Legends & Labyrinths
- From: Justin Alexander <justin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 24 Jun 2008 01:04:05 -0700 (PDT)
LEGENDS & LABYRINTHS
COMING JULY 15th FROM DREAM MACHINE PRODUCTIONS!
3RD EDITION LIVES!
Cover: http://www.thealexandrian.net/dreammachine/roleplaying/covers/ll0001-legends-cover.jpg
Q1: WHAT IS LEGENDS & LABYRINTHS?
Legends & Labyrinths takes the most popular fantasy roleplaying game
and strips it down to its most basic components. It removes everything
non-essential, leaving behind a simple, fast-and-loose, easy-to-use
system.
Legends & Labyrinths is based on a simple belief: Not only is 3rd
Edition the most popular gaming system on the planet, it’s also one of
the best. Its designers created a small, elegant set of core
mechanics, resulting in an extremely flexible system. They then used
those core mechanics to implement a wide array of carefully research
and thoroughly playtested guidelines and supplementary rules. The
result was possibly the most robust and detailed system ever created.
Legends & Labyrinths, on the other hand, was created with a simple
methodology: If it’s not a core mechanic, it’s not in the game.
The result is a slick, tight, elegant system that doesn’t get bogged
down in the details. Legends & Labyrinths jettisons the rules and
guidelines which make 3rd Edition so robust, but it leaves behind the
simple and flexible game which lies at the system’s core.
For experienced gamers, Legends & Labyrinths is a fast-and-easy game
that jettisons the baggage of 3rd Edition. For new gamers, Legends &
Labyrinths serves as the perfect introduction to roleplaying games --
simple enough to learn in an afternoon, but also a complete game that
can be played for years without ever needing another supplement or
rulebook.
Q2: WHAT ABOUT 4th EDITION?
Legends & Labyrinths was actually one of the first products put into
development by Dream Machine Production at the beginning of 2007. The
original plan was to release it in the fall of that year. However,
when Fourth Edition was announced in the summer of 2007, development
of the game was put on hold (along with almost all development at
Dream Machine Productions). We thought it prudent to wait and see how
4th Edition developed before making a decision about our future.
We have now come to believe that 4th Edition is a significantly
different game from the series of games that culminated their
development in 3rd Edition. The fundamental play and design of the
game has been altered to a point where it no longer feels like the
same game. As a result, we have a strong desire to continue playing
3rd Edition -- and we feel that this desire is echoed widely in the
gaming community.
As a result, the decision was made to put Legends & Labyrinths back
into production as a game 100% compatible with 3rd Edition.
Later, in a separate decision driven primarily by the terms of the
GSL, Dream Machine Productions determined that they would not be doing
any development work for 4th Edition.
Q3: WHAT DOES "100% COMPATIBLE WITH 3RD EDITION" MEAN?
It means that any stat block or mechanic usable in 3rd Edition can be
used in Legends & Labyrinths without conversion. It also means that
any character created with Legends & Labyrinths can be used in a 3rd
Edition game without conversion.
Got a 3rd Edition adventure? It can be used with Legends & Labyrinths.
Got a book full of new monsters? It can be used with Legends &
Labyrinths. Got a supplement of new spells? They can be cast in
Legends & Labyrinths.
It also means that you can incorporate any core mechanic from 3rd
Edition into your Legends & Labyrinths games without any difficulty.
For example, Legends & Labyrinths features a stripped-down combat
system. But what if you really like the detailed combat rules of 3rd
Edition? Well, all you have to do is use them. Legends & Labyrinths is
100% compatible with 3rd Edition.
On the other hand, what if you really like all the different character
creation tools 3rd Edition gives you (allowing you to tweak your
character just the way you like), but you feel that the complexity of
the rest of the system chokes the life out of your roleplaying? Well,
all you have to do is use the full character creation rules to create
your PCs and then play them using Legends & Labyrinths. The game is
100% compatible with 3rd Edition.
In other words, you can think of Legends & Labyrinths as being the
streamlined foundation of the game: It's a complete game all by
itself, but you can also add whatever additional functionality you
want whenever you want to.
This is one of the reasons Legends & Labyrinths can be an ideal way of
introducing new players to your existing 3rd Edition game: It gives
them a simplified set of rules to learn and use, and then you can
gradually add complexity to that foundation until they've learned all
the bells and whistles of your full 3rd Edition campaign.
Q4: WHAT IF I LIKE MY CORE RULEBOOKS THE WAY THEY ARE? WHY SHOULD I
BUY LEGENDS & LABYRINTHS?
Actually, if you like having all the bells and whistles of the
existing core rulebooks, there's no reason for you to buy Legends &
Labyrinths. A streamlined, fast-and-loose, easy-to-use system is not
what everyone is looking for in a roleplaying game. The robust and
detailed nature of the existing core rulebooks may be exactly what
you're looking for.
If that level of robust detail is what you're looking for, however,
you might be interested in Dream Machine Production's line of Rule
Supplements, each of which expands the depth and detail of your game.
Q5: WHAT ABOUT PAIZO'S PATHFINDER?
Paizo's Pathfinder RPG is being designed to replace the void left by
the original 3rd Edition rulebooks going out of print.
Dream Machine Productions feels strongly that this is a void that
needs to be filled, and we champion Paizo's efforts. In the fall of
2007, when it became apparent that 4th Edition was going to be
radically divergent from the design traditions of 3rd Edition, we
began exploring the idea of re-tasking Legends & Labyrinths as a
replacement core rulebook to fill that void.
In March 2008, however, when Paizo announced their plans for
Pathfinder, we scrapped those plans. We feel strongly that 3rd Edition
gaming should continue to be supported, and we feel equally strongly
that this can't be accomplished if our collective efforts are diluted
through unnecessary competition.
However, Legends & Labyrinths was not originally designed to compete
with the 3rd Edition core rulebooks, nor do we feel that it competes
with Paizo's Pathfinder. Rather, Legends & Labyrinths complements
those products and serves a unique niche in the market. Think of it as
the red box Basic Set for 3rd Edition.
Q6: WHAT TYPE OF SUPPORT WILL THERE BE FOR LEGENDS & LABYRINTHS?
Because Legends & Labyrinths is 100% compatible with 3rd Edition, when
the game is published it will already be the best-supported
roleplaying game in print. Dream Machine Productions will also be
continuing its development of Adventure Supplements and City
Supplements, compatible with Legends & Labyrinths and all 3rd Edition
games.
We tend to think of mechanical support for a roleplaying game in terms
of depth and breadth. Depth support increases the complexity and
detail of the game. Breadth support, on the other hand, increases the
number of options (without increasing the complexity of any given
option).
If you want to add depth to your Legends & Labyrinth game, you will
immediately be able to tap into the 3rd Edition core rulebooks and
hundreds of supplements to provide that depth.
Legends & Labyrinths: Expert Expansion, on the other hand, will expand
the game's breadth. It will feature additional classes and races,
alternative magic systems (and psionics), chases, social duels,
vehicles, and warfare. All of these options, however, will be designed
with the same streamlined design ethos as Legends & Labyrinths itself.
Q7: WHAT IS THE SRS?
Legends & Labyrinths will be using the Sidebar Reference System
originally originally developed for Dream Machine Production's line of
Rule Supplements. Using this format, rules are presented exactly when
and where you need them.
For example, page 8 of Rule Supplement 1: Mounted Combat deals with
the rules for mounted movement. The rules on that page reference the
rules for jumping; prone characters; mounted reach modifiers; kneeling
and sitting; penalties for squeezing; and tumbling. Some of these
rules are located in the PHB, while others are found elsewhere in the
same book.
In most rulebooks, you would have to start flipping pages to find all
the relevant information. But with SRS, the relevant rules are printed
right in the sidebar on the same page. And even when a rule is too
lengthy to include, a specific page reference is given -- not only
making it easier to reference the rule you need (since you're being
told exactly where to look for it), but also keeping those page
references and other unwieldy repetition out of the actual body of the
text (which makes the explanation of the immediate rule being
discussed smoother and easier to use).
You can see a sample, here (http://www.thealexandrian.net/dreammachine/
roleplaying/samples/srs-sample.jpg).
It's a fairly basic concept, but in practice it makes for the easiest
rulebooks you'll ever use.
.
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