The Lejendary Rules for All Players was the first release in Gary Gygax’s Lejendary Adventure fantasy RPG system. This volume serves as the “player’s handbook” for the Lejendary Adventure game, providing rules for character creation, magic, and action resolution. Lejend Master’s Lore and Beasts of Lejend fill the requisite “DM’s Guide” and “Monster Manual” of the system. These three books are all that are truly needed to play the game. Supplemental material, like a world gazetteer, Lejend Master’s screen, and adventure modules, are also available. A dedicated magazine, Lejends, is also available in hardcopy or PDF format.
The Lejendary Rules for All Players book itself is rather handsome. The font is easy to read, as is the actual writing. The artwork, which represents several different styles, is generally excellent. Typically, the same artist worked on a single section of the book and will often tell a progressive story through the pictures. While some of the art may seem inappropriate for the section it appears in, such as the ongoing appearance of the skeletal mage in the elemental magic section, none is it is ill-fitting for the genre. The binding has held up for several years’ use, which is nice in an age of declining binding standards. The cover is rather amateurish, but does at least represent an attempt to convey the grand sweep of a fantasy RPG.
Lejendary Adventures represents Gygax’s latest work in creating fantasy gaming. Many great design leaps are made in his work, without sacrificing the fun of his earlier designs. One of the most notable changes from traditional design are the Avatar’s (LA-speak for player character) Base Ratings. Instead of relying on old, stalwart defining traits like Strength and Agility, only three Base Ratings are presented. Health, Precision, and Speed represent both the physical and mental capacity to act in each area. Precision, for example, represents the acute use of the character’s capabilities. It’s a tough concept to wrap your brain around after years of traditional stats. In the long run, though, it reflects what is important in a game - not how strong your Avatar is, but how well he uses his strength.
Abilities are also worked in, but Lejendary Adventures is not a skill-heavy game. The Abilities are broad and cover a wide range of activity. Weapons, for example, is the default combat skill, covering the all activities that have to do with weapons, from use to craftsmanship. The Avatar’s use of supernatural talents, called Extraordinary Abilities here, is also defined like other mundane Abilities.
The races presented cover standard fantasy fare, with some nice twists. Trollkin are a more savage small-race, for example. Kobolds are generally handsome and conceited. Ilfs and Wylfs fill elf-like rolls. Different kinds of Orcs and Oafs fill the “large race” niche. Players should have no problem finding and playing a favorite. It should be noted that half-breeds are not covered in this volume and are left as Lejend Master information.
Avatar creation is a snap. The Avatar’s race is first decided on, which determines the range of the Avatar’s Base Ratings. Abilities are chosen and then ranked in order of importance, again with some guidance based on race. Abilities raise the score of the Base Rating they are associated with, nicely reflecting the benefit of working within a discipline. Ranking the Abilities also determines their score; humans rate their first ability at 100% of its associated Base Rating score, the second at 80%, and so on. Finally, Weapons (or another Ability if Weapons is already possessed) is selected with a flat score of 10%. Background details are decided on and then equipment is selected. Instead of rolling for starting cash and buying from lists, the player selects equipment from lists like “Magical” and “Low”, determined by race and Abilities selected.
Beyond this, an Avatar can be further defined with an Order and Rank. These represent Lejendary Adventures doing class and levels right. In most “class and level” games, your abilities are dictated by your character's achieved level in his class. Here, your choice of, ranking of, and score in Abilities determine which Order your Avatar can belong to and what Rank he possesses within the Order. For example, if your Avatar selected Waylaying, Ranging, Archery, and Weapons in that sequence, he can choose to join the Outlaw Order. His Rank and resulting benefits are based upon his score in Waylaying. The player can also choose to ignore the established Orders, be an Unordered Avatar, and carve his own path.
Next up in the book are Ability details. Normal Abilities, being broadly defined, allow for a wide variety of action. Extraordinary Abilities, the magic of Lejendary Adventures, are described in greater detail, to help provide players with a firm grasp of what magic can do in a world. The Extraordinary Abilities run the gamut from Enchantments (which is the most like Traditional D&D magic), to Georgy (elemental magic), Necrourgy, Sorcery, Ecclesiastic Magic, and Psychogenics. There is enough variety in the Abilities, Extraordinary and normal, that any kind of fantasy character can be conceived. Overall, the game is open enough to allow anything a player desires, and still has enough of a framework to hold up during play.
The Lejendary Adventure action resolution system is a straight percentile system. Since the Base Ratings revolve around actions rather than definitions, any action is possible with the simple numbers that make up an Avatar. Activating Extraordinary Abilities uses the same resolution as normal Abilities, with the added wrinkle of power point cost. Hazard avoidance, similar to saving throws, works nicely in the same framework.
Combat and other detailed actions are broken down into twelve-second Activity Blocks, which are divided into four Activity Block Counts. After initiative and surprise checks, combat is resolved with percentile rolls. Two options for Armor, consistent amount and percentage-of-damage protection, are provided. Details for called shots and critical hits are logical and don’t complicate things too much. Lucky Shots, a small chance to still land a missed shot, is a nice way to keep the action exciting.
During and after play, players are rewarded with Merits for successful play and are penalized with Demerits for poor play, which can be applied to the growth of their Avatar. Ability-specific Merits may be awarded for exceptional Ability use; other than that, Merits can be spent to raise and gain new Abilities or to raise Base Ratings. Avatars are also ranked with Repute for gallant deeds, or its flip side, Dark Repute, for being menacing. Acting dishonorable will garner the Avatar Disrepute. All these forms of repute will affect how the character is viewed in the world. The Merit and Repute system provide a nice way for the player to get feedback on both his and his Avatar’s actions.
One of the stated goals of the game is to be an entry-level RPG for new gamers. While the simplicity and contained flexibility of the game make great strides toward this goal, some editorial slip-ups seem to get in the way; these are really my only problems with the game. First of all, percentile dice, the core resolution die roll, are never defined. Game Master and Lejend Master are used interchangeably, but only Lejend Master is defined. The need for other books to have a complete game is not outlined. The effects of Harm (damage) is never explicitly stated. Finally, Memory Tablets, the media known Extraordinary Abilities are stored on, are never defined or described other than for how many abilities they hold. These are all minor issues even a moderately-experienced RPG player can overcome, but they may confuse a newbie.
Outside of those nitpicks, I don’t have any issues with the game. Overall, the Lejendary Adventure system is very fast-moving and disappears in the background. So far, I haven’t run into a situation that appears to violate the rules or can’t be resolved with the simple guidelines given. For my money, Gygax has succeeded in following his landmark AD&D with a fun and, most importantly, playable game.
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