Review: Open Legend

 

This is one of those role playing games that when the Kickstarter  came out I was really excited about the premise as I have always been on the search for an open ended, do whatever you want, play in any setting, and within any genre game for sometime. I could not participate in the KS at the time and I followed it for a little while but the game ended up falling off my radar. It caught my attention again about a month ago when it was mentioned off handed in a forum post with the explanation of what it does. This sparked my interest again and I dove into learning about it and reading the game. 

I know there was some issues with the Kickstarter stretch goals not being finished after the Core Book and the Campaign setting were released, but the original author did the right thing and sold the company to Jonathan "Great Moustache" Potter. Great Moustache and friends has really done a great job at finishing the core books and pushing out the rest of the Kickstarter rewards. The Great Moustache and company have really worked hard on this endeavor to do right by the fans and have created a supportive and responsive community. To date, two of the five stretch goals have been completed and sent out. I have been told that there are future plans for content after all the Stretch Goals are completed. 

Disclaimer: I acquired the physical/pdf combos at a discounted price for review purposes.

Presentation: The core book clocks in at a 140 pages of full color on heavy glossy paper encased in a hardback. The book itself is a joy to flip through and look at. In addition, the layout is a very clean two column style with appropriate headers and all of that. It reads like a game book and it is easy to read from cover to cover. This book has the same high quality construction and layout as many other books from bigger companies that are double the cost. You get a lot of bang for your buck with the physical copy. 

Character Creation: Creation of Characters follow these steps;

1. Describe Your Character: Choose a heroic name, a race (if applicable), two exceptional physical traits, two defining social traits, and a secret. All these options are fluff to help your background.
2. Select Attributes: There are three physical, four mental, three social, and eight extraordinary attributes. Scores in these are bought with a point buy system of 40 points and each rank has its own cost. Though, three different spreads are given for quicker character creation, Specialized (5, 4, 3, 2, 2, 2), Well-Rounded (4, 4, 3, 3, 3, 1, 1), and Jack of All Trades (3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 2, 2, 2, 1). The extraordinary attributes cover magical, supernatural, mystical, etc. abilities and powers. 
3. Record Defenses, Hit Points, and Speed: Toughness (10 + Fortitude + Will) protects you from attacks that test your endurance, bodily health, sturdiness, and survivability. For example, foes attempting to poison you, drain your life force, or stun you will target your toughness. Guard (10 + Agility + Might + Armor) protects you from attacks that can either be dodged, deflected, or directly withstood via raw physical power. Your enemies would need to overcome your guard in order to hit you with a grenade, shoot you with an arrow, or smash you with a maul. Resolve (10 + Presence + Will) represents your character’s ability to resist mental domination and stand brave in the face of danger. Enemies who wish to charm you, deceive you with illusions, or frighten you must target your resolve. Hit Points (2 X [Fortitude + Presence + Will] + 10) (or HP) are an abstract measure of how well you can ignore pain, avoid deadly blows, and maintain a presence on the battlefield in spite of wounds or exhaustion. If they reach zero, you fall unconscious and are at risk of death. Speed indicates how far your character can move using a single move action (see Chapter 7: Combat). Your base speed is 30 feet. Other effects, such as banes, boons, and feats may cause your speed to increase or decrease.
4. Purchase Feats: At 1st level, you have 6 feat points to spend. Any leftover feat points may be saved for the future.
5. Choose Starting Equipment: In a typical game of Open Legend, your character will start with the gear they need for the basic adventuring life. The GM, however, may decide that the campaign starts under special circumstances (such as the entire party caged in a slave convoy) that might dictate otherwise.
6. Choose Perks and Flaws: Can choose up to two Perks and Two Flaws. Each Perk must have a Flaw chosen.  

There is a 7th step that is tell your story and have fun. Though, here is some advice in this step that I think is well placed that I am going to quote;

"Relax. Open Legend gives you a chance to step out of everyday life for a few hours and into a fantastical world where you can perform heroic deeds. Pour the Mountain Dew or grab a beer, order some takeout or pop open the pretzels—but whatever you do, shake the dice like your character’s life depends on it and have fun. If you’re playing a dwarf, maybe pull out your best Scottish accent. If your character’s a witch, squint your eyes and speak in riddles. If you’re no expert thespian, think of other ways to add to the fun: play adventurous music on your phone, illustrate the party’s escapades, and so on."

"Respect the GM. If you’ve never GM’d before, you might not realize all the work that goes into it. More likely than not, your GM worked for hours to put their campaign together and prep for this session. Go with their storyline, overlook any accidental inconsistencies, and don’t cause a ruckus just for the sake of causing a ruckus. If there’s a dispute over the rules, accept the GM’s final ruling and agree to look it up later for the sake of keeping the game going."

"Respect the other Players. Different people play roleplaying games for different reasons. Some enjoy the tactical, chess-like combat encounters. Others just want to tell an epic story. Still others are born actors, reveling in every conversation with every character. Whatever it is that you enjoy about playing Open Legend, just remember that not everyone else at the table may enjoy the same aspects. The GM is there to help every character shine, but you can help by not hogging the spotlight and by encouraging the other players to have fun, whatever that means for them." 

Resolution: The core mechanic is handled by the Action roll, which is 1d20 + Attribute Dice (the attribute rating gives you dice to roll with the d20) vs. Target Number (10/15/20/25/30). It is also important to note that all dice explode! Yep, even that d20. 

Another foundational idea that is baked into the core mechanic is absolute failure is not an option. This is to make sure that the story continues and does not come to a screeching halt when no one can find the clue or pass whatever check is needed. Outside of the character succeeding by meeting or exceeding the Challenge Rating, the characters can either succeed with a twist (there are examples and advice for this in Chapter 2) or the character fails but the story still moves on (there are examples and advice for this in Chapter 2). 

When violent combat breaks out, it follows these steps:

1. Determine Surprise: This is handled by the fiction. 
2. Roll for Initiative: Make an Agility Roll and place individuals in order. If there is a tie, whoever has the higher agility. If there is still a tie, determine randomly. 
3. Taking Your Turn: Everyone has one major action (make a damaging attack, make a Bane attack, invoke a Boon, Assist an Ally, take an extra move action), and one move action. Or, they can take one focused action which grants Advantage 1 on the roll. Everyone can make an unlimited number of minor actions (such as make an opportunity attack, sustain a Boon, draw or sheath a weapon, retrieve an item stored on your person, make a perception roll, make a learning roll to recall important information, open a door/chest/drawer/etc.)
4. Determine Defense [Targeted]: Guard protects against attacks that can be dodged, deflected, or avoided by taking cover, such as a ball of flame, magical wall of blades, or a laser beam. Toughness is used to defend against attacks that require bodily endurance, health, or sturdiness, such as poison and necrotic energy. Resolve guards against mental assaults and deceptions, such as attacks from a phantasmal beast or damage caused by an illusory pit.
5. Calculate Damage: Any attack that inflicts damage is calculated by subtracting the targets defense by the total attack roll. 

In combat, the core mechanic works a little differently in determining keeping the action moving. Though, nothing is stopping the GM from saying a miss is a miss, etc. 

If the Action Roll equals or succeeds then the player succeeds. If the action roll is less then the challenge rating then the GM and the PC can both choose one of these options: Deal 3 damage, inflict 1 Bane of power less then less than or equal to 3, or Move 10' without attacks of opportunity. With these modified rules, a player’s failed attack roll means that the player may not get what they were aiming for, but they get something. And it comes at a cost because the GM also gets to choose an effect. Remember, also, that the rules for interpreting a failed roll only apply to PCs. For the GM, a success is a success and a failure is a failure (See chapter 2 for more details).

There are also advice with using Success with a Twist in Combat but some options are;

• Put a character in danger
• Expend a resource
• Make an enemy or lose a friend
• Overlook an important detail
• Waste time
• Attract attention
• Find something you weren’t looking for

 Crunch: I will address some additional crunch below:

• Open Ended Attributes: Basically, players (and the GM) make the attributes fit the fiction. There are usually no hard rules for this attribute for that or this. It is whatever makes sense and fits the fiction. Only ways to inflict damage have more rigid rules but still, 9 out of 18 can inflict damage.  
• Banes: These are various status effects, falling prone, or ongoing damage that is inflicted on others. Bane Attacks are defended by the usual defenses. 
• Boons: Boons are supernatural like affects that can affect others or the casting character. These are accomplished by a Task Roll vs. a difficulty determined by the Boons power level. 
• Feats: You get feat points at character creation and when you level up. Characters start with 6 feat points and gain 3 per level. Some feats can be taken multiple times and range in cost from 1 to 3 points per level. All the feats add to the characters abilities and only one is a tactical feat that has to do with movement. 
• Perks/Flaws: These help flesh out the character and characters can have a maximum of two perks and two flaws. Each perk must be followed with a flaw. 
• Resist Bane: Costs a move action, roll a single unmodified d20 and on a 10+ the character ends the banes effects. After three failed Resist Banes attempts, the Bane automatically ends. 
  
• Wealth: Instead of having a currency that requires constant addition and subtraction there is a wealth level system. All gear, equipment, cost of living, etc. has a corresponding wealth level. If the characters wealth level exceeds or matches the items wealth level, they are able to acquire it without a problem. If the item is higher then their wealth level, then they can still acquire the item or service but their personal wealth level is reduced by the difference. During play, characters wealth level can fluctuate by spending (liquidating assets) or acquiring wealth. 
• Extraordinary Items: These are magical or very advance items that can be acquired in more complicated ways through the story besides just shopping or they can be made by a character with the appropriate feat. These items have an higher then usual Wealth level as well. 
• Lethal Damage: From special sources, lethal damage reduces max HP and heals a slower rate. 
  
• Death: When characters are reduced to zero or below hit points they are unconscious/out of the fight/etc. They can only be killed by a purposeful final blow. 
  

Final Thoughts: Reading through character creation and realizing that it is very open ended to a point where even decided how attributes can interact with the world are really up to the fiction was a lot of fun and I spent a lot of time trying out different character concepts and seeing if I could find a roadblock somewhere. So far, I have not been able to find one during character creation. 

I found it also refreshing that the core mechanic is really simple and has built in verbiage so the game does not come to a screeching halt because of a failed roll. The expanded combat rules also make combat a lot more interesting outside of hit/miss/hit/miss. Now there is no one saying that you cannot run combat that way. 

There are two things that take getting used to. One of them is the open ended of the use of attributes and skills. What you can do with them is really defined by the fiction and what the GM will allow. The second thing is that because all dice explode, it is possible for a character to get taken out in one what it (though this is also very possible for the opponents as well). This is by design and there are various ruled baked in to help support this (like the final blow, special rules for a boss fight, healing happens quickly, etc.). 

Now, there are a few things I would have like to have seen or done differently. 

1. Due to the open endedness of the attribute and skills, I would like to have seen a lot more examples of uses in the core book as there are sometimes interactions that are not clear. 
2. This is really an issue of semantics but the use of the word feat, use of feet for measurement, and some calculations at character creation really makes the game seem more tactical then it is. Once you get passed character creation you realize the game is very story driven and they is a very small tactical element to it (unless the GM wants to play this angle up). I think the use of different language and more abstraction for movement and distance would have gone a long way of eliminating this impression. 
3. I am not a fan of the calculation for HP, this calculation more so then all of the others really had me making sure I was putting skills in various places to boost my total HP. HP only increases by stat increase so this furthers the MAD feel. I would have rather seen a flat HP total (around 25-30 covers the upper ends). 
4. I really wish there would have been more direction involving when to roll and what type of situations require a roll. If a new player reads through the book without seeing some live plays or interacting with the wider community it gives the the idea that the player must roll for every activation of a boon, etc. Even in a non stressful situation or on a willing target. This is wrong as rolls are only required for dramatic effect and in stressful situations where failure or success at a cost would be interesting. 
   
5. Depending on the situation, there could be a high stack of Advantages or disadvantages. Though, diminishing returns happen after three on both ends so it stops really being an issue of adding dice after three. In my experience and in a lot of live plays I have seen, most people stop at Advantage or Disadvantage 3. Though, due to this it is important the players know what advantages they have from their abilities and other sources and it is important that the GM use bonus advantage/disadvantage in consistent ways. If not, it can really bog down a round or the game (and pull from immersion) adding up advantages and subtracting disadvantages.
   

This is one of the truest classless, open ended, multi-genre, creative problem solving games I have ever seen. It does not even require thirty different setting books for various genres. One of the best things about this game is the community is amazing and very welcoming. This includes the man, "The Great Moustache" himself. Plus, Open Legend also has some great community designed resources and future plans once the original KS stuff is finished. 

• Open Legend Store
• Discord 
• Free Intro Adventure
• Character Sheet 
• Example Characters (All Genres)
  
• D&D Conversion Guide 
• OL Community License
• Core Website 
• Heromuster (Online tools for creaating characters, NPCs, Items, etc.) An amazing resource! 

Here are some ongoing live games;

• Bomb Squad
• Unlawful Disorder: A Twist of Fate 
• City of the Gods
• D.R.E.A.M.