Thanks to the Forge

Strange how some things can work out.

This post is about Legends, a fast-paced vanilla nar game I've used on and off for years, but which I'm now trying to write up in a way I can share with others.

Until about half an hour ago, I was stuck, having sat on the same problem for three weeks. I've been looking at the chapter in my game on Skills, where I detail the 20-odd different kinds of checks in the game I'm designing. Or, rather, where I would detailing them, if there were any sentences there. I look at each of Acrobatics, Athletics, Command, Convince, and so on... and I've been thinking "How am I EVER going to write enough examples of each to cover the different situations?" For example, what roll do you need to fall 20 feet without being injured? What kind of Command action terrifies a charging enemy soldier? What different situations does Acrobatics apply to? How can I cover them exhaustively?

I was thinking about posting here, and asking about where I could find Creative Commons / public domain resources where a game had already detailed paragraphs and paragraphs of skill descriptions. I'd made a couple of posts on my blog about this problem, and had broached the topic on EN World as well.

But as I got ready to post it here, I thought, briefly, "How can I put this problem in Forge language?" Of course, I immediately thought "It's a valid question, they know some games you don't know about, just ask it."

But then a small part of my brain thought "Wait, won't they ask... how do I run this game, since I don't have reams of skill examples to fall back on?" I listened to that small part. Then it hit me.

I don't actually run Legends consulting charts based on specific situations. Running Legends is about getting a sense of the 2d6+Character+Situation scale, and the skills are just a common language for what kind of checks relate to what kinds of actions - in a general way. That's when I realized that the reason the 30-page Skill chapter wasn't coming out was because Legends doesn't really need a 30-page Skill chapter. It needs maybe 5 pages detailing what the skills are for, and another 2-3 talking about how to use the scale.

I posted this just to say thanks to those who really started thinking about what we do at the table. That way of thinking has really helped me out.