Bending the Rules - An Avatar Legends: The RPG Quickstart Review

 

Magpie Games

Avatar Legends: The RPG Quickstart

Designed by Brendan Conway, James Mendez Hodes, Marissa Kelly, Mark Diaz Truman, Miguel Ángel Espinoza, Sharang Biswas, Elizabeth Chaipraditkul, Yeonsoo Julian Kim, Daniel Kwan, and Sen-Foong Lim 

Published by Magpie Games 

When it comes to licensed RPGs, there's been a gaping, Avatar the Last Airbender shaped hole. The hit animated TV show follows Aang, the titular Avatar and reincarnating master of four elements, and his journey to bring peace to a world at war. The spectacle of element bending, along with the episodic format and strong character development, makes it ripe for a tabletop adaptation. 

Thankfully the wait will soon be over, because Magpie Games has announced Avatar Legends: The RPG. The company that published the critically acclaimed MASKS and Bluebeard's Bride, they recently released the free quickstart rules as a preview. It's a strong offering and shows a promising future for the game.

Like previous Magpie Games' publications, it uses the divisive Powered by the Apocalypse ruleset. I haven't had experience with it until now, but from what I've seen, many people refuse to play anything but and there's another vocal subset that want nothing to do with it.

Magpie Games

Going off of Avatar Legends, it's very much a storytelling driven approach to RPGs, and the experience is dependent on the group running it. There's not much to keep track of but it does take some getting used to how everything fits together.

Resolution is done with 2d6, with the relevant modifiers from your four Stats and other conditional factors. The Stats are in line with how we see the characters of Avatar solve their problems, consisting of Creativity, Focus, Harmony, and Passion. Rolling 1 to 6 is a failure, 7 to 9 is a "soft" hit, and 10+ is a full hit; a success and then some.

The game rarely gets more complicated than that, though there are two very interesting aspects that stick out to me. A character's negative emotional state is represented mechanically with one of five Conditions, such as Angry and Foolish. These make certain actions more difficult and require the player to act on those emotions to clear it. Rather appropriately for Avatar, the injury system also uses Conditions.

In combat, players aim to inflict Conditions without getting countered. Once a character ticks all five boxes, they're out of action. It fits the sort of stories told in this setting very well. Defeating a foe is just as much about emotionally overwhelming them as physically besting them.

In line with that, the core mechanic of the game is Balance. Players have two conflicting Principles. When they act towards a given Principle, it moves towards that and away from the other. Going too far on either end causes players to "lose Balance" and flee from a situation. Besides their own actions, players and NPCs alike can make rolls to tip another character's balance. Characters that manage to keep both their Principles in check can make unique actions after Advancing.

It's a brilliant mechanic, one that really captures not just the surface level aspects of Avatar but also its deeper themes.

The game as a whole does a good job with that, at least going off this preview. Magpie opting against dedicated rules for bending shows how they're approaching this. It's a galling prospect to make an Avatar game without its namesake abilities. In game, Bending is left largely cosmetic, though in such a light system being able to manipulate earth, air, wind, or fire certainly has some creative applications.

Magpie Games

The lack of bending mechanics has already caused a lot of noise in RPG circles and Magpie felt the need to add a sidebar rationalizing the decision. Though I was taken aback at first, I ultimately agree with the decision after actually playing the game. 

The spectacle of bending is what drew most of us into Avatar but its philosophical and narrative foundation is what really made the show work. Having a D&D or Pathfinder spell style system bending would have frankly been miserable and they were right to put their efforts elsewhere.

Character Creation does seems short in options but rich in meaningful choices. Characters have a choice of six "Playbooks," blocks of stats and unique techniques that reflect each of the main Avatar cast's character archetypes. It's a good way to guide player's towards the kind of stories that make the show so memorable. While I think the way personality ties into each playstyle is interesting, I do wonder if it would box in how players can approach their characters.

Luckily, players have to come up with personal histories, specific goals, and connections with other player characters. This helps avoid the limitations that might come from the archetypical approach by ensuring every playbook has a different narrative approach, even if the broad traits and mechanics are set.

Players do have considerable agency in Avatar: Legends, despite certain limitations in character creations. Non-combat and combat moves are a small roster described in broad terms, once again with the main focus of adding or removing Conditions and altering Balance. The system encourages players and GMs to frame their rolls as developments in the narrative, rather than just actions or skill checks.

Avatar: Legends also gives players a lot of say in the actual premise of a campaign. The players and GM discuss the scope, era, focus, and even inciting incident of the campaign before it begins. It's a very communal effort and the game master section positions more as a player with unique responsibilities than some kind of overlord.

Magpie Games

Half the quickstart rules page count is taken up by the pre-written adventure "The Forbidden Scroll." The players are captured on the eve of Fire Lord Ozai's coronation but after being released by a defector, they must now escape the city before they are caught once more. It's a straightforward scenario with a range of options, many tailored to the pregenerated characters' backgrounds. It can be as quick or as drawn out as the table wants it to be, with a surprising amount of replayability.

Overall, it's a versatile little story with a few unique mechanics, like the clock tracking the festival events and the guards progress. If the rest of Magpie's Avatar output is on par with this, it's a very good sign.

The presentation of the quickstart rules is decent enough, though it's rife with misspellings. The rules, particularly Combat, are framed in a way that makes them seem more complicated than they actually are. Art wise, there's some great sheets for the actual game portions but the art consists of what looks like recycled promotional assets. And not very good ones at that.

There's still plenty left to explore in the final release, namely a proper NPC section, but Avatar Legends is a surprisingly complete publication, with an easy to learn system that authentically captures the setting.