We’re closing in on $1500 in the Legends & Labyrinths funding project. That’s the level at which all current sponsors will be receiving early access to the Black Book Beta rulebook. If you’re still on the fence, think about testing the waters with a $5 pledge. It’ll push us a little closer to that $1500 mark, which will leave you with plenty of time to take a peek through the Black Book Beta and see if you want to bump your sponsorship level up before the funding project comes to an end.

Earlier today Auroch wrote a reply to “Opening Your Game Table” asking for advice on how to get started. This led me to touch briefly on the fact that L&L’s monster creation system makes it super-easy to convert pre-3E material to L&L. (3E material, of course, can be used straight out of the box thanks to that 100% compatibility thing.)

How easy? Well, since I was talking about Caverns of Thracia, let’s give it a whirl. I grabbed my copy of the module, flipped open my beta copy of Legends & Labyrinths to page 123, and set an egg timer for fifteen minutes. Starting from the top of the module, how many encounters could I convert?

THE 15 MINUTE CONVERSION TEST

AREA 4 – GIANT CENTIPEDES (CR ½): 5 hp (HD 1d8+1), AC 13, bite +1 (1d4 and poison), Save +3, Ability DC 11, Size Small, Climb 30 ft.

Str 8, Dex 15, Con 10,
Int 1, Wis 10, Cha 2
Skills: Climb +10, Hide +6, Spot +4
DR 5/piercing
Poison (Ex): Small Centipede Poison (1d2 Dex/1d2 Dex)

AREA 5 – LIZARDMEN (CR 2): hp 15 (HD 3d8+2), AC 17, club +4 (1d6+1), Save +5, Ability DC 13, Spd 40 ft.

Str 16, Dex 12, Con 11, Int 11, Wis 8, Cha 9
Skills: Listen +5, Spot +5, Swim +9
Amphibious (Ex): Can breath both air and water.
Darkvision 60 ft.

AREA 6 – GNOLL (CR 2): hp 21 (HD 4d8+1), AC 15, morningstar +4 (1d6+1), Save +5, Ability DC 13.

Str 15, Dex 11, Con 14, Int 8, Wis 10, Cha 10
Skills: Listen +7, Spot +7
Scent
Darkvision 60 ft.

AREA 7 – GNOLLS (CR 2): hp 21 (HD 4d8+1), AC 15, longbow +4 or battle axe +4 (1d6+1), Save +5, Ability DC 13.

Str 15, Dex 11, Con 14, Int 8, Wis 10, Cha 10
Skills: Listen +7, Spot +7
Scent
Darkvision 60 ft.

AREA 9A – INCARNATION OF DEATH (CR 4): hp 30 (6d8+3), AC 17, touch +8 (energy drain), Save +7, Ability DC 15.

Str 11, Dex 16, Con 10, Int 14, Wis 14, Cha 17
Skills: Hide +12, Intimidate +12, Listen +11, Search +11, Sense Motive +11, Spot +11
Energy Drain 1 negative level and incarnation of death gains 5 temporary hp.
Invisibility Can be seen by any characters within 3 hp of death.
Despair Creatures who can see the incarnation of death suffer a -2 penalty on Will saving throws.

THOUGHTS

Five encounters in fifteen minutes. A little over three minutes per monster, including the time to type out full stat blocks. That should give you some indication of how easy it would be to whip up monsters on-the-fly during the game session, allowing you to easily keep up with rambunctious PCs and enabling spontaneous bursts of improvised creativity like the one which resulted in the creation of ash wraiths and lycanthropic ghouls.

It also speeds up prep time in general. Even in my full-blown 3E Ptolus campaign, I’ve been transitioning to a mixture of advanced NPC stat blocks and L&L stat blocks. And over time I’ve been leaning more and more heavily on L&L stat blocks because they’re so much quicker and easier to generate.

Once you get your hands on the Black Book Beta, I’d be interested in seeing what happens when you take this out for a spin.

CLIMB INTO YOUR LABYRINTH AND FORGE YOUR LEGEND TODAY!

This article has been updated and expanded. Read the current version here.

I think stat blocks can tell you a lot about a roleplaying game. What type of information do you need to juggle? What does the game consider important in distinguishing one character from another? How complicated will a game be to prep and run?

Holding that thought in mind, let’s take a brief tour of the stat block.

THE 1970’s

The first published adventure module was “Temple of the Frog” in Supplement II (1976). It didn’t contain stat blocks, instead describing everything narratively. For example: “…the room which contains five skeletons of 2 hit dice that have armor class 7 and move 6″ per turn.”

Next came Palace of the Vampire Queen (1976), in which the entire adventure key was presented in semi-tabular fashion. But basically here you could interpret a “stat block” of sorts which included the creature encountered and their hit points. For example: “2 vampire guards – 23, 26”

Unfortunately, I have never seen a copy of the original Lost Caverns of Tsojconth (1976) from the Metro Detroit Gamers or Gen Con IX Dungeons from Judges Guild. But I do own a copy of the revised City State of the Invincible Overlord, which used tables for many NPC stats but also included what may be the first true stat blocks with entries like these:

Two Mercenaries: FTR, N, LVL: 3, HTK: 16-20, AC: 6
Bartender Koris Brightips: FEM, FTR, CG, LVL: 2, HTK: 4, AC: 9, Dagger, sings.

We see similar stat blocks from Judges Guild throughout ’77 in Tegel Manor, First Fantasy Campaign (Arneson), and Modron.

In ’78, TSR publishes the G series, D series, S1, and B1. In G1, monsters were still being largely described narratively as they were in “Temple of the Frog”, although hit point totals were now being given in parentheses: “Here 12 young giants (H.P.: 26, 24, 3 x 21, 18 x 17 [sic], 2 x 16, 14, 13) are rollicking, and beefy smacks, shouts, laughter, etc. are easily heard. All these creatures have weapons and will fight as ogres.” and “14 dire wolves run free here (H.P.: 25, 23, 22, 2 x 10, 19, 3 x 18, 2 x 17, 15, 13, 12).”

By the time D1 rolls around, more information is being dropped into the parentheses but things are still pretty narrative. For example: “This 6th level cleric (H.P. 30; +3 chain mail, +3 buckler, +1 for dexterity of 15, for an overall AC of -3) carries a +1 mace on her belt, for her major weapon is a short-handed staff sling. This weapon hurls missiles up to 9″ distance (providing the ceiling is at least 30′ high), minimum range 3″. Probability of a hit is normal out to 6″, -2 thereafter.”

By ’79, Judges Guild has firmed their presentation of NPC statistics into definite stat blocks. For example, here’s the text from key V-5 in Dark Tower:

Avvakris: 10th level cleric of Set, Align: CE, chainmail, AC: 5, HP: 50, S: 14, I: 14, W: 15, D: 14, C: 11, CH: 15, weapon: mace, spells: bless (reverse), create water (reverse), detect good, detect magic, hold person (x3), silence 15′ radius, animate dead, dispel magic, speak with dead, cause serious wounds (x2), divination, flame strike (x2.)

Seth the Huge: 6th level fighter, align: CE, chainmail and shield, +3 dexterity bonus, AC: 1, HP: 34, weapon: longsword, S: 16, I: 8, W: 5, D: 17, C: 11, CH: 12. Large and cruel looking.

Wormgear Bonegnawer: 6th level fighter, align: CE, chainmail and shield, +1 dexterity bonus, AC: 3, HP: 48, weapon: longsword, S: 16, I: 11, W: 14, D: 15, CH: 11.

TSR, too, is firming things up. In T1 The Village of Hommlet, stats are still being dropped into the middle of paragraphs, but they’re being completely contained in parentheses which are gaining a standardized form. A couple examples:

Canon Terjon (6th level cleric — S 11, I 10, W 16, D 12, C 16, Ch 8 — chain mail, shield +1, mace; 41 hit points; invisibility and mammal control rings; typical spells noted hereafter)

Jaroo Ashstaff (7th level druid — S 11, I 11, W 18, D 9, C 15, Ch 15 — HP: 44, padded armor, cloak of protection +2, staff of the snake, +1 scimitar, ring of invisibility; spells given below)

black bear (AC 7; HD 3+3, HP: 25; 3 attacks for 1-3/1-3/1-6 plus hug for 2-8 on a paw hit of 18)

two dogs (AC 7; HD 1+1, HP: 5, 4, 1 attack for 1-4 hit points of damage).

THE LONG, SLOW EXPANSION

By 1980, stat blocks were assuming standardized forms and TSR was creating editorial standards which applied to all their products.

AD&D stat blocks from T1-4:

Black Bear: AC 7; HD 3 +3; hp 25; #AT 3; D 1-3/1-3/1-6; SA Hug (if paw hit 18+); Dmg 2-8; XP 185

Jaroo Ashstaff: AC 6 (padded armor); Level 7 Druid; hp 44; #AT 1; D by weapon or spell; XP 1427; cloak of protection +2, ring of invisibility, staff of the serpent (python), scimitar +1

Standard druid abilities: identify plant type, animal type, pure water; pass without trace; immune to woodland charm; shapechange 3 times per day; +2 bonus to saving throws vs. lightning; q.v. PH page 21.

Spells normally memorized:
First level: detect magic, entangle, faerie fire, invisibility to animals, pass without trace, speak with animals
Second level: barkskin, charm person or mammal, cure light wounds, heat metal, trip, warp wood
Third level: cure disease, neutralize poison, summon insects, tree
Fourth level: cure serious wound, plant door

Spell lists are obviously, by their very nature, lengthy. But you can see how clean and elegant this standardized “stat-line” format is for the stat block. Albeit nearly incomprehensible when you first look at it, it doesn’t take much familiarity with the rules before this stat block becomes very easy to use by virtue of compactly presenting every piece of necessary information and putting it right at your fingertips.

BECMI stat blocks were largely identical:

Goblins. (2d4) AC 6; HD 1-1; hp 3 each; MV 90′ (30′); #AT 1; D 1d6; Save NM; ML 7; AL C; XP 5 each. Each goblin carries a spear and 2-12 ep.

Champion (7th level Fighter): AC 6; F7; hp 42; MV 120′ (40′); #AT 1; D 1d4 (+2 for magic weapon); Save F7; ML 9; AL L; XP 450.

And these stat blocks were largely unaltered when 2nd Edition rolled around. Here’s a sample from a late-2nd Edition module:

Behir: AC 4; MV 15; HD 12; hp 70; THAC0 9; #AT 2 or 7; Dmg 2d4/1d4+1 (bite and constriction) or 2d4/1d6 (bite/6 claws); SA once every 10 rounds can breathe bolt of lightning up to 20 feet long that inflicts 24 points of damage (save for half), swallow whole on an attack roll of 20 (victim loses % of starting hp until death on the 6th round, can cut himself out by attacking AC 7, but each round the victim spends inside the behir he faces a cumulative -1 damage penalty); SD immune to electricity and poison; SZ G (40′ long), ML Champion (15); Int Low (7); AL NE; XP 7,000

But here we can start making two additional observations. First, as the rules for a creature become more complicated, the short simplicity of the stat block begins to decay into a mass of incomprehensible text. Second, as rules for creatures become less dependent on a chart look-up keyed to Hit Dice, more information needs to be coded into the stat block (like THAC0), contributing to the “mass of text” feel.

Which brings us to 3E. Here every monster is made as customizable as a PC and their stat blocks balloon as a result. A sample:

Jot: Quasit; CR 3; Tiny outsider (chaotic, evil); HD 3d8; hp 18; Init +3 (Dex); Spd 20 ft., fly 50 ft. (perfect); AC 18; Atk +8/+8/+3 melee (1d3-1 and poison, 2 claws; 1d4-1, bite); Face/Reach 2 1/2 ft. by 2 1/2 ft./0 ft.; SA Poison; SQ Spell-like abilities, damage reduction 5/silver, poison immunity, fire resistance 20, alternate form, regeneration 1 (normal damage from acid and holy or blessed weapon); SR 5; AL CE; SV Fort +3, Ref +6, Will +4; Str 8, Dex 17, Con 10, Int 10, Wis 12, Cha 10.

Skills and Feats: Hide +15, Listen +6, Move Silently +6, Search +4, Spellcraft +4, Spot +6; Weapon Finesse (bite, claw)

Special Attacks: Poison: Claw, Fort save resists (DC 13), initial damage 1d6 Dex, secondary damage 2d4 Dex

Special Qualities: Spell-like abilities: At will, as 6th-level sorcerer (save DCs, where applicable, are 10 + spell level), detect good, detect magic, and invisibility; 1/day cause fear (as spell, except its area is a 30-ft. radius from quasit), 1/week commune (six questions) as 12th-level cleric; speak telepathically to any creature within 100 ft.; Alternate form: polymorph self to one or two Medium-size forms.

BACK TO BASIC PRINCIPLES

The initial 3E stat blocks were, frankly speaking, terrible. This was primarily the result of four things:

1. A desire to minimize the amount of space the stat block takes up. (Legitimately motivated by a desire to make sure the information all stayed relatively compact. The entire point of standardizing things into a stat block, after all, is to move away from the early, casual style of describing stats narratively.)
2. An early failure to prioritize key information. (This didn’t matter in the early stat blocks because they were only trying to code roughly a dozen pieces of information. When there’s only 12 pieces of information sitting there, it’s easy to find anything you’re looking for pretty much instantaneously. By the time 2nd Edition arrived, the stat block was commonly trying to code twice as much information. In 3rd Edition the information had more than quadrupled. And the amount of information being coded was increasing because of…)
3. A desire to include all of a monster’s pertinent stats. (The motivation here is to avoid needing to look up information somewhere else. THAC0 is the most pervasive example of this, but you can see a general trend by simply glancing at any of the stat blocks up above.)
4. A failure to minimize the presentation of certain information. (For example, is it necessary to include the “SV” abbreviation to prelude the saving throws? Probably not. Another example would be “speak telepathically to any creature within 100 ft.”. Can’t you just write “telepathy 100 ft.”? As with the 2E stat block, this is being complicated by another trend that dates back to 1977: A desire in the advanced rules to codify effects as precisely as possible to eliminate any doubt, confusion, or interpretation and create a “standard” version of the game. This combines poorly with a simultaneous desire to “include all the info you need in the stat block.”

In 2006, Wizards attempted to fix this problem by releasing a new stat block. It separated the information into five sections: Information for the start of an encounter, information for when the PCs are taking their turns, information for when the monster is taking its turn, non-combat information, and explanatory text.

They weren’t alone. That same year, Monte Cook introduced a revised stat block in Ptolus. It used a similar use of white space, but chose to focus on separating out “crucial” information.

Paizo also revisited the Wizards stat block for Pathfinder. They kept the concept of dividing the stat block into multiple sections, but specifically labeled the sections and integrated a section describing tactics right into the middle of the stat block (Defense, Offense, Tactics, Statistics).

What strikes me as interesting about all of these efforts, however, is the degree to which they effectively concede the battle. All of these revised stat blocks are essentially indistinguishable from entries in the MM. In other words, by 2006, most of the industry had basically given up on the idea of the “adventure stat block”.

To put it another way: The had chosen to prioritize key information (#2) and maintained a desire to include all pertinent information (#3). They had worked to minimize the presentation of certain information (#4), but essentially given up on the idea of minimizing the amount of space the stat block takes up (#1).

My opinion was this: I felt they had designed a fundamentally superior format for MM entries, but I felt that you could use similar principles to create a short stat block that could be more efficiently used in published adventures (and for prepping your own adventures). I laid out my thoughts on the matter and offered both a revised stat block and a short stat block for use with 3.5. (I haven’t done much with the former since then, but the latter has proven to be a consistent god-send in prepping and running my home campaign.)

LEGENDS & LABYRINTHS

Which brings us, at long last, to Legends & Labyrinths.

The short stat block for a monster in Legends & Labyrinths looks like this:

NAME (CR #): # hp; [adjustments]; Str #, Dex #, Con #, Int #, Wis #, Cha #; [skills]
Power 1 ([type]): quick description
Power 2 ([type]): quick description

GOBLIN HUNTER (CR 1): 10 hp; Speed 60 ft.; Str 11, Dex 13, Con 12, Int 10,
Wis 9, Cha 6; Hide +6, Listen +4, Move Silently +6, Ride +6, Spot +4.

SCYTHE DEMON (CR 8 ): 89 hp; Size L, Reach 10 ft.; Str 28, Dex 12, Con 14,
Int 11, Wis 13, Cha 13; Climb +25, Jump +25, Intimidate +14.
Damage Reduction 10/good
Fast Healing 15

This stat block assumes that you have a copy of the Challenge Rating Table from pg. 123 clipped to your DM’s screen. Based on the monster’s CR, that table gives you their HD, AC, attack bonus, attack damage, save bonus, and the saving throw DC for their special abilities.

If the idea of a chart look-up doesn’t thrill you, just use the full stat block:

NAME (CR #): # hp (HD), AC #, [attack] +# ([damage]), Save +#, Ability DC #, [adjustments].
Str #, Dex #, Con #, Int #, Wis #, Cha #
Skills: [skills]
Power 1 ([type]): full description
Power 2 ([type]): full description

GOBLIN HUNTER (CR 1): 10 hp (HD 2d8+1), AC 14, longsword +2 (1d6+1), Save +5, Ability DC 13, Speed 60 ft.
Str 11, Dex 13, Con 12, Int 10, Wis 9, Cha 6
Skills: Hide +6, Listen +4, Move Silently +6, Ride +6, Spot +4

SCYTHE DEMON (CR 8 ): 89 hp (HD 11d8+40), AC 20, scythe arms +14/+14 (2d8+4), Save +11, Ability DC 18, Size L, Reach 10 ft.
Str 28, Dex 12, Con 14, Int 11, Wis 13, Cha 13
Skills: Climb +25, Jump +25, Intimidate +14
Damage Reduction 10/good (Ex): The scythe demon ignores the first 10 points of damage from weapons and natural attacks. Good-aligned weapons ignore the scythe demon’s DR.
Fast Healing 15 (Ex): At the beginning of each turn, the scythe demon heals 15 hit points.

What about NPCs built using PC classes?

Well, NPC stat blocks are basically a blast from the past. Because of the way the game is built, you can get away with a short stat block:

Name (CR #): [Alignment] [Class] [Level],# hp (HD), AC # ([armor]), weapon +# ([damage]), Str #, Dex #, Con #, Int #, Wis #, Cha #.

Kruskoff Skullbeater: CN Fighter 6, 32 hp (6d10+6), AC 15 (chain shirt), longsword +10 (1d8+4), Str 18, Dex 13, Con 12, Int 10, Wis 8, Cha 11.

This shows you how quickly you can create NPCs on the fly: Jot down class, level, some ability scores, and whatever equipment you think they should have and the NPC is done and completely playable.

On the other hand, you can use the full stat block if you want to prep the derived stats and have them at your finger tips:

Name (CR #): [Alignment] [Class] [Level],# hp (HD), AC # ([modifiers]), weapon +# ([damage]).
Str #, Dex #, Con #, Int #, Wis #, Cha #
Fort +#, Ref +#, Will +#
Skills: [skills]

Kruskoff Skullbeater (CR 6): CN Fighter 6, 32 hp (6d10+6), AC 15 (+1 Dex, +4 chain shirt), longsword +10 (1d8+4).
Str 18, Dex 13, Con 12, Int 10, Wis 8, Cha 11
Fort +6, Ref +3, Will +1
Skills: Jump +13, Tumble +10

How can it be that simple? Because Legends & Labyrinths embraces the old school methodologies of character creation. Everything is derived from core statistics. This allows newcomers to immediately take full ownership of character creation, but it also provides a platform for the DM to create NPCs without a lot of rigamarole.

Even if you eventually decide to incorporate more advanced rules into character creation for your players, you’ll find yourself continuing to use Legends & Labyrinths as a platform for rapid generation of stock NPCs.

CLIMB INTO YOUR LABYRINTH AND FORGE YOUR LEGEND TODAY!

 

Today we’re going to take our first peek inside the actual Legends & Labyrinths Black Book Beta. And we’re starting literally on page 1 with the full introduction, including the example of play.

(click for PDF)

This should give you some idea of what the final look of the book will be. A couple of things to note: First, in this section of the rulebook I’m using the SRS to introduce concepts to new players. There’s a slightly more informal, instructional quality to them. (You’ll see what I mean.) The SRS references in the rest of the book are crisper and primarily serve as reference tools (as shown in the examples earlier this week).

Second, you’ll probably notice a few dreaded “page XXX” references. For the moment, these are intentional. They’re pointing to material that either (a) doesn’t exist in the Black Book Beta or (b) will have a different page number in the final rulebook (pretty much anything in the Grimoire, Treasury, or Bestiary). By leaving these “XXX” references in the Black Book Beta instead of replacing them with temporary references, we’re significantly reducing the chance of these references not getting properly updated for the final rulebook. (Finding “XXX” is easy; noticing a page reference which is now pointing to the wrong place is harder.) This is a conscious decision on my part to sacrifice some degree of quality in the Black Book Beta in order to make the final rulebook the best it can be.

If you spot any other errors or typos, though, you should totally light up the comments here or my inbox.

CLIMB INTO YOUR LABYRINTH AND FORGE YOUR LEGEND TODAY!

A little over a year ago I posted “Size Does Matter?“. This was, essentially, a response to James Maliszewski of Grognardia in which I looked at the size of each major edition of the game since 1974 excluding spells, monsters, magic items, classes, races, sample scenarios, and indices. (The theory being that adding more options within these categories is not necessarily adding bulk to the actual rules of the game.)

These are the numbers I came up with:

Original (LBBs only): 29 full pages (58 half-sheets)
Original (LBBs + 4 supplements): 64 full pages (128 half-sheets)
Holmes Edition: 19 full pages
Moldvay Edition (Basic + Expert): 64 full pages
BECM: 163 full pages
BECMI: 221 full pages
Rules Cyclopedia: 142 full pages
Advanced 1e (PHB, DMG, MM): 192 full pages
Advanced 2e (PHB, DMG, MM): 223 full pages
3e (PHB, DMG, MM): 257 full pages
3.5 (PHB, DMG, MM): 294 full pages

Where does Legends & Labyrinths land in this reckoning? 84 pages.

(The full rulebook will be somewhere between 180 and 200 pages, depending on exactly how much space the Grimoire and Bestiary entries take up.)

What does that tell us? Well, not much. It’s certainly not as “breezy” as Holmes (as Jeff Rients says), but for the most part this is just something to tuck away into the curiosity file.

The earliest design goal for Legends & Labyrinths was to reveal the slick, tight, elegant system at the heart of 3rd Edition.

Like most RPGs, I’ve found that the secret to mastering 3rd Edition lies in finding the core principles on which the system is built — the essential mechanics from which everything else is built. And some of the first material ever developed for the game (even before it was a game) was written for online messageboards where I was attempting to share this mastery by demonstrating the simple, flexible core of the game in concrete terms.

In other words, Legends & Labyrinths was born out of a simple methodology: If it’s not a core mechanic, it’s not in the game.

This methodology naturally led me to re-examine character creation. Although 3rd Edition had created a system which made it possible to customize your character in myriad ways, if I wanted to design a game that was specifically friendly to new players then I knew it was important for Legends & Labyrinths to feature a streamlined character creation system. (This is something I’ll talk about more in the future, but it’s a design goal which only grew in importance once I started running an open table.)

After many tribulations and the pursuit of more than a few false ideals, I eventually brought the classic trio of character creation to Legends & Labyrinths: (1) Roll ability scores. (2) Pick class and race. (3) Buy equipment.

Character creation, however, led me inexorably to monster creation. Just as the designers of 3rd Edition had given players unprecedented control over their characters, they also gave DMs an unprecedented suite of tools and rules for creating and modifying monsters. It’s an impressive and powerful system, but it can also be overwhelming and time-consuming.

My initial impulse, as with character creation, was to simply roll back the clock: Strip out all of the advanced guidelines 3rd Edition offers for monster creation, include a bestiary of a few hundred nasty creatures, and then just leave it up to the DM to eyeball whatever stats looked appropriate when creating new beasties. That’s basically the way it was handled back in my original Basic Set, after all.

After some initial playtesting, however, it became clear that some sort of system for monster creation was necessary. This system went through several iterations and design cycles (being completely scrapped and restarting from scratch on at least two occasions). The system as it exists today, however,  is heavily influenced from my experiences running the 1974 ruleset. What particularly struck me was that by simply setting a monster’s HD you immediately knew everything you needed to know about the monster’s stats. All you had to do was toss on a unique power or two and — blammo! — you had a monster. It was a process that took seconds, making it easy to spontaneously improvise entirely new creatures right at the game table without missing a beat.

It was out of this revelation that the Challenge Rating Table was born. (You can find it on page 123 of the Black Book Beta rulebook.) This table lies at the heart of the monster creation system in Legends & Labyrinths, and it led directly to the creation of what I came to think of as the “Three Pillars” of the game.

THE THREE PILLARS

The Three Pillars of Legends & Labyrinth are the monster creation system, the hazard/trap creation system, and the stunt system.

Let’s start with the monster creation system. Creating a monster in Legends & Labyrinths is a four step process:

1. Pick a challenge rating.
2. Select powers.
3. Assign ability scores.
4. Pick skills.

The CR of the creature determines is hit dice, armor class, attack bonus, attack damage, save bonus, the save DC for its special abilities, and the number of power ranks it receives. Powers are purchased using the monster’s power ranks, but the intention is that you pick a handful of significant powers and then quickly dump the rest into generic adjustments.

It should be noted that ability scores don’t modify any of the core stats determined by the monster’s CR. They only become relevant for ability score checks and skill checks. Nor are there any particular rules for picking the skills a monster gets: It’s assumed that the DM will exercise their best judgment in what skills a monster should possess.

(Playtest Tip: You want a copy of the Challenge Ratings Table on your DM screen. Just like the old “To Hit” tables, the CR table lets you pick a monster’s CR and then have all of its stats at your fingertips.)

When this simple, streamlined system finally clicked into place it was a major revelation. And I realized that its basic structure could be used to solve the problem I was having with traps. Here we come to the Second Pillar, in which hazards and traps are designed in a four step process:

1. Pick a challenge rating.
2. Define area/targets.
3. Define effect.
4. Define defense.

(For traps you also need to define a trigger.)

As the monster creation system is based in the Challenge Ratings Table, the hazard/trap creation system is based around the Hazards table. This table is one-half old school and one-half 4th Edition’s page 42. It contains general check DCs, trained check DCs, save DCs, attack bonuses, attack damage, repeating damage, and one-shot damage for every challenge rating.

Finally, we have the stunt system. The Legends & Labyrinths stunt system is a flexible method for allowing characters to perform unusual maneuvers during combat. A stunt can allow a character to apply a bonus to another character (or themselves), apply a penalty to another character, boost their speed or the speed of an ally, force opponents to move, or apply a variety of conditions to opponents. Resolving a stunt is a three step process:

1. Define the effect of the stunt (which determines the DC).
2. Perform the stunt by making the appropriate action check (usually a skill check).
3. If successful, the target of the stunt may attempt a stunt save to negate its effect.

The DC of the stunt save is determined by the level or CR of the combatant performing the stunt, as shown on the Stunt Difficulty Class table.

USING THE THREE PILLARS

I started thinking of these systems — monster creation, hazard/trap creation, stunt creation — as the Three Pillars when I realized that the Challenge Ratings Table, the Hazards table, and the Stunt Difficulty Class table were all fundamentally joined. Not only do these tables share elements all cross-referenced by challenge rating (save DCs, attack bonuses, etc.), at a very real level they collectively form a single meta-table which defines the spine of the 3rd Edition ruleset.

(In fact, I actually considered unifying them all into one table for awhile. But I realized that although it can be useful to think of them as a single meta-table, from a utility standpoint they’re more effective as separate tables.)

What’s a reasonable save DC for a 9th level character? What’s a good target number for a skill check intended for a 15th level character? Whether you’re running Legends & Labyrinths or any 3rd Edition game, the meta-table of the Three Pillars gives you the answer (which you can then, of course, tweak to your heart’s content).

But more than that, I came to think of these systems as the Three Pillars because they form an important part of the foundation which makes up Legends & Labyrinths. One half of this game is “3rd Edition without the noise”; but the other half of the game is a suite of powerful new tools which can be used to revolutionize any 3rd Edition campaign.

CLIMB INTO YOUR LABYRINTH AND FORGE YOUR LEGEND TODAY!