There’s less than an hour left for the Legends & Labyrinths 8-Bit Funding project. As I write this, we’re sitting at $3,796. That may be where we end up, but with us getting so close to the $4,000 landmark I thought I’d make one final push (with a cheesy music video) to put us over the top.

Here’s what gets unlocked at the $4,000 landmark:

Beta Warriors ($12+) will receive Mini-Adventure 1: Complex of Zombies.

Labyrinth Prowlers ($30+) will receive both mini-adventures.

Labyrinth Exemplars ($50+) will receive both mini-adventures and a City Supplement of their choice.

Lords of the Labyrinth ($150+) will receive both mini-adventures and all three City Supplements (Dweredell, Aerie, and Anyoc).

CLIMB INTO YOUR LABYRINTH AND FORGE YOUR LEGEND TODAY!

Less than 24 hours remain!

Once this 8-Bit Funding project comes to a close, I currently have no way of offering the Black Book Beta for sale again. (If I can figure something out, of course, we’ll go for it.) So this may be your last chance to gain access to Legends & Labyrinths for several months: Don’t miss out!

It may also be your last chance to lock in these prices for the final PDF and print versions of the game.

And this is absolutely your last chance for many of the perks being offered here! (And to gain access to the exclusive Tomb of the Crypt Spiders adventure!) If you want artwork featuring your characters or a game session run by the designer or an exclusive, fancy-lookin’ t-shirt or your character’s name in the rulebook… This is it!

We’re also very close to our $3500 landmark, which will unlock extra bonus perks for contributors. So spread the word!

CLIMB INTO YOUR LABYRINTH AND FORGE YOUR LEGEND TODAY!

I’ve talked quite a bit about how Legends & Labyrinths maintains 100% compatibility with 3rd Edition. This is awesome not only because it unlocks the thousands of 3E adventures and supplements in your L&L campaign, but because it also turns your 3E core rulebooks into supplements for L&L. Is there stuff in those “supplements” that you really love? Did I cut something you love in my merciless and heartless quest to streamline the game down to its most basic components? Just put it back in. That’s what supplements are for!

But the flip-side of that coin is that 100% compatibility also allows you to use Legends & Labyrinths as a supplement in your 3E campaign. I’ve talked about big examples like the hazard creation system, stunt system, and monster creation system, but there’s a lot of minor stuff that you’ll find useful regardless of what version of 3rd Edition you’re running.

THE FLY SKILL

“Justin, if your goal is to simplify the system why are you adding new rules?”

Often because adding a single, efficient rule is often the best way to replace and simplify an overly complicated system.

For example, the game has been saddled with an overly-complicated system for handling flying characters ever since Gygax decided to base the original rules on a WWI wargame. By adding a Fly skill to the game, I was able to boil the flight rules down to three paragraphs. If you, like me, have always wanted a set of flight mechanics that won’t bog down play, then L&L can give you that. (By and large, it works like any other form of movement in the game… except, of course, you can fly.)

AERIAL DISTANCE TABLE

This is a tool I originally developed for Rule Supplement 2: Flight (which is still MIA). Basically, if you’re standing on the ground and you’re trying to shoot an arrow at a guy flying 50′ away and flying 90′ above your head (or standing on a cliff)… how far is that?

The Pythagorean Theorem is fun, but this table is faster.

WEIGHT GUIDELINES

“Okay, let’s try to lift the boulder. How much does it weigh?”

I don’t know about you, but this sort of thing happens all the time at my table. I eventually broke down and just did the research so that I’d always have the answer handy, and now I’ve made it handy for you: It’s on the Object Substance Guidelines table right next to hardness and hit points.

I’ve also added an Object Construction Guidelines table to give you some basic guidance in estimating appropriate Break DCs for various objects. Like any guideline, you need to use some common sense. But I’ve actually used this table to estimate how difficult it would be for a high-level character to break a building in half. That was pretty awesome.

AND MORE…

Basically, Legends & Labyrinths does more than just tear 3E down. In the process of streamlining the system, I’ve also worked hard to include all the little tools and tricks I’ve developed over the past decade.

So there’s all kinds of stuff: A better system for building encounters. A system for handling off-mission training. The encumbrance system that’s not only usable, but also fun to use. Simplified mounted combat. Simplified grappling. A basic system for wilderness exploration. Social ranks. Rules for crowds. The guideline on how far a character falls each round. Putting the donning time for armor onto the armor table. Putting splash weapons on the weapons table.

Legends & Labyrinths is designed to give you a streamlined foundation for your fantasy roleplaying. But it’s not born out of the belief that rules are the enemy. It’s born out of the belief that having the right rules is more important than having the most rules.

CLIMB INTO YOUR LABYRINTH AND FORGE YOUR LEGEND TODAY!

I’ve culled out some of the more popular responses to Beta Response 2: The Human Feat and here’s a quick poll. You can vote for multiple options, so lemme know all the ones that look like a good idea to you.

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A few of my quick thoughts on this discussion:

I’m surprised by how popular the idea of Improved Initiative is. I’ve always considered it a fairly weak feat and this was an opinion shared by most of the designers I knew back in the day. Poking around, I can see that it seems to have become popular in the CharOp community 4-5 years ago. Which I suppose makes sense given the set of artificial suppositions the CharOp community generally works in. I’d be interested in hearing a greater elaboration on why people think it’s a must-have feat.

I considered the various “+2 to save X” feats when I was first designing the human. Since any choice seemed fairly arbitrary, I backed away from it. But Iron Will makes sense to me.

The +2 bonus to stunt checks sounds really nifty. I’m hesitant to tie it to an L&L-specific system like that (because I know that part of the appeal of L&L for many people is their ability to parcel out portions of it for utility in their 3E campaign), but it’s definitely got some nice flair to it.

People are starting to talk about Legends & Labyrinths. Let’s take a peek…

Let’s start off with Old School Hack:

He’s got a stripped-down version of 3E that you should support at his site. If for no other reason, it’s got an “encounter budget” system, and a “trap budget” system so you can quickly whip up stuff for the PCs to face without getting bogged down in all the numbers, checks, and balances. It is worth a look!

Legends & Labyrinths: First Impressions from Dreams and Dice:

“There are a lot of neat systems in the book (for stunts, building encounters, and so on), but the one that takes the cake has to be the Sidebar Reference System (SRS). It’s so simple and yet so useful that I can’t believe we’ve spent more than a decade with 3rd Edition (in various forms) and not seen something like this become standard. Whenever rules text (such as a class ability) references another mechanical item (such as the entangled condition or saving throws) or any other item that could send you scrambling to another part of the rulebook to fully understand the rules in question, the mechanic is highlighted in the main text and then described in full in the page’s sidebar. This minimizes page-turning, and also keeps rules text succinct and easy to read if you do remember the mechanic in question, so you’re not forced to slog through long-winded parenthetical notations.

Personally, I think the book’s notable for this alone.

Games I Want to Run from The Wandering Gamist:

The monster design rules are a real standout; I am fairly confident I could put monsters together during play with it, and that they’d be about right in terms of CR. That’s an awesome thing in a 3.x derivative…

The hazard design system is also very cool, providing a quick way to generate CRs for all manner of traps, perilous crossings, and environmental hazards. The stunt system provides a mechanism very similar to Traveller’s task chains, as well as flexible combat options; I wasn’t impressed on first read, but going back for a second, it actually looks pretty slick. The skill system is kind of nice and simple; you’re considered at max ranks for all of your class skills. If you have a low Int, you choose a number of class skills equal to your penalty to not know. Very straightforward, and it means that you’re good at the things your class is supposed to be good at; similar to Iron Heroes‘ skill groups in that regard, but a damn sight less complicated. Other highlights were some notes on wilderness adventures, good rules for hirelings and henchmen, and a number of unusual slimes and molds which didn’t make into the 3.0/.5 DMGs (think along the lines of green slime, but different).

Legends & Labyrinths: First Impressions from Heromeblog:

I think that when I am ready to play 3rd edition again I will be using L&L as my system of choice. In many ways this book is a DMG and PHB in one. I also like the system for making monster, traps and npc’s. (…) If you know what Legends and Labyrinths is trying to do then I think it does just that very well. It has not lost any of the flavor of 3.5 and yet it looks like it can be easier and quicker too use.

Got a blog talking about L&L? Drop a link in the comments!

CLIMB INTO YOUR LABYRINTH AND FORGE YOUR LEGEND TODAY!