Post by Eric Farrington on Sept 13, 2023 19:27:29 GMT
Greetings all.
Some of you maybe wondering "why so many RPG Reviews?" I know, I know, this is a wargame design blog! However, I have been dabbling a lot in RPG design, writing adventures, and playing RPGs! As part of this, I have been playing a lot of RPG sessions, and reading a lot of different rules sets. Therefore, that has led to a lot of RPG reviews.
Avatar: Legends is a Powered by the Apocalypse system RPG based on the Avatar: The Last Airbender and Avatar: The Legend of Korra cartoon series seen originally on Nickelodeon. So, to many of us that sentence might not make any sense! What does it all mean?
Well, let's start with the setting. The book is about half setting details and half-rules for game play. The setting focuses on a mystical world of various elemental powers, a spirit world, and nations built around affinity to these elements. The elements are Fire, Earth, Water, and Air. In addition, there is a martial arts tradition of "bending" these elements by channeling chi. So, basically it is another Fantasy Asian culture leaning much more towards Chinese and Southeast Asian influences as opposed to Legend of the 5 Rings that leans heavily into Japan.
If you want more setting stuff, try here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avatar:_The_Last_Airbender
The players are a group of young heroes who have banded together to complete a great quest or adventure. They all have chosen to participate, are all familiar with martial arts, and are all generally good people. For the most part, they are also mostly tweens, teens, and young adults.
Great, now you know a bit about the premise. So, what the devil is Powered by the Apocalypse? This is a very loose philosophy for running an RPG that has a few similar traits. It is not a "mechanics system" per se as many of the rules that use the PbtA "system" have very different mechanics. However, it is more of a philosophy of how to play RPGs using these general ideas:
All dice rolls are determined on a 2d6
-7-9 is a success with complication, and 10+ is a success with some benefits
-The Game master does not roll any dice, only interprets results
-The focus is on Narrative and leaning into the story
-The game is designed to exploit genre conventions and tropes
-There is no Class/Level system, instead using genre archetypes in the form of Playbooks
-There is no Health/Hit points, instead causing conditions to apply to the character
-Players and the Gamemaster use a variety of pre-defined actions known as moves to broadly determine the action, these are designed to highlight the genre of the game.
-If you want to know more, you can look here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Powered_by_the_Apocalypse
So, now maybe that opening sentence makes more sense. It does? Great! With that being said, let's mount up on our Air Bison and "Yip, Yip" on our way!
You can see my full thoughts on the game at the Blood and Spectacles blog:
bloodandspectacles.blogspot.com/2023/09/rpg-review-avatar-legends-magpie-games.html