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Houserules

These are changes to the Open Legend rules to either better facilitate a Living Campaign or allow better narrative. While I would love to treat this as a standard campaign, it'd quickly break down and starts not making sense, such as buying something every two weeks. For some, two weeks might be two levels worth of difference while for others, that might be the same level. So we've altered the rules and you can see how we did below.

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Major Changes

  • Seyaria Living Campaign is now using the Equipment Overhaul rules here.

    • Modifications to the rules are as follows:

    • Assembly Line feat, Siege Weapon property, and the base OL Augmenting extraordinary property are all banned.

    • In order to use the Special property of mundane Weapons and Armor, you must have Knowledge (Weapons) or Knowledge (Armor) respectively. You may also use the Perk Artisan but only when it makes sense. Artisan (Weapons) and (Armor) being the most accepted but Engineering, explosives, and similar can also work.

    • We are using the alternate Waiting to Act rules and the alternate Brace weapon property.

    • We are still using SLC's modified Craft Extraordinary Item rather than the one in here.
       

    • Retraining rules for Characters approved before 3/4/20: If you have a feat changed by this process or removed, you can choose to refund the points (and must if the feat is removed). These feat points can be spent as one would expect. If you had purchased an item that had it's price reduced and it cost you one of your purchase slots at your current wealth level, you may regain the lost purchase slot. If an item was using a property that is removed or altered and was purchased using a purchase slot at your current wealth level, you may sell the item back and get a refund or use the new rules (if augmenting, you would just remove augmenting property for the new expendable property).
       

Player Characters

  • Bipedal creatures start with a basic movement speed of 30 ft. Quadrupedal (or more legged) creatures start with a basic movement speed of 40 ft. Land based single tail creatures like snake hybrids or so on count as quadrupeds. Exceptions may be made (such as for mermaids) with special approval by moderators.​

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​Boons

  • You are limited to one active Animation invocation.

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  • The Boon Tongues does not work on lost or forgotten languages. You have to know what the language is to select it with the boon.​

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  • The Aura Boon is limited to not only boons that make sense, but also boons that are Sustain Persist.
     

  • Power Level 6 of the Truesight boon should read "Power Level 6 - The target's extraordinary sight pierces natural and magical darkness." This is not a House Rule but Errata.
     

  • The Boon Precognition is not an end all know anything answer. Instead, Precognition is a tool to assist. It may tell you John Doe was in Seyaria and that he left on a ship heading towards Lu'ryl, but it won't tell you where his ship crashed - though it may give glimpses of the crash. Otherwise, Precognition makes every issue into a joke. Furthermore, you get what the Narrator says you get, arguing for more will not help.
     

  • Haste PL6 and PL8 are modified in the following way: The bonus action(s) can only be used for non-damaging attack invocations or other non-attack actions such as moving, banes, boons, assists, or similar.

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Banes

  • Under the Bane Memory Alteration, add the following line “Each time a target is faced with evidence against the altered memories, such as being told to forget you and someone says they are glad to meet them again around you, they may attempt a resist roll to regain the altered memories.”​ Furthermore, if the caster of a Restoration Boon on the target knows generally what memories were removed or altered (still more specific than just a time frame), using that will also allow one to undo the effects. A flat Prescience roll with a DC of 10 + (2*PL of Memory Alteration) can be used to detect what was altered.
     

  • When interacting with the Phantasm Bane - such as by smelling the roses, punching the wall, or putting it under scrutiny, allows the character to attempt to resist the phantasm (which are considered move actions). If the target happens to interact with it in a way the phantasm doesn't support when it should (such as brick wall feeling like silk), the target gets an advantage on the resist roll.
     

  • Replace the last sentence of Knockdown Bane's Effect section with "Standing up from prone requires a move action that allows the player to immediately move up to half their speed (round up)." This is Errata and not a houserule.
     

  • The Crush Bane (found at the bottom of this page) has been added as an option for players to use. This was written by me (TrinitysEnd).

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Items

  • In chapter six under Acquiring Goods And Services, replace “If the item’s level is equal to your wealth score, you can acquire it, but the expense taxes your resources such that you cannot acquire new goods at that level or higher for two weeks.” to “If the item’s level is equal to your wealth score, you can acquire it by getting purchase slots by going on encounters, detailed in the Encounters page.”

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  • Also replace “If the object of your purchase is one level higher than your wealth score and your wealth score is above 0, you can acquire it, but the cost is so great that your wealth score is reduced by 1.” with “You cannot purchase an item if your wealth score is not equal to or greater to the item’s cost.”​​

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  • When purchasing an Extraordinary item, you are limited to the basic options of Extraordinary Items. This restricts purchasing items with Sentient and Special, with only users with Craft Extraordinary Item having access to those options. 
     

  • When taking the Draw a Weapon action, you may draw two weapons at the same time as long as they are mechanically the same (such as a Dagger and a Hatchet or similar).
     

  • You may only have your level + 1 amount of extraordinary items with you (or providing any bonus to the group) at any given time on an Encounter. Expendable and Consumable items count towards this, but only once per type, allowing you to carry as many of those as your inventory allows.
     

  • You are limited to the maximum Attribute level you can achieve (5 at level 1, 6 at level 3, 7 at level 5, etc) on items purchased with Attribute scores. This does not apply to items of Boons/Banes, only to Attributes.
     

  • You can only have a max of 2 Attribute Extraordinary items on an Encounter. While you can own more, you must decide at the start of the encounter which items are not in effect for that ER.
     

  • The Item Effect Persistent is something that will receive higher scrutiny than most other abilities as this can be used to be essentially immortal. As such, all items involving it need to be approved with greater care and may take longer to receive approval. The following combinations are not allowed with Persistent: Regeneration, Heal, Restoration, or Life Drain. Furthermore, Persistent items are limited to a max power level of 5.
     

  • The Potent Item Ability only applies to the banes or baneful applied on the item. It does not work for any others or for general attributes on the item. If, for example, the item has Energy 3, Baneful (Immobile), and Stunned PL4 plus Potent, it only applies on the immobile and stunned but not anything else.
     

  • The Reliable Item Ability only applies to boons on the item and not stats. As such, an item with Alteration 3 and Blindsight 5 with the Reliable property only receive the reliable property on the Blindsight invoked with the item. It does not apply to any other boon invoked with the Alteration stat.
     

  • The Deadly and Powerful property can be applied to Extraordinary stats through a new ability on items called "Focus." This ability is a +0 WL increase on the item that requires specifying the stat it is modifying such as "Focus (Energy)." To get the effect of the focus, it needs to be drawn similarly to a weapon (though like weapons it can be represented via stances). And like weapons, these can be disarmed.
     

  • A new Extraordinary Item property is Defensive. The cost of adding this ability to an item is 2 + the advantage with a cap of three. This property allows you to gain the number of tiers of the mundane Defensive trait for weapons (1 guard and 1 advantage on defend actions + 1 advantage for each tier above 1 on defend actions). This also is increased based on Defensive Mastery feat (including breaking the normal cap of both the mundane and extraordinary trait to a max of 4). In order to use this ability, it needs to be wielded like a weapon or shield.

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Feats

  • The Wealthy Feat is not allowed.

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  • Under the Craft Mundane Feat, replace “Unlike acquiring items by using your wealth (described in Chapter 5), crafting does not limit your ability to acquire additional goods.” with “Crafting still counts as purchasing of that Wealth Level.” Furthermore, tier II of Craft Mundane feat is banned. The crafted items here do not require an in-world reason to exist beyond your character reasonably being able to know of it and it doesn't contradict the setting.

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  • The Craft Extraordinary Item feat maximum wealth level is equivalent to the attribute at the first tier, but it does not allow buying goods above your Wealth Level. However, you are able to craft items with special properties of Special and/or Sentient (with approval still) or otherwise be customized in similar ways. Tier II and III are not legal since they would do nothing over the first Tier.

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  • The Feat Unending Charm ends at the end of an encounter as described in the Finders; Keepers rule except unless the narrator says it stays, but any PC affected by the ability, that survives and is not lost, may be automatically free of the effects at their decision. We suggest not using it on fellow party members.

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  • The Companion feat has the ability to have up to two perks and two flaws upon creation like a normal character. Some options may be limited due to the companion creature (such as non-sentient animal and scholar).
     

  • The Companion Feat can only have two separate instances taken. This only affects the number of separate instances of the feat and not the tier upgrades.
     

  • Tier III of Heightened Invocation Feat is not allowed for play.
     

  • When Boon Focus II is combined with Heightened Invocation keep to the following order of events:

    • 1st: Boon Focus reduces the cast time.

    • 2nd: Heightened Invocation increases the cast time.​
       

  • On Boon Focus II alter the following line "​Beyond that it can be invoked by expending a move or major action" with "Beyond that, it can be invoked using the action it normally would take." This is Errata and not a Houserule.
     

  • If you have both the Companion and Alternate Form feats, you need to have the Companion feat in both forms for it to keep functioning after switching forms.
     

  • When using the feat Alternate form, if the alternate form is sufficiently different enough from the main form, you may select different perks and flaws for them. However, should a flaw or perk still make sense in the alternate form, it is suggested to keep it.
     

  • Several feats have been parsed incorrectly from the Open legend Github. These are not houserules, but a list of fixes for those:

    • Mimic: ​Alteration 4 and Deception 3

    • Two-weapon Brute: Agility 4 and Might 5
       

  • Due to Vicious Strike's generally not worthwhile investment, we will be using an altered version of it that you can find at the bottom of this page. If you already had taken the feat before 11/20/19 (US Cal). you may choose to freely refund it or keep the new feat.
     

  • When using the Two-Weapon Brute feat and a Two-Handed Weapon and Defensive second weapon, you gain 1 Advantage for the two-handed weapon instead of it normally being negated down to 0 advantage due to Defensive's wording. The reason for this is that the intent for the wording was that if you were normally wielding a two-handed weapon it would have the property on it, but since Two-Weapon Brute allows you to wield two two-handed weapons, this no longer follows that. However, you still do not gain the two weapon advantage since the shield is still the second weapon.

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Misc.

  • Any instance allowing you to purchase at your current wealth score or wealth level is limited to your purchase slots with the exception of your three starting equipment. This includes any crafting feats or any other feat based on such things.​
     

  • The interaction between Resistance Boon/Energy Resistance Feat and Defend Interrupt actions functions only when the target would otherwise be able to deal damage or inflict a bane with the Defend Interrupt action. The Resistance increase is added on at the end of the roll if the defend fits the flavor of the resistance. This increase to the attack roll does not count for damage but in reducing possible damage or preventing a bane that would be applied by the Defend attack. The attack is still considered a miss if it is beaten by the Defend before the Resistance is added.
     

  • The legal energy/magic types for Boons or other abilities that allow it are the following (entries marked with an asterisk are not legal for Energy Resistance Feat): Acid, Cold, Death, Electricity, Energy (this is pure magical energy, not the attribute), Fire, Forceful*, Holy, Illusory, Life, Mental, Poison, Precise*, Sonic, Unholy, and any others the Narrator specifically allows*.
     

  • The Defend Interrupt Action and Improvise Interrupt Action can only be used once per character per target per attack. John can then only defend against the Goblin's grenade attack on Jill once, but if he has an additional defend action (via Sentinel) he can also defend Jack.

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Optional Narrator Rules

Dice

Sometimes exploding dice can be particularly bad against the party, and if you are like me, the dice may explode a bit too much. This is especially the case in encounters where the party is swarmed by a lot of weaker creatures, increasing odds of exploding the dice. To combat this, I offer you this optional rule to help lower enemy dice explosions (this does not affect player dice explosions). Enemy dice explosions are capped at one extra attribute die and d20 explosions just add an additional attribute die.

For example, this would mean a roll of attribute of 5 with 2 advantage (1d20!! + 4d6!!kh2 [Keep Highest 2]) would normally look like (red coloration means dropped dice):

  • d20 = 20 + 11 (exploded)

  • 1st d6 = 6 + 3 (exploded)

  • 2nd d6 = 6 + 2 (exploded) 

  • 3rd d6 = 6 + 1 (exploded)​

  • 4th d6 = 4​

  • Total = 48 from Roll20

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For this optional rule, you would drop the d20 explosion (11), and only count 1 explosion from the attribute dice (3). Had there been no explosions in the attribute dice, you would have rolled an additional d6 for the d20 that exploded. As a result you get (red coloration means dropped dice):​

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  • d20 = 20 + 11

  • 1st d6 = 6 + 3

  • 2nd d6 = 6 + 2

  • 3rd d6 = 6 + 1​

  • 4th d6 = 4​

  • Total = 35 from Roll20

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35 is still a lot, but far less than the original 48.

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Combat

  • Success with a twist does possibly exist in combat, but it is an optional rule in OL under Chapter 7. Narrators are allowed to use these rules, but a player should always be allowed to choose to Fail but the Story Continues, should they not want to do one of the options. Narrators are allowed to add additional options, should they feel it relevant to the action.
     

Misc.

  • Running in OL literally cannot happen without Haste as your speed would be capped out at the normal human's jogging speed even when you double move. To fix this, I've come up with a handy dandy "Run" action that allows you to move the proper amount of movement. By expending all your Major and Move Actions (but not Minor or Free Actions), you may make a Run Action, allowing you to move 4x your speed. If you are using Haste, you add your extra actions allowed with it added onto the multiplier, making it 5x at PL6 and 6x at PL8. The length of time you can run is up to the Narrator's discretion.

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Concealment Boon

Description

The target is concealed from forms of detection, either by altering their surrounding or creating illusions. This boon is a particular favorite to assassins, thieves, shadow dancers, illusionists, inventors, and similar characters.

 

Invocation Time

1 Major Action

 

Duration

Sustain Persists

 

Power Level

3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8

 

Attributes

Alteration, Influence

 

Effect

The invoker may choose one sensory element (such as Scent, Sound, Light [sight], Heat, etc) to restrict. This causes all such elements of the chosen type to be suppressed within 5' of the target though extraordinary means, making it very difficult to detect. The target gains advantage according to the boon's Power Level on Action rolls to hide and/or remain undetected.

 

When making attacks against enemies that are unable to detect the target, their Guard defense is reduced. Likewise, the target's Guard defense is increased against enemies that can not detect them, though is unchanged against area attacks.

 

Power Level 3 - Invoker is able to conceal either Scent or Sound. Advantage 1 to hide, +1 Guard against attackers that can't detect the target, -1 to Guard for enemies that can't detect the target.

 

Power Level 4 - Invoker is now able to conceal any 1 sensory element.

 

Power Level 5 - Advantage 3 to hide, +3 Guard against attackers that can't perceive the target clearly, and -2 to Guard for enemies that can't detect the target.

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Power Level 6 - Invoker may combine up to 2 sensory elements. Advantage 5 to hide, +5 Guard against attackers that can't detect the target, and -4 to Guard for enemies that can't perceive the target clearly.

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Power Level 7 - Invoker may combine up to 3 sensory elements

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Power Level 8 - Invoker may combine all sensory elements​​​​​​

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Crush Bane

Duration

Resist ends (Fail x 3 = 1 minute)

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Invocation Time

1 Major Action

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Attack Attributes

  • Might

  • Energy

  • Movement

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Attack

  • Might vs. Guard

  • Energy vs. Guard

  • Movement vs. Guard

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Power Level

9

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Description

Whether it is crushing them with Telekinetic powers, entombing them in a fist made of earth, dropping a boulder on them, or giving them a death hug, the person affected by this bane is slowly being crushed to death.

 

Attributes

Alteration, Influence

 

Effect

A Crushed target has the following:

  • Speed of 0 (Immobile)

  • Disadvantage 2 on all Action Rolls

  • Target's concentration on all Boons is disrupted upon successful invocation

  • 1d10 damage at the start of each of the target’s turn

    • When the target reaches 0 hp, excess damage is lethal but doesn't count as a final blow. The target dies once this damage has completely reduced their max HP to 0 in lethal damage.

    • This damage can be mitigated by effects such as the Resistance Boon

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Special

Depending on the flavor of the effect, a target might be unable to reach to attack a target with a melee weapon or unable to turn their head in order to see where some enemies and/or allies are. The GM may allow this boon to target toughness rather than Guard depending on the flavor. If inflicted with might, it may function like Immobile and leave the user in a grapple with them, but it may also be just dropping a heavy object on them.

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Vicious Strike I-IV

Cost:

1 Point

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Prerequisites

  • Tier 1: Agility 6, Might 6 or any Extraordinary 6

  • Tier 2: Agility 7, Might 7 or any Extraordinary 7

  • Tier 3: Agility 8, Might 8 or any Extraordinary 8

  • Tier 4: Agility 9, Might 9 or any Extraordinary 9

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Description

Whether through brute force, lethal precision, or volatile magic, a deadly attack delivered by you is capable of even defying special protection.

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Effect

Any time you exceed the unaltered Defense of the Target of a Damaging Attack Roll by 10, treat the relevant Resistance the Target has as reduced in Tier by as many Tiers as you have in this Feat against that Attack. This cumulatively downgrades immunity to a +9 to Defenses, a +9 to a +6, +6 to +3 and +3 to +0. Any other numerical bonus gets reduced by 3 cumulatively. This Feat is not capable of reducing a Resistance to less than 0.

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Special

Note that like with any Feat, narrative comes first. For example, if the creature has no mind to invade or obscure, you still cannot use your psychic powers without a really good explanation.

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