Line #149 TabletopGame/LegendSystem


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5	[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/LegendCover_4787.jpg]]
6	->''"Legend is built to be understandable, to be learnable, and finally, to be something you can own and change and use without too much fear of making the game go boom."''
7	->Legend, Page 8
8
9	''[[http://www.ruleofcool.com/ Legend]]'' first started on ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'' forum's Test of Spite arena as a series of house-rules to improve the flaws of ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons 3.5 Edition''. It soon became evident to the arena masters that the amount of house-rules that resulted -- nearly 80 pages worth of material -- was sufficient to reach a critical density and spawn an entire book. Development on a new game system incorporating their house-rules began shortly afterwards, which eventually culminated in a role-playing game that, while still based on the d20 system, was substantially different from ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons''. It aims to provide a sleek chassis for a wide variety of gaming styles and fantasy archetypes with an emphasis on quick, rules light play.
10
11	Legend's most obvious defining feature is the Track system. Rather than taking levels in classes, characters are built by combining three or four tracks that each center around a certain ability and gain every ability from these tracks as they level up. Each class consists of three tracks, which center around different abilities -- for example, the default Barbarian's abilities center around [[UnstoppableRage Raging]] (Path of Rage), [[OneManArmy Hitting Lots of Enemies At Once]] (Path of Destruction), and [[MadeOfIron Blocking Things With Your Chest]] (Path of the Ancestors). Multiclassing is accomplished by switching out one track with another -- to continue the above example, someone wishing to play a technically minded fighter could swap out Path of Rage with the Ranger's Iron Magi track and focus on stringing together precise sequences of blows, or switch Path of the Ancestors with the Rogue's Acrobatic Adept to focus on dodging and weaving through the battlefield. The sheer quantity of tracks (almost 60 and counting) allows for some [[NinjaPirateZombieRobot rather unorthodox]] but [[HundredPercentCompletion 100% viable]] builds.
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13	There is no default setting in the book, though two settings (Hallow and Chion) are currently in the works. There has also been an adventure released called ''Osaka Street Stories'', set in [[UrbanFantasy Japan in the early 1990's]], and another called ''Comfortably Grim'' is being written.
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15	A beta version was officially released on November 25th, 2011 though the charity Child's Play, and updates to the beta came out in May 2012 and January 2013. The 1.0 edition was released on June 17th, 2013. WordOfGod was that more content was in the works, but in 2016 it was admitted that Legends as a project was dead.
16
17	Not to be confused with the Mongoose Publishing game ''Legend'', which is a continuation of their second version of ''TabletopGame/RuneQuest'' after their license to the name expired.
18	----
19	!!Tropes appearing in Legend are:
20	%%* AcidAttack: Elementalists who have Acid as their chosen energy type.
21	* AfterTheEnd: One of the two official settings, Hallow, is built from the remnants of an entire solar system. It was likely destroyed by some massive catastrophe, and rebuilt by divine powers.
22	* AnnoyingArrows: Averted. Arrows are exactly as harmful as sword wounds.
23	* AntiMagic: The practical upshot of many of Discipline of the Dragon's abilities.
24	* ArtificialHuman: Sentient Constructs with the Skinjob feat are either this or RidiculouslyHumanRobots.
25	* AttackAttackAttack: The Kitsune in Osaka Street Stories would rather do this than use their VoluntaryShapeshifting for a detailed, lengthy scheme.
26	* BackFromTheDead: The "Phoenix Reborn" ability for Discipline of the Crane, and a few similar powers in the Dragon, Celestial, and Undead tracks. Also possible via a medicine check.
27	* BareFistedMonk: Monks and other characters with Discipline of the Serpent get a boost that cause their unarmed strikes to gain the same properties as any other weapon(with a few exceptions), except they gain some more properties. This can be used for some...[[KamehameHadoken unusual]] purposes.
28	%%* TheBerserker: Path of Rage's default fluff.
29	%%* BlowYouAway: The Air Elemental Track, and Just Blade's telekinetic powers.
30	* BondCreatures: One of the many potential applications of the Heroica track.
31	* BreakingTheBonds: Athletics checks allow you to break free from anything: ropes, chains, even gravity itself.
32	* CaptainErsatz: The [[Franchise/StarWars Just Blade]], [[Franchise/TheWitcher Combat Alchemist]], and [[Franchise/KamenRider Vigilante]] tracks look awfully familiar...
33	* CastFromHitpoints: The Chirurgic Poet can do this, reducing his maximum possible hitpoints in order to heal others. Also overlaps with HeroicRROD, as they receive huge damage resistance and A.C bonuses when they do this, but lose some of their ability to recover from damage.
34	* CharacterCustomization: Pretty much the biggest draw of the system. Not only can you choose class, but each class has a set of three ability tracks it grants. You may swap out one of your class ability tracks for that of another, and may swap a second track with the Guild Initiation feat. Finally, you have the option to take an additional fourth track with the Full Buy In mechanic (though you trade away most of your magic items in exchange). In practice, this means that not only can you build almost any conceivable character, but there are usually several different ways to do it. Even better, the system's focus on balance means that all these builds will be equally viable.
35	* CharacterLevel: There are twenty of them. CharacterLevel is also the ''only'' measure of power in the system - all monsters have levels in the same manner as {{Player Character}}s, with a monster's challenge rating determined by level.
36	* CharlesAtlasSuperpower: Several skills have high DC's listed to do things that go beyond what should be possible with them, such as Acrobatics and Athletics allowing you to gain flight for three rounds by virtue of jumping really hard or climbing on air. Several other skills have end-tier abilities that go by a similar vein, to the point of replicating spells.
37	%%* ClockworkCreature: Produced by Mechanist Savants.
38	%%* ComboPlatterPowers: Multiclassing can -- and frequently does -- result in this.%%In what?
39	* ConsummateProfessional: The Troubleshooter feat -- you find trouble and you shoot it.
40	* {{Cyborg}}: Several different flavors:
41	** A Sentient Construct with the Skinjob Feat is a robot covered in human skin.
42	** The 6th Circle ability of Mechanist Savant, "Scrapheap Hero", makes the Mechanist Savant count as one of his own robots, fluffed as being covered in many different contraptions.
43	%%* DanceBattler: Path of the Dervish.
44	* DeathIsCheap: A side effect of having a high-level medic in the party; they can stand a dead person back up between scenes. Also the case for anyone with the seventh circle of Dragon, Undead, or Discipline of the Crane.
45	* DeflectorShields: The main benefit of having a Mechanist Savant in the party.
46	%%* DishingOutDirt: The Earth Elemental Track
47	* DirtyCop: Present in Osaka Street Stories.
48	%%* DiscardAndDraw: Late Buy In.
49	* DrunkenMaster: Fluffwise, this was originally a dwarven martial art, but has been imitiated by barbarians of every race. Mechanics-wise, there is a set of feats based upon Livers Need Not Apply, which gives a ton of bonuses for drinking.
50	* DungeonBypass: Pretty much the only reason the Earthsmasher Pickaxe exists.
51	* DynamicEntry: A benefit of the Vigilante track.
52	* EldritchAbomination: The traditional Cthulhu-esque variety is present in Hallow, along with the setting's angels.
53	* ElementalPowers: In two flavors, the separate Elemental tracks for the classical elements, and the Elementalist track. The Elemental tracks have circle abilities thematically appropriate for the element, while Elementalist provides blasting abilities (such as ShockAndAwe, PlayingWithFire, and AnIcePerson) focused on a single element.
54	* EmptyLevels: Averted. One of the key selling points of the game is that ''every'' level gives you a significant power boost.
55	%%* EpicFlail: A feat with that name.
56	%%* FairyCompanion: Acquired via the Summon Mote feat.
57	%%* {{Fartillery}}: The "Smell of Napalm" feat.
58	* FinishingMove: A class ability of the Vigilante track -- a once-per-Encounter attack with copious bonus damage and temporary hit points.
59	* FlamingSword: And freezing, and corrosive, and shocking...
60	** Now available as a weapon property alongside the other abilities.
61	** Also in multiple flavors: You can have a regular weapon that's enchanted to deal elemental damage on top of what it usually does, a weapon that exclusively deals elemental damage to begin with, or a weapon that deals elemental damage enchanted to deal even more elemental damage, possibly even of a different type.
62	* FlashStep: There are several ways to teleport in combat, but popping up behind you after a series of attacks is the signature move of Iron Magi.
63	* FloatingContinent: Hallow is made up of "constellations" of hundreds of massive floating islands (each one is 30 to 160 miles wide, but they average 80). Most of them are interconnected. Each constellation is centered around a massive semi-sentient divine machine that regulates things. Also, dwarves live in massive floating strongholds which they pilot around for trade.
64	* FriendlySniper: En in Osaka Street Stories, who ends a very formally worded letter stating that her contract on the players has expired and inviting them to her house with the following:
65	-->P.S. [[SugarWiki/FunnyMoments Please? I’ll bake cookies!]]
66	* FullContactMagic: Shaman incantations are the 'pure' example of the trope, but Just Blade Sages store curses in their weapons and cast them by hitting people.
67	%%* GadgeteerGenius: The Mechanist Savant track.
68	* GambitRoulette: Can be [[InvokedTrope invoked]] by a player with the "Arrangements" [Legendary] ability: if they can weave a convincing enough tale of how everything has gone AllAccordingToPlan, they outright win the current encounter (with GM approval of course). This can even devolve into a GambitPileup if there's ''another'' character with this ability: the two characters are forced to exchange counter-plots until the GM decides one is definitively better.
69	* GrapplingWithGrapplingRules: Pointedly averted - the grappling rules cover less than a page.
70	* GunKata: Monks with guns is a supported archetype. It's also completely viable to play as Paladins, Wizards, and even ''Barbarians'' with guns.
71	%%* HealingPotion: One of several consumables.
72	* HenshinHero: The Vigilante track, which calls down armor, flight, and increased jumping and striking power with a shouted command.
73	* HeroicRROD: Chirurgic Poet, as seen in cast-from-hitpoints.
74	%%* HiddenWeapons: Any weapon with the [Hold-out] property.
75	* HitAndRunTactics: Present, especially at high levels where the archers can fly. However, most melee characters carry a gun or bow with which to shoot back. Or fly themselves. Or get a power that cancels flight. Or-
76	* AnIcePerson: Elementalists who have Cold as their chosen energy type.
77	* IKnowYourTrueName: The Words of Power feat and the Runesong Scholar track both offer versions of this.
78	* ImplacableMan: The Utter Brute track operates like this. They have one of the highest H.P bonuses in one track, and as they grow in power they gain the ability to take a five foot step at the start and end of each turn, become immune to several conditions, and at their highest level becomes literally unstoppable until they're hit by the ChunkySalsaRule, after which they can [[TakingYouWithMe still take one last action before death.]]
79	* ImprobableWeaponUser: All weapons are custom-designed by selecting a number of traits. You can pick up any object and treat it as a weak weapon, choosing whatever traits would be appropriate. The Spectactular Beats feat is for characters who specialise in this fighting style.
80	* InsistentTerminology: Any word that has a specific definition in the game is written in isolated [[SelfDemonstratingArticle [Brackets] ]]. [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools This is not a bad thing]]; in fact, it helps clear up rule confusion when everything has a strict definition.
81	%%* KnightInShiningArmour: The Knight Track
82	* {{Kamehamehadoken}}: Thanks to a quirk of the weapon rules, it is possible for a monk to give an unarmed strike the "Thrown" property. WordOfGod is that this particular combination is meant to be treated as either this or a RocketPunch.
83	* LaserBlade: In both item and spell form. Just Blade Sages have it as a track ability.
84	* LeParkour: Legend's skill game made for [[TheChase chasing enemies or being chased]] is called "Parkour". Osaka Street Stories has it happen right before the climax, with the players chasing an [[{{Youkai}} Oni]] across rooftops.
85	* LightningBruiser: Due to the track system, making someone who are reasonably good at everthing is easy. As an example, an Utter Brute/Smiting/Crane build has both high defensive capabilities from Brute, high-offense abilities from Smiting and a high mobility from Crane.
86	* LinearWarriorsQuadraticWizards: Averted. Balancing the classes against each other was a key point in Legend's development. The system provides good examples of what Quadratic Warriors look like.
87	* LookBehindYou: Clever characters can use the Bluff skill like this during a fight.
88	* LukeNounVerber: One of the example dwarf names is "Fistbeard Beardfist".
89	* MadeOfIron: The point of Path of the Ancestors.
90	* MagicKnight: Present due to multiclassing, and without the trope's normal limitations. Learning spells as a warrior is a versatility trade-off; they choose which of their martial abilities to sacrifice, and the spells themselves are the same.
91	** A RedMage-type build is equally possible with the same trade-off - a melee character (Barbarian, Ranger, Paladin, Rogue, or Monk) with multiclassing and Late Buy In can acquire both spellcasting tracks while maintaining some melee abilities and weaponry. Likewise, a spellcaster can do the same thing to acquire their counterpart's spellcasting track and a melee ability, although [[SquishyWizard the limitations of their base class]] may cause some problems.
92	** Just Blade Sages are this by default, to great effectiveness- they channel curses (or elemental blasts, or necromantic energy, or...) into their "Grim Heritors," which are straight-up {{Expy}}s of lightsabres, and stab people in the face to unleash the spells.
93	* MakingASplash: The Water Elemental track
94	* MontyHaul: The game goes out of its way to make running this kind of campaign physically impossible - there are ''very'' strict limits on magic item use, and there is no in game mundane economy. This is all in keeping with the philosophy that characters, not items, should be doing most of the work in the game.
95	* {{Mooks}}: There's a surprisingly in-depth format for building them on the fly. They also have distinct classes:
96	** Grunts are ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin and get a health and AC bonus.
97	** Strikers are slightly more tactical ranged fighters with an increased move speed.
98	** Minions get both benefits, and are slightly more competent threats.
99	** [[EliteMooks Elites]] are minions with a track.
100	** Operatives are Elites who get their own unique abilities. You play as one in Comfortably Grim.
101	** Minibosses are Minions with a full four tracks and two feats.
102	** [[ZergRush Myriads]] are the odd group out. They have the stats of strikers, but are essentially a collection of bodies that die instantly when hit. The tradeoff is that they don't have to roll for attack and will always do damage.
103	* NaturalWeapon: Present and accounted for. They gain something of a power boost from the fact that they -- and, by extension, their properties -- are always active and available even with [[StatSticks another weapon]] drawn. This allows you to [[MinmaxersDelight have an active weapon loaded to the gills with defensive properties while still having a strong attack freely available]]. This is an acknowledged tactic, and highly encouraged by the devs.
104	* NinjaPirateZombieRobot: One benefit of the track system is that it's possible to construct many of these, up to and including a Ninja Pirate Zombie ''Franchise/KamenRider''. [[labelnote:Breakdown]] The tracks required for this specific combination are Swashbuckler, I Am Ten Ninjas, Undead, and Vigilante.[[/labelnote]] Furthermore, the system's insistence on letting the players and GM create their own fluff means that there are very few hard limits on what can be assembled. A literal one. Start as a Sentient Construct Shaman. Use Shaman's Path to get Swashbuckler from Rogue. Use your free multiclass to get I Am Ten Ninjas. Then opt for Full Buy-In to take the Undead track with Ghoul. Now you have I Am Ten Ninjas (Ninja), Swashbuckler (Pirate), Sentient Construct (Robot), Undead (Zombie).
105	* NoRangeLikePointBlankRange: the [Point Blank] weapon property increases damage dealt with ranged weapons to enemies within close range.
106	* NotTheFallThatKillsYou: Fall damage is broken up into three categories:
107	** Trivial Falls that deal no damage.
108	** Hazardous Falls that do up to 30 damage -- devastating to low level characters, easily brushed off past level 5 for almost anyone
109	** [[DisneyVillainDeath Dramatic Plunges]] that are very explicitly falls to your doom. The rulebook recommends using them extremely sparingly.
110	* OurAngelsAreDifferent:
111	** Archons and other fluffy-winged celestial beings exist, and there's even a racial track for players with several options to make each character unique.
112	** In Hallow, the Angels are enormous semi-sentient constructs of glass and metal that oversee parts of the world. The only job that is mostly understood by humans is that they handle what happens to people and things that [[FloatingContinent fall off of plates]], including turning rainwater back into clouds.
113	* OurDwarvesAreDifferent: Dwarves in Hallow are highly logical beings who often become irritated when dealing with less rational creatures (ie, anyone who is not a dwarf) and come across as rather Vulcan in nature. Then you have a subset of dwarven monks who prefer to get drunk and beat the living daylights out of their enemies.
114	* OurGnomesAreWeirder: Hallow gnomes have low-level mind control and emotion-reading abilities, and like to be ruled by non-gnome monarchs (with the idea being that a ruler without mind control powers, when surrounded all day by creatures with mind control powers, will inevitably be on his or her best behavior). Furthermore, some of their weirdness is in the form of ObfuscatingStupidity - the core book's examples of gnomish technology include a [[RainbowPimpGear garish set of decorative rainbow armor]] (that turns into an active camouflage system when one more piece is added) and high-quality opera glasses (that happen to make excellent sniping scopes).
115	* OurOrcsAreDifferent: Hallow Orcs were originally the shock troops of chaos gods, kept stupid and unquestioning to serve their gods' purposes. Once introduced to Hallow, they were freed from their mental shackles and started their own (still militaristic) society, becoming Hallow's most prominent mercenaries.
116	%%* PerpetualMotionMonster: The "By Will Sustained" feat. Also useful for {{Player Character}}s.
117	%%* PlayingWithFire: The Fire Elemental track and Elementalists with fire as their chosen energy type.
118	* PowerFist: Possible with the weapon rules. Monks' Discipline of the Serpent can also be fluffed this way.
119	* PowerGivesYouWings: High-level characters are outright expected to fly or have a way of dealing with fliers.
120	* PromotedFanboy: Pretty much everyone on the dev team aside from the core members is one.
121	* RageQuit: The Tell Them, Still Angry feat is essentially an in-character version of this - you explode on death, inflicting damage on everyone in the vicinity. The flavor text reads "No table will remain unflipped."
122	* RingOfPower: Several, whose effects range from making you smarter to making you teleport.
123	* RocksFallEveryoneDies: Averted by the "Rocks Fall" trap, the description of which states that "[r]umors of its lethality have been greatly exaggerated."
124	%%* SchizoTech: Justified in various ways.%%Like?
125	%%* ShockAndAwe: Elementalists with Electricity as their chosen energy type.
126	%%* ShootTheBullet: The "Reign of Arrows" track can do this, along with shoot the arrow, gun boulder, and spell.%%How?
127	* ShoutOut: '''MANY.'''
128	** One of the suggested orc names in the core rulebook is "[[Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000 Flint Ironstag]]."
129	** Examples of "character concepts" in the core rulebook include "[[Literature/{{Discworld}} Wizzard on the Run]]," "[[Literature/TheElricSaga Bearer of Stormbringer]]," "[[Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer Cheerleader Who Kills Vampires]]," and "[[Literature/TheDresdenFiles Wizard Detective]]."
130	** Some feats: "[[Anime/TengenToppaGurrenLagann To Pierce The Heavens]]", "[[BigDamnHeroes Big Damn Hero]]", "[[Film/ThePrincessBride I Am Not Left-handed]]", and the Mummy track has one to do with fear called "[[Film/ANewHope Keep Them In Line]]". There's also the Obsidian Ring (Black Isle Studios and Obsidian Entertainment) and [[ICallItVera Vera]] (Firefly)
131	** Monks eventually get an ability called [[Film/TheBigBoss Fists of Fury]]
132	** The aforementioned "Fistbeard Beardfist" is a reference to a popular [=CharOp=] build; the original creative lead is a well-known D&D 3.5 optimizer, and the creator of "Fistbeard" was until recently one of the writers.
133	** The Unicorn track has circles named after memes - including [[Creator/KateBeaton AwYiss]]. The Pegasus track has an ability called [[Webcomic/SchlockMercenary "Everything's Air-Droppable Once"]].
134	** One of the examples of high-level use of Athletics jumping is to [[Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick jump onto a skeletal dragon to confront the lich riding it]].
135	** The abilities granted by the Vigilante track seem [[Franchise/KamenRider awfully familiar]].
136	** One of the traps is called "[[VideoGame/{{Portal}} Deadly Neurotoxin]]".
137	** The Combat Alchemist track is basically ''Franchise/TheWitcher'' in a can.
138	** [Precision] damage focuses on "exploiting weak points for massive damage."
139	** The Examples given for the custom weapons includes [[ComicBook/CaptainAmerica a gaudy shield that you can use to hit your opponent]], [[ComicBook/IronMan a flying suit of armor that can blast your foes]], and [[ComicBook/TheMightyThor a hammer that can shoot lighting and returns to your hand when thrown]].
140	* SpellBlade: The Just Blade track has the ability to summon a weapon that can be imbued with spells and spell-like abilities. Tacticians also get the Arcane Blade spell.
141	* SmashMook: Enemies with the Utter Brute track, which focuses more on granting raw numbers than new abilities.
142	%%* StatSticks: See NaturalWeapon above. In addition, there's a selection of lesser items that each boost one ability score by 2.%%Don't refer to other examples for context.
143	%%* StoneWall: Many defensive tracks make the character into these.%%Into what?
144	* SummonToHand: The point of the "Extradimensional" weapon property. Just Blade sages have a variation in that it's more along the lines of spontaneously generating a new weapon.
145	* TeleportSpam: The Shadow Blink feat enables this, as do a few tracka bilities. Now in horseshoe flavour- your ''mount'' can teleport.
146	* ThrowingYourSwordAlwaysWorks: If the weapon in question has the [Thrown] Property, it does.
147	%%* ThrowDownTheBomblet: The Demo Man track.
148	* ThrowItIn: Due to the open nature of the system's development, if a player points out a problem to the devs, they will either fix it ASAP or just say "Sure, why not?" Examples include the aforementioned KamehameHadoken ability for Monks.
149	%%* TrainEscape: Possible in Osaka Street Stories.
150	* TransformationIsAFreeAction: It is for the Vigilante Track. For Barbarians, it's technically a ''swift'' action.
151	%%* UniversalSystem
152	* UnstoppableRage: Still the Barbarian's calling card; available to any class via multiclassing. Notably, it gets legitimately quite unstoppable as the character levels up -- a higher-level Barbarian's rage includes features such as counting as one size larger (whether or not the character actually grows in size is left to the player), being able to intimidate enemies in combat, and gaining immunity to mind-affecting attacks. At the highest circle of the track in question, the Barbarian ''[[TranquilFury never stops raging]]''.
153	* UrbanFantasy: Osaka Street Stories specifically, but any modern-day game with this system pretty much has to be this.
154	* WalkingWasteland: One possible method of fluffing Lurking Terror.
155	* WarriorPoet: There is an item called Band of the Warrior-Poet.
156	* WasOnceAMan: The transformative races enable a somewhat strange variety of this.
157	* WeaponsKitchenSink: The rules are designed to enable the assembly of quite literally any weapon imaginable simply by putting together three properties and declaring, for example, "This weapon is a chainsaw."
158	%%* {{Wuxia}}: Discipline of the Crane has been called "Wuxia in a Can."
159	%%* {{Yakuza}}: Present in Osaka Street Stories.
160	* YouFightLikeACow: Fortune's Friend has this as an ability, although it serves to boost defenses rather than trigger a debuff.
161	%%* ZergRush: Pretty much the entire point of Myriad-class {{Mooks}}.

Context TabletopGame / LegendSystem