Introduction

Forge of Legends is a heroic fantasy tabletop roleplaying game best played with three to five players and a game master. You will create and play as mighty heroes destined for greatness. In a setting designed and orchestrated by the game master, you must work together to forage through foreboding forests, delve into dangerous dungeons, and vanquish vicious villains! Every heroic deed is symbolized by a legendary item, ensuring that your legacy will last for ages!

You and your allies will create characters from familiar fantasy ancestries and classes, like elves, dwarves, warriors, and wizards. Your class will give you powerful skills both in and out of combat. Your character also has a unique personality, and fate will reward you for being true to yourself. Every character can leverage their personality to interact with NPCs in different ways; in Forge of Legends, everyone shares the spotlight. You even have a personal legend, which grants you custom powers and capabilities from your history.

You will roll dice of various sizes - d4, d6, d8, d10, d12 and d20 - to determine the outcomes of your decisions. Your natural abilities, backgrounds, bonds, and tools all contribute toward your success. Keep a keen eye out for any ways to use the game world to your advantage for even bigger boons and the chance for extraordinary success!

Combat in Forge of Legends is deep and strategic. You must balance three distinct defense pools, and each attack offers your target a choice how they will suffer its effects. The option for a climactic final gambit ensures that even when you’re down, you’re not out. A wide variety of cunning effects, conditions, and special terrain ensure that every fight is interesting and dynamic. But watch out, even the lowliest foe can prove to be a threat if underestimated.

Your trials and tribulations will cause you stress, which can eventually lead to debilitating afflictions. Afflictions force you to rethink your strategy, and raise the stakes of your adventure. You must manage your stress carefully if you want to avoid afflictions, unconsciousness, and even death. Furthermore, doom is never far behind, nipping at your heels. Plan your actions carefully, but quickly, to minimize the amount of doom the GM gets to use against you.

As you overcome obstacles and defeat enemies, you will earn experience used to unlock exciting new skills. However, your fighting style and equipment limit the number of skills you can use at any one time. You will need to carefully choose the right skills for the right job to succeed.

The ultimate reward of this game is forging a legend! A legendary deed is earned when you defeat legendary foes, succeed at legendary challenges, or otherwise create outstanding and memorable experiences at the table. Each legend is uniquely created by you and your allies to commemorate the legendary deed that earned it. More than anything, Forge of Legends rewards players for creating outstanding and memorable experiences for everyone involved!

Character Creation

To play Forge of Legends, you will first need to determine several features of your character. You will randomly determine three backgrounds, and draw upon these to form your core identity. Next, you will decide your character’s ancestry and class, granting you unique skills. Furthermore, determine your character’s abilities and personal values, which will be used for all rolls you make to determine the success of your choices. Finally, give your character a name and description by which others can recognize you.

First, you should determine your character’s backgrounds by rolling 3d20 and rerolling any duplicate numbers. It is important that your backgrounds are determined randomly; you may not select them for yourself! The table below will tell you your character’s three backgrounds based on the numbers you rolled:

d20     Background     Description                                            
1 Artisan A skilled craftsperson or artist such as blacksmith, mason, carpenter, clothier, painter, sculptor, or some such trade.
2 Astrologer A scholar who consults stars, charts, and numerology to divine the future and ascertain peoples’ nature.
3 Charlatan A con artist or spy skilled at earning the trust of those whom you plan to deceive.
4 Guard A constable or bodyguard capable of keeping the peace in civilized lands.
5 Healer An apothecary or surgeon practiced in providing cures and comforts to the sick and dying.
6 Historian A scribe who learns from ancient artifacts and lost ruins so the mistakes of history need no be repeated.
7 Hunter A furrier, trapper, or poacher who tracks and kills savage beasts to protect the land or for profit.
8 Laborer A simple sort familiar with hard honest work and the common folk who perform it.
9 Merchant A business owner with a keen eye for a good deal and a solid understanding of the true worth of things.
10 Nomad One who wanders far and wide across strange and distant lands, meeting exotic people and learning their ways.
11 Outlaw A renegade who was, perhaps wrongly, convicted of a crime and has been forced to the outskirts of society.
12 Performer An actor, musician, acrobat, or other entertainer who makes a living by bringing joy and levity to others.
13 Priest A member of the clergy who attempts to understand and interpret the divine will of the gods.
14 Animal Trainer An expert in the raising, training, and caretaking of all sorts of animals.
15 Sailor A fisherman, pirate, or other seafarer who knows the ways of the ocean and has visited many ports.
16 Scout A lookout who patrols the border lands on the lookout for signs of danger.
17 Servant A butler, innkeeper, or other attendant who expertly anticipates and provides for the needs of others.
18 Socialite A expert of social etiquette always ready to rub elbows with the rich and famous.
19 Soldier A member of the military who spends plenty of time marching, preparing encampments, and maintaining discipline.
20 Urchin A street rat who did whatever it took to survive and has learned who can really be trusted.

Second, imagine a common thread that would tie these three backgrounds together, and a core motivation for your character. Write this down as your character’s identity, a 3 to 5 word phrase summarizing who your character is and what they desire. Some example identities include:

Third, choose your character’s ancestry. Your ancestry determines your inborn characteristics, but not your upbringing. There are seven ancestries in Forge of Legends: Human, Elf, Dwarf, Orc, Gnome, and Beast-kin, and Mixed. Your ancestry grants a few you passive skills that help you with certain tasks.

Fourth, choose your character’s class. This is your most important decision, as you class determines most of the skills you will have access to. Your class also tells you what kind of equipment you start the game with.

Fifth, determine your character’s abilities; your natural strengths and talents. Spend 8 ability points on either agility, brawn, or cunning, assigning at least 1 point to each and no more than 5 points to any one ability.

Sixth, determine your character’s personal values, which determine how you interact with others and earn fate. Describe your approach to overcoming obstacles by assigning 6 points to either your bold value or your subtle value, both at least 1 and at most 5. Repeat this with another 6 points for your idealistic vs pragmatic values, describing your response to unpleasant opportunities. Repeat again with another 6 points for your serious vs whimsical values, describing your tendency to stay focused or explore possibilities.

Finally, decide on your character’s name, and come up with a brief physical description including your gender, age, height and build, and the color and style of your clothing, skin, hair, and eyes. Once you have completed these steps, you are ready to begin the game!

Playing the Game

Once you’ve all made your characters, you are ready to begin playing! Fundamentally, playing forge of legends is simple:

You can cooperate with your allies to attempt to do anything you can think of in the game world, but you will often be offered a quest or goal by the GM. These goals will often take you to exotic and dangerous locales, where you must defeat fearsome enemies to save the day. However, you are encouraged to look for unorthodox and creative solutions to problems, that’s the stuff that legends are made of!