Many RPGs promise to let us do exactly what we want, but few of them achieve this goal quite as well as Open Legend. With a bit of effort this setting-free system can allow you to build everything from a band of medieval knights to off-brand X-Men, though this comes at the cost of a little more complexity than you'd expect from the average d20-based game.
The core mechanic of the game is a twist on the traditional "roll a d20 and add a modifier", with extra dice taking the place of static bonuses. For example, a low-level character specialising in agility might get to roll a couple of d6s, while an epic-tier enemy gets to add as much as 4d8.
This really gets to the heart of the Open Legend approach to things, creating a system that's fun and flexible but requires you to be red-hot on the rules if you want to keep the pace up. There's no doubt that getting to roll tonnes of dice is more enjoyable than just adding a flat number, especially as every single one of them explodes on the maximum result, but you also need to keep swapping out dice and double-checking charts when you're called on to make a persuasion check followed by a fortitude roll.
You can also see this in the mechanic that arguably forms the heart of the game – Banes & Boons. These are the powers and abilities that allow characters to do all the cool stuff you can imagine, from slinging spells and shape-changing to disarming foes and inspiring allies.
These all key off various core attributes, which include the usual physical, mental and social skills as well as more unusual elements like 'entropy' and 'prescience'. This means that you can invoke the 'stunned' bane on your enemy using your character's might or agility, or by throwing out some energy- or entropy-manipulation.
One of the great things about this system is that it leaves the flavouring of everything up to the players and the GM. Perhaps that enemy was stunned by a resounding punch to the jaw, a zap from a taser-baton or a blast of necrotic energy that sapped their energy.
The fact that there are so many options out there, keying off so many different attributes, gives every single character out there a decent list of powers they can use at any one moment. Again, this is great fun for players who are invested in their characters and familiar with the rulebook, but the sheer range of options open each and every turn can be overwhelming.
Even a level one character specialising in purely physical abilities is going to have access to well over a dozen banes and boons, all with their own effects and checks, and whether the thought of that fills you with excitement or dread probably sums up how you'll feel about playing Open Legend.
Ultimately, the system is well-written and definitely has the potential to slot into any genre you could possible want, with the only real limitation on what characters can do being the level you start at – insane superheroes and anime rip-offs only really work once you get to spend a few more points. If your table loves messing around with builds and stretching their imagination around rulesets, you should definitely take a look at Open Legend.
On a final note, while the core rules of Open Legend have been out in various forms for a while and are available for free from its website, this review was meant to cover the final, printed version of the core rulebook. Unfortunately, this hasn't been possible as the vast majority of books shipped to Kickstarter backers outside the US seem to have disappeared without trace, and at the moment there's no real indication when – or if – they will arrive.
While this doesn't impact the quality of the actual rules one bit, I'd be lying if the missing books – and the year-long delay that came before that – hadn't soured me on the system just a little.
contributed by Richard Jansen-Parkes
The core mechanic of the game is a twist on the traditional "roll a d20 and add a modifier", with extra dice taking the place of static bonuses. For example, a low-level character specialising in agility might get to roll a couple of d6s, while an epic-tier enemy gets to add as much as 4d8.
This really gets to the heart of the Open Legend approach to things, creating a system that's fun and flexible but requires you to be red-hot on the rules if you want to keep the pace up. There's no doubt that getting to roll tonnes of dice is more enjoyable than just adding a flat number, especially as every single one of them explodes on the maximum result, but you also need to keep swapping out dice and double-checking charts when you're called on to make a persuasion check followed by a fortitude roll.
You can also see this in the mechanic that arguably forms the heart of the game – Banes & Boons. These are the powers and abilities that allow characters to do all the cool stuff you can imagine, from slinging spells and shape-changing to disarming foes and inspiring allies.
These all key off various core attributes, which include the usual physical, mental and social skills as well as more unusual elements like 'entropy' and 'prescience'. This means that you can invoke the 'stunned' bane on your enemy using your character's might or agility, or by throwing out some energy- or entropy-manipulation.
One of the great things about this system is that it leaves the flavouring of everything up to the players and the GM. Perhaps that enemy was stunned by a resounding punch to the jaw, a zap from a taser-baton or a blast of necrotic energy that sapped their energy.
The fact that there are so many options out there, keying off so many different attributes, gives every single character out there a decent list of powers they can use at any one moment. Again, this is great fun for players who are invested in their characters and familiar with the rulebook, but the sheer range of options open each and every turn can be overwhelming.
Even a level one character specialising in purely physical abilities is going to have access to well over a dozen banes and boons, all with their own effects and checks, and whether the thought of that fills you with excitement or dread probably sums up how you'll feel about playing Open Legend.
Ultimately, the system is well-written and definitely has the potential to slot into any genre you could possible want, with the only real limitation on what characters can do being the level you start at – insane superheroes and anime rip-offs only really work once you get to spend a few more points. If your table loves messing around with builds and stretching their imagination around rulesets, you should definitely take a look at Open Legend.
On a final note, while the core rules of Open Legend have been out in various forms for a while and are available for free from its website, this review was meant to cover the final, printed version of the core rulebook. Unfortunately, this hasn't been possible as the vast majority of books shipped to Kickstarter backers outside the US seem to have disappeared without trace, and at the moment there's no real indication when – or if – they will arrive.
While this doesn't impact the quality of the actual rules one bit, I'd be lying if the missing books – and the year-long delay that came before that – hadn't soured me on the system just a little.
contributed by Richard Jansen-Parkes
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