Races in Open Legend

Rules Discussion House Rules
1

Perhaps my favorite part of OL as someone coming from a DnD background is that racial choice isn’t a core part of character creation (per-say). Instead if the universe playing contains various races that could be potential player character, the onus is on the player to show through, traits, flaws, feats ext. How they are that race. I’m sure many GM’s have experience players who’ve picked a player race just for stat improvements, or just wanting to not be a human and not really caring about the choice.

With that said, id imagine that if you are playing in a world for maybe multiple campaigns there should be some feats/abilities ext. that are often ascribed (but not solely) to the races. So there is a shared mechanical representation associated with them.

I’m curios to know how certin tables represent many of the classic Tolkien races we know from many RPG’s, in their games.

2

Geez, you are quite savage…

All joking aside, in all the games I’ve run or that I have been part of as a player, there has been literally 0 demand to predefine races in any way, because I think many people are over these tropes and for those who aren’t and want to play for example an archetypical dwarf, than they can still take the “Stone Sense” perk and the “Greedy” flaw.

3

I think what im getting at is more a suggestion for players who do want to represent race.

Like if your running a fantasy game, in the handout id give to players id like to make some suggestions about how they would represent them mechanically.

4

I guess I can’t be too helpful on that front, as I mentioned that I haven’t felt the need for such a list, but I guess you could make a quick overview like:

Elf

  • Often use Agility to fight gracefully and with their signature longbows

  • The following Perks are common among Elves: X, Y, Z

  • The following Flaws are common among Elves: X, Y, Z

  • …

What I fail to see though is what this would accomplish exactly? I guess it sets a certain tone and expectations, but players will generally build their characters how they envisage their character and OL empowers that, so it’s easier to play against type, like for example a raging muscle elf.

5

Yeah I just thinks it is rather self regulating, like a dwarf would maybe take stone sense, but if I were to play an Indiana Jones kind of human then I would like to have that one aswell.

From a GM perspective you might just assume that all wood elfs have Nature’s Ally perk.

But like you touched upon is one thing I like a lot is that I don’t find my hand is forced. If I wanna play a druid type character I can be any race not nerfing or buffing my potential depending on race.

Also with the system beeing made for any type of setting so there is that.

However from a GM perspective you could just make what makes sense from your cardboard cut out NPC’s but I would still consider swapping it up for key characters.

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6

I’m running a homebrew fantasy setting. There are a number of different races, but I’ve never felt a need to prescribe certain feats, flaws, or perks to them. My assumption is that if there were actually multiple humanoid races in a environment, they’d all be pretty similar (on average) due to convergent evolution.

The approach I’ve taken is to define my races’ places in the setting. I try to separate cultural from physical aspects, so it’s quite possible (if not likely) for an individual who grew up and lives in elven lands to evince predominantly elven traits regardless. Physically, there are typical and atypical individuals. Players can (and should be able to) do what makes sense for their characters.

7

Personally, I love the idea that no matter the race you don’t get any bonuses and you don’t get punished for playing something unconventional (an orc cleric for example). Like @VanGo mentioned, you could present your players with an outline of perks and flows and/or most commonly used classes for each of the races. I, for one, like the freedom that the players have. Not only does it make great characters with awesome backstories, but also makes for some great comedy during your sessions (which I appreciate a lot, after all we’re in this to have fun!).

8

Since this thread is on Races, I thought I’d ask a question about them. In D&D, races have modifier to Abilities (e.g. +2 Str, -1 Int). I know it would be very unbalancing in Open Legend if we did that with Attributes, because the scores mean something very different. However, lets say we want to mechanize races. How unbalancing do you think it would be to the game if we said "your first level (or two) in Attribute X is free (i.e. doesn’t cost attribute points for the race)?

For example, for something like a Hogwarts wizard, you could say: You have a strong affinity for certain kinds of magic; You first level in Creation is free.

This would allow those characters to have a “natural affinity” for this extraordinary attribute, starting off with some magical ability.

I know that an alternative to this option is that I could just make a house rule that all non-muggle characters must take at least one level in an Extraordinary attribute (interpreting them as Magical abilities), I was just wondering about how unbalancing the racial trait above would be.

9

Basically, no, don’t

Races are actually meant to be there via Feats, Perks, and Flaws. Using these you can represent a lot of races actually.

Beyond that, it is usually just narrative (not to mention highly dependent on the setting/world you are in which can vary greatly). The idea that X race gets this isn’t very good honestly, b/c within a “race” you have a lot of variety.

The best thing I’ve heard is to allow access to +1 on what your max attribute score can be (default is 5 at level 1, and then increases by 1 every odd level after that to level 9).

So a giant, for example, at level 1 can access Might of 6, they still have to spend all the attribute points to get it however. Likewise, at level 3, they’d be able to get Might of 7, at 5 might of 8, at 7 might of 9.

There are some potential concerns with early access to certain tiers of feats and/or boons/banes, but it isn’t too bad of a way to do it.

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10

That also sounds like a good idea. That might be more balancing, because it would cost an enormous amount of attribute points for a first level character to get to level 6, even if they wanted to. This would balance (better) by having very low levels in other attributes.

Thanks for the idea!

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11

It might be more unbalanced for some attributes than others (especially some of the extraordinary), but only one way to find out, right :wink:

12

Shure of you want to encourage more min maxing and want people to choose race based on what abilities they want to use instead of what they feel like role playing

13

There are no racial archetypes in OL, but if you are playing in a fantasy world with a plethora of races and you wish to have your characters race reflected in some way, these suggestions give you a place to start. This list is by no means definitive and players are free to come up with their own interpretation for how their characters race is reflected. This list is primarily for new players, to point them towards abilities that aid in defining their character.
Dwarves
Typical Attributes.
Fortitude
Will

Feats.
Energy Resistance (Poison)
Tough as Nails

Perks.
Stone Sense
Resilient

Flaws.
Greedy
Stubborn
Vengeful

Halflings
Typical Attributes.
Agility
Any Social

Feats.
Resilient

Perks.
Courageous
Lucky

Flaws.
Any

Half-Orcs
Typical Attributes.
Might
Fortitude

Feats.
Diehard
Brutal Intimidation

Perks.
Brute
Resilient

Flaws.
Hot tempered

Elves
Typical Attributes.
Agility
Perception

Feats.
Lightning Reflex I

Perks.
Ageless
Whisper of the Wild

Flaws.
Proud

Gnomes
Typical Attributes.
Agility
Learning

Feats.
Indomitable Resolve
Knowledge

Perks.
Silver Tongue
Scholar

Flaws.
Phobia

Tieflings
Typical Attributes.
Agility or Might
Presence

Feats.
Energy Resistance (Fire)

Perks.
Extraordinary Presence

Flaws.
Mood Disorder

Warforged
Typical Attributes.
Fortitude
Might or Agility

Feats.
Natural Defense
Energy Resistance (Poison)

Perks.
Disease Immunity
Resilient

Flaws.
Overt
Literal Minded

Shifter
Typical Attributes.
Agility or Might
Perception

Feats.
Fast Tracker

Perks.
Natures Ally
Vagabond

Flaws.
Bloodlust

Changeling
Typical Attributes.
Agility
Deception

Feats.
Mimic

Perks.
Street Rat
Fugitive

Flaws.
Any.

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14

There is two other ways around it, the first is to take the time to make stereotypes from races for the players to look at and for the GM to have ready if he needs is in an adventure.

Another way that can make sense in some settings is like in the dresten files RPG if you want to play some thing’s like a whit court vampire you need to invest in some skills that they all have, others are more to completely open. Much of this could just be done in a session 0, but unless the player wants to play a freak of its race and the GM is okay with it there could be some perk, flaw, attribute or feat that is expected to have as something…