Legends Walk!, A roleplaying game of superheroes empowered by the gods, heroes and monsters of mythology
Written by Tim Gray/timgray

• Where Are the Pritty Pikturs? Other than a nifty page border, LW! has no art. Given the density of the text, the size of the font, and the overall page count (170), this leads to a tiring read.
  
• Lay(ab)out. The layout is a little sketchy, and probably related to the lack of art: several pages (usually at the end of chapters) give a quarter-column of text and three-quarters of a dead white page. For whatever reason, this also sapped my energy while reading.
  
• The Who to the What Then? The game occasionally makes reference to setting/cosmology-specific concepts in the early pages that aren't really defined until pages -- or chapters -- later (the Gate, M-Space, kamitech). This happens just enough to be mildly irritating.
  
• Specialization to Setting and/or Style While the underlying system and concepts of LW! are quite adaptable for running a superhero RPG, I strongly suspect that even if attempted, a certain distinct stamp will be left on the resulting game. That is, while you can divorce the system and concepts from the setting and style, elements of the setting and style will probably bleed right through. LW! is not the sort of system I'd use to play a typical four-color, Golden Age, Silver Age, or otherwise classic sort of superhero game -- though Bronze Age and Grim 'n Gritty would probably play pretty well.
  

• Light & Crunchy! The underlying LODE system is interesting. It's both light and crunchy at the same time. (Maybe the term should be "nuggety.") While more complex than Risus, PDQ, or Over the Edge, it is certainly less complex than Big Eyes, Small Mouth or d20/OGL style games. On first reading, I'd say it's about as complex as FATE or a more numbers-centric Marvel Superheroes Advanced Set. Plenty of intriguing ways to equate Advantages, Disadvantages, Powers, and various Forces. While a little unwieldy to understand just by reading, I suspect that the game runs intuitively once you get into the swing of things.
  
• Mythology Makes Metas! The underlying conceit of mythological and legendary beings empowering superheroes is a cool one. LW! lays out a number of thoughtful "power programmes" for a number of mythic beings -- shopping lists for characters that are empowered by said being. Fairly flexible, too: one could have a four person team empowered by one Celtic god, and each character could have distinct abilities and personality quirks granted by that single Source.
  Furthermore, while the selection of pantheons is somewhat limited in the corebook (supplements change this, I believe) -- just Greco-Roman, Norse, Celtic, and Angelic -- the real mythological information contained within the power programmes is of excellent quality and brevity.
  
• Diamonds in a Setting. While some of the ideas in the base setting are fairly basic, a few really shine and are eminently snatchable for any sort of superhero campaign. I particularly liked the idea of Telenesia, "a nation that transcends geography," composed of numerous small flying floating islands. And there's just something about King Arthur's elimination of hereditary peerages in the UK in favor of life peerages -- and officially handing Northern Ireland to Eire's Finn mac Cool that tickles me.
  Also, there are some interpolated "goodies" -- like a page from a schoolchild's textbook and a "parapsychiatry" text -- which are very neat.
  
• Adventure Seeds a' Sprouting! The short Adventure Seed Generator (adapted from the Underworld RPG) is a great little tool for any superheroic campaign, and the "Some of These Things May Be True" chapter also provides some punch.
  
• Brief Designers Notes Included. One of the last chapters is a cross between Designer's Notes and an overview of the author's perspective on superhero stories. While short, it's pleasingly direct and clear.
  

• If you're a big fan of both mythology and superheroes; enjoy rulesets that are on the "light" side but still desire some crunchy rigor; and can buy into the central conceit -- buy this book. It's only $9.50 for 170 pages of hot PDF action. There are some system features and and setting aspects really worth exploring in LW!, and with a very small amount of tweaking and judicious dollops of urban fantasy type stuff, it could easily run a Mage: the Hero Discovered or Mage: the Hero Defined game.
  However, if you're looking for a general supers game, characters to steal and cannibalize, or are on the extreme ends of the super-light vs. super-crunchy spectrum, I'd seriously check out the support and taster files on the Silver Branch site here first.
  

Tags: gaming, underkoffler's overviews
Current Mood: all mythological 'n ****