So, if you didn't know, a little over a year ago, Magpie games hosted a very succcessful kickstarter for an Avatar world tabletop game called Avatar Legends. Magpie games is an indie tabletop game developer/publisher, pretty well-known in the indie ttrpg space (they published Masks: A New Generation, Urban Shadows, and Bluebeard's Bride, among others). Now, if you know me at all, you know that I'm pretty much a slut for Avatar: the Last Airbender and just about anything attached to it (i even have an earthbender tattoo), so of course I backed it ASAP. Throw in that my boy @mint hosted a li'l oneshot using the quickstart rules they put out during the kickstarter period and I was fucking sold.
So, as of February this year, the Core book pdf has been available to backers, which means I've had access to it for several months. Once we got our hands on the pdf, Mint and I started screaming about it on twitter and he jokingly said "pwease host a game 🥺" not knowing that I was already cooking something. So, we roped a few friends into and have been playing, on and off because: if you didn't know, the final boss of any ttrpg is Scheduling. But, I wanted to talk a bit about the game and my thoughts.
First let me say that I think that largely speaking, PbtA (Powered by the Apocalypse for those unfamiliar) makes a fair amount of sense as a system for Avatar. While there are specific bending moves in the Avatar-verse, it always seemed a bit more adaptable and fluid in the sense that you didn't often always see characters reusing the same moves and even if they did, it was often the case that they changed over time, either becoming more powerful or taking on new attributes. So, the sort of loose-ness afforded by PbtA works really well for the game, on a non-combat level. This ruleset of course has the weakness of any PbtA ruleset which is: the basic moves cover a lot, but sometimes don't quite cover everything.
For example, "Plead" is the name for social rolls where you're not trying to scare someone. And I get that on a level of just using it as the name for the move, but it doesn't really feel right because even that phrasing is going to give you a sense of what the move will look like in game. Rely on Your Skills and Training and Push Your Luck have a similar problem because they're the game's sort of catch-all moves. If you're not sure what it is, but it sounds like something your character would know how to do? Probably a Rely on Skills and Training. Not something your character would know how to do or it's particularly risky? Push Your Luck. And these work, mostly, fine. They're a bit messy, but again, I feel that this is something that you get in any game using this system.
A change it makes to PbtA, which I've seen Magpie do before, is that it doesn't have you gain exp (called potential in this game) every time you fail a roll. I have mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, it seems to be a way of balancing out the fact that players like myself, who often roll low, are likely to gain experience at a much faster rate than players like Ghost, who often has the luckiest rolls known in this world or the next. But on the other hand, because the conditions are fairly specific, it means that mechanical character growth can be slow. This could be because I'm simply not a GM suited to some of the things this game wants to do or that my group isn't interested in some of it (which they aren't and I have no qualms about that, I LOVE playing with them). But it is sort of frustrating in the sense that it means your ability to increase your abilities or learn new moves can be a little hindered. Each playbook has their own growth question and there's a set you ask at the end of every session, one of which is "did you guide a character towards balance or end the session at your center?" This question brings us to one of the mechanics that is supposed to be at the core of the game, the Balance Gauge.
In Avatar Legends, each playbook has a Balance Gauge, with one principle on the left and an opposing one on the right. The idea is that this is meant to sort of serve as the character's moral compass, to some extent. You start at the center of it and may move it once at the start of the game. From there, it is meant to be sort of tugged this way and that throughout play. But that's not all! You also have balance moves that you can use to enhance your rolls. So, let's say your principle is Friendship and you want to Guide and Comfort a friend. That roll uses Harmony and your Harmony is -1--you're gonna have a harder time helping your buddy out. BUT, if you decide that in using this move you're "Living Up to Your Principle", then you can roll with whatever your Friendship score currently is, let's say +2. So, mark a fatigue, roll 2d6+2 to make your buddy feel better. If this sounds like a lot to keep track of it, you're right. Because aside from the basic moves and whatever moves your playbook gives you, there's also the balance moves to consider as options. It can be a bit much. And if you think that's bad, wait until I tell you about the combat.
As a PbtA game, Avatar Legends doesn't have you roll initiative (some do, but many, in my experience, do not). PbtA games attempt to give players greater agency than something like D&D, so it's often the players act and the NPCs react. Avatar Legends isn't that simple. Combat is divided in to "Exchanges" which are realistically interchangeable with rounds in any other game. These are then divided into SEVEN STEPS. The way it works is this: everyone secretly chooses an approach. This approach determines how the players roll and who acts when. So the options are, in priority order: Defend and Maneuver, Attack and Advance, Evade and Observe. So, the PCs choose and the GM chooses for the baddies. Then, everyone reveals and then combat begins with each approach in order. After all of that, you take a minute to resolve anyone who's been taken out and then rinse and repeat until one side wins. The players roll based on what they choose and the results of that roll determine what "Techniques" they can use. Techniques can be sort of reduced down to your various combat actions. There are some that are universal--everyone can use them--and there are others that much more specialized. To add another layer to this: There are 3 categories of technique for players: Learned, Practiced, and Mastered. Learned means you have just learned this technique and must roll a 10+ and spend a Fatigue to activate the Technique. Once you've done this, it becomes Practiced. Practiced Techniques also require a 10+ roll, but do not ask you to spend the fatigue. Mastered techniques can be used so long as you don't fail the roll. If your head is swimming, imagine trying to keep track of moves for all the baddies. From here, I want to talk briefly about what determines "taking someone out."
In Avatar Legends there is no HP or Wounds. Instead, you track Fatigue and Conditions. This is just one of the ways that I feel this game kind of has a similar mouth-feel to Masks (I'm sticking with mouth-feel and you should thank me that I don't make more jokes about it). So, your Fatigue is a resource as much as it is your HP gauge. You can spend Fatigue to do things, which you may have already caught onto, but also, you can inflict Fatigue on characters, forcing them to mark it. I'm actually largely a fan of this because I play Black in Magic: The Gathering, so I enjoy the idea of using my health as a resource. I think it adds a good but manageable amount of crunch. But, you're not taken out when you run out of fatigue because you still have Conditions. Whenever you would mark a Fatigue, but your gauge is full, you mark an appropriate Condition. Conditions are what they sound like: they're statuses that affect you and have ongoing penalties. Once you've spent all your Fatigue and you're full up on Conditions, you're taken out of a fight. PCs have 5 Fatigue and 5 Conditions. So, the way that the game thinks of it, you have ten health. NPCs vary by their 'level' - Minor, Major, Master, and (if you really wanna put them through the ringer) Legend.
Conditions in Avatar Legends work much the same as they do in Masks; they stick with you until you clear them. Clearing a Condition requires you to take specific actions. What this look like depends on the condition, but it's almost exactly the same as clearing conditions in Masks. Again, they have a very similar mouth-feel. The other way that it feels like Masks is the aforementioned Balance Gauge. You see, as the GM, you can shift the players' Balance. And if they don't like it, they can resist. If you've played Masks, you know where I'm going. In Masks, all your stats are determined by Labels that can shift around like the Balance Gauge in Avatar. This and the Influence mechanic make Masks an amazing teen drama simulator (people will tell you it's a superhero game and they either misunderstand or are lying to you). So, Balance injects that into Avatar. And I get it. It makes a lot of sense given the shows. But it's a little harder to manage in a tabletop game. It's also something not everyone wants to engage super heavily with. And I get that too.
I have rambled on so much more than intended. There's a lot to say about Avatar Legends and there's more I could say. Despite all that I've outlined here and my frustration with some of it, I do think it's a pretty good game. Now, is that because I love my friends and Avatar or is it because of the system. Probably leans more to one side than the other. I'll admit here, as I believe I have to the group, that I've sort of lost the thread I wanted to tug on for our campaign but that hasn't stopped me. If you're thinking of GMing it, go in knowing that it requires a decent amount of prep. Because of the combat system, every NPC needs at least one Technique beyond the basic ones and obviously more important enemies need more. Further, you really need to be aware of the players' playbooks. Knowing what their Balance Gauge is like and keeping their Growth Question in mind are pretty important. It can be a lot. I felt that way about Masks and while I ADORED my Masks group, I am unsure I would ever host it again. That's not the case with Avatar Legends.
There's probably a lot more to be said that I'm leaving unsaid, but these are my (relatively) brief thoughts.