LEGENDS WALK! is yet another contender in the Supers genre of RPGs. Can it stand up to more mainstream games like Mutants and Masterminds or HERO? If you like the idea of playing in a world of supers where the heroes are all avatars of mythical deities, this might be the game for you.
Post originally by Tim Gray at 2004-12-17 03:59:35
Converted from Phorums BB System
Andy, thanks very much for the comprehensive and positive review. It's cool to hear about people having fun with the game. I certainly learned a lot designing it (including things to improve on in future).
I'd just like to unpick something a bit. A few times you say the system is very complex in play (though I'm glad you found chargen simple). Now, I set out to design a fairly traditional system that was solid and reasonably light and fast, not an innovative, superlight storytelling-oriented one, so of course it will appeal to some people more than others. I wouldn't say that it was unusually complex or detailed compared to the mechanics of most mainstream games. I'd put it closer to Savage Worlds and Storyteller than D&D. But of course my view is biased. Would you say otherwise?
You took the right approach in dropping Advanced Combat options to get a simpler game to suit you. Some of those options are important though - especially the Horde rules for simplifying fights with groups of low-powered opponents. Also, it's up to the GM how proactive Sources are in requiring characters to represent their values, which can be another thing to keep track of; when I've run they mostly just rumbled a bit at key junctures.
I wouldn't actually use "Lid Off" (exploding 6s) for LW - that's in an appendix as an idea for using the system with other genres. (In fact there's a specific power, Wild Luck, that gives you exploding 6s.) It tends to blur the distinctions between big and small dice pools, and in supers it's important to preserve the differences between ability levels. I don't think it would make the game more high-powered. Some of the Strength-related stuff already is; other things probably less so.
Regarding the adventure seed generator, a chunk of the credit should go to Gareth Michael Skarka: the basic structure was lifted (with permission) from 'Underworld', then squashed and adapted. I wanted *something* cos I'm rubbish at thinking of adventure ideas!
You're spot on about the pantheons: it would have been great to have lots in the main book, but I got to the point where I needed to get the thing finished. Plus, large page counts tend to put people off PDF products, and it's pushing the limit as it is. I kind of stuck to pantheons that the majority of readers were more likely to be familiar with, hence the "whitey" thing. If there's enough interest I'd certainly consider more supplements in the future.
As for layout - guilty as charged. If I were doing it now I'd do simple things to break it up a bit (and, in fact, am doing so for Albion). Fair point about examples too.
In the interests of plugging ;D folks can get a free download of Nugget from the website - this is a 2-page cut down, generic version of the LODE system (no supers stuff) to give an idea of the basics. That was reviewed here recently as well.
Tim Gray
Silver Branch Games
www.silverbranch.co.uk
Post originally by Kelvin Hall at 2004-12-17 16:47:19
Converted from Phorums BB System
N ow this sounds like a great deal of fun to me. Sounds like the game has hit all my buttons. A while back I bought Armageddon on the strength of the 'Deity Avatars' concept in it. Never got around to running it though, although I still have a bunch of notes I game up with for a Northern European game, full of celtic myth and norse elements.
I have a tendency to love to put in the idea of fey as I think they should be. Alien, and scary. One of my favourite books is 'Faerie Tale' by Feist, and it sounds like this game might be a perfect little thing for me to pick up and run with and form a campaign around.
Now I just have to deal with the two things, a) hoping that more cultures are released (I too would love Mesoamerican and Native American...there's the Shadowrun player in me), and b) actually figuring out a way to buy the damn thing being in the uk and without creditcard....grumble mumbles.
Oh well. It goes in my 'must buy this' list and damn near the top too.
Post originally by Tim Gray at 2004-12-18 01:58:01
Converted from Phorums BB System
Hi Kelvin! If you're suggesting an urban faerie style game, I don't think Legends Walk is the best bet for running it. LW is very much designed for supers.
As Andy said, Mesoamerican programmes are in the 'Clay and Blood' supplement.
If you're still having trouble buying it drop me an email - I'm sure we can sort something out, I'm in the UK too.
Post originally by Kelvin Hall at 2004-12-18 04:40:00
Converted from Phorums BB System
Ahhh, no. Sorry I probably wasn't clear on what I wrote before, but I had just come back from a 12 hour shift at work and was shattered...lol.
The campaign I have the notes for was more of a 'chosen of the gods' line up against a fey infiltration/invasion. Pretty much there were a few people who were avatars of the gods defending the mortals. So pretty much superheroes definately. That's the bit that sparked my attention mostly. I do realise it is a supers game.
And yes I had a browse, I missed the fact that it was in 'Clay and Blood' that was my mistake too...I make a lot of them.
Thanks for commenting, nice to hear from a desginer personally. And I have set up a paypal accoutn so hopefully that will work to get a hold of these .pdfs on payday. Thanks though.
Post originally by Tim Partridge at 2004-12-21 10:04:55
Converted from Phorums BB System
I'm in the same gaming group as the designer, and those of you who have the game will see me listed as a playtester.
I think the basic rules are fairly easy to get to grips with - when I ran a DOG adventure at TowerCon I gave out a summary of the rules, covering the basic mechanics - that fitted on to one side of A4. As for advanced rules, the ones that are of most interest are those for hoards which speeds up combat with groups of minor opponents. Yes there are rules for complex situations, but I'd say use them or leave them out as your group feels fit - perhaps as you get familiar with the system you might want to include extra ones.
Tim (the designer) has gone into a lot of detail covering all sorts of situations. I think this is partly because he dislikes rule books which cover the basics but don't have the topic you suddenly find you want. Since super games can have rather more extreme events than some other genres, you do sometimes want rules covering extreme cases. That said you don't *have* to use the rules. Personally if there is something important to the scenario, I work out the figures in advance. The rest of the time I tend to wing it (Refs get Add: Flight(3) for free :-).
Regarding the appearance of the rules, I do agree that the lack of pictures means you won't be buying it to enjoy the artwork and put on your coffee table. On the other hand it does mean that the pages are filled with actual content, rather than padded out.
I enjoy the game, and the designer is open to suggestions. Researching the Sources can take some effort - many of them have a one line tag like "god of wealth" and finding legends which show them actually using their powers rather than making a guest star appearance can be difficult at times.
Post originally by Jack Fortune at 2004-12-22 11:46:04
Converted from Phorums BB System
Here's a question:
Since most gods, especially the Greek pantheon, held dominion over many areas, is this reflected in how characters can derive their powers? Here's an example. Apollo was also the god of prophecy (among other things), besides being the sun god. So, could I have a character whose source is Apollo, but just have some precog and/or postcog powers?
Post originally by Tim Partridge at 2004-12-22 14:28:57
Converted from Phorums BB System
Each source (the LW generic term for gods heroes and monsters) has one (or less commonly two) required power, which the player must take one level in - the source always gives at least some of that ability to a character it is imbuing.
In Apollo's case the required power is Control Light (3), so the player has to take one level of this, but can take up to three levels. (The more levels, the easier it is to do something difficult with the power.)
The rest of the powers are optional - each one costs 1,2 or 3 points per level depending on how powerful it is. There is a limit on the number of points you can spend in total, so you can't have every power that a source provides. One player might like the look of See Future, Distance Vision and Music. Another might prefer Healing and Sun Immunity. So while the two resulting characters will both have Control Light, their other powers could be completely different.
Post originally by Tim Gray at 2004-12-23 02:50:15
Converted from Phorums BB System
As a different way of saying what Tim did (Hi Tim!), I usually describe the power programmes as shopping lists: you have a certain number of points to spend, and here's a list of options. I looked at the mythological info about each source and tried to render it across into superpower terms. So all the key parts of a source's portfolio should be possible for a character (though not, as Tim rightly says, all at once; and not ones that just don't work as superpowers).
The split into cost categories is very rough, 'cos I wasn't interested in going down the route of nailing down every last parameter - especially as there is no standard list of powers, and I basically made them up within the framework as I needed them, so the number existing is open-ended. (There is a key powers section for ones that are common and/or long in the explanation, to avoid repetition.)
Linear Mode
