D20 Legend

So what the fuck happened to this game? It had a bunch of great ideas, but from what I've heard the devteam completely dissolved. Real pity. The forums look active enough at least, but... is there anything behind-the-scenes that I'm missing?

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Lead developer got a job, signed non-compete.
Team tried to keep it going, failed.
Unfinished material released to forums, fans may continue the work if they want.

Legend is such a fucking tragedy. I love what it tried to do with the D&D formula, but that it will never be finished is just depressing.

Well, there a "Spiritual Successor" in development, Stuff of Legend

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What's its selling point?

The track mechanic.
That, btw, is something that would work GREAT with 5e.

A generally more fun and light hearted take on d20 high fantasy, with skills and feats embracing the over top nature of things rather than trying to make everything except magic super realistic.

Could you be a LITTLE more descriptive?

Where did he get a job? Because if he's putting out work as cool as Legend was while he's there, that's a place to watch.

I don't remember details, but apparently it was some place that doesn't have anything to do with games.

... then why the agreement?

That's the big question.

It was really more of an issue of internal strife than it was the lead dev going missing and from a player perspective it's close enough to finished and the homebrew forum is stocked full of more than enough content to get by with. It's just annoying to run from the GM seat if you didn't generate a bunch of stuff before you started the campaign.

Oh man, I remember being excited about this game. Has anyone ever compiled the resources into a pdf or srd?

Alright. Basically, instead of raw class abilities and spellcasting progressions like you'd see in its predecessor, classes have three different tracks of class abilities that are thematically related and advance at different rates so that you're always getting something at each level. For instance, Barbarians in Legend have the Path of Rage track as their medium track, which governs their Rage/Dervish Dance and abilities related to it, Path of Destruction as their slow track, a combat track whose features are unrelated to Path of Rage's, and Path of the Ancestors as their fast track, a defensive track that simply makes you tougher instead of dodgier or trickier - you get healed more, you can completely ignore Fort/Will abilities that you saved against instead of taking the lesser effect, you regenerate, you're better at making Vigor checks, which give you temp HP, etc. Additionally there are racial tracks, which replace your racial features and the class HP/skills/KOM and KDM you would normally work with on top of trading out a track for them, and class-independent tracks like Knight and Fire Elemental.

What makes it interesting in practice is that for free, you can swap a single track* you have for any other track you qualify for and they slot in at the speed of the track you replaced. Add in the Guild Initiate feat, which allows you to swap a second track, and the Full Buy-In option, which allows you to take an inferior magic item progression in exchange for being able to snag a fourth track on top of the three your class gave you, and suddenly there's an insane amount of room for customization within a single class, to the point where one Barbarian might be a hulk smash brute while another might've traded out a couple tracks to become a graceful, acrobatic fencer.

*Rogues and Paladins have a single track that can't be swapped to or from, blame the lead dev for this one.

Not him, but:

Each class is made up of three different ability tracks that progress as they level, doling out class features, and to multiclass you swap out one of your progression tracks for one from another class--or from the other tracks not affiliated with a class, which can all put a strange or interesting spin on things.

There are also other things that strengthen the track system, like Key Offensive Modifiers and Key Defensive Modifiers--your KOM being your attack and damage bonus, your KDM being your AC and HP bonus, with spellcasters also having a Spellcasting Ability. There are assorted other bonuses for each ability score, and everyone's on the same footing for ability dependency, which is fantastic and refreshing.
Some classes are able to pick a KOM or KDM or both, and you can change yours by multiclassing into a track that sets one (can't have the same ability for both).

Weapons all only do d6, but they're made distinct by class abilities and a robust yet straightforward trait system.

Feats are unique and interesting. There's a feat to make you psychic, a feat to make you Daredevil (blind, but with blindsight and a bit of extra ability; called "Justice, Blind"), make it so you have a gun grafted into your body. They're not all gonzo, but none of them are just flat "feat tax" style feats.

Magic Items are an assumed part of character progression--as in, it's part of the "here's what you get at this level" table. Except, they're not necessarily magic items. It could be access to, or exposure to, or formative experiences in places of power. Never take fall damage; have access to a lost but powerful armory (adding a few kick-ass tags to your weapons); you can make a one day journey through a strange labyrinth dimension to any place you've ever been before.

Oh, and I almost forgot my two favorite things about Legend.

1) Because it's all about progressing into being mythic heroes, proper Herculean, the end-game skill applications are simply amazing.

2) The game can naturally run pure fantasy, but can also encompass full Sword And Planet stuff and Final Fantasy-like blends of magic and modern technology.
Skills make mention of hacking golems and constructs, of resisting the crushing gravity of a prison world, of interacting with computer terminals.
Aside from make-it-your-own toolkit systems like GURPS and Fate, you don't really get a lot of opportunity to play with these elements in this way.

Bump

So from what I understand the one thing the system really NEEDS is a consolidated bestiary/NPC list. It's at least functional in every other regard. So why don't we do one of those "Veeky Forums gets shit done!" things and make one? Even if it's just Google Drive folder of text documents.

Anyone takers? It wouldn't take *too* much effort so long as five or so people are chipping in. If everybody makes four, that's a healthy variety to spin off of by refluffing.

What it really needs is a tool that spits out neatly formatted stat blocks for certain track combinations at certain levels. And that's quite a bit more work.

On the forums, they already have a conversion of one or more Monster Manuals, but you still need to work out what these tracks mean for the intended level.

This. A 4E-style chargen tool would help so much it's not even funny.

Yeah, Fantasy Craft's got kind of the same problem. You have to cross-reference abilities and ratings against how they scale *and* what threat rating the specific adventure has, in its case.

It's also the other example of "d20 System heartbreaker" I see most often on Veeky Forums. Never really thought about that commonality before.

>d20 System heartbreaker
what's that?

>"d20 System heartbreaker"

Yeah, what said

Also, this track business sounds a bit like 4E

To be totally honest, I'm not 100% sure what the name is supposed to mean exactly. It's a phrase I see on Veeky Forums often and seems to mean a system that's an actual development from 3.X instead of just a cross-compatible extension off of it, like Pathfinder and a handful of other games.

It's an old Forge term from the early 2000's. The Forge was cancerous as fuck, but it was hella influential.

Coined by Ron Edwards, of Sorcerer RPG fame(aka the unplayable WOD-wannabe game that loosely inspired Dogs in the Vineyard's core mechanic).

They're called heartbreakers because these games have obviously had a lot of effort put into them and are for one reason or another, unsuccessful or shit.

Do you know if the game shits itself if you let someone swap out the Rogue/Paladin track?

>I really like D&D, but this needs to be changed
>I'll make a whole system based around this change! It'll fix D&D!
>game is still D&D but with minor changes, or resembles the channeled writing of a schizophrenic ghost
>no one wants to play it because D&D or shit

It breaks my heart, because had they started from scratch, it might not be a bad idea.
It breaks their heart, because it's not the coming messiah they poured their heart into.

It does not shit itself.

>game is still D&D but with minor changes
You could just take a look at the PDF instead of making things up, you know. It's free.

>this track business sounds a bit like 4E
Kinda-sorta, yeah, especially with how the property-based equipment system fits in. I can definitely see where it would appeal to 4e fans, though it's not quite so formulaic the way it partitions things.

It is a bit like 4e in that it focuses on combat first and foremost and isn't ashamed of some "game-iness".

Fantasy Craft and Legend were both made by taking 3.5, breaking it down to its core elements and re-building it from the ground up.
Fantasy Craft was created to become more of a toolbox that can be adapted to many different fantasy settings.
Legend was built around making combat in and of itself interesting.

Unlike most "Fantasy/d20 Heartbreakers" these two games actually managed to achieved what they had set out to do, but are left incomplete for one reason or another.

user was explaining "d20 heartbreaker"

This system had some of the most fun D&D style combat I've ever played. Everything felt fluid and superhuman. It's a shame it's only got fan support these days.

Swap out? No, although it's hard to find a track better than those two. Swap into? Somewhat more but it still shouldn't make the game shit itself. +2 to HP per level and +3 to saves early in Judgment is pretty strong and so are several of the Esotera Radica abilities.