Hiya, GMs!
Are you excited to run your first sport of Avatar Legends however you’re undecided the place to begin? Have you ever run a sport already and need to make your subsequent session sing?
This text is for you!
Avatar Legends has some incredible recommendation for GMing in “Chapter 8: Working the Recreation.” There are additionally loads of ideas and tips that GMs of all expertise ranges won’t learn about! At present let’s take a look at 4 of them that can assist you GM a incredible and enjoyable sport of Avatar Legends.
Tip 1: Let your Marketing campaign Creation Worksheet information you!
The setup part of the sport is essential to making sure everyone seems to be on the identical web page. It’s the plot bible to the TV present that’s your sport! Ensure that everybody (together with you!) has a say during which choices you select. Use the worksheet to maintain your sport on observe in these two key methods:
After it’s crammed out, use your worksheet to assist gamers create characters that match the story. When somebody begins creating an Icon who travels the wilds to hunt harmful creatures, and your group focus is about fixing a thriller in Ba Sing Se, level them again to the worksheet and ask “How does this work with what we’ve all created?”
Flip to the worksheet whenever you prep classes or when you get caught throughout play! In case your scope is “the Earth Kingdom” and your group focus is “to ship the supposed true Earth King to Ba Sing Se” within the Kyoshi Period, every session needs to be a couple of totally different cease in your lengthy journey or a hazard that halts your progress — a daofei ambush, wilderness hazards, and so on.
Tip 2: Deal with stability as greater than black and white!
In Avatar Legends, every PC’s ideas are in battle however they’re not “good vs. dangerous.” It’s when characters overcommit to ideas and lose their stability that causes issues! Struggling together with your beliefs or duties and discovering out how far you’ll go to embrace or reject them is on the coronary heart of each story within the Avatarverse.
In your personal video games, let PCs lean into one precept earlier than displaying them worth within the different. Usher in NPCs who allow them in addition to those that disagree (or need to change them). Since true evil is uncommon within the Avatarverse, current antagonistic NPCs as having taken their ideas too far slightly than simply being “dangerous.”
Attempt to additionally shift stability by way of participant selections as a lot as NPCs’ affect. When a PC commits to one among their ideas with phrases or actions, present how important it’s by making a transfer and shifting their stability, whether or not they’re sticking to established beliefs or having a change of coronary heart. Do that when PCs act heroically as a lot as after they act selfishly so it feels pure, not like a punishment.
Tip 3: Run the sport like an episode of the exhibits!
Avatar Legends is designed to seize the texture of each exhibits with its guidelines and mechanics. The sport shines whenever you lean into telling tales within the type of ATLA and LoK, versus working issues like a extra conventional RPG. Turning to the GM ideas for steering will carry you thru, however listed below are a number of examples of what this seems like utilizing the exhibits as guides:
- Begin the session as near the motion as doable, like Mako chasing triad goons throughout the streets of Republic Metropolis or Aang arriving at Omashu and discovering it’s been conquered by the Hearth Nation.
- Give simply sufficient element so gamers could make selections or ask follow-up questions, then ask “What do you do?” As you play, ask guiding questions and use the solutions — “Rogue, you see somebody you owe cash to throughout the road; who’s it and why are you avoiding them?”
- Push in the direction of critical occasions which have everybody on the sting of their seats! They are often really harmful, just like the Hearth Navy laying siege to Agna Qel’a on the North Pole. These moments aren’t all the time fights — they’re additionally introspective, like Bolin having to simply accept the reality about his bending skills.
- Combine in light-hearted moments! You don’t should go proper from critical to slapstick comedy (except it’s applicable!) however generally a comforting “kiss” from an enormous sky-bison after pouring your coronary heart out to your folks might be the proper method to transfer on.
- Whether or not it’s a one-shot or a part of an extended sport, spherical issues out with a conclusion to the general challenge of the session, just like the Hearth Ferrets overcoming their interpersonal drama to advance to the professional bending championship. You possibly can as a substitute preserve everybody wanting extra with an thrilling cliffhanger, like Amon revealing his energy for the primary time!
Tip 4: Maintain combat scenes fluid and snappy!
Martial arts are a core aspect of the Avatarverse and ultimately, a combat’s going to interrupt out. As an alternative of working fight exchanges as characters buying and selling assaults, like a turn-based online game, consider the combat scenes within the TV exhibits. Maintain issues in movement and do not forget that individuals in these tales virtually by no means combat to their final breath!
In your personal sport, present how the world and characters change after each fight trade. Don’t be afraid to make a GM transfer to try this! Say the PCs are resistance fighters throughout the 100 12 months Battle period and assault a squad of Hearth Nation jail guards throughout an escape. What occurs after an trade?
- Perhaps the guards beg for mercy and also you flip to the Hammer to see in the event that they settle for give up or give in to Power (shifting their stability)!
- Perhaps a wall or some furnishings is broken within the preventing, providing a doable path to flee (supply a dangerous or expensive alternative)!
- Perhaps one of many guard’s helmets is knocked off, revealing them to be an previous buddy of one of many PCs (reveal a hidden reality)!
If strategies appear restrictive, do not forget that a combat is greater than a sequence of fight exchanges — an trade is whenever you and an opponent commerce blows, however a combat scene is commonly greater than that single second and you may make fundamental strikes in between exchanges!
There are various extra ideas and tips to supply however these are some issues that you could be discover probably the most helpful as you start your first journeys. As you go, be happy to succeed in out to different GMs on our group Discord to share your experiences with one another, and preserve your eyes on this house for extra of those sorts of articles sooner or later! We hope this helps you as you get able to run your personal video games of Avatar Legends!
Written by Reyna (she/they)
@LuchaAndLattes