Simple Legends – Rulebook
Anyone who knows me knows that I am a big fan of analog role-playing games. This has little to do with any dirty fantasies, but it can still involve dressing up—after all, I live in Cologne. Of course, I'm referring to pen and paper, i.e., nerds' escapism into something that, for once, has nothing to do with a screen.
I've been playing pen and paper games for about 12 years now and have tried out various rulebooks: first The Dark Eye, then Star Wars from FFG and currently Dungeons & Dragons. Every now and then, I've also dabbled in Cthulhu or the free How to Be a Hero – and there are so many more that I'd like to try out at some point. But I'm lazy. And getting a group to switch systems or at least try out a different one is difficult.
So what do you do if you don't feel like reading through a bunch of rulebooks to be prepared for all the stupid and relevant questions as a game master? Right, you just make up your own. That's a lot less work and definitely won't eat up all your free time for the next three months. And that's exactly what I did: I wrote my own rulebook called Simple Legends.
I have to be transparent and say that not everything is my own idea. The basic principle of the point system is borrowed from the free How to Be a Hero-rulebook, and there are aspects from other systems such as TBE and DnD . I also got some help from AI in the form of Chat-GPT. Testing and balancing in particular was a real relief for someone as mathematically mediocre as me. Nevertheless, I would go so far as to call it “my” work... it even has my name on the cover.
This brings me to three further points that are important to me: for the illustrations, which in my opinion make up 90% of the book's appeal, I searched for artists online who had exhibited their work there. They are all mentioned by name, and I used their images because I simply find them beautiful. I explicitly avoided using AI here, and I hope that this little bit of exposure, as they say, will help to appreciate their art. And to the rights holders: please don't sue me.
The next point is directed at you, the player. I designed this rulebook as a beginner's rulebook that newbies could have fun with. I didn't succeed in that. The original idea of expanding the How to Be a Hero-rulebook with a fun magic system actually made everything much more complex. So if you're looking for something super simple, you're better off sticking to proven beginner systems. If you're interested in the topic in general, check out professionals like the German channel Orkenspalter ("Orc cleaver") , who know a lot more about the subject than I do. And for complete beginners, I recommend the (also German) Morriton Manor series from RocketBeans.
And one last point: this is my first attempt at creating a rulebook. It was primarily a little exercise for me to get used to Affinity Publisher after switching from Adobe to Affinity. But at some point, it just became fun, until it stopped being fun. A lot of heart and soul and work went into it, and it's not perfect. There are several points that need fine-tuning or could be better regulated. The “protection system” in particular is still immature and needs to be optimized, but I didn't want to keep tinkering with it forever; I wanted to make it available to you. And by “make it available,” I mean free of charge, of course. Have fun with it, customize it, rewrite it, or delete it from your memory. Feel free to write to me and let me know what you think; I welcome feedback! And I'm sorry that it is only available in German, but a complete translation would be far too much work. Sorry!
The rulebook
Additional materials
- All
- Classes (24)
- Spells (72)
Kein BIld gefunden!
This might interest you as well...
Star Wars - Echoes of the Past
