1. Welcome to Legend

This book contains all you will need for adventuring in worlds of sword and sorcery, where a good blade is all that stands between you and certain doom. The rules presented in this volume can be tailored to a wide variety of settings and genres although the focus is primarily on gritty fantasy with a heroic feel. These rules are not confined to just one world: the rules are characterised by flexibility and intuition, permitting Games Masters, players and their Adventurers to explore just about any milieu they care to. The game focuses on characters and their capabilities, grounding everything from an adventuring perspective. Using Legend as the basis, many different settings and worlds are possible – all it takes is imagination.

New to Roleplaying?

Although Legend is by no means an overly complex game, it is assumed that those reading this book have played a roleplaying game before and understand the key concepts: players control characters and a Referee or Games Master articulates the story and the action, as well as adjudicating the results. So, whilst advice for both players and Games Masters is included throughout these rules, in the form of examples, clearly explained rules and so forth, it is written from the standpoint of a certain degree of roleplaying familiarity and experience.

New to Legend?

The Legend rules are part of a family of popular percentile-based systems that are renowned for their ease of use and adaptability. Legend’s concepts and rules are easy to understand and implement with a series of unified mechanics underpinning the separate elements of character creation, combat and magic. Most character actions are based around a percentile skill or ability with a roll equal to, or below, the value indicating success. Of course different rules and circumstances add a certain degree of sophistication and complexity but at its heart Legend is a very simple, logical system that can be grasped from a glance at the character sheet and a scan through these rules.

The game’s design also incorporates new thinking that complements many tried and tested mechanics. This approach offers players a vast degree of control over what their characters do and how they do it. Many of the choices and possibilities are subtle: players and Games Masters will find that, with a little thought and creativity, all manner of wonderful opportunities and complexities present themselves whilst still being supported by the rules framework. Legend is completely adaptable and its intuitive rules mean that creating new rules or changing existing ones, whether to support an individual style of play or a particular setting, is easy to do and accommodate.

Forge your own Legend

These rules offer a detailed roleplaying framework and most players and Games Masters will use them as presented. However, nothing is cast in stone. If a rule does not suit you, change it or ignore it. Your game is paramount. It is impossible, when designing a game, to take into account every situation, notion or idea that will present itself during play. However, the framework is here to support informed decision making and to allow you to make Legend your own, unique rules set.

Experiment, improvise and adapt – that is the Legend way!

The Rules

The next chapter begins the Legend rules with Adventurer Creation, with each chapter introducing new concepts and themes. Read through each chapter, returning to it as necessary to clarify your understanding and referring to others as directed. Reference to future chapters is necessary but has been minimised as far as possible. However, it will be necessary to cross-reference certain rules to establish their full impact and reach.

Throughout the book we have provided certain optional rules, which are presented in text boxes. These options provide a different slant or take on the core rules, allowing Games Masters to tailor the rules to the game. As with any option, the choice is for you to make; or, as already mentioned, develop your own options that fit how your Legend should develop.

What Else Do I Need?

Legend is self-contained: with just this book you have everything needed to create thrilling characters, adventures and quests. However additional Legend volumes, expanding on these core rules, may prove useful at a later stage – but are by no means essential to enjoying the game.

You are also directed to the Mongoose website for additional downloads, such as an Adventurer sheet and notes for converting RuneQuest II material to work with Legend.