hey guys, wanna help me think about something?
me and my girlfrined started waching Avatar: the last air bender. i haven't watch it since it first aired. we are getting quite hyped and we are trying to craft a set of rules to play a avatar setting capaing whit our friends.
so the thing is. apart from what kind of bender (or not bender) your character is. what kind of clases do you thing this setting would have?
Hey guys, wanna help me think about something?
*My girlfriend and I
The problem with benders is the same problem with Jedi. Sure, you could make a non-force user who's just as good as a Jedi or a Sith. There are probably tons of fun and creative options and ways to do it.
But if you let people be a Jedi, they will always want to be Jedi. If you let people be a Bender, they will always want to be a Bender. Sure, some of them might roll non-Bender, but if they do it's not because they think Bending is dumb. If they thought Bending was dumb, they wouldn't be playing an Avatar based game. The same way that if people didn't like Jedi, they wouldn't play a Star Wars game. If they roll non-Bender, it's because they want to stand out. They want to be a Bender, they just want to be special more.
That said, unless you're going to have this be a very low combat setting, you'll probably have an easier time just playing in a system like Mutants and Masterminds. Having classes outside of Bending is silly, because it makes more sense to just use a point buy system.
That said, I will answer your question, because you seem pretty cool. You could do the different martial arts, such as Kyoshi's Fans, or Chi Blocking, or even base them on weapon types like Jet's Tiger Hooks or Sokka's Dao.
There's a mostly complete Veeky Forums-made PbtA based AtlA game.
I remember it being pretty okay.
sure, i just thougth that would be niceto give players that option. also i would like to have many non benders ncs, they always awakes sympathy on me.
about the clases, i was thinking about having them be things that gives the playars habilites regardles of they being benders or not. like hunter (whit some tranking thing) monk (whit some spirit conection deal) or merchant (the talky guy) in adition to that, non benders migth have better starting stats, maybe nice gear or some kind of better background (like low noble, or something like that)
Posting systems.
This is a Roll&Keep one, semi-complete but pretty gud.
wow, i'll look it up, we where thinking it to be pbta
Character sheet for this one.
I think this is the PbtA ruleset.
And the char sheet for it.
The problem with that is that is makes the assumption that the ability to Bend precludes other, fundamental skills. In the world of the series, Bending is treated like a martial art in many cases. You have to be born with the ability, but most people who are treat it less like a lifestyle and more like a hobby. They even have public schools where you can go to be tutored. Nothing says you can't be a bender who's also a merchant, and nothing says any given merchant can't be a Bender. A hunter can be an Earthbender, and it might even help him do his job better. And the Air Nomads were monks by default. And giving non-Benders better stats makes nearly no sense, since any decently skilled Bender would have spent years training both physically and spiritually, even if some of them are off kilter a bit. You have guys like Zaheer who are both intelligent, strong, and charismatic, and guys like the Cabbage Merchant who are basically worthless
Legend of the Elements is a really good Avatar game. I've run it twice and both times got a good game which also felt true to the tone of the show. Benders and non-benders are well-balanced but all the bending types still feel distinct in terms of how they approach combat.
>and guys like the Cabbage Merchant who are basically worthless
Cabbage Corp is the second biggest company of the setting.
Anyway, if you want to go that detailed, bending should be just a skill, possibly a skill tree of sorts, since the time you spend studying bending, you don't spend studying other stuff.
My simplest advice is to have everyone be Benders, and just theater of the mind everything. Have challenges be wagers, where you roll d6 from a limited pool, call it Chi if you want. You can expend as much Chi as you want to overcome a challenge, but if you run out you can no longer Bend.
It's bare bones, and some of these systems will probably have something deeper, it's just the first thing I came up with
>>it's more of a balance thing. i don't want a pc like zaheer, all powerful, but i don't want a nonbender player to feel like a worthless cabbage guy.
anyway, i was thinking that the two things tougether would form a "archetype" of some sort. you have the waterbending hunter, which is diferent of the earthkingdom hunter, idnk
We used this system to play as the Kyoshi Warriors. I almost wrecked Mai with exploding dice shenanigans during the Appa fight.
i was thining about doing something in the line of apocalypse engin.
you have 4 stats, each one is a regular caracterisitic like willpower, or wits, but its also the bending stat of an spesific element.
for example, corage is fire bending.
>Courage is Firebending
I know it's only a suggestion, but Firebending is powered by anger in worst cases, and Zen in the best
Elemental powers suck
that's largely how legend of the elements handles it
>hot
aggression, intimidation, also used for firebending
>natural
how in tune the character is with the world around them, used in airbending
>fluid
the characters adaptability and mobility, used in water and lightning bending
>solid
how durable and determined the character is, used for earthbending
>keen
how perceptive and intelligent the character is, also covers metalbending
wow, this is great. i'm totally working whit this ,thanks you guys!!