I guess it’s for a grittier style.
We use it, and now I want to put it up here for everyone to see, criticize and uhh… Use maybe?
It’s something my group has been using for a while now and it’s not exactly broken or anything I think. Nothing janky has happened yet so far at least.
This is to be used with specific types of campaigns that favor a more… Not realistic, just, harder and more survival-ey. The term for it is gritty, I think…
A con I’ve noticed very early on and still struggle with is that
these new rules add way more book-keeping. Something I’m glad OL had less of compared to other TTRPG’s was there was less to keep track of, but by adding this, I reintroduced the thing.
We tend to forget to keep track of things or roll for something we should have and such.
But I’ve solved that by simply handling all of those after sessions.
HIT POINTS, LETHAL DAMAGE AND RECOVERY
RANT INBOUND
In Open Legends, Healing and Taking Damage are both easy and accessible, resulting in a lot of KO’s and immediate revivals.
I don’t really like how recovery is handled in OL. When in combat, someone can be brought back to the fight with a Heal boon. But when combat ends with a member unconscious, they somehow take longer to recover (2d4 hours to be precise) instead of everyone else just taking 10 minutes. But in reality, if you have a sensible party, it will most likely only take them 6-30 seconds regardless of condition to fully recover since Healing is just such an accessible resource.
Maybe if the healers are down, then people will spend time to recover, but WAIT! In OL, Everyone is a healer. As pretty much almost anyone can use the Heal boon.
The party is always only 1 short 6 second speech away from getting reinvigorated to continue on again.
Hit Points are abstract, and so is recovery!
We all agreed this was a more fun way of managing hit points but never really wrote it as a homebrew. We simply just handled healing, damage, hit points, and lethal damage this way because we preferred it.
But now I’m writing it down I guess.
REACHING 0 HIT POINTS
When someone drops to 0 hit points they suffer 1 level of the fatigue bane.
This means a character cannot fall more than 5 times, once they drop 5 times, the 6th time will be their permanent demise unless revival is a thing in your game.
In addition when a character reaches 0 hit points, leftover damage that puts the character below 0 hit points – negative hit points are carried over as lethal damage, to a minimum of 5 lethal damage.
For example, Jim the knight is taken down by the evil dragon with his fire breath.
The dragon dealt 12 points of damage to Jim, with only 4 hit points remaining, Jim succumbs to the pain, reaching 0 hit points and getting knocked unconscious. The 12 points of damage would have taken Jim to -8 hit points, so Jim sustains the 8 remainder damage as Lethal Damage. Finally he suffers a level of the Fatigue bane. Putting him to 1 level of Fatigue.
Using the same example, this time the dragon still deals 12 points of damage, but this time, Jim the knight still had 9 points of damage. 3 points of remainder damage is sustained, the minimum amount of Lethal damage to be sustained is 5, so Jim suffers 5 points of Lethal Damage, not 3.
RECOVERING HIT POINTS
A character only restores all of their hit points to full only after 24 hours, the same way as you would the fatigue bane.
LETHAL DAMAGE
Lethal damage works the same but with 1 major difference. It now takes 1 week instead of 1 day to recover the same amount of lethal damage.
HEAL AND REGENERATION
The heal and regeneration boons now have a limit as to how many times they can be attempted per day.
Heal can only be attempted by a character a maximum number of times per day equal to their highest healing attribute score.
For example, Paul, the doctor has a 2 in his Presence score, a 5 in his Learning score, and 3 in his Creation score, all of them can be used to invoke Heal. Paul is allowed to invoke Heal 5 times a day as determined by his Learning score which is his highest and therefore the one used to determine the amount of times Heal can be used.
Regeneration can only be sustained for 1 minute, after 1 minute it immediately ends.
an invocation of Regeneration can only be attempted half as much as the Heal boon per day. Rounded down.
Getting back to Paul, as Creation is his highest attribute available for casting Regeneration, he is only able to attempt an invocation once per day as his Creation score is 3, divided by 2 is 1.5, rounded down to 1.
This is just a preference honestly.
We could just disable the use of heal outside of combat - heal can’t revive people outside of combat - etc etc all that other I’M THE GM SO I DECIDE WHAT GOES thing.
Until the party decides to willingly enter combat with each other so now they can heal again!
… 
???
I mean I could also just say they can’t fight each other willingly like that, and that it can’t be considered a fight if they’re healing not hitting.
But that’s up to you. Really I don’t think anyone but us is gonna use this recovery/hit point system.
DURABILITY/AMMUNITION
Equipment, even without an expendable property have a chance of being destroyed and disappearing from a character.
ITEM DURABILITY LEVELS
Items now have a property called Durability Level or DL for short.
An item has a default durability equal to their wealth level. However items can have more or less as makes sense for the item.
Durability Level is an abstract measure of an items wear and tear through continuous usage.
It could represent the dullness of a sword, if a gun still has an unclogged barrel or remaining ammunition, if a device still has batteries, if the bow and quiver set still has remaining arrows.
(There used to be a different set for item durability and ammunition but decided durability will now also represent an equipment’s remaining ammunition.)
Items that have reached 0 DL are considered broken beyond repair and must be removed from the player character’s inventory.
ADJUSTING DURABILITY (Breaking and repairing items)
OL has a simple method and solution as to when an item will lose or gain durability.
The GM.
The GM determines when it makes sense for an item to suffer durability loss. As per makes sense with common sense or when circumstances call for it and as makes sense for the narrative.
An item might suffer damage when
- It fails on an action roll
- When the item comes into contact with something damaging (burnable objects come into contact with fire, metal becomes wet, etc.)
- The item has been used a number of times already that the GM might believe it has suffered some wear and tear to suffer durability loss.
The GM can decide whether or not the circumstances will call that the item simply suffers an amount of DL damage immediately, or if a roll can be made to see if the item will suffer a drop in DL.
If a DL roll is called, a flat D20 is rolled. Depending on your game, you may decide how low the D20 must be in order for an item’s DL to drop.
4 or lower - easy (for simple games)
9 or lower - normal (recommended)
14 or lower - hard (for gritty/realistic games where you want items to come and go and for everything to be as brittle as the weapons of LoZ:BoTW because you’re evil.)
as for repairing and restoring an item’s DL…
It’s the same simple way as with breaking an item’s DL, the GM.
Characters can repair their items as the GM determines via the rule of common sense.
Depending on the type of item, the GM will determine the repair costs and repair time.
Repairing an item will always restore it back to its maximum DL after the repair time has been completed. And the cost for repairing is usually half the item’s original WL cost.
A sword can be taken to a blacksmith to have it be repaired in 1 week.
Wooden items can be taken to woodworkers for 1 week.
A character who has the Craft Mundane Item or Craft Extraordinary Item feat can repair their own items if applicable. Characters can also attempt a skill roll using Logic, or Alteration to repair their items.
If it makes sense, an item cannot be repaired unless some extraordinary means is available, or it simply cannot be repaired through any means.
NEW ITEM PROPERTIES
Unbreaking
An item with this property cannot break
WL + 4
WP + 300
Fragile
An item with this property suffer disadvantage when rolling for durability checks
WL - 1
WP - 50
Durable
An item with this property gain advantage when rolling for durability checks
WL + 1
WP + 50
FEAT
Resourceful
Cost: 2 points
Prerequisites:
- Logic 2, Perception 2, or any extraordinary 1.
Description: You are the master of making the most out of what you have. And know how to conserve your resources and make the most out of everything. You know how to use an item in the most effective way that will maximize its use and minimize its durability loss. You are able to improvise and create ammunition from the environment, or are simply have a good eye and luck always ensures you find ammo conveniently lying around. Or you are able to conjure your own out of thin air using magic or a special device.
Effect: When prompted to reduce an item’s DL, you automatically gain advantage on the roll.
EDIT:
Something I forgot to write about regarding
LEGENDARY ITEMS
By default, all legendary items should be unbreakable. Legendary items are items of such great value they cannot be given a price tag, and would most likely be an important item in your story and plays a significant role. It would be anti-climactic if one were to just suddenly… Break at an insignificant moment.
Wealth Point System
The Wealth Level system in Open Legend is meant to be a simpler and easier to understand and use generic wealth system.
However for being such a unique and different way of handling currency, players who have experience might have a hard time adapting the generic and abstract system into their games.
The Wealth Point System is still a generic system, but follows the traditional currency handling.
Taken straight out of an older crappy homebrew. It’s an alternative and that’s really all it is. I use it in my games personally to end arguments and because it’s more game-ey and fun for my players to get rewards like these no matter how bland.
Wealth Point - while wealth level is a representation of a person’s position in society, how well they are, and how much general necessities they have. Sometimes we call for less abstract measures of wealth. In such cases, we use the Wealth Points system. A less abstract but still simplified representation of a persons wealth. Wealth Points are your amount of resources and currency. Meaning they count as both your current amount of cash (in gold, or dollars, or what have you) and materials you can use to create things at a given time.
Using both systems of Wealth - you can choose to use Wealth Level in tandem with the Wealth Points, this is useful for ensuring characters don’t buy things over or under their current level. Doing this means calculating for an item’s cost in both WL and WP, and for a character, keeping track of both types of wealth.
By doing this, a character’s wealth level can be easily identified by their Wealth Point amount.
0-250WP = 0WL
250-500WP = WL1
500-1000WP = WL2
1000-2500WP = WL3
2500-5000WP = WL4
5000-10000WP = WL5
10000-25000WP = WL6
25000-50000WP = WL7
50000-100000WP = WL8
100000+WP = WL9
Wealth Points at Character Creation - In the original Wealth Level system, a character starts with 3 WL 2 items and any amount of lower WL items. While you can still use this system if you plan to use the WP(Wealth Point) system, as that is a quick way of setting up a character, you can opt to start with an amount of Wealth Points first. While this will probably slow down the process a bit, the upside is having more freedom in choices.
At first level, a Character has 2000 WP and can spend all or none at the Character Creation Process, during which they cannot use the WP to purchase items of more than WL3 value or any extraordinary items, though if the GM decides to change these limits, they can.
When starting at higher levels, characters should start with WP equal to double the higher end value listed on the WL to WP value comparison.
Converting Items from Wealth Level to Wealth Points - The value of items are calculated differently in this new system.
Wealth Point Properties Cost -
Items start with a base wealth cost of 50 if their WL value is 1 to 3
Final wealth cost of WP cost * 5 if their WL value is 4 to 5
Final wealth cost of WP cost * 10 if their WL value is 6 to 7
Final wealth cost of WP cost * 25 if their WL value is 8
Final wealth cost of WP cost * 50 if their WL value is 9.
Starting with equipment types, certain types will increase an equipment’s cost as follows:
1 Handed Melee + 0WP
2 Handed Melee + 0WP
Versatile Melee + 25WP
Close Ranged + 10WP
Short Ranged + 25WP
Medium Ranged + 10WP
Long Ranged + 25WP
Extreme Ranged + 50WP
Banes: For every bane added, an equipment’s cost is increased by 25WP
Properties:
Area + 50disadvantage penalty WP
Defensive + 50defensive value WP
Delayed Ready +0WP
Expendable - 50WP
Heavy - 25WP
Reach + 50WP
Slow - 50WP
Stationary - 50WP
Swift + 50WP
Armor in WP - Armor costs in WP are the armor’s lower value on the WL to WP list of their WL.
So a WL 1 armor would cost 250. and WL 2 armor 500.
Extraordinary item properties -
start with a base wealth cost of 100 if their WL value is less than or equal to 1.
Final wealth cost of WP cost * 5 if their WL value is 2 or 3.
Final wealth cost of WP cost * 10 if their WL value is 4 or 5.
Final wealth cost of WP cost * 25 if their WL value is 6 or 7
Final wealth cost of WP cost * 50 if their WL value is 8.
Final wealth cost of WP cost * 100 if their WL value is 9.
Attribute + score * 50 + 50 WP
Banes/Boons + score * 50 WP
Area + 50*disadvantage penalty WP
Armor + cost of equipment WP
Augmenting + 50
Autonomous + 100
Baneful + 50 + Bane score cost * 50 WP
Consumable - 50 WP
Cursed - Bane score cost * 50 WP
Damage + 5 WP
Deadly + 100 + value * 50 WP
Expendable - 50 WP
Persistent + 200 WP
Potent + 50 WP
Reliable + 100 WP
Powerful + 100 + value * 50 WP
Sentient + 150
Weapon + cost of equipment WP
Special + ???
Lot’s of tinkering have been made to this system and I think this is the best version for the WP system I could do.
Whether or not the party uses WL or WP, the purchasing of goods and services stay the same.
On the assumption that you reward WP according to the WP to WL chart thingy…
Purchasing an item equal to the character’s WL in the WP system will tax their WP amount that they most likely won’t be able to purchase any more items equal to their WL until they complete their next quest and gain their rewards which is probably 2 weeks time…?
Characters can still probably purchase items one WL higher but no further as those would cost too much for them to buy. And doing so would probably use up all of their WP, not allowing them to buy anything else.
And they can always buy plenty of items below their expected WL value.
In conclusion…
Yeah. This is a lot of words.
I’m gonna immediately answer some of the potential things one could say about some of the things I wrote down here as they have been said a long time ago.
These rules are revamped rewritten rules of another thing I posted here a long time ago.
The embarrassment I called Advanced Open Legend (AOL). When I was still new and only had 1 week of experience playing ANY TTRPG.
Firstly, the Wealth Point system.
My original reason for making this was that, no one was stopping players from buying an infinite amount of items lower than their WL.
And yes, obviously, I now know that the GM, the master of the game, can dictate how many items you can actually buy.
But like I said, the WP system, is now nothing more than an alternative to those who, like me and my party, prefer a more traditional wealth system.
Err… That’s actually everything that I was expecting to write… I thought I had other obvious ones mostly about the Wealth Point System… Guess not…