberron.

[Geigan]

You know, I'm reading over it again. After hte discussion in tihs thread, I now find the system a lot easier to swallow after thinking of it as a basic rule system to build a game and setting around instead of a complete game. I mean, I would rewrite a lot of it to fit my own needs, but I'd say as a basic combat, skill and feat system, it should be pretty solid. Not that I'm a good judge of that, mind you, and I'd probably break it again in the process of rewriting it.

So, apologies if I came over as too harsh.

No offense taken. I can appreciate feedback, harsh or not.

There's a sneak peek (PDF) in the extra content section.

and more on the way!

Wait a second, so you guys fired Doc Roc?

As a result of a new choice of employment during development, Jacob Kurzer(aka DocRoc) was unable to continue work with us due to a non-compete clause in his new job's contract. We are appreciative of his contributions to the beginnings of the system, though he's not been involved with the game for awhile now. I believe his "official" statement that he could no longer continue was sometime in February on our kickstarter, though it was actually a bit earlier. I've never worked with him myself in my year or so as a developer, so I can't say much beyond that. I believe we plan to announce something on the subject going into more detail, but that's the gist of it for now.

For those worried about the gap this may leave on the team, no worries as the position has been filled. You can rest assured that we're still hard at work on future content for the Monster Guide and upcoming modules.

[The Rose Dragon]

But then how would people be able to roll for random ability scores?

Fudge dice?

[Morty]

I've been thinking about how I could get a few character concepts of mine to work in Legend. A light/medium-armoured warrior focusing on speed would probably be a Barbarian with the Path of the Dervish that swapped the Path of the Ancestors for Battle Hardening, using Dexterity rather than Strength as his KOM. A crossbow-using goblin spy would be a Rogue with the offensive track swapped for Reign of Arrows. Not sure what he'd swap Esoteria Radica for, though. The goblin part could be easily done by renaming the Halfling race as one.

So, better than I expected. I still think that the way the character creation process is described is backwards, though.

[Draz74]

I've been thinking about how I could get a few character concepts of mine to work in Legend. A light/medium-armoured warrior focusing on speed would probably be a Barbarian with the Path of the Dervish that swapped the Path of the Ancestors for Battle Hardening, using Dexterity rather than Strength as his KOM. A crossbow-using goblin spy would be a Rogue with the offensive track swapped for Reign of Arrows. Not sure what he'd swap Esoteria Radica for, though. The goblin part could be easily done by renaming the Halfling race as one.

So, better than I expected. I still think that the way the character creation process is described is backwards, though.

Those would both work. Esoterica Radica can't actually be swapped, but I don't see why it would be discongruous with a goblin crossbow-firing spy anyway. (If it is, then you'd better use Ranger as your base instead.)

[afroakuma]

I've been thinking about how I could get a few character concepts of mine to work in Legend. A light/medium-armoured warrior focusing on speed would probably be a Barbarian with the Path of the Dervish that swapped the Path of the Ancestors for Battle Hardening, using Dexterity rather than Strength as his KOM. A crossbow-using goblin spy would be a Rogue with the offensive track swapped for Reign of Arrows. Not sure what he'd swap Esoteria Radica for, though. The goblin part could be easily done by renaming the Halfling race as one.

So, better than I expected. I still think that the way the character creation process is described is backwards, though.

ER doesn't swap; it wouldn't be bad for a spy to have at all, though. And yeah, the character-building could definitely use a cleanup.

[Razanir]

Fudge dice?

5dFb4 would work fairly well

[Morty]

Those would both work. Esoterica Radica can't actually be swapped, but I don't see why it would be discongruous with a goblin crossbow-firing spy anyway. (If it is, then you'd better use Ranger as your base instead.)

ER doesn't swap; it wouldn't be bad for a spy to have at all, though. And yeah, the character-building could definitely use a cleanup.

I don't really like Esoteria Radica, because I don't like luck-based abilities. Then again, I could just as easily describe them as a result of competence rather than luck. I could go either way, I suppose.

And I guess that the light-armored quick warrior could take Acrobatic Adept instead of Battle Hardening if I wanted to emphasize crazy feats of athletics. Or instead of Path of Destruction, but that might be sacrificing offence for defence a bit too much.

[The Rose Dragon]

5dFb4 would work fairly well

The second distribution in that link seems to round down all the results, so a 9 gives a 0, and all negative modifiers resulting from an odd score are similarly affected, so the actual modifier distribution would be slightly different.

[Razanir]

The second distribution in that link seems to round down all the results, so a 9 gives a 0, and all negative modifiers resulting from an odd score are similarly affected, so the actual modifier distribution would be slightly different.

Still, the distributions look similar enough. Also, I fixed the second distribution: link

[Raineh Daze]

Still, the distributions look similar enough. Also, I fixed the second distribution: link

I'd rather have the 4d6, honestly.

[Flickerdart]

In case anyone isn't religiously checking the front page, we have new character sheets, both a print and an interactive version.

[Razanir]

I'd rather have the 4d6, honestly.

Same here white text

[Just to Browse]

autocomplete is failing for me...

I've really just given up on anything other than point-buy and ability arrays for attributes. Probably because my stat re-rolls tend to be terrible.

[Icewraith]

Roll up seven sets of stats using 4d6 drop worst seven times.
Arrange each new set of seven so it forms a 7x7 matrix.
Pick the row, column, or diagonal that you and your DM can agree on.

(Some really bad or really good sets of rolls will cause party conflict if your stat totals are clearly superior or inferior, and will just cause stat inflation of your DM's monsters to compensate. Unless the entire party looks like that, and you happen to get a streak like that, and it's that sort of campaign, don't pick that row or column with all 18s. Although if you get such an allocation, consider playing a really MAD class like a monk.)

Depending on how organic you want your characters, you might assign these scores by dropping the lowest and swapping any two and then applying them in order. Or you can just drop one score (usually the lowest) and arrange the scores as if you had rolled them normally.

It's a little bit more work, but it usually guarantees you a stat allocation that doesn't kill your character concept before it begins play.