Classic Fantasy Coming to the Legend System

threedeesix

Mongoose
Hello everyone,

My name is Rodney Leary and I'm the author of Chaosium's BRP Classic Fantasy Monograph.
Classic Fantasy is one of Chaosium's best selling BRP monographs and I believe it fills an important role in showing gamers that there are alternatives to D&D that feature in my opinion a much better system, yet retain the things they most love about the various settings.

For the last year I have been converting and expanding Classic Fantasy to the Legend system. It's still maybe a year away from completion but enough has been finished that I figured I would post about it.

What is Classic Fantasy?

Classic Fantasy is a way of playing the Legend RPG that better mimics pre-third edition D&D, primarily 1st ed. AD&D to be precise. Included are all the classic player races and classes, spells, monsters, etc. It is a standalone product that is completely self contained. All of the rules to play will be found in the three core books, yet Classic Fantasy will remain 100% compatible with the rest of the Legend line, and maybe 80-90% compatible with other BRP products.

How does Classic Fantasy differ from Legend?

For the most part, Classic Fantasy uses the entirety of the Legend system without significant change. However some changes are made to better reflect the original source material. The most obvious is the use of classes. In Classic Fantasy, a "Class" is simply a Legend "Profession" with special abilities that reflect the class abilities found in AD&D; things like the fighter's weapon mastery, the clerics ability to "turn undead, demons, and devils", and the thieves backstab proficiency.

However, after character generation, for the most part the player is able to develop his character in whatever direction he chooses.

Classic Fantasy introduces an alignment system. However, unlike AD&D, these alignments do not dictate how you must play your character, instead, how you play your character dictates your alignment.

One change from Legend is Skill Advancements. The BRP fan base seems equally split on whether they prefer Skill Advancement Awards, or Skill Check Boxes. I happen to prefer the latter and the book is being written to reflect this. Assuming that there is space to include it, I will include rules for Advancement Awards as an option.

Finally, Classic Fantasy introduces a different magic system from those proposed in Legend. It uses familiar terms such as duration, magnitude, etc. and works very similar in many ways to the other systems, however increasing the spells magnitude will typically grant ALL the benefits of casting the spell at a higher level in AD&D. For example, increasing a spell by a single level of magnitude may increase its range, duration, and damage, dependent upon the spell in question. This allows the spell to better scale as its AD&D counterpart.

The spell is NOT forgotten however. :mrgreen:

What is being included in the "conversion"?

Unlike the original BRP version of Classic Fantasy where I faced significant space limitations, this version will be including every spell from the 1st ed. AD&D Players Handbook and every monster from the 1st. ed. Monster Manual (that I'm allowed to use according to the OGL), as well as a near-complete conversion of magic items.

Because of this, Classic Fantasy will likely be several smaller books. More than likely a Player's Book, a Game Master's Book, and a Monster Book. One BIG book isn't out of the question however.

How far along are you?

Here is an overview of the progress to date.

Player's Book

Done with the exception of spells, of which I have only finished about 20-25% of them. There are literately hundreds of spells.

Game Master's Book

About 80% finished. Not counting magic items.

Monster Book

Only about 40% finished, should be over 300 monsters.

Who is going to publish it?

I'm not even thinking about this yet. I have had two different publishers contact me about the prospect, but I'm not yet ready to commit. I may even self-publish. This is something I work on in my spare time, a little every day, but publishers mean deadlines and I may not make them. So I figured when the books are written, but before layout has begun, at that point I'll get more serious about negotiating with interested parties. Like I said, self-publishing is a tempting option.

Are you going to release the books as you finish them or when their are ALL done?

When they are ALL done. That way as I work on the later books and realize I need to change something in the Players Book I can do it without having to release addenda.

Is there anywhere else I can find out more about the new version of Classic Fantasy?

Yes there is actually, I have just created a new Yahoo group just for the Legend version at...

http://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/LegendCF/

I usually post about the progress of Legend: Classic Fantasy there before posting anywhere else and your welcome to join. I already posted a copy of the Legend: Classic Fantasy Character Sheet, some example characters, and a write-up of the Fighter character class.

Also, I have a Basic Roleplaying Classic Fantasy Yahoo Group with over 200 members that frequently discuss the previous edition. It can be found over at...

http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/brpclassicfantasy/

Anyway, there it is. I can't give any idea as to when it will be ready. It will take time. I have a small cadre of outside playtesters going over it as well as my own group and things are looking well so far.

Thanks for taking the time to read this.

Rod
 
And this is really good news.

For anyone who likes the look and feel of D&D but who would like to use a different system then Classic Fantasy is perfect. It keeps the core ideas of D&D but reinterprets them for D100.

If you are used to D20 and want to try out Legend then this is a very easy way of doing so. It also allows us to use the D&D magic items and spells in Legend, which is excellent.

I've thought for a long time that Classic Fantasy would be a better fit for Legend than it was for BRP, and the BRP version was very good indeed, so the Legend version should be even better.
 
Hi Rod,

If you have need of a proofreader please drop me an email (sam@byfordphotos.co.uk) and I'll be happy to oblige.

Sam / Bifford
 
Bifford said:
Hi Rod,

If you have need of a proofreader please drop me an email (sam@byfordphotos.co.uk) and I'll be happy to oblige.

Sam / Bifford

Hi Sam and thanks for the offer. As of right now I'm all set. I have two different proofreaders along with three playtest groups not counting my own. When I get it closer to finished I plan on bringing in additional eyes and if your still interested at that point we'll talk.

Thanks for your interest,

Rod
 
Excellent news! I've got the BRP version and am looking forward to this.

As Legend is released under the OGL, does this mean that you have greater freedom to convert material directly from OGL sources (such as the d20 / Pathfinder SRDs)?
 
Prime_Evil said:
Excellent news! I've got the BRP version and am looking forward to this.

As Legend is released under the OGL, does this mean that you have greater freedom to convert material directly from OGL sources (such as the d20 / Pathfinder SRDs)?

Correct. No more trying to come up with generic names for things like displacer beasts, drow, and owlbears. :D

Rod
 
Well...Displacer beasts are still product identity of Wizards of the Coast, but the others can certainly be converted. The situation with Displacer Beasts is interested because they were lifted directly from the Coeurl from A.E. Van Vogt's 1939 short story "Black Destroyer", which was later incorporated into the novel "Voyage of the Space Beagle".

I'd also recommend taking a look at the Complete Tome of Horrors from Frog God Games, since this offers a wide range of classic D&D creatures as OGC. Originally produced under licence from Wizards of the Coast by Necromancer Games, many of the iconic D&D monsters that aren't in the SRD were released as OPen Game Content through this book....

Hopefully the book that you are producing will make it easier to convert many existing D&D / d20 adventures directly across the Legend :)
 
Prime_Evil said:
Well...Displacer beasts are still product identity of Wizards of the Coast, but the others can certainly be converted. The situation with Displacer Beasts is interested because they were lifted directly from the Coeurl from A.E. Van Vogt's 1939 short story "Black Destroyer", which was later incorporated into the novel "Voyage of the Space Beagle".
Yah, I just threw some names out there. I have the list of Wizards listed PI but haven't looked at it for a while. That's an interesting history of the displacer beast. I didn't know that

Prime_Evil said:
I'd also recommend taking a look at the Complete Tome of Horrors from Frog God Games, since this offers a wide range of classic D&D creatures as OGC. Originally produced under licence from Wizards of the Coast by Necromancer Games, many of the iconic D&D monsters that aren't in the SRD were released as OPen Game Content through this book....
Awesome, this is good news. I'll track it down.

Edit: Found it.Thanks. :D

Prime_Evil said:
Hopefully the book that you are producing will make it easier to convert many existing D&D / d20 adventures directly across the Legend :)
That's my hope as well, and as I'm attempting to remain much truer to the original source material than I was able to do with my 1st edition, it should be even easier to do so.

Rod
 
I'm pretty damn excited about this! If you value the advice of a random idiot on the internet, then self-publish. You make the rules, and the final product will be how you like it - also, it's more economically possible than ever before with cheaper printing and crowdfunding portals.
 
Tias said:
I'm pretty damn excited about this! If you value the advice of a random idiot on the internet, then self-publish. You make the rules, and the final product will be how you like it - also, it's more economically possible than ever before with cheaper printing and crowdfunding portals.

Thanks Tias,

I'm still a long way from deciding if I'm going to self publish or not. But I am leaning that way. Time will tell.

Crowdfunding is definitely something I have been considering. I won't do it however until I have the entire book written. That way, I can give a PDF copy of the manuscript to any who contribute to hold people over while I lay it out and either do my own artwork or contract some out.

Thanks for your interest and feel free to join the new Legend: Classic Fantasy yahoo group for sample character sheets, characters, and the write-up of the fighter class. More cool samples are coming.

The link is in my sig.

Rod
 
Say, any chance we'll see an adaptation of your robust miniatures rules for the Legend system as part of this package?
 
JP42 said:
Say, any chance we'll see an adaptation of your robust miniatures rules for the Legend system as part of this package?

Yup. Its already converted and a part of the combat chapter. For those that are not really interested in a set of miniatures rules, its presented as optional sidebars found in the same sections as the relevant combat rules. All of the miniatures rules from the BRP version are included pretty much verbatim with relevant changes to bring them inline with Legend.

Rod
 
How does one respond to this?

How about:

:lol: Woohoo! :lol: Woohoo! :D Happy Dance! :D Happy Dance! :D

Seriously - I love my historical settings, my swords-n-sorcery, and my plot-based campaigns with detailed NPC's and motivations. But I've been gaming since '75, and an old-fashioned dungeon crawl is still something I love. I have BRP Classic Fantasy, and have run several famous dungeons using it - most recently Against the Giants.

Seriously, threedeesix - I've been keeping an eye on the BRP forums, and wondering where you'd gotten too! Glad to see you picked Legend, and hope you don't hit too many delays.
 
pachristian said:
How does one respond to this?

How about:

:lol: Woohoo! :lol: Woohoo! :D Happy Dance! :D Happy Dance! :D

Seriously - I love my historical settings, my swords-n-sorcery, and my plot-based campaigns with detailed NPC's and motivations. But I've been gaming since '75, and an old-fashioned dungeon crawl is still something I love. I have BRP Classic Fantasy, and have run several famous dungeons using it - most recently Against the Giants.

Seriously, threedeesix - I've been keeping an eye on the BRP forums, and wondering where you'd gotten too! Glad to see you picked Legend, and hope you don't hit too many delays.

Wow, thanks for the encouragement. I never left the BRP forums, but haven't really been posting much about CF. I have been working on it since January of last year. I told myself that I would come clean after one year and figured there was no better place than the Mongoose forums to do so.

I'm on my way over to the BRP forums to cross-post the announcement later tonight so everyone is on the same page.

Again, thanks for the kind words.

Rod
 
Another quick question - since you will be using the SRD in a way that you couldn't for the BRP version, will you be releasing any of the content from the Legend version of Classic Fantasy as Open Game Content?

Also, have you considered converting any of the newer material from Pathfinder across or will you be aiming for more of a retroclone feel?
 
Prime_Evil said:
Another quick question - since you will be using the SRD in a way that you couldn't for the BRP version, will you be releasing any of the content from the Legend version of Classic Fantasy as Open Game Content?

Its a little to early to tell, but more than likely not. Definitely not the whole book in any case.

Prime_Evil said:
Also, have you considered converting any of the newer material from Pathfinder across or will you be aiming for more of a retroclone feel?

No, everything I'm converting is pre-3rd edition. Primarily 1st edition with a smattering of 2nd. Heck, my bard is the pre-1st edition Dragon magazine bard.

Rod
 
threedeesix said:
Prime_Evil said:
Another quick question - since you will be using the SRD in a way that you couldn't for the BRP version, will you be releasing any of the content from the Legend version of Classic Fantasy as Open Game Content?

Its a little to early to tell, but more than likely not. Definitely not the whole book in any case.

Certainly not the whole book, but at least some of it will have to be Open Game Content if you are using Open Game Content in it. The license specifically states that you can't take other people's Open Game Content and make it into your closed content.

Section 2 states:

The License: This License applies to any Open Game Content that contains a notice indicating that the Open Game Content may only be Used under and in terms of this License. You must affix such a notice to any Open Game Content that you Use. No terms may be added to or subtracted from this License except as described by the License itself. No other terms or conditions may be applied to any Open Game Content distributed using this License.
 
medievaladventures said:
Certainly not the whole book, but at least some of it will have to be Open Game Content if you are using Open Game Content in it. The license specifically states that you can't take other people's Open Game Content and make it into your closed content.

Ya, thanks "medievaladventures". I didn't mean to imply that. :oops:

Obviously everything that I used as OGC will remain OGC, I was just thinking in terms of all the new stuff. Even then, I'm sure I'll make some of the new stuff OGC as well, especially because much of it is a blend of OGC and my own work, it would just be easier to do so.

I'm just not sure I'll know what that will be until I'm closer to finished.

Rod
 
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