Introduction

Over 50 years ago, Dungeons and Dragons was created from the tabletop wargame, Chainmail and changed the gaming world forever. Chainmail itself being a more modern adaptation of traditional wargaming with rules for fantasy setting. Wargaming has a long history, but up to that point it hardly touched medieval gaming. When Dungeons and Dragons was created, it took the large-scale combat of Chainmail and made it possible to play as a single character rather than control armies. Adding in magic inspired by popular novels and media of the era, led to a change in fantasy for the next 50 years.

Unbound Legends seeks to build upon that long and rich history of gaming, not just of Tabletop Role Playing Games, but of Wargaming as well. Wargaming was about combat, pure and simple, and used rules to facilitate that. Unbound Legends seeks to reach back to those roots and build upon that foundation of a combat system. That is not to say that the role playing aspects are removed, far from it. They are just separated from the primary combat elements so that combat and role playing can be developed in tandem and given the attention that both need to be developed into something fun for each player.

Unbound Legends is presented as a medieval fantasy with swords and sorcery, bows and arrows, dragons and monsters, but it was designed to work in any setting, whether that is pistols and horses, cults and horrors, or blasters and spaceships. Each additional setting or genre only requires small adjustments to the rules or renaming of skills and abilities, and adding in setting appropriate equipment and enemies. How you play the game should be your decision, and not be limited by the ruleset.

In Unbound  Legends, we seek to make the game easy to understand.  The rules are available online for anyone to use and build from with guides to make your own version of weapons, armor, equipment, monsters, spells, and class and job archetypes available to all players. Many terms have been simplified, as much as they can, for easier understanding. Easier-to-understand rules with pre-built campaigns are also available to purchase as well where the game runs itself without the need for a Narrator called Infinite Legends.

To play the game, a Narrator (sometimes referred to as a Game Master or GM) tells the story. This can be pre-built and purchased, or the Narrator might design it from scratch. Other players will have their own characters that they play as through the adventure. These characters can be pre-built as part of a pre-designed campaign, provided by the Narrator, or the players can create them for that game.

Remember, the game is not about winning or losing, but rather it is a shared adventure for all players involved. When one adventure, quest, or campaign comes to an end, you can take those same characters on a new adventure, or even come up with all new characters to start a new adventure with. You might even want to take a chance at Narrating a game for other players using a pre-built module, or come up with your own story, world, and adventures.

How to Play

(Mostly) Platonic Solids

The game uses polyhedral dice with different numbers of sides. You can find dice like these in game store, online, or you can even use an app on your phone. In these rules, the different dice are referred to by the letter d followed by the number of sides - d4, d6, d8, d10, d12, and d20. For instance, a d6 is a six-sided die.

Percentile dice, or d100, work a little differently. You generate a number between 1 and 100 by rolling two different ten-sided dice numbered from 0 to 9. One die (designated before you roll) gives the tens digit, and the other gives the ones digit. If you roll a 7 and a 1, for example, the number rolled is 71. Two 0s represent 100. Some ten-sided dice are numbered in tens (00, 10, 20, and so on), making it easier to distinguish the tens digit from the ones digit. In this case, a roll of 70 and 1 is 71, and 00 and 0 is 100.

You may find it easier to use a dice rolling app for rolls like percentile dice, or if a dice roll calls for large number of dice to be rolled. This can help to speed up the flow of the game for many players, especially new players.

When you need to roll dice, the rules tell you how many dice to roll of a certain type, as well as what modifiers to add. For example, “3d8 + 5” means you roll three eight-sided dice, add them together, and add 5 to the total.

The Noble D20

For most of the game, you will be using a d20. This dice has triangle faces and looks the most like a sphere. You will be using this dice more than any other. The other dice will mostly be used just to roll damage for various weapons and spells while the d20 is used for skill rolls, the most common roll in the game. Every character and monster in the game has capabilities defined by eight attributes. The attributes are typically range from -2 to 4 for most adventurers. (Monsters might have attributes as low as -5 or as high as 10.) These attributes are the basis for almost every d20 roll that a player makes.

Attribute rolls, skill rolls, attack rolls, and defense rolls are the main kinds of d20 rolls, forming the core of the rules of the game. All follow these simple steps.

1. Roll the die and add a modifier. Roll a d20 and add the relevant modifier. This is typically one of the eight attributes, and it generally includes a skill bonus to reflect a character’s particular skill.

2. Apply circumstantial bonuses and penalties. A class feature, a spell, a particular circumstance, or some other effect might give a bonus or penalty to the check.

3. Compare the total to a target number. If the total equals or exceeds the target number, it is a success, otherwise, it’s a failure. The Narrator is usually the one who determines target numbers and tells players whether their attack, defense, or skill rolls succeed or fail.

Attributes and Skills provides more detailed rules for using the d20 in the game.

Gaming Terms

The following are concepts that affect all aspects of the game and may be unfamiliar to newer players.

Numbers

There are a few general rules to follow when dealing with number values weather that is multiplying or dividing.

Adventures

Unbound Legends consists of a group of characters embarking on an adventure that the Narrator presents to them. Each character brings particular capabilities to the adventure in the form of ability scores and skills, class features, ancestry traits, equipment, and magic items. Every character is different, with various strengths and weaknesses, so the best party of adventurers is one in which the characters complement each other and cover the weaknesses of their companions. The adventurers must cooperate to successfully complete the adventure.

The adventure is the heart of the game, a story with a beginning, a middle, and an end. An adventure might be created by the Narrator or purchased, tweaked, and modified to suit the Narrator’s needs and desires. In either case, an adventure features a fantastic setting, whether it’s an underground dungeon, a crumbling castle, a stretch of wilderness, or a bustling city. It features a rich cast of characters: the adventurers created and played by the other players at the table, as well as nonplayer characters (NPCs). Those characters might be patrons, allies, enemies, hirelings, or just background extras in an adventure. Often, one of the NPCs is a villain whose agenda drives much of an adventure’s action.

Over the course of their adventures, the characters are confronted by a variety of creatures, objects, and situations that they must deal with in some way. Sometimes the adventurers and other creatures do their best to kill or capture each other in combat. At other times, the adventurers talk to another creature (or even a magical object) with a goal in mind. And often, the adventurers spend time trying to solve a puzzle, bypass an obstacle, find something hidden, or unravel the current situation. Meanwhile, the adventurers explore the world, making decisions about which way to travel and what they’ll try to do next.

Adventures vary in length and complexity. A short adventure might present only a few challenges, and it might take no more than a single game session to complete. A long adventure can involve hundreds of combats, interactions, and other challenges, and take dozens of sessions to play through, stretching over weeks or months of real time. Usually, the end of an adventure is marked by the adventurers heading back to civilization to rest and enjoy the spoils of their labors.

But that’s not the end of the story. You can think of an adventure as a single episode of a TV series, made up of multiple exciting scenes. A campaign is the whole series — a string of adventures joined together, with a consistent group of adventurers following the narrative from start to finish.

The Three aspects of Adventuring

The game of Unbound Legends is divided into three aspects: Combat, Exploration, and  Social Interaction. These help define the different ways that your character might interact with the world. All these elements together combine into a fully fleshed out Adventure.

Unbound Legends, being a game that has its roots in Wargaming, is a game about Combat. Your character class, levels, equipment, spells, etc. are there to support that idea. Combat will most often take the largest portion of time when you are playing the game while conversely, it will be the smallest part of your character's lives from the in-game time perspective. For this reason, the majority of the rules will apply to combat.

Just because Unbound Legends is a game about combat at its core, doesn't mean that non-combat elements of Interaction are ignored in any way. If anything we try to give these elements their own set of rules and mechanics to give them a chance to stand out more and be more separate from Combat. To facilitate this, all non-combat elements have been stripped from the Combat Classes and moved to a unique class called a Job Class. Your skills and features that are designed to be used out of combat will be developed in your Job Class the way that combat is developed in the Combat Class.

Your Job Classes form the backbone of Exploration and Social Interaction. Certain classes will focus more on Exploration elements while others will focus more on Social Interaction. That is not to say that elements of your Job won't be useful in combat, nor does it mean that your spells and abilities from your Combat Class can't be used outside of combat, in fact, there are rules just for those scenarios. Some of the Jobs are designed to support adventuring by helping you be better prepared for combat, others help you avoid combat or talk your way out of difficult situations, while others simply help you get from point A to point B better.

You can view Exploration and Social Interaction as two sides of the same coin. If you are trying to get into a city and guards are stopping you, you can use either Exploration or Social Interaction to resolve the problem. Do you try to talk with the guards to let you through, or maybe intimidate them to let you go? You could sneak past them or climb over the city walls. Either choice could work, but your Job will provide tools to make one method better than the other, but the choice and method will be up to you.

No matter what Class and Job you choose, you will find that you can contribute and be useful both in and out of combat.

The Wonders of Magic

Few Unbound Legends adventures end without something magical happening. Whether helpful or harmful, magic appears frequently in the life of an adventurer, and it is the focus of Spellcasting and Spells.

In the worlds of Unbound Legends, practitioners of magic are rare, set apart from the masses of people by their extraordinary talent. Common folk might see evidence of magic on a regular basis, but it’s usually minor—a fantastic monster, a visibly answered prayer, a wizard walking through the streets with an animated shield guardian as a bodyguard.

For adventurers, though, magic is key to their survival. Without the healing magic of priests and other divine casters, adventurers would quickly succumb to their wounds. Without the uplifting magical support of a synergist or a druid, warriors might be overwhelmed by powerful foes. Without the sheer magical power and versatility of wizards and mages, every threat would be magnified tenfold.

Magic is also a favored tool of villains. Many adventures are driven by the machinations of spellcasters who are hellbent on using magic for some ill end. A cult leader seeks to awaken a god who slumbers beneath the sea, a hag kidnaps youths to magically drain them of their vigor, a mad wizard labors to invest an army of automatons with a facsimile of life, a dragon begins a mystical ritual to rise up as a god of destruction—these are just a few of the magical threats that adventurers might face. With magic of their own, in the form of spells and magic items, the adventurers might prevail!

Character Creation

Your first step in playing an adventurer in the Unbound Legends game is to imagine and create a character of your own. Your character is a combination of various statistics, roleplaying hooks, and your imagination. You choose your Origins, Combat Class, Job Class, Talents, and choose any additional Equipment. Once completed, your character serves as your representative in the game, your avatar in the Unbound Legends worlds.

Before you create your character think about who your character is. Each section is just a part of who your character is and weaves the tapestry that makes your character unique. These options will serve as guides as you find your character in the world, as the choices you make as you play your character might shape them as much as your initial character concept. Your Ancestry and Lineage, are mostly a collection of physical traits and mannerisms, while your Heritage and Background is how and where you grew up. Your job represents how you interact with the world outside of combat, and your class being how you deal with the dangers you encounter as you adventure through the world. 

Once you have a character in mind, build your character in whatever order makes the most sense to you, the order doesn't much matter. Some players start with a combat class in mind, figuring out their role in combat first, then building from there. Others might start with their attributes and their origin, building their character up from birth until they started on an adventure, neither is right or wrong.

Your Character's Attributes

Much of what your character does in the game depends on eight attributes: Strength, Endurance, Dexterity, Agility, Intelligence, Cunning, Acuity, and Will. Each attribute has a value, which you record on your character sheet. The attributes below provides a quick reference for what qualities are measured by each attribute and what character might consider particularly important.

The number 0 represents the average, but adventurers and many monsters are a cut above average in most abilities. The number 5 is the highest that a person usually reaches, with most NPCs never going higher than 2. Adventurers can potentially have numbers as high as 6, with monsters and supernatural beings having numbers as high as 10. Attributes in the negative exist and represent someone who is less than the average in that area.

You can generate your character’s eight attribute scores randomly. Roll a 6-sided dice subtract 3 and record the total on a piece of scratch paper. Do this seven more times, so that you have eight numbers. If you want to save time or don’t like the idea of randomly determining ability scores, you can use the following scores instead: -2, -1, 0, 1, 1, 2, 2, 3. You will want to take these eight numbers and write each number beside one of your character’s eight attributes to assign values to Strength, Endurance, Dexterity, Agility, Intelligence, Cunning, Acuity, and Will.

Leveling up

As your character goes on adventures and overcomes challenges, your character gains experience or levels. A large part of playing Unbound Legends is gaining levels, and play often begins at 1st level where your character would be most inexperienced about the greater world and its dangers, but not always. Depending on how you are playing the game, you might start at a higher level, or join a campaign already in progress. Your character's level has the most effect on your class and the features gain each level.

As you play the game, your Narrator will inform you when your character gains a level. This might be done to all players at once, or on an individual basis. Your character might gain levels when you reach a milestone in the game, after completing and gaining some powerful relic, trained with a master, or killed enough powerful enemies. However this is done is decided between you and your Narrator.

 Your class will have a table listed with all the features and abilities your character gains as their level goes up, as well as information on gaining Health, Vitality, Talents and combat skills. Each time you gain a level in a combat class, you gain 1 additional Vitality Die. Roll that Vitality Die, add your Endurance to the roll, and add the total (minimum of 1) to your vitality maximum. Alternatively, you can use the fixed value shown in your class entry, which is the average result of the die roll (rounded up). If your Endurance increases by 1, your vitality maximum increases by 1 for each level you have attained. If you increase your Strength by 1, your health increases accordingly.

In addition, your character's skill rank maximum can increase at certain levels. When a skill is untrained, it has no bonus, with trained, or rank 1, representing +2, proficient is a +4, expert is +6, and master, at rank 4, is +8. You can have a skill boost in certain skills and sub-skills, but only ever one skill boost per sub-skill. Certain class and job features let you have a second skill boost per sub-skill.

The Character Advancement table shows your progression from level 1 through level 20, specifically your Action Point dice and the maximum skill rank you can have. Consult the information in your character’s class and job descriptions to see what other improvements you gain at each level.