Myths and Legends Character Features

The character creation and progression system in myths and legends is a unique 3-4 piece process. Since the system is largely being developed for the sake of my setting, many phrases that you would typically be familiar with for a TTRPG have been modified for Acir. Rather than having a Race or Species, players select a Birthright to play as. These are, in fact, the various different species found throughout the world, but this choice of wording focuses more on the unique aspect that each one has as part of their biology. Rather than selecting a Class, players chose a Path for their characters. The purpose for this shift is to give more of an in-world purpose for the characters focusing on one aspect of combat as opposed to others, in that they choose to walk the proverbial path of these archetypes set before them. Origins is a term that can be found among other TTRPGs and one that I found worked perfectly when initially working on how to include player backgrounds. Unlike in most other games, however the backgrounds of Myths and Legends are based on two distinct parts. The geographic background, which provides blanket bonuses for all sub-selections that fall within them, and the professions background which helps specify what a character would do day to day before following the life of adventure and will provide bonuses accordingly. Finally, there is an optional piece of character creation which I call Augmentations. These are changes on a very massive level that change how an adventurer can approach any problem. These changes can also potentially be taken on during the course of play, if discussed with the gamekeeper and the player wishing to undergo them.

These three to four core pieces of player characters will establish everything needed to get the adventure started, save for the starting stats themselves. Initial training bonuses, certain pieces of equipment, known languages, and more are all provided with the initial character creation. From there, as characters travel the world, undergo quests, and overcome challenges, everything else can be attained through character progression. The means for progression in Myths and Legends will likely feel familiar but very different from what you would expect out of a TTRPG. It follows an experience point based system, however rather than amassing enough XP to level up, every point of experience is kept in a pool for each player. Players may spend as much XP as they want to gain access to new facets of their characters when not in combat. For those who are more familiar with videogame RPGs than tabletop, character progression is an XP based skill tree, and it doesn't stop at an adventurer's Path.

The Path, Birthright, and even Augmentation all have their own lines of progression that they can take, with some skills or abilities preventing others from being acquired. This creates a no-levels system in which players are encouraged to continue to grow their characters in ways unique to their playstyles. Currently there are no progression tables in a complete enough state to share, but the general outline I wish to use is as follows. Birthright progression will allow adventurers to capitalize more on feats that are unique to that species such as natural toxins, stronger skeletal structures, etc. and will be a mix of bonuses to stats and new abilities not tied to any particular weapon or fighting style. Path progression will focus more on learning the different ways to utilize their chosen forms of combat to the best of their ability, primarily giving players choices in different forms of training, new combat techniques, and access to learn new spells for spellcasting players. Augmentation progression is primarily focused on unlocking the specific gifts given through the change that the character has undertaken and will almost exclusively grant new abilities tied to that change.

Currently there are no plans being worked on for Origin progression, however I feel there may be an opportunity for a more simplified and more circumstantial version of the established progression system to be applied here as well. As of the time of posting, there are a total of fourteen Birthrights, sixteen Paths, sixteen Origins, and three Augmentations which are being worked on and developed for initial playtesting when the time is right. These numbers may change before the first playtest, as certain priorities shift in the creation process. For the time being, I do not plan to discuss the Birthrights in the RPG posts, as they are very closely tied to Acirian lore rather than to the game itself. For the same reason, I will not discuss the Augmentations or the Origins in these posts either, but I will continue to make free lore related posts whenever I am able to find the time.

Paths, however will be discussed in depth as they each near completion as I feel that they can be applied more freely to settings outside of my own without confusion. This will also apply to the various weapons, armor, technology, or other forms of adventuring gear later on as well.