LA
I've played (and GMed) LA, and in the final analysis, I don't like it. If you think 3e has "too many rules", or are a GM who feels "players have too much control", then you might like it.
3e is a Class-and-level based system, starting to move away from that with the latest multiclassing rules. LA is a skills-based system, although it does have "Orders", which are somewhat similar to classes.
In LA, you start with 100 points to split up into Health, Precision, and Speed. Your race determines the minimum/maximum number of points, and then the random adds. You distribute points as desired, then roll the dice for a few additions. The stats are both Physical and Mental at the same time.
Race also gives you several advantages and disadvantages. LA is a Knacks/Quirks system. Race also affects which skills you CAN and MUST take. Kobolds cannot have Chivalry, and Wylves must take Ranging and Stealth.
Races include Human, Dwarves, Ilfs (a type of Elf), Kobolds, Typical and Major Oafs (big, strong, and dumb), Typical, Greater, and Lesser Orcs, Trollkin (very similar to Runequest's), Wylves (Wild Elves), and Veshoges (Piggy-looking humanoids)). All are dissimilar to the D&D versions.
"Orders" require you to take certain skills, in a certain order, and always take the first skill as your highest ability... In other words, members of the Soldier Order will always have Weapons as their first (and therefore highest) ability. Characters (called "Avatar Characters", or ACs) can also be Unordered.
A Soldier, for instance, will ALWAYS have Weapons as his first ability (else he isn't a Soldier). Thereafter, he can take other abilities, but will usually take Planning, Ranging, and Physique. ACs also get a fifth ability at 10%. Non-Humans get six or seven abilities, Humans get five. Humans can select all of theirs, but Non-Humans have Excluded, Restricted (can't take at the beginning), and Required skills.
Once you have race and basic stats, you pick skills, and perhaps an Order. (There are many orders, including Soldier (Fighter), Ecclesiastic (Cleric), Elementalist (more magically powerful Druid), Forester (Ranger), Jongleur (Bard), Mage (Wizard), Desperado, Outlaw, and Rogue (Thievish types), and a few others). Skills add two points to the stat they're based on (H or P) or half a point to Speed.
Once you have chosen your skills and ranked them in order, you get the final total on the three stats (H, P, S), and can generate the optional Intellect stat.
With the final stats, you use the race's percentage times the stat (called a Base Rating, or BR) to generate a percentile score for each skill...
Thus, a Human (with no required, restricted, or excluded abilities) will have them at 100%, 80%, 60%, and 40% of the BR(s) associated with that skill. So a Human Soldier will have Weapons @ 1 x P, Planning @ 0.8 x H, Ranging @ 0.6 x Health, Physique @ 0.4 x H, and one other Ability of his choice @ 10%.
(If you're interested in character generation examples, which the Author's and Premier Editions didn't even include, you can see a couple of samples at
http://anch_stevec.crosswinds.net/chargen.htm. I understand that later versions of the rules have incorporated these.)
Here crops up one of the first problems with LA. There are no rounding rules. If a Human Soldier has 60 Precision and Health, and 12 Speed, then his Weapons Ability is 60%, Planning 48%, Ranging 36%, Physique 24%, and his fifth ability (let's say Archery) is 10%. But if his Health was 52, and his Precision 55? Then Weapons is 55%, Planning 41.6%, Ranging 31.2%, Physique 20.8%, and Archery still 10%. In other words, you can't even generate a character, without checking with the "LM" ("Lejend Master"). You have to ask him how to round, IF you even do!
And this, really, is my biggest problem with LA. It tries to be so "rules light", that you can't even figure out what your chances are to do anything, without asking the GM! As you can see, you have few abilities, and low percentages. While these can be modified up or down by circumstances, these modifiers are rarely beneficial! Thus, most ACs will fail more often than they succeed!
Now unlike 3e, where you have a skill like "Move Silently", you have more general skills like "Stealth", in LA. But here, again, is another problem... The skill descriptions are pretty vague and general... What can you do with an ability (a skill)? Whatever the LM says you can! Also, while "Stealth" may be a bit broader than "Hide" and "Move Silently", it is not much more so! Maybe just a touch of "Escape Artist".
In 3e, for instance, your Jump skill and STR (plus a roll on D20) tells you how far you can jump. In LA, there is no mechanic, although the LML (DM's Guide for LA) has a section on which skills allow jumping...
And then there's the question of what to do with unskilled characters... If an AC doesn't have Weapons, already, they are required to take it as that free, fifth ability, at ten percent. If they don't have Unarmed Combat, however, what is their chance to hit with a fist? Back to the LM, again, for a ruling (what rules there are are confusing, and shed no light, on this point)!
LA was also hurt by the lack of character generation examples in the Author's and Premier editions, the abundance of typos and downright errors, etc., in those printings. Now, while rules are being "fixed" in every printing, two players with different printings will have different descriptions of their skills, etc.
(
http://www.anch_stevec.crosswinds.net/errors.htm)
Basically, LA is for the chaotic GM who doesn't want to be bothered by rules, wants more control, and to roll his own, more or less. It has the vaguest descriptions of skills, and the merest framework of rules. The GM is required to adjudicate everything, and interpretation of even the simplest things vary wildly! For instance, one of the biggest questions has been about the wording on the equipment picks list...
Y'see, instead of starting with cash and buying equipment, you get so many picks on a certain list, depending upon which abilities you took, and in what order... Simple, huh?
Due to wording like:
Enchantment, Ability possessed-see Extraordinary Activations, Enchantments, choose any, each selection counting as one item.
, with the line wrapping right before the second "Enchantment", people kept asking something like:
"What's the difference between 'Enchantment, Ability possessed -see Extraordinary Activations' and 'Enchantments, choose any, each counting as one item'?" A simple bulletted list would fix that, as would cleaning up the wording:
"If your AC posses the Enchantment Ability, see the 'Extraordinary Activations, Enchantment' section, and choose any one activation."
The "Product-Branding" is also very irritating, to me. PCs become "Avatar Characters". NPCs become "Non-Player Avatar Characters" (NACs, for short)! Spells become "Extraordinary Activations". The GM must be called the "LM".
In the end, LA is only as good as the LM, and he really isn't given the tools to do the things he needs to, by the rules. There is no CR system, for instance. Adventures can't be designed for 4-8 characters of 6-9th level, or whatever. Even the ACs' "Ranks" in their order (dependent upon the percentage of their first ability) isn't any indication of character power... All abilities are certainly not created equal!
As for advancement, it takes many "Merits" (XP) to gain even 1% in an ability, and 2,500 (IIRC) to be able to train in order to get a new ability (starting at 20% of the BR, or generally about 11%). Increasing a BR is at least as expensive. You earn about 60 Merits for an hour of average play... Since there are about 40 abilities, you will almost always have situations where you can't do something, because you don't have the required ability... So back to the GM, again, to see if another ability can be used, instead.
Yes, the system is flexible (for the GM). Yes, LA has some good elements. It has some bad ones, too. Many players, however, will dislike not being able to figure out how good their chances are. Many will feel railroaded because the GM is free to assign +60 modifiers to their rolls at any time.
LA uses all percentile rolls, except for damage. A +60 turns a roll of 01 into a 61... and that's BAD. Weapons add to your Precision/Weapons Ability (not the roll, and that's GOOD), while magical weapons subtract from your roll (and that's GOOD), even though the combat examples in the books show it adding to the Precision/Weapons Ability! (Huh?)
You think that was complicated? Wait until you see the rules of which spells a Theurge can take! The problem is, when you ask the GM, he isn't going to know any better than you do! HOUSE RULES!
Nope, I've tried LA. I can honestly say that I didn't like it. YMMV.
Anyway, if you're interested, Gambit's site is the most active, and some of my old errata and corrigenda (and other stuff) is still up at:
http://www.anch_stevec.crosswinds.net/laletter.htm
