Legends FAQ v.1.01 (was: Question about Legends)

From: dani@netcom.com (Dani Zweig)

Date: Fri, 02 Apr 1993 16:38:47 +0000

Here's a second draft of a Legends FAQ.  Advice, corrections, revisions,
rewrites, are all welcome.  If you feel that a certain section is badly
written, you're probably right:  A better version would be welcome.  If
you think some important information or advice is missing, please jump in.
There are a number of sections here that are particularly weak, eg combat.
This is JUST A DRAFT.  Note that parts of this draft are taken from other
posters' writings, directly or indirectly.

-- Dani Zweig

==================================

INTRODUCTION TO LEGENDS

Table of Contents:
0. Preface
1. What is Legends?
2. How and where can I play?
3. What are the best setup options?
4. Okay, I'm set up.  Now what?  General advice.
5. Tell me more about status trees?
6. What is the formula for...?
7. How can I find out more?

0. Preface

The primary purpose of this document is to bring newer Legends players up
to speed.  Playing the game effectively requires far more information than
the rule books provide, and many players spend their first year or so
muddling about, rediscovering the mistakes other players have already made.
This document won't prevent that -- there are just to many game quirks to
discover, too many things that have to be learned the hard way -- but it
might shorten the learning period considerably.  For completeness, the
first sections of this document are addressed to the total novice.

1. What is Legends?

Legends is a commercial play-by-mail game.  Two hundred players start out
in a large, vaguely-D&D-like world and work to build up their power.  (The
comparison to D&D is a bit risky, because there is relatively little role
playing.  The emphasis is on accumulating military power, economic power,
magic, and/or personal abilities.)  The game is computer-moderated:  Every
two weeks or so, you fill out a turn sheet with codes for the actions you
wish your characters and forces to undertake, and mail it in, and a few
days later you receive an update giving the results of all your orders.
(There is no 'due date'.  Your turn will be run when it is received, with
the restriction that at least two weeks must pass between turns.)

Each game will be set in a world with its own history, geography, and
competing factions (political, military, religious, etc).  Victory in
Legends is generally a group victory for an entire faction:  Each player
will eventually select a faction to join, and work with other faction
members (there is usually a maximum of twenty-five members) to achieve
that faction's unique (secret) victory conditions.  Success in this game
requires a great deal of diplomacy with other players.

The game is relatively slow; it can be expected to last two or three years.
It also tends to be time-consuming.  A player can choose to play a minor
position, and only devote a couple of hours a turn to the game, but major
mature positions will typically take at least ten-twenty hours per turn in
planning, diplomacy, and order preparation.

2. How can I play?

In the US and Canada, Legends is run by

Midnight Games
130 E. Main, #305
Medford, OR, 97501
503-772-6301 (accounting)
503-772-7872 (games)
71241.455@compuserve.com

They'll send you the rules (3 books) for $15.  The setup and game-specific
information for "North Island Campaign" (the new setting for Legends) is
another $12.50.  Or you can join the longer-running "Realm of the Immortals"
setting for (I think) a $10 charge.  If you have questions about joining
(as opposed to questions about the rules, or about your turn in a specific
game), you can ask via their accounting line, or (I suppose) by email.

It's not cheap.  The cost of a turn depends on how many orders you choose
to give.  For the smallest positions (a major character adventuring
through the world) a 2-page turnsheet costing $5 is practical.  The most
expensive positions (an empire with up to thirty towns and armies and up
to forty characters) will eventually find themselves using the largest
turnsheet, which is 8 pages long and costs $24.  There are extra charges
for modifying economic activity and for issuing special orders (typically
orders which require human intervention, such as attempting diplomacy with
a major game character), but those charges tend to be small in comparision
with the base turn costs.

-----

In Austria:

SSV Klapf-Bachler OEG
Postfach 1205
8021 GRAZ
AUSTRIA

TEL.: A / 316 / 919327
FAX.: A / 316 / 910318

The accounts are runned with OES (Austrian Shillings) but SSV takes nearly
every kind of money and exchanges it for you at the current rate.
Service etc. is good (if you forget the high telephoning-costs).
Prices:
Hero-turn	50.- OES (around 7.- DM)
to
Kingdom-turn	150.- OES
Imperial-turn	230.- OES
			  + stamps (between 7 and 25.- OES)
because it is mailed as 'DRUCKSACHE'(printed??) for cheaper stamping costs
extras:
	Special action	20.- OES
	FAX in turns	5.- OES per page
	production sheet 20.- OES
	Gildenbrief (newsletter) 30.- OES per issue
				300.- OES for one year (12 issues)
If you would like to have your turnsheet back you could request it back
(extra letter 7.- to 15.- OES) or you could request your turn as a normal
letter (much more expensive 40.- OES to 80.- + OES) and your turn-sheet
is included automatically.

Modules are translated into german, as are rulebooks. However, it seems
that there's one game of NIC going to run in English here.

In The Netherlands:

The PBM-Express
PO-Box 885
NL-3300 AW  Dordrecht
The Netherlands.

Telephone: (NL) 78-316453
FAX      : (NL) 78-316474

Turns cost about 8,- Dfl  for a Hero Turn and other turns are
proportionally priced (compare with english or austrian prices.
ALso there is a page fee of 0.05 Dfl per printed page.

Special actions vary in price, from 2.50 Dfl for a simple standard
special action (like requesting victory conditions) to 5,- Dfl per
5 minutes processing time (done by the GM) this last option allows for
a lot of things, practically evrything that isn't covered by a standard
order. Also although interaction level is 2 (only talking to npc with id
between 1000 and 1200) you can do special actions with whoever you like,
from prisoners, to small npc's.

The newsletter costs 0.10 Dfl per page. This usually amounts to about
3,- Dfl.

Service is adequate, Special action results are *great* (the ones which
get their text from the GM)

Currently there is one game of New Crown of Avalon running here, which
accepts standby positions with a delay of about a month. Realm of the
Immortals starts end March '93 and NIC will probably start in SEPT/OKT.
All modules are in English.

-----

For the following sections, it is assumed that the reader has read all the
rulebooks.

3. What are the best setup options?

a. Position Type.

There is no best type.  The Hero is the cheapest and easiest to play.  The
Hero is also able to reach skill- and ability-levels which no other
character can equal, such as level-31 spell-caster, or level-20 tactician.
It's a good toe-in-the-water position type for trying out the game.  It's
also deadly in cooperation with a location-owner, who can provide the
resources to take advantage of the Hero's special abilities.

The Overlord is at the other extreme.  The Overlord starts out with six
weak characters -- and a large population and resource base.  As remarked
above, an Overlord who can field over a hundred soldiers, and a Hero who
can train and lead them, can be a deadly combination.  This position is a
lot less character-oriented and a lot more logistics-and-economics driven.

The Mercenary is a popular compromise between these options.  The
mercenary starts off with a smaller location than the Overlord, and only
four characters, but one of those characters is almost as good as a Hero.

Take away the Mercenary's location and give him two more minor characters,
and you've got the Adventurer position.  This position is optimized for
early combat against monsters and small villages.

b. Character Options
[Note:  I don't agree with some of this, but it's a good starting point.]

There are four basic main character types - an influencer, an arcanist, a
covert, and a fighter.  Coverts (assassins or thieves) are a completely
different ball of wax, which people select if they have a particular
interest in such a position, so I'm not going to include it in this
discussion. If you're playing by yourself, take an influencer or arcanist.
If you're playing a heroic position, you get enough points to be strong in
two facets.  An influencer has a difficult growth curve without allies.  If
you're playing by yourself, I'd recommend taking max arcane skill with the
balance put into combat.

Other important aspects - tactics and admin/eng.  If you ever hope to lead
soldiers, you want high tactics.  If you ever hope to manage a decent
population, you want a decent admin/eng.

If you are running a heroic position, you want to choose two of the four
types above and maximize points.  Good combinations are arcane/fighter,
influencer/arcane, or covert/fighter.  I personally like knight/seer/
assassins.

Knight is for training troops, seer is the best arcane, and assassin is for
defensive purposes and to allow training of fey knights.  I would recommend
taking an arcanist/fighter (put all of your points into PC and an arcane
skill, and then spend all of your actions practicing influence).  Give
your secondary support skills, such as priest, ranger druid (for gathering
resources), bard (for gathering resources or blessing characters), and
fighting skills.  I typically choose ranger, a weapon skill, and priest or
an arcane, so my secondary is decent at combat from day one.  A secondary
priest is nice when you choose a religion which has a holy symbol which
gives priest levels.  If your holy symbol gives you +3 levels, then you
can start with priest 6 and jump to level 15 in no time at all.

For a merc, you may want to put all of your primary's points into an arcane
skill and the rest into tactics, while giving one of your secondaries maximum
admin value.  Make one secondary an admin, one a fighter type, and one a
support (priest/ranger is good).

> Should I put points into personal statistics?

Personal statistics can't be increased through training.  On the other
hand, their benefits tend to be subtle.  As a general rule, put a few
points into personal statistics if you have specific objectives, and not
otherwise.  For example, you may want to increase your strength and
dexterity so that you can use a particular weapon.  You may want to put a
couple of points into beauty if you are an influencer.  You may want to
increase your dexterity if you are designing a thief.

> Useful arcane skills:

Seers.  Seers have the useful and underutilized "Scry Force" spell.  They
also have access to seers crystals, which give three free spell points.
Because a seer can equip two crystals, this allows six points off the cost
of any spell and nine points off the cost of any seer spell.

Summoners.  Summoners get spells which can be invaluable to a starting
position, including "Gather Special Resource", "Find Familiar", and
"Summon Winterblast".

Druids.  Druid spells are useful in support of a location-based position.

Many arcane skills have some very useful spells, but aren't good skill
choices.  Unless you are planning to play a very specialized position, you
probably don't want to be an illusionist, a necromancer, an enchanter, or
a warlock, for example.

4. Okay, I'm set up.  Now what?  General advice.

>- What should one do on the first few turns

If you're a merc or overlord, create a bunch of forces each with a single
soldier and send them out to scout your area.  Have them attack any
locations that look weak enough for you to conquer.  If you're a merc, then
all of your characters should practice PC until they're good enough to be in
a combat slot.  That way, your characters gain PC and tactics without spending
actions.  The exception is a secondary priest, who should practice priest
until level 10, at which point he can make holy symbols, which will
probably give him PC and maybe levels (which might move him to 15th, which
allows casting of Bestow Divine Blessings, which will probably also give
you PC, at which point he can enter a combat slot *and* cast decent priest
spells).

One specialized option is the Hero Influencer.  This strategy calls for
the Hero to start with maximum influence, in or near a large city, and
immediately start influencing non-player characters.  If the Hero also
has a Bless spell, it can be used to double the effective influence.  At
these levels, recruiting minor NPCs becomes very easy, though location
owners and major characters will be impossible to influence because of the
player's low starting prestige.  It's hard for a Hero to break the vicious
circle of low prestige alone.  A common tactic, however, is to team up
with one or more other players who can conquer villages, towns, and lairs,
and have them gift those acquisitions to the influencer, who can then use
the prestige to acquire larger locations and guilds for the alliance.

>- General dos and don'ts

A good way to take out tough lair monsters is with lots of soldiers.  You can
use a very few soldiers to eliminate the strength of both magical attacks and
special attacks, and it's easier to get a lot of AF from training more
soldiers than from improving characters.

While villages, towns, castles, and cities give you lots of population and
equipment with which to build armies, you get cool character items from lairs
and ruins, and it's worthwhile to occasionally deviate from your conquest and
take out a nearby lair monster for goodies.

>- Common mistakes

Don't send mounted soldiers against walls.  Don't rely on mount special attack
to kill lair monsters, because the soldiers dismount before entering the lair.
Don't use the conquer and enslave order unless you have to deprive an enemy
of population you can't defend.

Until you get the feel for monster strengths, don't attack anything but small
villages without scouting them first.  And small villages will probably give
you the unskilled to train up scouts.

If you didn't enter the game with a specific faction in mind, hold off
until you've communicated with your neighbors, and found out what faction
they have in mind.  Joining a faction that nobody on your side of the
map is interested in is a dead end.

5. Tell me more about status trees?

Starting characters are fairly weak, and training will only take you so
far.  There are spells (and other mechanisms), however, which allow a
player to acquire a special "status".  The benefits of such a status can
include bonuses to personal statistics and abilities, special attacks, and
the ability to 'afflict' other characters or soldiers with special statuses.

Once a status has been acquired, the player is said to be on that status's
"status tree", and has the ability to 'morph', or advance to higher levels
of that status, gaining successively greater bonuses and abilities.  It is
possible to morph spontaneously, at month-end, but most advancement occurs
during combat.  Most status trees have four or five levels, with players
at the top-most levels being demi-godlike in power.  There are many status
trees, some of them secret.  The generally available statuses are: Blessed,
Enchanted, Netherworld, Vampyre, and Hero.

Blessed status is most commonly achieved by having a priest of your
religion cast the third-level spell "Bestow Divine Blessings".  The status
tends to have weaker bonuses than other major statuses, but it tends to
offer special advantages for priests of the appropriate religion.  (The
advantages vary from religion to religion.)

Enchanted status is most commonly achieved by having a magic user learn
and cast the fourth-level spell "Enchant Character".  This is a generally
well-round status, which provides bonuses to combat and to influence.

Netherworld status can be achieved by having a magic user learn and cast
the fourth-level spell "Netherworld Possession".  It provides excellent
combat bonuses.  In "Realm of the Immortals", you can keep the basic
Netherworld status -- which allows you to spread the status to other
characters, and to train soldiers with that status, too, but is incapable
of morphing -- or afflict yourself with Nethermorph, which can morph to a
higher status, but loses the ability (till the fourth rung of the tree) to
afflict characters or solidiers.  In "North Island Campaign", the ability
to train netherworld soldiers has been restricted.

The Vampyre status tree is the most powerful of the 'common' statuses.
The combat and statistics bonuses are excellent, and the second, third,
and fifth rungs of the tree can afflict characters and soldiers with
increasingly powerful statuses.  Influence is increased vis-a-vis other
undead, but the living don't trust vampyres as much, for some strange
reason.  There are also a lot of anti-undead spells in the game.  This
status is hard to get.  There is the 5th-level "Rite of the Vampyre"
spell, but it costs 35 spell points and requires that the subject be dead
first.  A priest can cast a "Commune" spell and ask (okay, bribe) a diety
into granting Vampyre, or even Greater Vampyre.  You can talk, bribe, or
charm a Greater Vampyre or a Vampyre Lord into afflicting you with the
status.  And, as with all statuses, there are various magical items which
have a chance of granting the status.

If you have no status, you may eventually acquire the status of Local Hero
spontaneously, in combat, if you are using a good power weapon.

Some statuses will be better for your position than others, but the
general advice for reaching a high status is to get onto a decent status
tree, do it as soon as you can, and then get into a lot of combats.

6. What is the formula for...?

a. Practicing.

Skills or Personal Combat:  5% * (22 - level)
Tactics:  4% * (22 - level)
Influence:  3% * (22 - level)

In addition, if you practice in the appropriate guild, the guild's level
is added to your chance.

It's supposed to be possible to increase your chances by spending money, but
I don't know how that works, or whether you need to be in a guild for that.

There is always at least a 10% chance of success.

b. Spell Research.

There are a number of formulae floating around, but there is some
disagreement as to how they should be used, and there is reason to
suspect that they change from module to module.  Here are some rules
of thumb that won't lead you too far astray:

a) You should be 10th-level to research a 1st-level spell, 20th-level to
     research a 2nd-level spell, 30th-level for a 3rd-level spell, etc.

b) Add a spell level if you're inside a good magic guild and another
     spell level if you are willing to spend triple or quadruple the base
     research cost.

Example:  A 25th-level spell-caster in a 25th-level guild would have
  a reasonable shot at researching a 3rd-level spell, should spend 1600
  crowns -- rather than the usual 400 -- when trying to research a 4th-
  level spell, and shouldn't *think* of trying a 5th-level spell.

c. Influencing

The key factors affecting influence attempts are prestige, loyalty,
influence, race, and religion.  First, if the target has any prestige at
all, you maximum chance of succeeding can't exceed 30%.  Assuming your
prestige is higher.  It is almost impossible to influence a target whose
prestige is higher than yours.  Specifically, every point difference (in
that directions) lowers your effective influence by 10 points.  Expect
minor characters to have no prestige, minor location owners to have about
ten prestige point, important characters to have over twenty prestige
points, and major characters to have over thirty.

There are also significant penalties if the target is of a different race.
It's race-specific.  A human should expect to suffer a modest penalty with
a half-elf, for example, a substantial penalty with a full elf, and a
crushing penalty with a gargoyle.  There are also substantial penalties
for being the wrong religion.

Other factors?  Every skill you and the target have in common is worth
three points of influence.  It helps to be the opposite sex, and a bit
more attractive than the target.  If you try to influence a faction
leader, it probably helps to belong to that faction.

To influence a minor nonplayer character of your race and religion, you'll
probably need an influence rating of over ten.  To influence major characters
(who typically have excellent loyalty ratings or better), you'll want a
modified influence in the twenties or thirties.

d. Prestige.

You get 2 points for being a major character.  You get 1 point for every force
you acquire above your starting fifteen.  (Since you can only have thirty
forces, the drop-force order allows you to drop empty legions out of the game
without a loss in effective prestige.)  You also lose a point every time
you lose or give away a force.  Every guild owned by your main character is
worth one point.

I think there are bonus points for owning locations with large
populations, for owning high-level guilds (directly or via other
characters?), and possibly for influencing major characters, but I'm not
sure.

e. What does "so-so" mean?

The probability ranges given in the character action results appear to be:

Not a chance in seven hells -- 0%
Only a prayer - 1-14%
One slim chance - 15-24%
Poor - 25-34%
Below average - 35-44%
So-so - 45-54%
Above average - 55-64%
Good - 65-74%
Very good - 75-84%
Every advantage - 85-94%
No problem - 95%.

Note that you can never do better than 95% chance.

This translates to the following practice probabilities:

Current
Level   Skill & PC             Tactics              Influence
1        No problem 95%         Very good 84%        Above average 63%
2        No problem 95%         Very good 80%        Above average 60%
3        No problem 95%         Very Good 76%        Above average 57%
4        Every advantage 90%    Good 72%             So-so 54%
5        Every advantage 85%    Good 68%             So-so 51%
6        Very good 80%          Above average 64%    So-so 48%
7        Very good 75%          Above average 60%    So-so 45%
8        Good 70%               Above average 56%    Below average 42%
9        Good 65%               So-so 52%            Below average 39%
10       Above average 60%      So-so 48%            Below average 36%
11       Above average 55%      Below average 44%    Poor 33%
12       So-so 50%              Below average 40%    Poor 30%
13       So-so 45%              Below average 36%    Poor 27%
14       Below Average 40%      Poor 32%             One slim chance 24%
15       Below Average 35%      Poor 28%             One slim chance 21%
16       Poor 30%               One slim chance 24%  One slim chance 18%
17       Poor 25%               One slim chance 20%  One slim chance 15%
18       One slim chance 20%    One slim chance 16%  Only a prayer 12%
19       One slim chance 15%    Only a prayer 12%    Only a prayer 10%
20       Only a prayer 10%      Only a prayer 10%    Only a prayer 10%
>20      Only a prayer 10%      Only a prayer 10%    Only a prayer 10%

7. How can I find out more?

a. It doesn't sound reasonable for one player to learn all this.

It isn't:  Contact other players.  Trade information.  Many players build
up large stores of information, exploration results, etc., which they are
happy to offer their allies.  It's a two-way street, of course...

b. I've heard that there is a master-list of what items are in the game
   and what they do, of what monsters are in the game and what their
   combat statistics are, etc.

I don't know what you're talking about.  No, wait, now that I think about
it, I heard that someone posted such a list on Compuserve some time ago.
If you should get a copy, please share it with the rest of us.

References

Question about Legends
chrysop@leros.csd.uch.gr (Chrysopoulos Marios 484)
Sun, 28 Mar 1993 18:21:54 +0000