What happened to Gygax's Lejendary Adventures?

[Odhanan]

Wait, wait, wait. You mean Lejendary Adventures had a set/collection called Essentials?

Yes. The introductory boxed set that simplified the LA rules was entitled "Essentials", absolutely.

 

[Philotomy Jurament]

Lejendary Adventure is actually kind of cool, IMO.

Here some characteristics:

• Skill-based - It's a skill-based game, rather than a class/level game. However, the skills are broad, more like "skill bundles" than discrete skills. Each one covers a lot of territory. For example, "ranging" covers all activities having to do with hazardous travel, scouting, scavenging, smuggling, and outdoor activities involving crafting, survival, camouflage, concealment, deadfalls, pits, poaching, traps and trapping, et cetera.
• Orders - While you can make completely free-form characters, there's also a system of "orders" which are kind of like classes without being as rigid as classes. Orders give you a pattern of skill bundles to follow. You don't have to use an order, though.
• New PCs are Pretty Potent - I'd say a new PC starts off with a power level equal to a 5th or 6th level D&D character.
• Skills/Actions use d100 - Basically a roll-low % check.
• Attack rolls use d100 - Again, a roll-low % roll.
• Damage is based on a 1-20 scale - However, different weapons have different minimum damage.
• Armor absorbs damage
• The time unit in combat is an Activity Block Count of three seconds
• Spellcasting uses power points
• Lots of categories of magic
• Intuitive pricing/economic system - Coins are valued based on weight of precious metal. There's an (arbitrary, but effective) ratio between copper:silver:gold. Prices are given in $, which roughly equate to a $US, and can be easily converted to whatever in-game unit you like. (The use of the $ in this fashion makes prices easier to estimate/grasp, IMO.) Gold is quite valuable (e.g. 1GP is $500).

Despite these obvious differences from D&D, game play still has a D&Dish feel, in some ways. For example, the order of combat feels similar, with surprise, initiative, attack and damage rolls, et cetera.

The biggest complaint I have is the use of non-standard terminology for familiar concepts. PCs are "avatars." Stats are "base ratings." Spells are "extraordinary activations." Skills are "abilities." Et etera. It takes some getting used to, when reading the rules. Amusingly, I've heard that even Gary sometimes lapsed back into D&D terminology when he ran LA.

If you're interested in LA, I suggest trying to find the Hekaforge core books, rather than the Essentials set. The Essentials set leaves out all but one of the "schools" or forms of magic, and suffers from poor layout and editing. It also leaves out a lot of the cool information, tables, and charts in the Lejend Masters Lore book. You'll be happier with the core books. (I should note that the art/layout in the core books is probably less polished compared to many modern RPG core books, but it's not a major strike against the game, IMO.)

 

[Philotomy Jurament]

Another random weird thing I remember is that you needed a d30 for one of the listed weapons in the back

Most weapons do up to 20 points. Siege weapons or similar large/heavy attacks are based on a 30 point scale.

I don't remember if Gary addresses using the dice (like he does in the 1e AD&D DMG), but a 1-30 range can be generated with a d10 plus an additional die. For example, d10 + 1d6. 1-2 on the d6 means add 0 to the d10. 3-4 on the d6 means add 10 to the d10. 5-6 on the d6 means add 20 to the d10.

 

[Greatwyrm]

Yes. The introductory boxed set that simplified the LA rules was entitled "Essentials", absolutely.

Oh my <insert deity>! Mike Mearls ruined Lejendary Adventures!

 

[Stormonu]

I picked both LJ and Dangerous Journeys up, but I was terribly disappointed reading through both. Of course, I was in a 3E frame of mind at the time, and if I didn't get rid of the books, I think I'm going to go give them a second look-over.

 

[Ed_Laprade]

I remember looking at it, seeing all the 'weird' jargon (no weirder than D&D, but I was used to that), and deciding not to bother with it. So he lost at least one potential sale by changing things just to change them. Familiarity may breed contempt in some, but in most of us its comfortable. Especially in the marketplace, but he never was the greatest businessman. (I think he'd have agreed with that?)

 

[cignus_pfaccari]

I picked both LJ and Dangerous Journeys up, but I was terribly disappointed reading through both. Of course, I was in a 3E frame of mind at the time, and if I didn't get rid of the books, I think I'm going to go give them a second look-over.

Mine got sold a while back at the used bookstore in Woodbridge, VA. They actually might've sold, unlike my copy of the old Babylon Project game (which was still there, last I checked).

The world book for Dangerous Journeys was pretty decent, though if you tried to read through it at once it'd get mind-numbing as all getout. Each country had a brief writeup with basic geographical information (languages, products, climate, etc), and a few adventuring ideas. I suspect that they might've been better-served picking a region or two to focus on and go into substantially more detail on; the Iberian/Atlantean area might've been a good choice.

There was a pretty good adventure that came with the main book where you started out as slaves on a galley and had to free yourselves before hitting port.

The system...really didn't shout out to me. It did hie back to old school with a lot of random generation, including whether or not you could be a full caster (20% chance for arcane or divine, and you could get both at once), though partial casters were given advice on how to be playable. Though casters, IIRC, had to be careful about using their spells, as their spell points came back relatively slowly.

One thing I recall is that it used a lot of older measurements, like rods and chains and the like, which, while potentially immersive, wound up being either confusing or required substitution of modern units. Of course, YMMV.

I know there were some people on ENworld who really liked it, and I think there was a guy (Mythusmage? Yeah, I think that was him) who was trying to buy the rights to it off of WotC.

Brad

 

[On Puget Sound]

Dangerous Journeys was the only gaming product I ever returned to a gaming store for a refund. I found it totally unreadable. I never looked at Lejendary Adventures, because I didn't realize it was a different game.

 

[Treebore]

Well LA is not the cleanest of lay outs, or the best organized, or even clearly written of RPG's. You'll definitely have to make a few decipher checks to figure out a few things, but I found it worth the effort, even if its still not on my list of games to play as often as possible.

 

[Baumi]

Lejendary Adventure is hard to read, especially if you are not an native english reader, but the Game is awesome!

It's extremely easy to GM (just 3 stats and the attacks), the priority System of the Character Generation is simply great (your highest Skill gets more points and also more fitting Equipment) and the Game itself is very flavorful and mythic. The Price-Lists are very interesting since it compares to today's income standard, so a Sword (a Item of status) costs a few thousand Dollars..

The Essentials were quite useful (I bought it as PDF, but it seems that it is not available anymore), but it lost much of it's flavor compared to the original 3 books.