Avatar Legends: The RPG

Learn how to make a character and get rolling in the Avatar Legends roleplaying game in less than twenty minutes with this video! Avatar Legends is based on the Powered by the Apocalypse engine, which is easy to pick up and run with.

To make a character, you'll choose one of the playbooks, each of which revolves around a character's role in the group and the central internal conflict of their archetype. For example, the Guardian, a protector who must balance self-reliance and trust in others; the Successor, an heir bearing the weight of expectation and must balance progress with tradition; or the Icon, a duty-bound character who must balance their freedom and their role. Your character concept will help you determine their name, origin, personality, fighting style, and training, including whether they're a waterbender, earthbender, firebender, airbender, weapon master, or gadgeteer. You'll also assign bonuses (or penalties) to their stats: Creativity, Focus, Harmony, and Passion. Finally, you'll choose a special move they start with, an ability unique to their playbook, and you're ready to go!

In play, Avatar Legends works like a conversation, divided into scenes, where the GM describes the situation, and the players decide what to do. The game has several rules called "moves," which are triggered when characters attempt specific actions which are risky or dramatic, like assessing a situation, tricking someone, pushing their luck, or relying on their skills and training. These moves usually require players to roll 2d6 and add a relevant stat. If the total is 6 or less, it's a miss, and things go badly for them. On a 7-9, it's a success, but with some cost or complication. On a 10 or better, it's a complete success, and they get what they wanted!

In combat, players have access to several techniques (and can train and learn more over the course of their adventures). Generally, players will choose at the beginning of a fight whether to attack, defend, or evade and roll to see how well they fare. Players will have opportunities to talk to opponents as combat proceeds, and are encouraged to seek nonviolent solutions, but sometimes a fight is simply inevitable. Fighting might cause you to mark fatigue, representing expended energy and stamina, or mark conditions, emotional impacts that impose penalties on certain types of moves and must be cleared through the support of allies or by taking dramatic, often destructive action.