Let's face it, its 2024 and we are in the fifth decade of TTRPG's and in many respects it could be considered the Golden Age, though I think its more of a Silver Age with all the love from designers for their wild creativity in the space. There are game systems to fit everyone's want, desire, every genre, every group. They come in all types from Narrative Style systems, to very light/low rule systems (rules light), to more in-depth rule systems (crunchy). All of it is at our finger tips today, and most can be found from print-on demand publishers (Drive-Thru RPG, for example).
Many of us are "locked" into a specific TTRPG, and learning a new ruleset when you want to change game genres or settings or whatever can often times be overwhelming, thus most of us stay in the same box that we were first introduced to. Yet, casting fireball into a room of full kobolds, taking down the Queen of Dragons for the 5th time, etc., etc., can get monotonous. Sometimes you want to jump into a Mecha, or pilot a ship through space (or the Void), or chasing sky-pirates high above ancient cities, but changing systems can cost a lot of money and hours of learning a new mechanic. You do not want to waste time or money, right?
You really don't have to, there is another way: Legends of Kralis is a system that incorporates all this flexibility in its core rule system and with a ton of free resources to further support an improve that flexibility. Where the motto "What Legend will you Forge!" lives up to its goals and Legends of Kralis is waiting for you to become a lifelong Legend (and friend!)
Legends of Kralis was originally intended to get rid of the restrictions of classes and species, and to play in an AetherPunk style game (where technology and magic collide), and it is designed to be flexible, fun and fast. The core players guide clocks in around 360 pages and includes every core species, skill, ability, magic system, combat system, vignette's and pre-generated characters, allowing every player from new players to veterans can be up and running in a matter of minutes.
I could go on about the mechanics, the crunchy and fun bits of the game system, but rather let me give you four reasons why I think Legends of Kralis really stands out:
1. Absolute Adaptability
I grew up and cut my teeth on D&D, AD&D, Role Master, and GURPS, I had a lot of fun with all of them. But changing settings often meant buying new books, or settings and learning new mechanics for that specific setting (though D&D and AD&D pretty much stayed the same). I always felt limited and constrained by the rules themselves. I had to follow the rules of a specific class, or sub-class, or I had to take a specific Disadvantage if I took an Advantage or only specific races could get access to X or Y. There always seemed to be limit to my character based on somewhat arbitrary game balance. Legends of Kralis bypasses all that by presenting rules for character creation without sacrificing any flavor, vibe or genre. Yet, each individual character is unique to what that player wants to do! Skills are just generic enough to allow players to wield two-handed swords or energy blades, the abilities provide character development so that no two characters are exactly the same.
In all of this the mechanics never change, just how they are applied. A two-handed sword, ala Conan the Barbarian, uses the same skill as an energy blade, a'la Luke Skywalker. Each has different benefits than the other, but both use the same mechanic. These are all baked into the core rules, no need to change systems or learn new mechanics. It's totally customizable, it's 31 Flavors and all you need to do is mix and match to capture the flavor and feel of whatever you want to play.
When we talk about Absolute Adaptability, it leads us to the second reason why Legends of Kralis stands out. It is all about scalability.
2. Scalability
From the beginning Legends of Kralis is scalable both in terms of how high of a rank a character can achieve (30th rank so far has proven to be playable and interesting). Additionally, while there are appears to be a lot of rules these are mostly for the GM to be able to create any game genre they wish. This is often seen as being to complex, yet its core mechanics are a simple set of rules that can be applied from minions to mass battles, both in the Void (space) and planet side (where most games take place). In terms of game mechanics player characters, named NPC's (which include followers, loyalists, and hirelings) are more durable and harder to take out. The rest of the milieu is built from civilians, minions, hordes. Many will take a hit and they're down, others may require that a certain TS must be achieved in a single attack to take them down. They gain no use of Heroic Luck, they have many fewer abilities and skills. Even the monsters that players may face can have these Minion and Hordes rules applied to them all for the Glory of your Heroes. This extends through out the entire core rules, heroes facing a small squad of Voidship Fighters, Minion rules! Facing a 100 kaznarks or oku, Minion Rules! The best part? The rules for use of minions and mass battles are a few short pages!
3. EXPLODING DICE!
Critical skill checks are an important part of any TTRPG both during combat and through the use if skills. In Legends of Kralis any time that a PC (and most named NPC's) rolls a 01-05 most often, but this can get as high as 1-25 through the use of abilities; this is known as a critical hit or critical skill check. This also means that you get a couple of things. First and foremost you gain a Heroic Luck point; secondly, you get a Critical Hit Determination roll where you get to roll another single d10 and add whatever number you get to your total number of successes improving your overall success. Simply put, if my troll brawler has a score of 68 in his WeaponForte (Firearms) skill and I want to shoot the zombie that just shambled into town, I roll a 2d10 and roll a 05 I rolled a Crit. I now get that 1 Heroic Luck and i get to roll an additional d10, adding the extra number of successes to the original roll. If, by some crazy chance, I roll a 0, I do it again. This can continue for up to 5 times based on my rank. Think of it as a critical hit on steroids. These make for truly Legendary fights and skill checks. This also means that a low ranking individual could take on and take out a much higher ranked individual with the right roll, in Legends of Kralis there is always a chance for you to beat the odds.
Of course, the downside is that if you roll a 96-00 (no matter how high your skill score is), you incur a critical failure, and the consequences of your failure can be very harsh.
4. HEROIC Luck!
Perhaps one of the most utilized and important mechanics within Legends of Kralis is the use of Heroic Luck. What is a hero without luck? This mechanic allows the players to spend gained heroic luck to change the odds in their favor from getting a re-roll on a missed, poor or even failed (but not critically failed) roll to avoiding the consequences of a critically failed roll to gaining a helping hand and ultimately cheating death (if they have enough Heroic Luck). Unlike some other games that allow you only to have so many and you must either use them all or start over in a new game session, Heroic Luck is a persistent mechanic for characters. There are also optional rules for Group Heroic Luck.
As a side note I am trying to build an amazing community. The website offers tons of free resources and the discord is filling up with great players and hopefully some great GMs. Legends of Kralis makes great use of its licensing: you can make whatever you want, and, as long as you don’t charge for it and will slap the ‘Legends of Kralis FAN!’ logo on the front, you can put it out to the world.
The adaptable nature of the rules really encourages tweaking and tailoring the game to whatever you want, from existing fandoms and IPs to crazy original settings and everything in between.
Running, playing in Legends of Kralis is really a no-lose situation. You can get the free quick start rules, and some free adventures from the website and Drivethru.
Legends of Kralis is a no-lose proposition. You can download quick-start rules from the Drivethru for free, and be playing in no time. I am hoping that third party publishing will have strong market, with ton more of creative material to explore, and make an inexhaustible source for ideas and materials. There really is not anything to lose here. I, of course, hope you will find yourself a convert to the Legendary worlds of Legends of Kralis.
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