Question: What is a Legendary Deed?
A Legendary Deed is exactly what it sounds like; it's an action, moment or feat that is so incredible that it becomes famous in its own right and ripples down through the centuries. Legendary Deeds are the stuff that myths are made on; they're the great doings of great people that we remember and retell as part of mythology and history. When Heracles dragged Cerberus out of the Underworld, or Thor lifted the foot of a cat that was really Jormungandr, or Hathor convinced Ra that she was so beautiful that the universe had to be preserved for her, or Cu Chulainn tied himself upright with his own intestines to continue fighting, those were Legendary Deeds. They were actions so badass they could not be forgotten. When Scions perform Legendary Deeds, they are choosing this moment as the transcendent moment to be remembered in what they're doing; they're making a mark on Fate itself.
If you're just asking what a Legendary Deed mechanically does, however, I'm going to have to borrow one of John's favorite responses and suggest that you buy the fucking book. Legendary Deeds are a basic mechanic of the system and are detailed on page 122.
This is my bad. I remember not seeing it anywhere in the book and it's on your character sheets whereas it's not on ours, so I thought it might be something original you guys came up with. Thanks for the page number though. :)
ReplyDeleteHa ha, no worries! Once in a while people ask us to explain mechanics so they don't have to buy the books, and we try to avoid doing that so that White Wolf gets their paycheck. Don't mind me. :)
DeleteI'm still VERY confused by how Legendary Deeds are presented in the book after reading it again though. It sounds like they're just making Stunts sound epic and I never saw Stunts as a limited feature on the character sheet? We do them all the time.
DeleteWat?
DeleteStunts definitely aren't limited; you can stunt all you want, always and forever, for free. A Legendary Deed should always include a stunt, but not every stunt is a Legendary Deed.
DeleteLook at it this way: if you leap over a foe, corkscrewing through the air, and whack it upside the head with your staff while yelling a battle cry, that's a stunt. If you do that so hard that its head goes flying off and lands in the enemy camp, causing widespread panic and havoc, that's closer to a Legendary Deed. You decide which things you're about to do you want to be super awesome Legendary Deeds, and then hope that the extra oomph you get from spending the LD will help make it a super badass unforgettable deed.
You read the page and your still confused? What part are you confused about. It explains it incredibly clearly.
DeleteIs it kind of strange how you can completely fail a legendary deed, and how gods do not get any more ever once they have used their 12?
DeleteLook again - Legendary Deeds refresh every story. :)
DeleteIt does suck to fail a Legendary Deed, but that is also Legendary in its own way; the great defeats of mythology are told in stories as much as the great victories.
The last thing sounds like a confusion of what would constitute a single Story.
DeleteAs for the confusion after the page, or at least the page on Legendary Deeds, they just make Stunts and LDs sound like the same thing with mechanical differences. After reading the specific section on Stunts things are better clarified. Even if it just makes LDs like Stunts, but better and cooler. Which pretty much is Anne's explanation above.
Never mind, I get the difference now. Sorry.
DeleteOops! You're right that legendary deeds refresh every story.
DeleteAny favorite/especially memorable Legendary Deeds from your games that you or your players would care to share?
ReplyDeleteI think that was one of our questions very recently actually.
DeleteSo probably just scroll a few questions away and it should be in there somewhere
Yeah, there was a recent question about cool boon usage, I think that's what John's referring to.
DeleteHmm... Vala using Mystery so hard she found out what the Fates were up to comes to mind. Also Woody getting swallowed by a monster crocodile and then exploding it from within, Jioni causing night to fall suddenly over an entire town with a giant use of Darkness, and Goze performing such an epic feat of tribal dance that he distracted Raiden and Fujin into dancing for a week straight so his band could run into their territory without being noticed.
In my game, I have my players keep track of what we call Legendary Deeds, but they're actually Deeds that the PC's do which help shape their Legend. They may have involved a dice roll that was enhanced with a book-deed, but they can also just be things they did that didn't need any rolls.
ReplyDeleteOur Ex-Scion of Lugh has some fun ones, like "Had his Soul Reshaped by a Drunken Immortal", "Allowed a Great Wolfhound to Devour his Arm in exchange for a Knife" and "Allowed his Dog to Eat Him Alive to Avoid his Prophesied Doom". He got better after that last one, thanks to Kernunnos.
Russian Murder-Batman has some like "Killed Koschei the Deathless by Destroying his Soul" and "Destroyed a Hospital to save a town from the Vengeance of his Father" plus a bunch that involve him cutting off people's heads for different reasons.
Legendary Deeds can be those, too.
We also have to keep track of those types of deeds. In addition to meeting minimum cult numbers and boon/attribute/ability requirements, once we are approaching apotheosis we are required to have a certain number of legends or stories associated with our characters before they can increase in Legend. For instance, Jioni's legends are her marriage to Erebus and climbing into the sky to bring Anansi back. In order to move to Legend 10, she needs more stories (in fact, that's currently all that stands between her and Legend 10). These often involve Legendary Deed expenditure, but they're certainly more than the Deeds themselves; they're the legends that define our characters, especially to the mortals who believe in them.
ReplyDelete