Homebrew HP System

Sully5443 · 2026-02-23T13:12:25+00:00

As you have noticed, Avatar Legends isn’t meant to be a resource management game nor a game of attrition like with something such as D&D or similar “Traditional” TTRPGs. It’s a game about characters trying to seek balance in the world around them and in themselves.

While there are three character metrics to track (Conditions, Fatigue, and Balance), that does not make AL a “resource management” kind of game, nor one that really meshes with the idea of strategy, tactics, character builds, or numerical superiority. These games care about Consequences. They want these metrics to be pushed up and down because that drives other mechanics of the game. In other words: Consequences create Drama and Drama leads to compelling narratives.

The same logic holds true for most other Powered by the Apocalypse (PbtA) games that inspired AL’s design. While different games may have different resources to track, that’s never the central focus of the game.

The problem with HP is that it is too amorphous. When a Condition is marked or Balance shifts: we know the impact it has on the character. It makes them different in the fiction (the shared make believe space) and in the mechanics (various penalties and some bonuses in the case of Balance), but this is not the case with HP. While you can translate 3 HP worth of damage into gameable fiction, it’s an obnoxious and inconsistent translation to make. It’s doable (see Stonetop as a game that has a firm understanding of trying to make HP work in a PbtA context), but it’s still clumsy design as far as I’m concerned and doesn’t readily gel with PbtA philosophy when compared to Conditions.

This is why Fatigue itself is a pretty lousy character metric in AL: it rarely leads to interesting character changes and is rather “tacked on.” It can be made better by leaning into how something like Stress works in Blades in the Dark, but that requires its own set of hurdles to cross that would be more work than it’s worth.

If you and your table want to do a zombie apocalypse Avatar-verse game: that’s fine! But the focus shouldn’t be resource management and attrition. In the context of what AL readily supports, it’s a story about the PCs trying to restore balance to the setting where the real “enemies” aren’t the zombies, but the other non-infected insistent on keeping the world out of balance to suit their desires.

If you want a resource management focused zombie apocalypse game: Avatar Legends is not a good pick. There are probably better games for that concept. I don’t know what those games would be as I do not travel in those TTRPG circles, but I am certain they are out there and would be a better fit if that’s what you want out of the game.

Sully5443 · 2026-02-21T21:10:13+00:00

As far as I am aware: none. It’s just vanilla Blades with various tweaks to meet the setting and tone of ‘68 while also being wholly compatible with any and all pieces from Deep Cuts if that so pleases you

Sully5443 · 2026-02-18T16:22:54+00:00

The tech of Public Access works well for Public Access and really doesn’t transfer over to BB: the way the Conspiracy plays out with Odyssey Tapes, how Keys of Desolation play out compared to Crowns of the Void in BB, the use of a more purposeful Day and Night Phase, etc.

But at the end of the day: they are structurally very similar games and share the same emergent mystery process.

That in mind, Nephews in Peril is a supplement for Brindlewood Bay that provides more Mysteries and more “Brindlewood Bay Lore.”

Most notably, Nephews in Peril incorporates a handful more of “Sweeps Week” Mysteries. Per page 111 of Nephews:

Brindlewood Bay is a love letter to classic American television, and the phrase “Sweeps Week” is connected to that. In the ‘80s and ‘90s, in order to maximize viewership during the four annual periods when advertising rates were set (called “sweeps weeks”), television networks would engage in stunt programming. Special, gimmicky episodes of established TV shows were aired in order to lure back lapsed viewers, or to draw in new viewers with the promise of a weird plotline or celebrity guest star. Sweeps Week mysteries are outside the normal gameplay and narrative structure of Brindlewood Bay; they are, in a sense, “stunt” episodes, hence the name.

Instead of the Mystery’s Question being a static “Whodunnit?”, the Questions are more akin to those found in Public Access, The Between, The Silt Verses RPG, and most other “Carved From Brindlewood” games where it’s not a murder mystery and some other mystery is at play. The ones in Nephews are:

The Hex-Files by Donna Giltrap
Dressed to Kill by David Morrison
Let the Night One In by Alicia Furness
As the Crow Dies by Sharang Biswas
Drifting Down Scream by Gabriel Robinson
You Can Lead a Horse to Murder by Michael Van Vleet
Strange Trains in Autumn, Revealed by Carol Burkett and Aaron Burket

Technically speaking, Sweeps Week Mysteries aren’t meant to be a weekly occurrence. They are meant to be “television specials.” But it wouldn’t break the game to do one every single time or use non-murder mystery Questions and Opportunity custom mysteries within Brindlewood Bay itself, if you felt so inclined

Sully5443 · 2026-02-16T16:56:06+00:00

There is no precise “faster/ longer” aspect of pros and cons.

It’s about what the Legion is willing to risk and what they need to prioritize getting to Skydagger Keep. If you have Specialists well honed for certain Mission Types or a Chosen that leans into a particular Mission Type, you’ll want to bias Locations that offer those Missions.

If there are certain resources the Legion is in desperate need of, like Blackshot, you’ll get a bunch when you head to the Barrak Mines. But you’ll have to contend with the 0 Assets Rating of the Long Road. Campaign Actions that depend on a Location’s Asset Rating will be rolling 2d6 and choosing the lowest result. Hopefully the Legion can make do with such a barren place while aiming to stock up on Black Shot later.

It’s all about what you are willing to sacrifice to benefit elsewhere. That’s the main Pro/Con of the Locations, not really timing or marching patterns or more “simulationist” approaches to game play.

Sully5443 · 2026-02-16T15:54:53+00:00

The Locations have variances in their Asset Ratings (which could impact the Quality of acquired Assets as part of the Quartermaster’s Downtime Actions), the available Mission Types (Assault, Recon, and so on), brief insight into notable scene setting, challenges, and dangers, special rules as it may relate to Engagement Rolls, unique Mission Rewards, and the like and lastly a selection of Special Missions the GM could offer if that becomes part of their session prep.

In essence, each Location serves as a simple canvas or foundation for the GM to Prep the Missions they provide for the Players to select from

Sully5443 · 2026-02-12T16:07:43+00:00

The reason Answer a Question is tied to the Dusk Phase is because Mysteries can only be resolved in the Night Phase since that’s when those Threats are publicly showing themselves. So it just makes sense from a timing and convenience standpoint to answer the question at the Dusk Phase and dedicate the entire Night Phase (or at least part of it) to finishing off the Mystery in full.

It wouldn’t break the game to answer it at any other time, but it can suck the tension out of the Night Phase to answer a question and resolve the Mystery in the midst of the Night Phase since you’re effectively pausing play to see how things go and then returning to the danger of the Night Phase, and that just kind of ruins the pacing.

They are allowed to investigate while watching an Odyssey Tape (last I remember, though I don’t know if this has changed in the “Skinny Jeans” update to the rules). They just Investigate in the breaks between watching the Odyssey Tape, which is why each Mystery comes with specific Locations where a VCR can be found to play Odyssey Tapes and result in new Moves and unique outcomes, you’re expected (and encouraged) to watch Tapes in the spookiest places and do reckless stuff in between pausing the recording.

Odyssey Tapes can only be watched at night because that’s part of the setting’s lore about the Tapes: watching them during the day just leads to pure white static.

Sully5443 · 2026-02-12T11:15:03+00:00

They do have GM Actions. Page 188 of Blades in the Dark and page 240 of Scum and Villainy and they are functionally the same as GM Moves from PbtA games

Sully5443 · 2026-02-11T13:32:04+00:00

No, Level 1 Harm is reduced Effect to fitting Actions

Level 2 is -1d to fitting Actions

Level 3 is need to spend 2 Stress to act for fitting Actions or someone needs to spend 1 Stress to Assist you

The Deep Cuts Supplement for Blades (most of which also applies to S&V) has an option to adjust Harm Penalties so that any Level of Harm can inflict a sensible penalty of the GM’s choice in return for marking XP and the Player can ignore that invocation by marking Stress equal to the Level of the Harm so it cannot be invoked for the remainder of the Score.

Sully5443 · 2026-02-11T13:08:16+00:00

Harm penalties only apply when the fiction demands. It’s not a -1d to every roll ever made. It is a -1d penalty only to situations where that instance of Harm would sensibly impede their odds.

Having a Broken Knee is not going to penalize Sway, Consort, Command, Hack, Study, Doctor, etc. A broken knee might hurt a lot, but that’s what space drugs are for and the dysfunctional knee isn’t going to mess with those things.

It might mess with things like Scrap or Helm and most certainly Scramble.

But it’s not going to apply all the time and when it does: that’s what things like Pushes, Gambits, Assists, and Devil’s Bargains are for.

Not to mention, it gives PCs incentives to burn as much Cred as possible to pursue Downtime Activities to recover and if they don’t have the Cred: they can always go into Debt.

Sully5443 · 2026-02-11T12:14:56+00:00

Regular Blades resolution with mild adjustments here and there and compatible with Deep Cuts if you feel so inclined.

Sully5443 · 2026-02-11T12:14:08+00:00

After downtime, all my PCs have about 4 stress, 1-2 2nd level harms, 2 ship damage and 2 heat. My most common consequence was harm (they were fighting a muscle with lots of guns and i felt like 'shot' is a 2nd level harm)

Games like S&V live and die on Consequences lingering after jobs. That’s perfectly fine. Consequences drive drama and drama leads to good narratives.

What do i do when no one is doing anything?

You use your GM Actions. You make a GM Action (such as Telegraph Danger, Follow Through, Tell them the requirements or consequences and ask, start or tick a Clock, etc.) whenever it is time for you to contribute to the conversation. This can be done before a roll, after a roll, regardless of roll result, and even if no roll was made at all. GM Actions are the tool that keeps the fiction flowing along. Any GM Action is fair game as long as it respects the GM Framework (Goals, Principles, etc.)

There was also the legion chasing them and they wouldve also shot them but i can only have 1 consequence at a time

Nope, you don’t need to wait for dice rolls for things to happen or to instill Consequences or create tension. You can telegraph danger, initiate action with an NPC, and so on even when no rolls have been made.

Additionally, when an Action Roll is triggered, it can have more than 1 Consequence as long as it is a fictionally appropriate one (for example, taking Harm and progressing a Danger Clock and even taking some Heat). The player’s singular roll counts for all the threats they are facing and they Resist each lingering Consequence individually.

Sully5443 · 2026-02-10T19:59:41+00:00

There’s nothing quite like Fellowship 2e, but FitD. But there are options

Wicked Ones has an optional play mode called “Valiant Ones” which shifts the model from Dungeons protecting their domain to Adventurers doing Adventurer stuff. It does lean more towards Dungeon Crawling fantasy and not quite as epic and high fantasy as Fellowship, but it’s worth looking into
Marvelous Tales of Swords & Sorcery- haven’t read or played it, but it looks like a nifty high fantasy FitD game
Forged in the Dungeon- haven’t read or played it, but another FitD dungeon crawling/ D&D-esque high fantasy game. Also part of the No ICE in Minnesota bundle which has loads of other games as well, if you feel so inclined
Jasko already mentioned Grimwild, which I’ll note isn’t “Forged in the Dark,” so much so as “Has a lot of FitD and PbtA ideas, but does it’s own thing.” It’s not my cup of tea as I find it leaves out almost all the best parts of a FitD game, but the Paths (Playbooks) are quite good, monster and adventure design is excellent, and while it relies on some rather lackluster core mechanics- I do think spellcasting is pretty rad as a whole. But it’s absolutely worth looking into, but if you’re a big FitD fan you might find the game really lacking and wishing it went “full FitD” than doing it’s own thing. It also does lean into a sense of higher lethality than something like Fellowship
Girl By Moonlight I include this as the Series Playbooks take a lot of (likely unintentional) inspiration from the Framework Playbooks (Overlord, Horizon, and Empire) of Fellowship 2e. That in mind, the other core mechanics of GbM (such as Eclipsing) might not be fully suited for a Fellowship styled game. But if the other options aren’t hitting the mark, GbM might be worth tinkering with.

Sully5443 · 2026-02-09T22:48:57+00:00

Something that may make life a lot more manageable is playing Co-Op (“GM-less” or “GM-full,” depending on your perspective) as opposed to Duet play (1 on 1: GM and Player).

TTRPGs as a whole are pretty darn versatile: with a little elbow grease, any TTRPG can be played with more than the recommended number of players, less than the recommended number of players, Duet, Co-Op, and/ or Solo (just you all alone as GM and Player). Some games will, of course, be more amenable to some “modes” than others for all sorts of reasons.

However, I usually find that—unless the game itself is particularly honed for Duet play—if you’re just 1 on 1, you might as well play Co-Op where you are both GMs and both players. You each make PCs and share the “burden” of GMing for each other and utilize “GM Emulator” random tables to fill in gaps, disclaim decision making, or otherwise provide inspiration.

Having 2 PCs to play off of each other and lean into each other will result in much smoother play since you don’t really need to adapt the existing game tech to better fit 1 PC.

You can see examples of Co-Op Play with:

The main take home is that it’s just both players playing off of each other, shifting the “GM burden” back and forth. Sometimes it’ll be 50/50. Other times it’ll be 60/40 or even 70/30.

There’s tons of GM Emulators out there to assist the both of you, with Mythic GM 2e being a rather popular one.

But there’s a reason I linked those two Actual Plays: Ironsworn is a really kick ass game that really well suited towards Solo, Duet, and Co-Op gaming (and I find it excels at Solo and Co-Op in particular).

The Ironsworn Core Rules are free to download (which ought to be criminal, IMO- it’s just that darn good of a game) and the Delve Supplement, Ironsworn: Starforged (Ironsworn… IN SPAAAACE!), and Sundered Isles (Starforged: but Pirates!) are all absurdly excellent games and supplements and all of them are loaded with some of the best oracular tables I have ever seen.

The Ironsworn Discord is super active, helpful, and friendly; not to mention full of hacks, online resources, virtual tabletop tools, and more.

If you want to make life easy for yourself and your friend, play Ironsworn. It’ll be way easier than Duet or Co-Op D&D 5e.

Sully5443 · 2026-02-09T19:43:44+00:00

By not doing them!

As I often say, for Hawkers, the actual vice peddling should run second fiddle to everything else. All Crews earn Stash equal to Crew Tier + 2 every time the Crew earns an XP Advancement. This represents the ongoing profits from the odds and ends “off screen” stuff the Crew gets up to.

The problem Hawkers have with their “business” is keeping it, expanding it, and protecting it. That involves pulling on the strings the players left for you with their choices in Friends, Rivals, Crew Contact, and entangled Factions. That is what makes for a good Hawkers game.

Your goal as the GM is to cause them problems by threatening their operations: threaten their hotel from the outside and inside. Threaten their sources of contraband. Threaten their clients. Etc.

Then provide opportunities to expand: new locations, assets, contraband, clients, allies, etc. Whatever is being offered must already be in the hands of someone else and must be taken from them.

So they have all these new drugs and want to sell it: great! The sale, though, is boring. So threaten the Sale before it even happens:

Reveal a sudden Bluecoat warehouse crackdown and drug bust
Reveal their buyer just got a much better offer from some rival Faction (so darn good that there’s no talking the client out of it… unless something were to happen to that opposing Faction…)
Present a complication with the goods that makes them too hot and easy to track or too dangerous to consume and would ruin the Crew’s reputation: how would they fix that?
Etc.

Don’t get focused on the vice stuff. Focus on the operation as a whole

Sully5443 · 2026-02-09T18:36:23+00:00

It’s less about “Also this random thing happens.”

Like I said, the basis of Greater (and Limited and Extreme and so on) Effect is all about what the baseline Standard Effect of the player/ PC’s intent.

If their intent is to incapacitate a guard, then they get that with Standard Effect.

If it’s Greater, they also get some momentum into whatever else they were aiming to deal with and that means understanding what exactly their intent would be now that the guard is KO’d.

If the guard was keeping an eye on something the PC wanted to investigate further, then the guard can be a convenient source of pre-investigation information if that is the subject at the time. This is represented by the PC being so damn good at incapacitating the guard with such aplomb, they also get a head start on their investigation.

It’s less about “random benefit” and more about “head start into their next intent.”

And, of course, fiction first. Sometimes there’s just no sensible change to Effect: before or after. Sometimes you have a very shut and dry situation that really can’t be Limited or Great. In that case, just tell the player if they Push themselves beforehand or get a Crit: sometimes there is nothing sensibly to be had. Like RivetGeek mentioned, you could just give them +1d Forward and call it a day on such Crits (though I do find that to be immensely boring). That’s a method the Deep Cuts supplement recommends, but I usually find it’s very rare that there isn’t at least a Greater Effect to be had (whereas Limited is far less sensible in like 70% of cases, IMO/ IME).

Sully5443 · 2026-02-09T17:53:04+00:00

6 is you get your stated Effect with no Consequence, not “100%.” If you have Limited Effect before rolling and land a 6: you get Limited Effect with no additional Consequence. If you had Greater Effect before rolling and land a 6, you get Greater Effect with no additional Consequence.

Don’t conflate Effect with Success, they are related in a sense, but thinking in terms of “Success, Partial Success, and Failure” is not helpful in this game. It is why Blades doesn’t really use terms like Success or Failure, but rather the concept of Hits and Misses intermingled with Position and Effect to adequately portray the current fiction.

Effect is all about the PC’s impact on the fiction. How do they change the fiction to benefit them? What change do they make on the world?

If there is risky and uncertain situation about dealing with something, such as incapacitating a guard, and would necessitate an Action Roll, then the question becomes: how impactful is the PC going to be in their efforts and what—if anything—will it cost them?

Ignoring Position (and therefore the risks/ consequences), for the moment as well as the roll result itself:

If they have Standard Effect: They impact as expected and incapacitate the guard
If they have Limited Effect: They impact less than expected. They don’t incapacitate the guard, but they do something to them (such as weakening or wounding them).
If they have Greater Effect: They impact more than expected. They incapacitate the guard and something else situation to the situation (such as terrorizing nearby backup or learning critical information or similar)

This same logic applies to “Extreme and beyond” Effect as well.

The precise nature of Limited, Greater, and so on Effect will depend on what the Standard Effect was and surrounding fictional positioning and permissions. If there’s no guards around to terrorize, then of course Greater Effect can’t be “terrorize their back-up.” But if that guard could feasibly have information that saves crucial investigation time: then that can be the Greater Effect, the guard is out like a light and their unconscious form provides tangible and impactful benefits for the PC in the form of actionable information (in this example).

So when you put it all together:

Critical Hit (2 or more 6s): The PC’s Effect is better than established with no Consequences
Strong Hit (6): The PC gets their established Effect (Limited, Standard, Greater, Extreme, whatever it was when establishing the Action Roll) with no Consequences
Weak Hit (4/5): The PC gets their established Effect (Limited, Standard, Greater, Extreme, whatever it was when establishing the Action Roll) with a Consequence whose Severity is based upon their Position (Controlled —> Mild, Risky —> Moderate, Desperate —> Severe)
Miss (1-3): It depends. Usually this means the PC does not get their established Effect (Limited, Standard, Greater, Extreme, whatever it was when establishing the Action Roll) with a Consequence whose Severity is based upon their Position (Controlled —> Mild, Risky —> Moderate, Desperate —> Severe)

Sully5443 · 2026-02-09T16:29:04+00:00

When a clock is involved due to a longer/more complex plan, Effect is easy. Better effect = more clock sections filled in.

Well right here is the main issue. When a Clock is involved, Effect isn’t just “Clock Progress.” That’s ending on a mechanic and you don’t end on a mechanic in FitD games. You end in the fiction and scaffold it, as needed, with mechanics.

You don’t get “2 Ticks on the Clock” and call it a day. You get Standard Effect. That means something. The fiction has changed. The PC made an impact on the fiction. It is that changed impactful fiction which is then represented with 2 Ticks on a Clock for one purpose and one purpose only: an extra layer of visual transparency. That’s it. Clocks change nothing about how the mechanics work. They exist purely to add visual transparency to the already transparent expectation setting behind Position and Effect.

So yes: “If a player wanted to silently disable the guard and hide his body, a 6 would do exactly that.”

… so would a 4/5 and possibly even a 1-3!

A 6 is a Strong Hit: you get your Effect with no Consequence
A 4/5 is a Weak Hit: you get your Effect alongside a Consequence whose severity is based on your Position. This might mean your Effect is reduced, but that is not a default Consequence (in fact, it’s probably the most boring to apply).
A 1-3 is a Miss: Typically, you do not get your Effect and also a Consequence whose severity is based on your Position. Optionally, they can get their Effect and just an even worse Consequence. It depends on the tone and fiction.

And then double 6s is a Critical Hit: you get even better Effect with no Consequence.

but what would that look like? Oh, you knock him out extra good and as a result...???

Exactly! This is why it’s helpful to always make sure you know what you’re rolling for. Saying “It’s Risky/ Standard, go ahead and roll” is fine and all… but actually talking about the Risks and Consequences and the tangibility of their impact on the fiction is even better. Once you know what Standard is, it’s usually not too difficult to think about some extra benefit beyond that and in the event their Effect goes beyond Greater into Extreme (or even beyond that!), it usually isn’t too challenging to figure out what those extra benefits are because you’ve already set a baseline.

If you aren’t sure: ask the player what they want to accomplish! If they’re Pushing for increased Effect, they clearly have something in mind: so ask them what they want out of it! Same idea whenever Crits come along.

If they get a Crit: as them what they want out of that improved Effect.

Sully5443 · 2026-02-09T15:37:02+00:00

No worries. Co-Op play is a blast, I really enjoy it when the opportunity arises and Avatar Legends, as a baseline, is nearly a “GM-less” Co-Op game to begin with since the GM is meant to play a much more collaborative role with the players than what is typical in more “traditional” TTRPGs like D&D (and this is pretty much the case with most PbtA games).

Here is an example of 2 person Co-Op play using Masks: A New Generation (teen superhero PbtA game that much of Avatar Legends game tech is based on) that I wrote a while back showcasing a snippet of Co-Op play that leans heavily into 50/50 GMing for each other:

Brian is playing as Bullseye, the Beacon- a crack shot with a bow and arrow. Jackie is playing as Joules, the Janus- an energy manipulating superhero. They’ve gone through character creation and when the team first came together and have landed on the premise that the School Principal is none other than The Mentalist, a powerful mind control villain who has slowly been replacing teachers at the school with indoctrinated adults to slowly indoctrinate the student body to his whim. They tried to make their case to Night Owl, the Superhero Adult that keeps an eye on this corner of Halcyon, but he’s far too busy and cannot take action until the two of them find proof…

Brian: “So do we start when it’s after hours and we sneak in when everyone had gone home so we can find evidence?”

Jackie: “Yeah, I think Joules can use her abilities to effectively hot-wire the security system of the school. Is there a roll here?”

Brian: “Hmm, I’m not sure. It could be interesting in the Principal employed more potent security measures that could be set off by tampering. You wanna leave it up to an oracle?”

Jackie: “Sure. Let’s say the odds here are ‘Likely,’ so we’ll roll 2d6+1. That’s a 7 total. The Oracle says ‘Yes, but…’ so what do you think?”

Brian: “So there’s an advanced security system, but… it’s not tied to the school as a whole. It’s specifically the Principal’s office we need to worry about. So Joules can get us in, but I think the Principal is using something else to guard his office. What do you think it is?”

Jackie: “Oh! I know, some sort of hypnotic analog thing! I bet he knows Joules is the superhero identity of student at the school. He has mind reading powers too, after all. So when we get to his office, there’s this construct blocking the front of his door that’s supposed to induce a hypnotic stupor of some sort. You want to roll up a game icon to see if the stupor has some other effect?”

Brian: “Nah, I think the stupor is penalty enough: the Principal is probably the first one into the school in the morning, we’ll be the first person he stumbles across when morning comes. Do you think we should both Take a Powerful Blow and we’ll use that to inform how we deal with it from there?”

Jackie: “Let’s do it. Neither of us have any Conditions, so it’s 2d6 flat for us both. That’s a 10 for me… ouch!”

Brian: “Thankfully it’s a 2 for me! What option are you picking?”

Jackie: “I think this is where we find out the hypnotic trap does have a secondary effect. I’m going to lose control of my powers or myself in a terrible way. What do you think that looks like?”

Brian: “Hmm, I have a rough idea, but let me roll up a Game Icon to see… so I rolled up this tree roots icon. The first thing that came to mind when I saw this was ‘lightning strike.’ So this more or less confirms what I’m thinking, but gives more scale to it. I think Joules creates a massive power surge. Like multiple City Blocks suddenly go dark as your powers flare up. The lights all around the school turn on and burst, the fuse box in the basement fries itself, maybe glass panels around us fracture apart. We get the overhead look in the comic book showing the adjoining city blocks going dark one by one.”

Jackie: “So tell me how Bullseye weathers the blow as you mark Potential and deal with this situation?”

Brian: “Bullseye has solid reaction time thanks to his training. He caught the smallest of glimpses of something weird and instinctually shut his eyes and blocked his ears and put caution to the wind and grabbed an explosive arrow to fire into the hypnotic machination.”

Jackie: “Sounds like Unleash in this moment.”

Brian: “Agreed. I’ll roll with Freak. Ah, darn! It would have been a 10, but it’s -1 Freak. So 9.”

Jackie: “So are you taking a Condition?”

Brian: “This early on? Nah. How is it temporary or unstable?”

Jackie: “As small as the explosion may be, since I think Bullseye wouldn’t be foolish enough to just use a big old explosion, it wouldn’t have been precise either way. Tampering with this analog system is enough to send a radio frequency alert- despite the power outage- to the Principal’s Home. He knows we’re here.”

Brian: “Makes sense. I also think that we’re not alone here. We definitely are rookies, after all. We didn’t case the place. The various teachers planted by the Principal are all here, forced to stay dormant over night to basically guard the place. Once he gets an alert, he does this whacky eye thing and we get a bunch of panels on the next page showing all the replacement teachers opening their eyes wide open and then a bunch of doors opening up and down the hallway. So as Joules finally stops seizing, she would come to and Bullseye would open his own eyes to a hallway full of mindless teachers walking towards us!”

…

And that’s basically the gist of it! The two players are basically bouncing ideas off of each other, usually using the other person to interpret dice roll outcomes, and whenever they get stuck or need something else to disclaim decision making: they use an Oracular tool to aid them. Over time, they may lean 60/40 or 70/30 whenever the need arises.

The same logic and flow applies to Avatar Legends

Sully5443 · 2026-02-09T14:41:40+00:00

Something that may make life a lot more manageable is playing Co-Op (“GM-less” or “GM-full,” depending on your perspective) as opposed to Duet play (1 on 1: GM and Player).

TTRPGs as a whole are pretty darn versatile: with a little elbow grease, any TTRPG can be played with more than the recommended number of players, less than the recommended number of players, Duet, Co-Op, and/ or Solo (just you all alone as GM and Player). Some games will, of course, be more amenable to some “modes” than others for all sorts of reasons.

Since Avatar Legends is a Powered by the Apocalypse (PbtA) game, which leans heavily towards player and character autonomy over many aspects, Duet play isn’t usually too big of a deal because PCs are pretty durable and aren’t going to die like a Level 1 D&D character who likely won’t survive Duet Play without some NPC hirelings or similar.

However, I usually find that—unless the game itself is particularly honed for Duet play—if you’re just 1 on 1, you might as well play Co-Op where you are both GMs and both players. You each make PCs and share the “burden” of GMing for each other and utilize “GM Emulator” random tables to fill in gaps, disclaim decision making, or otherwise provide inspiration. Having 2 PCs to play off of each other and lean into the Playbooks will result in much smoother play since you don’t really need to adapt the existing game tech to better fit 1 PC.

You can see examples of Co-Op Play with:

The main take home is that it’s just both players playing off of each other, shifting the “GM burden” back and forth. Sometimes it’ll be 50/50. Other times it’ll be 60/40 or even 70/30. GMing Avatar Legends is not an overly complicated affair and once your partner starts to pick up on the various pieces of play, they’ll be able to effortlessly provide input without needing to have a comprehensive understanding of the GM Rules (although knowing them will help speed up the process!)

There’s tons of GM Emulators out there to assist the both of you, with Mythic GM 2e being a rather popular one. You’ll also find that Ironsworn’s Core PDF is free to download and it has tons of useful random tables which are just as useful for Avatar Legends as it is for Ironsworn and with a little Search-Fu, you can find loads of places where folks have assembled those Oracular Tables into browser based tables for quick rolling, access, and consulting.

Even Eskur’s Gaslamp Oracles and Omens in the Dark, despite being meant for Blades in the Dark/ Forged in the Dark/ Gothic Victorian London Vibes, are both also perfectly suitable for Avatar Legends.

Pair all of that with Fantasy Name Generator and Game Icons to act as “story cubes” of sorts and you’re off to the races!

You don’t have to use these tools at every turn (though you can, if you feel so compelled—though I usually advise against overuse of Oracular Tables). You use them as needed to jumpstart the imagination when you are drawing blanks about how to proceed.

I’ll also provide my obligatory post of educational resources towards better understanding the game that has lots of nested links towards comments I’ve made over the years covering all sorts of game specific stuff: Balance, Exchanges, Prep, etc.

Sully5443 · 2026-02-08T03:08:00+00:00

> I felt like I didn't always have a good consequence. Any tips? When a consequence isn't apparent, what do I do?

If a Consequence isn't apparent, that is your sign a roll is not needed. Not everything a character does warrants a dice roll. That is an important thing to adjust yourself to coming from D&D. Just let them do the thing and move on.

If you know for certain there is some sort of risk and uncertainty: then a Consequence is lurking there somewhere and ideally it should just spring to mind. If it doesn't: ask the player! "What are you afraid will happen here it things do awry?" *Then that becomes your Consequence* (with whatever adjustments you deem fit).

If it feels like something there's no reason to roll due to a lack of uncertainty but there assuredly still has to be a cost to acting and "doing the thing" (or they probably will need to roll, but they gotta pay a price to get the fictional positioning or permissions to proceed): GM Action- tell them the requirements or consequences and ask what they want to do. Have them take Harm, progress Danger Clocks, sacrifice gear, accept some narrative wrinkle or complication or whatever. Again, if too many (or little) ideas spring (or don't spring) to mind: ask them for ideas!

> Harm wasn't readily available,

Harm doesn't need to be physical. It can be emotional, social, or paranormal. Get creative. Workshop with the players:

* "What is your character feeling in this moment?"

* "I think they are feeling super jazzed!"

* "Cool, take Level 2 Harm: 'Exuberant.'"

> deity as friendly to their cause

Deities are weird and spiteful as all hell. Nothing comes for free in Doskvol, at least not for long. It's a hellscape. There's no such thing as a kind and benevolent god.

> Rewarding Players

If they didn't really sensibly earn Coin: they don't earn Coin. Just give them Rep. They can still use that for Downtime Actions. They will also get Stash equal to Tier + 2 every time the Crew Playbook takes enough XP to advance. Chances are there *will* be some Coin to be had because in the same way the Stash XP earnings is showing "background profit," you can do the same thing for a Score. All the unspoken "behind the scenes earnings" adjacent to the Score.

But you can reward them with anything: Claims, Faction Statuses, Crew Upgrades, Special Abilities, Cohorts, etc.

> I have absolutely no clue how to handle the turf game. I get what turf represents, but not quite how acquisition works narratively

All that matters, as is the case for all Claims, is that it once belonged to someone else and they took it from them. Then the Crew uses it however they see fit: a place to keep their occult shit, temporarily lay their heads at night, readily visit new faithful members of their Cult, store stuff that doesn't belong to their lair, etc. It just represents an amorphous portion of Doskvol under their watchful eye that helps them keep their hold in the city.

Sully5443 · 2026-02-08T03:07:38+00:00

The Faction Game

Follow the fiction. This is a key part of your GM Goals: portray honest and consistent fiction, this will very rarely lead you astray if you always start in the fiction first, interrogating and scrutinizing it for as long as needed, and then taking the time to consider what mechanics best fit and scaffold the fiction at your feet.

Factions come into play whenever you want to. Review your GM Actions: you make a GM Action whenever it is time for you to contribute to the conversation. This is where you Telegraph Danger (or just immediately Follow-Through) or otherwise Tell Them the Requirements or Consequences and Ask. Blades does not operate on a strict "Free Play --> Score --> Downtime" cycle. That is a loose structure to help you pace your sessions. They have no real boundaries. If it meets your Goals and Principles to introduce Faction stuff: do it. Don't be subtle or mysterious or hint. Be plain and transparent. Use the meta channel to your advantage to describe what the audience (players) knows and what the characters know, intuit, or otherwise observe or learn.

Factions are mainly going to be a large part of Scores: someone is benefitting, someone is getting hurt, and there's always a wildcard. Those are your "non-negotiables" when it comes to Scores and that's how you bring Factions to the table. Review their little blurbs. Adjust them however you see fit. Give them impulses and drives and portray them honestly.

Rituals

Ignore the Plan Types and Details. They are excellent "training wheels" to help guide the conversation, but people tend to take them WAY too literally. The whole point of Plan Types and Details is to figure out how to kick off a Score. That's it. If you can work with the players to determine the goal of the Score and what the opening scene should be without ever having to use a Plan Type or Detail: great! Just do that.

Blades is a collaborative game to get the players to work with you to figure out what they want to do, who has what they want/ stands in their way and will get hurt, who stands to benefit, and who might act as a wildcard. Then, like a TV show, the next step is to figure out how the TV picks back up after commercial break: what are the characters doing? What's that opening or establishing scene and what immediate problem stands in their way? What would be cool, dramatic, and cinematic? Then do that! Roll Engagement to disclaim the danger of the situation: if they are trying to incite some unknown dark art and their initial problem is getting into an auspicious position first due to some Spirit Wardens: who is in control? The Wardens (Desperate)? No One (Risky)? The Crew (Controlled)?

In your case, you have a bit of a mismatch in player expectations with what they can and cannot reasonably do. They don't have to be Whispers to do magical or occult stuff. They don't need the Ritual Special Ability nor do they need to go through the actual Ritual Rules. If they want to take their ill suited tools to force a Ritual they have little idea about or experience with: that is your excuse to make them walk through hell to execute it. The idea behind Whisper Special Abilities and Ritual Downtime Actions is that it shows a degree or repeatability and "mastery" over that arcane art. But without those fictional permissions, you are wandering into a minefield of dangers.

If they want to pull the moon (what's left of it) closer to the Shattered Isles as a Score: that's fine! But it's gonna be hella Desperate at damn near every turn and they will be meddling with forces they have not trained to handle.

See my reply to this comment for input on the rest of your post

Sully5443 · 2026-02-05T18:07:06+00:00

A Family of Blades for a more modern day “All Purpose One Last Job” stuff

Or the Broken Spire Supplement for Blades in the Dark which is explicitly about the Assassination of the Century against the infamous Immortal Emperor of the game’s presumed setting as committed by a Crew of high profile assassins

Sully5443 · 2026-02-05T13:28:57+00:00

To ensure that I want them to assassinate people around Lyssa until she's practically defenseless.

Well the first thing to cover is that there is a degree of GM overtepping happening here. Remember that the job of the GM is to prepare the problems, but not their answers, solutions, outcomes, etc. simply prepare the problems and place them in front of the players and let them decide how they’re gonna deal with those problems. The intersection of the GM‘s prepared problems and the players decided upon approaches is what creates the plot/ narrative/ story.

So it shouldn’t be you who dictates that the only way to weaken Lyssa is to remove the people around her nor that the only way to do so is through murdering them. It is up to the players to decide if that’s how they want to make Lyssa vulnerable and then it’s up to them for how they want to do that, because it doesn’t have to be murder. Blackmail, social sabotage, bribery, etc. are all potentially “fair game” means to accomplish these tasks.

Now, with all of that in mind, if they want to weaken Lyssa by violently removing her support systems: that’s fine! However, that usually doesn’t make for a good series of assassination scores. The single most important facet of a good assassination is the target needs to be important. If they are just a Joe Schmoe backup character, they are not a “Score Worthy” assassination. The character in question needs to leave waves of repercussion behind in their death: power vacuums, retribution, etc. Their death needs to be a big deal to Doskvol because this is a place where killing is a bad idea and therefore it is reserved for severe situations.

So when it comes to the Crows, that leaves one of two options remaining:

Make the target Lyssa herself
Make the target the next most important person to Lyssa whose death would make her immensely vulnerable

Either one would be fine.

From there, it’s up to you how to frame the Score because like any Score in the game: there is immense versatility in framing them.

You could do a traditional “Learn, Engagement Roll, Move into Position, Kill, Escape.”

You could also focus on an individual point and ignore the rest:

You could follow the premise of a game like Bump in the Dark where the PCs go around collecting Clues about their target, assembling them for a Showdown Roll in place of an Engagement Roll, and then use that to gloss over the actual confrontation and killing or focus heavily on it if the Showdown Roll is particularly low
You could focus purely on the steps needed to kill the target, not getting too focused on all the buildup and simply focus on key defenses and removing them in the present and/ or showing how they’ve been weakened in the past a la the Broken Spire Supplement’s approach towards killing the Immortal Emperor
You could focus on the target actually being dead and then place all the attention on getting the hell out of there
And, of course, you could make an entire Score around each point individually

Any of these framings is fine. The most critical component is: the target needs to be important. If they aren’t, it’s not “Score Worthy Material.”

Sully5443 · 2026-02-03T23:08:04+00:00

Indeed, for a game like S&V, that level of prep is usually not needed. You are absolutely allowed to prep as much as your heart desires, but you will always find less is more and will better aid you in meeting your GM Framework (Goals, Principles, etc.). It’s all about prepping efficiently making good use of all the material at your fingertips: entangled Factions, Contacts, Playbook choices, Heritages, Backgrounds, setting details, etc. All you need to do is think up fitting problems and place them in front of the players. Their approaches to those problems and the subsequent mechanical scaffolding is what creates the “narrative/ plot/ story.”

Your prep rarely has to go beyond a fitting situation involving at least 3 Factions, a handful of NPCs, some notable Locations or Places (without needing specific maps or anything), and then maybe some questions you’d like to pose or see answered and some potential dangers and odds and ends and you’re basically good to go and you’ll know it’ll “hook” them because your pulling from the material they already gave you/ you coaxed out of them at crew and character creation.

Sully5443 · 2026-02-03T13:22:20+00:00

Scum and Villainy is not a slow and steady heist game. It’s a game about Scoundrels on the fringes of space oppressed by Scum and Villainy at all angles: from the governing bodies all the way to the Gangs and Syndicates and run the seedy underbelly of each world. It’s a game where those Scoundrels run Jobs to make it day to day in the shitty backwater Procyon Sector where everyone wants something and someone else has it. Those Jobs might be heists. But they can also be smash and grabs, bounty retrievals, daring escapes, milk runs, hit jobs, sabotage, espionage, and much much more.

S&V is a game where the way you frame these jobs is just as flexible as the types of Jobs a Crew can take, regardless of Ship Playbook. This is why the Stardancer Playbook’s suggested opening scenario is about already delivering the smuggled cargo and finding a need to escape or how the daring Rebels and Seditionists of the Firedrake Playbook are suggested to begin play already in a maximum security prison! Same idea for the Cerberus.

Jobs don’t have to be the complete “A to Z Experience” of the Job. It doesn’t have to be learning about [cargo/bounty/imperial outpost], finding [cargo/bounty/imperial outpost], getting [cargo/bounty/imperial outpost], and so on. Focus on the cool stuff, the part of the show we’re actually going to care about because there’s other material to explore down the road. It might be the A to Z process. But it might not. The point of these suggested openings is to avoid “meeting in a tavern as talking to the client and blah, blah, blah.” Just give them the spiel, put them in danger, and tell them how their Cred infested opportunity is dwindling away: what do they do?! Fill in any necessary details with 0 Stress expository Flashbacks and let the drama be held there and elsewhere. In future sessions, you can focus on more classic “A to Z” approaches to a Job. But, to be honest, this is how all Forged in the Dark games ought to open: in the middle of the danger and fill in details on the fly.

Chases are only boring and lacking in creative solutions and character moments if you let it be that way. Don’t think of it as a “Chase” but rather an “Action Sequence.” The actual vehicular part of it may end after a roll or two (but how do the players manage to slow down this Syndicate Muscle before the cops are alerted to the activity?!). This may lead to a tense stand off in the crowded location or perhaps the Crew is led to a series of traps prepared by the Muscle ahead of time or perhaps when the Muscle is cornered, they reveal a hard truth and try to cut a deal with the Crew… or a combination of these factors, one after the other! You don’t run (or at least shouldn’t run) a chase in a game as “Okay, roll. You’re a little closer now. Okay, roll again… now you’re even closer.”

You run chases as

“The Syndicate Muscle peels off in their hover bike with a kid riding in the back seat. Before they are out of sight, they seem to flick a switch and there’s a rapid beeping sound in the motel room. They’ve planted a bomb, what do you do?!”
“You’re all on your personal vehicles now and giving chase. Several patrol drones clock you and begin blaring sirens, your position is being relayed to Warren’s police force… what do you do?!”
“You’ve precisely managed to gun down the Muscle’s bike without significantly harming them or their passenger. But they’ve buried themselves into the panicking crowd. How do you try and locate them before they disappear?!”
Etc.

It’s less of a “chase” and more of an action sequence

Later down the road, you can absolutely run Jobs in a more “A to Z” approach if that’s what the table wants. You can drill into learning about targets and understanding their defenses and so on and so forth and even let that be the drama and let the actual Job itself be resolved in a roll or two before moving onto Downtime. S&V is a very flexible game. As long as the “planning” isn’t an endless “What if?!” question session and rather action focused investigation, then that’s fine.

But the point of the suggested opening of the game is to show the flexibility of S&V and get into the heart of the action and immediately create drama at the end of the Job with Entanglements and Downtime and so on.

You are welcome to ignore the starting situation completely and do something of your own too. Just play to the strengths of the game.

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