You're going to play Open Legend. Awesome!
Here is a list of steps I used to have an Open Legend game prepped and played quickly.
If you are a Player:
1. Go to openlegendrpg.com and learn how the game plays. Focus on the Introduction and Character Creation. Go through the Archetypes and see what you like.
2. Read the rules in Chapters 2 and 7. Look for examples of Perks/Flaws, Feats, Banes and Boons that interest you!
3. Think about how you want to play the game. This might be finding dice at a local game store, googling dice simulators, watching streams or listening to podcasts. You'll probably ask the GM some questions.
If you are the GM:
1. Go to openlegendrpg.com and learn how the game plays. Focus on the Introduction and Character Creation. Go through the Archetypes and get them printed or build them at openlegend.heromuster.com That should help you get used to how your players will interact with the game.
2. Read the rest of the rules. Skim the Perks/Flaws, Feats, Banes, Boons.There are a lot of these and you will probably have to look them up, but there are just a few that apply to each character.
3. Write a simple adventure, or you could check out our first adventure for The Infiltrators.
Your simple adventure can be like this:
Example: Your player Melissa picks the Gunslinger archetype. In the modern Legends of Today setting, she decides this sounds like an expert federal agent. Ask her about what the character's background is like. There are great lead-off questions in Character Creation of openlegendrpg.com
Get into a bit of conversation. Discuss the Favored Actions and Strategy listed. This is all combat-related, but it gives you a chance to talk about the character and find out how Melissa (player) wants to handle things. The whole time you are really trying to think about what interests Melissa. If she wants to flash a badge and have people do her bidding, that's a Presence action. Now you know how she wants to interact with the characters in the game. Help that happen. Do this with your other players and try to get something for each of them to do in your adventure.
You need to get a ORB OF FIRE (thing) from the VOLCANO SHRINE (cool location) before the CULT OF FLAME (bad guys) get it.
For a first session, plan a Beginning, Middle and End. This is your prep. You should also make sure that your players are all coming to the game that you've scheduled. Know how many characters you will need, based on the number of players. Have the characters printed and ready to go. If you have dice or dice simulators, get those ready.
Get all your players together, focus them on the game and let them pick characters together. This is something they need to do together. You want everyone to pick a character that interests them. They should work together to get things started. This is when you use the suggestion above and get everything something cool to do. You'll be explaining how the character strategy and favored actions work and getting players excited about the game.
If they have a cool idea, run with it. Let them take action and roll dice if needed. If nothing happens, describe them on the steps of the Volcano Shrine as they enter. Ask them what they want to do. Just say "What do you do?"
Speaking of the 'quickest way', don't make a map. Don't provide concrete details, just talk about the setting with a few descriptions. Volcano shrine? Hot. Pictograms of fire and flame. Rough porous stone walls. Floor rubbed smooth with a thousand years of footsteps.
Because Open Legend tells you to Make Every Roll Matter, don't worry about describing how they get where they go. Focus on what they need to do- if you want a burst of fire to shoot through the floor, have them roll to avoid that. Otherwise, bring them towards the End.
Middles need to be flexible because a lot can happen. You want time for players to see how to play the game, experience the story and work together. Let this be the fun part where you run with player ideas. You may never finish this session and get to the End. That's OK if you know that you can run another session. Otherwise, definitely end. Try to get the cool stuff in the last room.
In the End, the Cult of Flame confronts the players. The Cult is about to take the Orb of Flame, removing its last protective enchantments before they remove it. You could have a cool scene where a cultist goes to grab it and is incinerated. Or you could let Gulta have it. Or wait for the players to grab it. Your choices.
About the Orb of Flame: it can be a piece of Special Equipment as described in Open Legend Chapter 9. As a piece of Special Equipment it has Area 5 and Energy 5. It basically allows you to set things in an area on fire really well. Could be fun in this fight on either side.
The Orb of Flame lets someone make area attacks easily. Typically each 5' cube of space (the size of a person) gets Disadvantage 1 on the Attack Roll. So with this item, the user could attack a 25' cube of space (meaning all the characters inside the space) at Energy 5 with no penalties. Pretty powerful and fun to use!
If you have 4 Level 1(default starting level) players, that's 4 levels of encounter bad guys. I would make a Level 1 Simple NPC (who I named Gulta) and 3 levels worth of Minions, which is 9 Level 1 Simple NPC Minions. Here are my examples:
Gulta (Level 1 Simple Build NPC)
HP: 22 (that's a lot, have him stick around a bit)
Defenses: Guard 15, Toughness 13 Resolve 12 (hard to hit but easy to Bane)
Attributes: Energy 4, Agility 3, Protection 3
Favored Actions:
Barrier (Hindering): invoke Barrier[Hindering] Boon with Energy roll v. Challenge Rating 14
Fire Burst (damaging attack with Energy) v. Guard of PC
Booming Blast (invoke Knockdown Bane with Energy) v. Guard of PC (consider an area effect where this is done against all nearby PCs. Roll at Disadvantage equal to number of PCs affected)
Have him throw some fire but slow the PCs down. If they are doing well, throw a Knockdown effect in there. The Disadvantage means you roll more dice and take the lowest, so instead of 1d10 you might roll 5 for 4 players and take the lowest. You still roll just 1d20 and take that result. Expect a low number but make it sound cool. "Gulta summons a giant ball of fire and strikes down at the ground with incredible force!" Ask all the players what their Guard numbers are. Watch their faces!
Minions (Level 1 Simple Build NPCs adjusted as Minions)
HP: 4 (easy to knock down!)
Defenses: Guard 12, Toughness 10, Resolve 10 (much easier targets)
Attributes: Agility 4, Energy 3
Favored Actions:
Ritual Knife attack (damaging attack with Agility) v. Guard of PC
Fire Lance (damaging attack with Energy) v. Guard of PC
Expect Minions to go down quickly. Throw them at the players. If cool things start happening, let them react with panic. These guys can go all over the room putting out fires (literally?) and engaging different foes. Only Gulta stays on point.
So this really went from a 'what to do' to a first adventure example. Things to emphasize here are:
Here is a list of steps I used to have an Open Legend game prepped and played quickly.
If you are a Player:
1. Go to openlegendrpg.com and learn how the game plays. Focus on the Introduction and Character Creation. Go through the Archetypes and see what you like.
2. Read the rules in Chapters 2 and 7. Look for examples of Perks/Flaws, Feats, Banes and Boons that interest you!
3. Think about how you want to play the game. This might be finding dice at a local game store, googling dice simulators, watching streams or listening to podcasts. You'll probably ask the GM some questions.
If you are the GM:
1. Go to openlegendrpg.com and learn how the game plays. Focus on the Introduction and Character Creation. Go through the Archetypes and get them printed or build them at openlegend.heromuster.com That should help you get used to how your players will interact with the game.
2. Read the rest of the rules. Skim the Perks/Flaws, Feats, Banes, Boons.There are a lot of these and you will probably have to look them up, but there are just a few that apply to each character.
3. Write a simple adventure, or you could check out our first adventure for The Infiltrators.
Your simple adventure can be like this:
- You need to get a THING (add THING of your own here)
- The BAD GUYS want to get it too. (same, add BAD GUYS of your own)
- The THING is in a COOL LOCATION (jungle ruin, volcano laboratory, mall, military base)
Example: Your player Melissa picks the Gunslinger archetype. In the modern Legends of Today setting, she decides this sounds like an expert federal agent. Ask her about what the character's background is like. There are great lead-off questions in Character Creation of openlegendrpg.com
Get into a bit of conversation. Discuss the Favored Actions and Strategy listed. This is all combat-related, but it gives you a chance to talk about the character and find out how Melissa (player) wants to handle things. The whole time you are really trying to think about what interests Melissa. If she wants to flash a badge and have people do her bidding, that's a Presence action. Now you know how she wants to interact with the characters in the game. Help that happen. Do this with your other players and try to get something for each of them to do in your adventure.
Adventure Example
Here's a rundown of how this adventure could be planned.You need to get a ORB OF FIRE (thing) from the VOLCANO SHRINE (cool location) before the CULT OF FLAME (bad guys) get it.
For a first session, plan a Beginning, Middle and End. This is your prep. You should also make sure that your players are all coming to the game that you've scheduled. Know how many characters you will need, based on the number of players. Have the characters printed and ready to go. If you have dice or dice simulators, get those ready.
Get all your players together, focus them on the game and let them pick characters together. This is something they need to do together. You want everyone to pick a character that interests them. They should work together to get things started. This is when you use the suggestion above and get everything something cool to do. You'll be explaining how the character strategy and favored actions work and getting players excited about the game.
The Beginning
The Beginning should be quick. Have the players air-dropped out of a helicopter with their mission.If they have a cool idea, run with it. Let them take action and roll dice if needed. If nothing happens, describe them on the steps of the Volcano Shrine as they enter. Ask them what they want to do. Just say "What do you do?"
The Middle
The Middle describes how they move through the adventure. This is where you need to have things happen that your players are expecting and want to do. For the example above with Melissa's federal agent, she wants to flash a badge at people. Add some scientists that are studying the volcano shrine. She can use her badge to get them to tell her the quickest way to the end.Speaking of the 'quickest way', don't make a map. Don't provide concrete details, just talk about the setting with a few descriptions. Volcano shrine? Hot. Pictograms of fire and flame. Rough porous stone walls. Floor rubbed smooth with a thousand years of footsteps.
Because Open Legend tells you to Make Every Roll Matter, don't worry about describing how they get where they go. Focus on what they need to do- if you want a burst of fire to shoot through the floor, have them roll to avoid that. Otherwise, bring them towards the End.
Middles need to be flexible because a lot can happen. You want time for players to see how to play the game, experience the story and work together. Let this be the fun part where you run with player ideas. You may never finish this session and get to the End. That's OK if you know that you can run another session. Otherwise, definitely end. Try to get the cool stuff in the last room.
The End
The End is where the players find the Orb of Fire and the Cult of Flame find them. Use the Open Legend encounter rules in Chapter 8: Running the Game to build an encounter. My recommendation would be to include a Main Bad Guy and Minions.In the End, the Cult of Flame confronts the players. The Cult is about to take the Orb of Flame, removing its last protective enchantments before they remove it. You could have a cool scene where a cultist goes to grab it and is incinerated. Or you could let Gulta have it. Or wait for the players to grab it. Your choices.
About the Orb of Flame: it can be a piece of Special Equipment as described in Open Legend Chapter 9. As a piece of Special Equipment it has Area 5 and Energy 5. It basically allows you to set things in an area on fire really well. Could be fun in this fight on either side.
The Orb of Flame lets someone make area attacks easily. Typically each 5' cube of space (the size of a person) gets Disadvantage 1 on the Attack Roll. So with this item, the user could attack a 25' cube of space (meaning all the characters inside the space) at Energy 5 with no penalties. Pretty powerful and fun to use!
If you have 4 Level 1(default starting level) players, that's 4 levels of encounter bad guys. I would make a Level 1 Simple NPC (who I named Gulta) and 3 levels worth of Minions, which is 9 Level 1 Simple NPC Minions. Here are my examples:
Gulta (Level 1 Simple Build NPC)
HP: 22 (that's a lot, have him stick around a bit)
Defenses: Guard 15, Toughness 13 Resolve 12 (hard to hit but easy to Bane)
Attributes: Energy 4, Agility 3, Protection 3
Favored Actions:
Barrier (Hindering): invoke Barrier[Hindering] Boon with Energy roll v. Challenge Rating 14
Fire Burst (damaging attack with Energy) v. Guard of PC
Booming Blast (invoke Knockdown Bane with Energy) v. Guard of PC (consider an area effect where this is done against all nearby PCs. Roll at Disadvantage equal to number of PCs affected)
Have him throw some fire but slow the PCs down. If they are doing well, throw a Knockdown effect in there. The Disadvantage means you roll more dice and take the lowest, so instead of 1d10 you might roll 5 for 4 players and take the lowest. You still roll just 1d20 and take that result. Expect a low number but make it sound cool. "Gulta summons a giant ball of fire and strikes down at the ground with incredible force!" Ask all the players what their Guard numbers are. Watch their faces!
Minions (Level 1 Simple Build NPCs adjusted as Minions)
HP: 4 (easy to knock down!)
Defenses: Guard 12, Toughness 10, Resolve 10 (much easier targets)
Attributes: Agility 4, Energy 3
Favored Actions:
Ritual Knife attack (damaging attack with Agility) v. Guard of PC
Fire Lance (damaging attack with Energy) v. Guard of PC
Expect Minions to go down quickly. Throw them at the players. If cool things start happening, let them react with panic. These guys can go all over the room putting out fires (literally?) and engaging different foes. Only Gulta stays on point.
So this really went from a 'what to do' to a first adventure example. Things to emphasize here are:
- The players should create a good portion of the story. Let their decisions motivate how the story unfolds. This makes them more competent and suited to the challenge. It also means less work for the GM.
- The NPC characters are the tools the GM uses to move the story along. Get to the End. If the players aren't getting there, have a Flame Cultist run down the hall and start a chase.
- Smaller is better. The less you plan, the more you can 'experience' the story by sharing with your friends. I wrote this in about 1 hour. You can spend about the same amount of time on story and rules review and do fine. If you want more or feel like you need it, don't worry. You're not doing anything wrong!
- Have fun! This is an example for a one-time game. You could do this and it could be great. Or you could plan a longer game with your friends. Play the same characters? Sure. Create new characters? Why not? The sample characters could become the founding members of a world-saving organization that your players now create members of!
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