Open Legend: Open-source RPG & Amaurea's Dawn Setting

NEW Art, Gen Con 50 w/ Matthew Mercer, Satine Phoenix, Ryan Schapals, Will Jones, Sydney Shields
about 7 years ago – Sun, Apr 30, 2017 at 12:48:36 AM

GEN CON 50 PANEL W/ MATT MERCER, SATINE PHOENIX, BRIAN FEISTER

Our fun collaborating with Matt Mercer continues as he's going to collaborate with us on a special "Every Roll Matters: GM Improv Showdown w/ Matt Mercer & Friends" event at GenCon. Be sure to check out the panel, it will be at 3pm of Thursday, August 17th. We're going to have some other super-secret surprise RPG industry insiders there, but we're still waiting to verify availability with Gen Con organizers: 

Join Matthew Mercer, Satine Phoenix, Brian Feister, and other well-known veteran GMs to learn how to level up your improvisation game through a series of LIVE challenges where panelists challenge each other's improv skills in unscripted scenarios, followed by a breakdown of the thought process that goes into improv.

GAME WITH THE CORE TEAM

We're going to Gen Con 50, we hope you can join us! This is your big chance to join a game run by Seventh Sphere staff & friends, including Open Legend Writer, Ryan Schapals (Seventh Sphere / Hyper RPG), Community Manager Sydney Shields (Seventh Sphere / Encounter Roleplay), and good friend & partner, Will Jones (Encounter Roleplay). And me (Brian Feister), but you probably deserve a better GM than me! ;)

The team will be running 4 games each day GenCon from Thursday through Sunday. Have a look over the descriptions and scroll down for the full schedule.

Six-Gun Yojimbo & the Redeye Express (set in Amaurea's Dawn) 

Ride shotgun with a mysterious stranger as a hired gun for The Golden Cloud (a Schlectenberg-based swanky skyborne casino). Fan the hammer & blast your way through twists & turns in in this epic heist adventure.

The Mind in Flight (set in Amaurea's Dawn) 

Journey to Amaurea and get a glimpse of the seedy underbelly of House Nivenilya in this “fantasy noir” adventure, featuring the wanted fugitive The Red Kite and her underground resistance. Uncover the dark and forbidden secrets of the Superiori in the bowels of Amaranth - secrets they will stop at nothing to keep hidden.

A Star Once Fallen

Marooned on an uncharted island, caught between 2 warring tribes & threatened by a dormant volcano prophesied to awaken again. Can you discover the legend of Starfall Island before it's too late?

Neuralpathic

Unlock the mind-bending truth behind an abandoned spaceship lost to the furthest reaches of space in this cerebral thriller with a hard sci-fi / science fantasy / space opera backdrop.

PRODUCTION UPDATE

We're moving full-speed ahead as our editor Dixie Cochran is working her way through the Amaurea's Dawn text. The Core Rules text has already been through major revision, and layout design and typesetting for the book is underway. 


WHEN WILL THE ORDERING CUTOFF HAPPEN?

I get asked this question alot. I *think* (and could be wrong about this) that we will be able to accomplish "zero downtime" in ordering.

I'm going to be ordering far more printed books in this run than there are Kickstarter purchases, which means that we don't have to worry that "Oh no! Customer #1,305 ordered a book but we only had 1,304 books printed!"

So, there will definitely be enough books, but there will be a day when the books arrive at the printer for distribution. We're getting these books to you as fast as possible, so the books will ship directly from the printer, rather than going somewhere else for fulfillment. At that time, when the books ship from the printer, the extra books will be shipped to me. So any new orders that happen after that point will take longer because they will have to wait for me to receive the books and then ship them out. So orders after shipping of the initial round of backers will take longer to receive in the mail than ones that are ordered before that cutoff date. We probably have about 8 ~ 12 more weeks before that cutoff point happens, as the books should ship to you in mid-to-late July 2017. 

UNRELEASED ART

Spellsword (Multi-Genre Character Art)

The following piece will be featured in Open Legend Core Rules, illustrated by Alexander Gustafson!

Production Timeline Update, Amaurea's Dawn Story, BackerKit Closing / Charged, Unreleased Art
about 7 years ago – Sun, Apr 09, 2017 at 01:33:22 AM

Hey Everyone,

Sorry for being incommunicado for a bit there, I've been hard at work trying to crank these two books through to the printer and we're getting close!

PRODUCTION TIMELINE & STATUS UPDATE

• The Core Rules are basically finished, edits included with the sole exception of the Multi-Genre Character Release (scroll to the bottom to see some of the exclusive art available only in the PDF / Hardback books). I'll be releasing Multi-Genre characters on the OpenlegendRPG.com website. If you find any proofreading errors that were missed by our editors, please let us know about them on Github here (A Github user account takes a moment to create and is free): https://github.com/openlegend/core-rules/issues/new
  
• Amaurea's Dawn is sadly, not yet in the hands of the editor. There has been a need for quite a bit of unanticipated "rework" in order to hone and refine the text to be absolutely amazing. Since our shipping rate assumes a "bundled shipping discount" for shipping both books at once, this means that we must ship both books at the same time and Amaurea's Dawn and the Core Rules must be printed and shipped out together. My hope is to have Amaurea's Dawn in the editor's hands within 2 weeks at the absolutely latest, however, giving the editor a month to work with the text, at this point, puts us around early or mid June 2017 by the time the text and artwork is laid out and print-ready. Around this time you'll get the PDFs, and then the hardback books 6 - 8 weeks later. 
  
  Juggling a full-time day job where I have non-trivial leadership responsibilities, helping nurture a blossoming community, working on various business goals that make Open Legend better for everyone (like our recent new community site, check it out http://community.openlegendrpg.com), managing my many awesome contributors, and then doing a good bit of the leg work myself is probably the single most challenging and rewarding thing I've done in my life. Thanks for your patience with me, at this point we're officially behind schedule, and I doubt anyone reading this is more disappointed about this than I am. It's my hope that the 2 ~ 3 months behind schedule that I'm currently running is a worthwhile trade for the quality of what we are going to deliver to you. 

BACKERKIT CLOSING - CREDIT CARDS SOON TO BE CHARGED
Over the past months, a number of you have reached out to ask when your credit cards will be charged for BackerKit (unless you paid with PayPal already). I'm going to be charging those cards in about 2 weeks and halting orders on BackerKit around that time as we need to lock down the print numbers for when the hardback books go to print. 

UNRELEASED ART

King Thannor Rhuviel
On King Thannor’s head rests the Glimmerseed Crown, an artifact once thought lost in the Midsummer Flood. His father, the former King, Avain discovered it beneath the depths of the river. His memory hangs upon his son’s head along with the weight of the carved wood. Though dressed in splendid regalia of woven feathers, handspun silk, and sculpted steel, nothing hides Thannor’s anguish. His listless gaze and faraway looks betray his grief. He mourns the loss of his father and his sister’s disappearance. She was supposed to be crowned, not him. A fact he revisits frequently. From the Throne of the Western Wind he determines the fate of House Rhuviel, though in truth, most of his time is spent meeting with divers and salvagers. He carefully examines each of their offerings from beneath the river. It’s no longer former glory he seeks, but a means to exact revenge on House Nivenilya whom he blames for his father’s early demise.

King Avain planned to reunite House Rhuviel and Nivenilya after they’d grown apart over the centuries. He proposed that Prince Thannor marry Chancellor Gwinilith. Fortunately, the two shared much in common and quickly found themselves meeting more than their positions and duties required. Fascinated with the advances of the Nivenilyans, King Avain elected to undergo a procedure under the Superiori’s care. They grafted gills behind his ears that allowed him to explore the ruins of Old Miril’Galadir like no one had ever before.

The Glimmerseed Crown counted among the numerous treasures he recovered. Not only does the Crown mark the rightful ruler of House Rhuviel it also grants its bearer an advanced command of fire, even allowing them to walk straight through flames without feeling a hint of heat. Though it’s original use has been lost, Avain assumed it found use in elaborate rituals when a new king was crowned. He never uncovered it’s true use. One day, during a deliberation of the Four Winds King Avain spluttered and choked to death on the air, gasping as his son and wife looked on. Thannor suspects foul play from House Nivenilya.

Though Thannor planned to invade the Nivenilyan territories, the appearance of Schlechteners at Moondew Watch six months ago halted him. Lady Visse’s dream of the Burning Flood suggested their arrival. Thannor failed to heed these warnings, but now he sees that he has enemies on two fronts. He searches her dreams for signs of how to defeat them. Imadlril consoles him, warning him that Silver Wardens can’t battle two wars at once. He agrees reluctantly. Vaivanya urges for an alliance with the Valuriens, but Thannor can’t bring himself to send an emissary. Instead, the King sends spies to find proof of House Nivenilya’s guilt, but so far he’s found nothing. Distracted, Thannor continues to lead House Rhuviel while his advisors try to rescue him from his grief. Each day a letter from Chancellor Gywnilith arrives at the House of Last Light and is promptly thrown with the others into some dusty chamber.

Imladril Rhuviel
Imladril Rhuviel serves House Rhuviel and her son, King Thannor, filling in where both fail, as the Dowager Queen and Chief Warden of the Silver Citadel. Before her husband, King Avain died, she patrolled the skies, upon the back of Tatharion, her bonded Inuol companion, but now she rides to attend meetings. Her bow and quiver hung up in her chambers. Perhaps in stubbornness or as a reminder, she still wears her crystal-studded bracers, a gift from Vaivanya she still wears during diplomatic gatherings. While reticent to attend meetings, she knows that if she falters that House Rhuviel could fail. Since no one else proves fit to rule, Imaldril leads House Rhuviel in all but name, though at night she finds time to hunt on Tatharion’s back and feel the lightning coursing between her fingers once again.

___________________________________

The Crew of the Skulking Huntress
___________________________________

Captain Torrina Drake Captain Torrina Drake favors the tilt and sway of an airship deck or a few drinks to solid ground. The glare of Amaurea’s sun keeps her wide-brimmed hat pulled low over her eyes. At times she finds herself missing the swirling smog of Schlectenberg. Pressed into the Skybreaker’s Company for petty theft, she grew up with a rope in her hand and sails above her head. With a mouth filthy enough to make the crudest sailor blush, she cemented her place among her crew. And when she stole the Skulking Huntress from the Golden Cloud and escaped through Eternity’s gate, she earned her spot as the most infamous criminal of the skies.

Drake’s thieving earned her a spot on the Skulking Huntress, a reconnaissance class ship turned low level freighter. The crew showed her how to hunt rats in the brig and trained her in the ancient practice of swearing like a sailor. Amused by hearing a sweet little girl saying crude and vile things, they adopted her as a daughter of sorts. As she grew up, the mechanic Bill Whitlock taught her to handle liquor and more importantly how to cheat at cards.

By eighteen, Drake had grown tired of serving as a deckhand and dealing with the Skybreaker’s strict rules and regulations. She devised a plan with Whitlock and he started brewing up something potent. When the crew invited her to join in the next round of drinking games, they’d already consumed a great deal of Whitlock’s special batch. Given her age, the crew assumed that Drake would be an easy mark after a few games. Yet the crew awoke to find themselves pressed into service aboard the Golden Cloud, where the laws of Schlectenberg hold no sway.

In the lost hours of the night Drake had convinced the nearly-blind-drunk captain to sign over the deed to The Skulking Huntress to the Golden Cloud for a single golden coin. Her only condition with the Golden Cloud was that she be made Captain. Under the ownership of the Golden Cloud the ship was securely out of the Skybreaker’s jurisdiction and Drake had ensured her indefinite service as Captain and made the whole thing legally binding. The proprietors of the Golden Cloud gladly accepted the deal under the condition that Drake was made Captain. Safely within the boundaries of the Golden Cloud, Captain Drake was free from any legal recourse from the Skybreaker’s Company. Though this detail mattered little to those she’d betrayed.

Pilfering goods from freighters in the smog of Schlectenberg, Drake’s fortune rose while the Skybreaker’s Company attempted to apprehend her with less and less consideration for legality, but they still wouldn’t dare challenge the Golden Cloud. In this time she gathered potential crewmates among the deckhands, smog shears, and navigators. Her crew spent the next years snatching up air taxis and emptying out salvage barge, but still she wanted more freedom. Drake’s next plan and the little girl she kept calling her secret weapon lost her some crew and even drew skepticism from Whitlock, but when Drake ordered the crew to make due course for Eternity’s Gate he was the first to repeat the order.

These days, beneath the unblemished skies of Amaurea, Drake wakes around noon and stumbles from her quarters onto the deck. One hand attempts to fasten her belt while the other sheathes her cutlass. All while she grits her flask between her teeth. She pitches and yaws with the ship, guided by experience and studdsole boots she acquired with the Huntress. When she tumbles overboard, one shot from her hookcannon and she climbs back aboard. She leads the crew in song, howling crass shanties and remembering past lovers. Without the Skybreaker’s Company to give chase, her and the crew enjoy a vacation of sorts that is when they aren’t dodging Amaurean creatures or the natives.

After landing in Amaranth, Drake learned to never to dock anywhere in this jungle world too long. While the Nivenilyans repaired the ship and offered them all the bizarre food they wanted, they held the crew in a lab to study and quarantine until Drake finally broke them loose using her flask, her wits, and a creature she mistook for a sword. Drake’s victories leave her restless with little authority to undermine but her own. She lives more recklessly with each day, inviting danger near the Huntress and relishing a good chase. Each new misadventure earns Drake a new song, a stiff drink, and strange new treasures only available in the wilds of Amaurea.

William “Barnacle Bill” Whitlock, First Mate 
First Mate of the Skulking Huntress and the second fastest to raise a pint glass, Bill Whitlock rattles with laughter, keys and tools jingling from the tentacles that replaced his left hand. His laughter carries across the bow of the airship mixing with the hum of the engine and the roar of the wind. Often enough, he grips the railing alone, amused deeply by an unheard joke. Below deck he oversees the coal engine, consulting with Captain Drake and hammering at a hand-rigged distillery. He cooks up throat-burning and tongue-wagging spirits for the crew and experiments with its uses as an explosive. So far the only complaint from Drake is that he’s wasting too much good drink with his fiery experiments.

On most airships, a white-haired old mate with a wandering eye would hardly cause comment, but Whitlock’s new hand combined with his many other eccentricities, are difficult to overlook. In a chance encounter with the exiled Nivenilyan surgeon, Zinueth, and too many pulls from his bottle, Whitlock underwent one of the surgeon’s strange procedures. Where his wrist once ended in a stump with a hook, a mass of tentacles now writhe and wander, sticking to surfaces and objects as he staggers along. At times, Whitlock opens a door, only to close it on his own suction cup covered fingers as he fails to disentangle himself from his surroundings. Other times his new eight-fingered appendage might snatch another crew member’s drink. Though he’s quick to apologize when caught in the act, the crew remains undecided as to whether the tentacles have a mind of their own as he claims, or just serve as a cover for his personal brand of trollish humor .

Once a craftsman enlisted by Blowfeld’s, Whitlock lost his hand when a lift crashed down with the iron skeleton of new bipedal machine still on it. Though lucky to survive, Blowfeld’s charged him for the medical aid they provided. Finding legal work grew difficult. He ended up in debt and chose the Skybreaker’s over imprisonment. His knowledge of mechanical engineering and his oddness earned him his spot on the Skulking Huntress. With no family of his own to speak of, the crew accepts Whitlock as their loony but useful mechanic, First Mate, and moonshiner.

When the crew fends off the wildlife of Amaurea, Whitlock’s eight tentacles fire three pistols and reload with surprising coordination, leaving his right hand free to drink or toss some of his improvised spirits. Whitlock is half-blind, but his barrage of gunpowder more than makes up for his aim. Though she’ll never confess it amidst the constant beratement, Drake loves Whitlock, eccentricities and all. They’ve worked together since she was a little girl aboard the Skulking Huntress. He taught her how to drink too much and how to swear profusely. Her first pistol, which never leaves her side, was gifted to her by Whitlock when she was barely big enough to hold it. Rarely sour and fiercely loyal, “Barancle” Bill Whitlock or “ye olde mollusk” as Drake calls him, will defend his crew and his ship with his life.

MULTI-GENRE CHARACTER ART

 
Much love everyone, thanks for your patience with me,

<3 Brian

Release Update, New Rules, New Art!
over 7 years ago – Sun, Feb 05, 2017 at 04:34:10 PM

Hey Open Legend Familia!

It's been a while since my last update, sorry about that! If you're not already doing so, it's a really good idea to follow us on Facebook (facebook.com/openlegendrpg) and Twitter (twitter.com/openlegendrpg) so that you don't get the wrong idea about us sitting around doing nothing. Loads of things are moving, including new art, new rules, and more.

PRODUCTION RELEASE & UPDATE

When we launched the Kickstarter we had to make a "best guess" about how long it would take to pull together all of the writing, content, artwork, to bring this beautiful creation to life. As is often the case with brand-new parents, it seems I was a bit overly optimistic in terms of guessing the actual production timeline. In my defense, I do think it would have been possible to have finished before now, but that doing so would have meant sacrificing quality, but that's not something I'm willing to do given that I envision Open Legend being around for many years to come and being used to breathe life into countless amazing stories, campaign settings, adventures, and more. 

You're thinking... "Ok, Brian... give it to me straight. How bad is it?"

Glad you asked.

Right now, the text for the Open Legend Core Rules (as always, available on the website (www.openlegendrpg.com/core-rules/00-introduction) is about 98% complete prior to release for the website. Only Extraordinary Items and Multi-Genre Characters remain, and neither are inordinately large or difficult.

As for the Amaurea's Dawn text, we have about 45,000 words ready to rock, and we anticipate about 60,000 words of text in the finished work. Our writers are very hard at work trying to close the gap and get everything ready to hand off to our editor.

Our current goal is to hand all of this text over for editing on February 20. It's difficult to know how long editing will take, but we're allocating 1 month for editing. Assuming the text comes back from editing on March 20, and adding about two weeks for text layout and production of the print-ready PDF, that means that we can hope to send it all off to the printer the first week of May. All backers receiving PDF for backers should receive one shortly after we finalize it for printing, so within a week or so of delivery to the printer, backers should have their PDFs.

The printer has given us a turnaround time of 6 - 8 weeks, so that means that those who have ordered physical books should have them in late June given our current projections. 

While I'm doing my best to get all of this finished, as I said before, I've made some choices up until now in the process that have slowed me down due to my own wish to chose quality over speed of turnaround. 

You can expect me to continue to make that choice, so it's possible that this date could push out even further, though I think we're getting to a point now where it's close to being solidified. I'll know alot more in about 30 days (early March) when we've got some significant progress on the editing and we know whether or not that will yield the kind of changes that would put this new delivery date at risk.


MULTI-GENRE WEAPONS, VEHICLES, & MOUNTS

For those who aren't tuned into our social media channels, we've release big updates to the rules in the past month or two, including rules Multi-Genre Weapons and Vehicles & Mounts. You can check both of those out in Chapter 4: Wealth & Equipment (www.openlegendrpg.com/core-rules/04-wealth-equipment)

In addition, you can expect Extraordinary Items to show up on the website in the next week or so.


NEW ART

Again, for those who aren't tuned into social media, I'll share a few of our newest art pieces.

To kick things off, as a special backers-only treat, I'll share the final illustration for the City of Schlectenberg by Andrey Vasilchenko. 

Lucien ‘Lucky’ Kane survived the Night of Hidden Blades. That puts him in the company of a few dozen out of the original five-hundred stationed at the outpost. Returning from a routine trail marking mission, he found the outpost in ruins and his comrades dead. While he and his men tended to the wounded, the assailants returned. The elves appeared masked unnaturally in the darkness of night. He still remembers how the light from his lantern appeared to shy away from their enemies and how the jungle itself rose up against him. This attack destroyed the original outpost in Moondew Watch and a poisoned blade split his face and took an eye. 

The surgeons stopped the spread of the poison in Kane and an inventive artificer, Egris Nest built him a new eye with iron and ingenuity. His new eye allows him to easily track his targets by the heat they give off. This enhanced eye turned a serviceable scout into one of Schlectenberg’s elite snipers. Though grateful to be alive, Lucien is troubled by the eye’s military financed strings that have come along with it. He once thought he might retire in a few years, but he knows that it will take decades to pay off the debt to the military.

Kane now trains and commands the technologically enhanced veterans, who find new purpose with new limbs and new debts to Schlectenberg. His unit, officially named the Reborn Brigade, known around the camp as the ‘Debtor's Army.’ Both looked down upon and pitied, they make soldiers and civilians uneasy and are sequestered to the northern tip of the outpost.
(Illustration of Lucien Kane at Granheim's Retreat by Forrest Immel)

Ethulian, Prime of the Superiori

As an Exceptorium protegé, Ethulian, Prime of the Superiori solved the Observable Mutability Paradox and answered questions that eluded the greatest Superiori minds.

Under his administration the Superiori have largely cleaned up the slums and eliminated crime in Amaranth.

Though rarely in public, Ethulian’s spartan appearance, youthful face and intense focus mark him even among a crowd of scholars. Often Rota is perched on his shoulder or hanging from his back. He speaks softly, but is quick to anger when faced with an argument he finds illogical.

“The Directives, for the first time in Amaurea’s history, offer us true freedom from the primeval and outdated instincts of our biology. Those who refuse, willfully invite the lesser qualities of our physiology to remain, when they could opt for harmonious perfection.”

--Ethulian, On Reengineering Willful Physiology

Matthew Mercer Plays Open Legend @ 6p EST on Hyper RPG Miniseries Today!
over 7 years ago – Fri, Dec 16, 2016 at 11:17:01 PM

Hey Everyone,

The day many of us have been waiting for is finally here! Today, we get to see Matthew Mercer make a guest appearance as a player on the Amaurea's Dawn miniseries on Hyper RPG today at 6pm EST / 3pm PST. 
http://twitch.tv/HyperRPG

To say that I'm excited would be an understatement of epic proportions. 

It would be awesome if those of you who are on Facebook wanted to help spread the word by RSVPing to the event on Facebook and/or inviting a few friends you think might be interested. It's not every day we get to see Matt as a player in an RPG, let alone a non-D&D game!
https://www.facebook.com/events/1182063135211084/

In other news, work continues full-speed ahead with artists arting, writers writing, and rules lawyers tweaking the rules in small bits. We will be publicly releasing the SRD, Community License, and a new iteration of the rules changes to the website. Don't worry, we have a Changelog now that breaks down how things have changed for anyone who gets confused.

I look forward to hearing from you all in the Hyper RPG chat today!
Brian

BackerKit & We Need Your Name for Acknowledgement
over 7 years ago – Tue, Dec 13, 2016 at 02:27:23 PM

Backerkit is now open!

Thanks so much to the 617 backers that have already responded to the survey! If you haven't received it, check your email spam folder for a Backerkit email or head on over:
https://openlegend.backerkit.com/

If you've already completed the survey, I apologize but we need one more thing from you!

When setting things up, I neglected to include a field for how your name should appear as credit in the book. Your Backerkit survey was changed to include a new question for this, which is why your Backerkit status may say "Survey Unanswered" despite you having already completed it.

If you want us to use the name provided for shipping or Kickstarter username, we can default to that, but we prefer to have as many people as possible specify the name so we leave anyone out of our thanks & acknowledgements!

Sorry for the inconvenience!
Brian