Have anyone tried token- based turn system?

The idea is as follows:

  • you get a special stat called speed,
    -at the begging of your turn you get your action points based on constant value and speed stat. It is represented by tokens you have
    -some action require more tokens to do (as an example: in his system swinging a maul costs 3 A.P., meanwhile slashing with dagger costs 2 points.
    It really gets tricky with action economy, so I need to do a lot of changes to this, like constant weapons’ damage, crits based on attack roll etc. Basically I am making almost all things from the ground. Does anyone have an experience with THIS SPECIFIC rule?

I’ve been tinkering with something similar, a generic Action system like Pathfinder 2 uses in which you would usually get 3 Actions that can each be used for any kind of Action, with some restrictions.

Nothing good has come from it as of yet though, because it changes OL in a very fundamental way and is effectively a rewrite of the entire system.

Open Legend is very malleable but changes to the fundamentals of the game, like this one, would require a total rework, resulting essentially in a new system. Pathfinder needed a new edition for their Action Point system to stick and be successful but I’d say that’s because they kept their system really simple. Your outline already looks more complicated than the PF2 system, so my advice is to keep it simple. You could go really granular with such a system but that works much better for video games because the game does all the bookkeeping.

How about this: you have a 6 points to manage, plus free 10 movement speed.

Without knowing any other specifics, it’s impossible to judge but much, if not most, comes down to how you budget actions.

Just compare it to how simple I can explain PF2: 3 actions, 1 reaction. Nearly everything costs 1 action, with the notable exception of spellcasting. That’s it.

1 Like

I’ll post it when its done

Ok, so this is what i came up with:
Every character have 6 AP(action points) and 10 ft of movement for free.
Attack costs 4, 3 or 2 AP and based on it you have lowered attribute you are attacking with: 4AP is normal, 3 AP reduce stat by 2, 2 AP attack reduce by another 2. Defend and improv costs 2 AP, every minor action costs 1. If you wanna use fleet of foot, you need to spend at least 1 AP to move(1AP=5ft).
I came up with feet that increase PA by 1 for each of 3 tiers. It costs 6 points of exp per tier. I believe multiattack feet scales well with this(can’t do math).
Invoking bane or boon works the same way, expect boom focus II, you can then invoke a boon with 1 AP(only once per turn).
What do you all think?

I am not sure what you mean by using Fleet of Foot, as that is a passive Feat.

This would break nearly all Actions that are intended to only be taken once per Turn, Sustain Persists being a major candidate here. Reintroducing a once per Turn limit for most types of Action would mitigate this, but throw the versatility you’re aiming for right out of the window.

Movement seems heavily punished, moving 20 feet and Attacking once already is the equivalent of a Focus Action, which usually lets you Charge, so move double your Speed and Attack at Disadvantage 1.

This also breaks most Feats that rely on certain Actions being restricted, like Superior Concentration. You’d need to rewrite all of those in addition to the entire Action system, not just Boon Focus and Multi-Attack Specialist.


In conclusion, I don’t think this is a workable system or even approach. I won’t stop you from trying, but as I am playing around with the concept myself I can tell you you need to think in far greater terms than just replacing Actions so they kind of fit into the same Turn.

What you would need to do is to rewrite half the system, that being the Action economy as a whole (what types of Actions can be taken at all) as well as every Bane, Boon and Feat that touch upon the Action system.

2 Likes

That means, if I have an additional system for boons I am okie dokie?

No, I don’t think this works at all the way it is now and wouldn’t recommend pursuing it.

If you are serious, you should try to set out and write at least a completely new Combat Chapter instead of just swapping things out, as well as reworking all Banes, Boons and Feats that so much as mention Actions after you have done that.

To do that, you first need a rigid Action economy, which will require testing and iteration. What you have written now does not qualify, since you simply just swapped out some Action costs.


Changing the Action system this radically cannot work as a simple modification to the Open Legend system. You need to, in essence, create a new system with a new game balance, even if you keep things like Attributes and the Action Roll.

2 Likes

This sounds a lot like Pathfinder 2E. I’m not entirely sure why you’d want to port that into OL, but if you must, you should probably just change the actions you wanna copy to free / major / move / minor / free actions based on context rather than trying to port the entire action economy over.