Role Playing Games have had quite a journey. They went from weird hobbies that could be seen as bad to people to extremelಞy popular, having multiple versions of it, and even inspiring the video-game industry with their concepts. From Dungeons & Dragons to Pathfinder, to ones such as Call of Cthulhu, and even games based on big franchises, such as Star Wars, for instance.
Now the Avatar series - not the one with aliens - got its moment to shine with Avatar Legends. Here, you can bend the elements and face all kinds of trouble, in a system that can be both simple an𝐆d complex depending on what is going on.
9 🅰 Narrative Co🦩mes First
If your focus when playing RPGs is to murder everything on sight, this might not be for you. The game focuses a lot on narrative, with each class even having story bits tied to them, and Campaign Worksheets, which help the GM (Game Master) organize the story. The reason for all the story focus is that the game's system is Powered by the Apocalypse, which is designed for this style of game, rather than the d20 system used by the likes of D&D.
Chapter 4 of the Core Book gives many story-writing tips for both GMs and players, giving ideas of what can be your group's focus - such as defeating a powerful enemy, rescuing someone, etc. - to the classic three-act structure many movies use, and tips on the aforementioned story bits that come with each class.
8 𒐪 Many Eras To Explor🦩e
The world-building in the Avatar series is extensive and covers thousands of years. The rules book gives us many Eras as options to play with, so we can choose a time period that interests us more. Sure, you can do an Era that is not listed (Avatar Wan's Era would be fun), but having all information needed already in the book is pretty helpful. The Eras are:
- The Kyoshi Era, which tackles events after her comics;
- The Roku Era, which focuses on politics, shows the time before the war broke out;
- The Hundred Year War Era, with no Avatar, has the Fire Nation as the biggest world threat;
- The Aang Era, which takes place after The Last Airbender, where you need to heal the world broken by the war;
- The Korra Era, which takes place after The Legend of Korra, with a 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:more modernized world to venture into.
7 Playbooks, The 'Classes' Of The Game
These are essentially the classes you have in the game. What makes them unique is how they are tied to story writing, which can either be a blessing or a curse. They will either help you create your story, or make you feel stuck in its options. For example, when playing as a Guardian, you have to choose another player character to be your ward. A good concept for having two players sharing their backstories and, let's face it, if these options start to become a problem, you can just talk to your GM to ignore them.
They also get unique abilities called moves, but you can only select two of them, and you'll get more as you level up. Then, you have a feature that is exclusive to each class. The aforementioned Guardian, for example, has a feature called Protector's Burden, which can give you bonuses or penalties depending on how your relationship with your ward is going. Each class also has a Balance system, but more on that later.
The Playbooks are The Adamant, The Bold, The Guardian, The Hammer, The Icon, The Idealist, The Pillar, The Prodigy, The Rogue, and The Successor. An expansion book called Wan Shi Tong's Library & Extras gives you four more options: The Razor, The Foundling, The Elder, and The Destined.
6 Training
Okay, so where's the bending? Bending isn't tied to any Playbook or anything. Instead, it's marked as your training style and if you can waterbend, for example, then that's it.
If you're a waterbender, you don't need to roll dice to see if you can control water or not. You simply can. Sure, conditions or how much you want to control can be a problem; If you're trying to stop a ferocious stream on a river, you might have to roll something, but if you just want to freeze a path on a calm lake, where you're not under attack or anything, then you simply do it. Still, you have techniques, which work as what you can do in combat, who may ask for a specific type of bending, and your level of꧋ mastery with each of them determines how easy it is to use them.
Alternatively, being a non-bender is also an option. Besides elements, you also have Weapons and Technology. Weapons would be for a character like Suki, with fans, swords, boomerangs, or others, and Technology would be similar to Asami - the🌸 bo🙈ok offers hints for Technology characters in older Eras, such as using smoke bombs. Each of them also has their unique techniques.
5 Stats
Each character has four stats; Passion, Focus, Harmony, and Creativity. Each Playbook will give you fix values, with two of these stats having a +1, one having a -1, and one with no bonuses, and you do get to add a +1 wh🧸erever you feel like during character creation, giving yourself a +2, a third +1, or annulling the penalty your class🥀 has.
Lastly, unless you obtain a move that says otherwise, you won't have a bonus higher than +2, which is fair considering the game only rolls two six-sided dice at a time, thus it never uses high numbers like TTRPGs that use the d20, for example.
4 B🗹ackground
Unlike other TTRPGs, backgrounds don't offer you mechanical advantages. Instead, it functions as a narrative hook for you. For instance, a former soldier has the Military background, and that's about it. You were a soldier, meaning you have military training, and you can use this status to your advantage.
What is curious is that the game lets you choose one or two backgrounds, so you could be a former soldier who turned into an outlaw, for example, and mark both backgrounds to you. Whatever makes sense for your chaꦜracter.
3 Combat
The game can be a bit soft when it comes to fighting at first, recommending it as a last resort. In fact, you can't even die in the game, unless the GM homebrews death in it. It's based on a kid's show, after all.
Still, combat works by deciding🐽 which approach you want to perform, between defending, attacking, or observing. You can also use a combat technique during this time depending on your rolls and how p🌌roficient you are with your technique. NPCs do the same, but the GM only tells their choice once yours are done.
Attacking non-stop or being attacked will cause fatigue, and too much of꧅ it will knock you out. You can also lose fatigue in combat, so you have to be careful with your choices during the exchange. There are also multiple conditionsﷺ, both positive and negative, that you can have or inflict on others, such as feeling inspired or scared, and each has its consequences.
2 🔥 Leveling Up
Your Growth is your leveling-up mechanic. It relies on the story as well, with each Playbook having questions about your experiences throughout the session, and they'll give you growth. Once all of those are marked, you can choose an advancement, which will follow your character throughout the rest of your journey.
These advancements can be one of the following: a new move, a stat increase, shifting your balance, or getting your moment of balance. What are those last two? Let's dive into them in the next entry.
1 Balance
Balance is a rather unique mechanic in the game, which is closely tied to your character's motivations and more importantly, inner struggles. Each Playbook has a Yin-Yang moral code, and your actions can make you go towards one side. Guardians have Self-Relience or Trust.
Becoming stronger at one of them will make you weaker at the other. Whether you want to balance them or neglect on side is up to you though, as there aren't problems with doing that, only consequences that can be sometimes good, and sometimes bad.