Worlds

Overview

The worlds in Legend Continuum are largely chaotic and unpredictable. Each time a group leaves the The Ship, they may appear in wholly different locations and even time periods. Additionally, where once there stood a forest, on another occasion there may lie a lake; a township that offered goods and services may be found to have become a guarded fortress or a creature's den. However, while the worlds seem ever shifting, there is an apparent formula - rules and patterns that govern them. It is the players' job to explore these worlds and uncover the mysteries that lie in wait.

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GM's notes

While the world is 'randomly' generated each time a team leaves the ship, it is possible to return to the same location - if the location is mapped.

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Element

There are nine worlds, one for each of the elements. It determines the base environmental landscape and the unique sets of encounters and features that exist. The world is selected either randomly or by GM choice each time a team begins a mission. If you are playing a session with no planning or preparation, you can simply roll a d10 (reroll 0s) to determine the world you will play in. If you have a story in mind, then you may want to have it play out in a particular world.

• - New Venus
• - New Mars
• - New Uranus
• - New Jupiter
• - New Neptune
• - New Uranus
• - New Earth
• - New Mercury
• - New Pluto

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GM's notes

Later, players will gain the ability to choose which world each mission will begin in - as well as be able to traverse between worlds during a mission.

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Scenes

Distinct areas of the world are separated into scenes that appear to become increasingly more challenging the further into the world you go. Each scene only persists until the mission ends.

Attributes

• Time (0, 1, 2, 3...) - The time acts as a difficulty / danger rating of the environment and the encounters. The time is 0 while in the ship and is increased by one every time a new scene is entered. The time is the only attribute of the world that the players should be made aware of, as it is displayed in the ship and on their suits.


• Size (1, 2, 3... 9) - Scene size determines the number of travel actions required to reach the next scene and is also the maximum number of encounters that can be played during a scene. Generated by rolling a d10 when entering a new scene. If a 0 is rolled, the scene time increments instantly and another d10 is rolled. This can occur multiple times in a row.


• Chaos (0, 1, 2... 23) - Chaos is a resource that the GM may spend in a variety of ways to give bonuses to encounters and also acts as a modifier for a variety of environmental effects. Its value is determined by the nearest hour on a real-world clock at the start of each scene.

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GM's notes

Scenes may persist between missions, if it is mapped. This means that when the characters are in the world of the same Element, at the same Time, the same scene will appear. It will also have the same Size, but possibly a different Chaos - which may have implications on the state of the scene. More on this in the "features" section below.
To document your missions, it is recommended to use a single side of paper (or a page of the World Pad) per scene. At the top of the page, you should have the scene's attributes, followed by the features that are present. Then, make note of the choices the team make and the outcomes of encounters and events. If combat occurs, you should list all enemies on their own lines, with their stats adjacent. Be sure to leave a line or two between each enemy to let you note down any status effects or other relevant information about that particular entity. In the margin, it is worth numbering the entities from 1 to X, and sharing these numbers with your players so it can be easily communicated which entity an action is involving.

Things you may want to take a note of:

• Environmental details and descriptions
• Points of interest and landmarks
• Team progression and occurrences
• Encounters' characteristics
• Results of interactions
• Stats / Resources
• Bonuses / Penalties
• Locations / Orientations

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Features

The details & environmental effects determined at the start of each scene and persist until advancing to the next scene. (See Exploration). Whatever features are present, you should communicate the effect they have on the characters. This can be done simply stating the exact effects of the feature or narrating it as the characters would experience it. For example, long grass may provide -1 to scouting rolls, but you could say: "the grass is extremely long, and makes it hard to see as far as you normally would." This has the advantage of having a greater storytelling potential, but it means you will have to remember to apply many effects and roll modifications yourself.

• Obstacle - One or many distinct objects that block (or partially block) movement are considered obstacles. They can cover multiple tiles and may be destructible and/or contain resources.


• Terrain - Terrain describes the surface being travelled on. It has a constant effect during exploration actions but only affects certain tiles in combat.


• Climate - The conditions of the surroundings caused by weather or physics variations. Affects all tiles during combat and travel unless otherwise stated.


• Structure - Buildings, nests and natural formations that may or may not be inhabited. If the team enters a structure, it generates a miniature scene (or multiple scenes) within, with its own features and encounters. The time and chaos do not change, but the size is recalculated.

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GM's notes

Feel free to mash up features that wouldn't normally go together for some weird and wonderful locations. How about a forest hidden beneath a lake? Or a tornado in a cave?

And remember that if you have a feature in a location that is mapped then it is still subject to change. There may be hundreds of years between two different missions that happen there, in either direction! Maybe the team find the great fortress in ruins, or find it still under construction!

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Arena

A localised view of a scene, representing the area of interest during time sensitive events such as combat or competition. Characters and encounters should all appear in the arena. Features should also be clearly displayed - an easy way to do this is to use props and/or mark the tiles/sections affected with counters.

• Tiles - Each space that can be occupied in the arena has a limited amount of space available. Encounters have a size - a single tile may hold encounters with a total size of 5. Additionally, tiles may have a set of elements that are present. If a tile has two elements of polar disposition, they neutralise each other (e.g. light & dark). As standard, all elements are neutral.


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GM's notes

Once an arena has been made, the edges become impassable barriers - meaning the only way out is to defeat the hostiles or to recall to the ship. However, the arena's edges may be changed by the GM if they see fit.




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Homebrew - Designing your own setting

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You want to make your own world, huh? That's a biggie. If you haven't had a go at making some smaller homebrew content like encounters or features, I would recommend doing that first. This is just so you can get a feel for how things may influence each other and how to balance the power level of any effects you invent. But, if you're confident, then this is how best to go about it.
First, you should think about what genre you are going for - what style of play. Be it horror, comedy or anything in between, it is a theme that you should stick to throughout the world so that it is clear to your players what they are getting in for when they visit this world. It also really helps to tie the world together and make it believable.
Then, you need to think about how this world fits in with the rest of the universe. This can be done a variety of ways. Some examples include: a tenth elemental world that can be visited at random, like the rest; replacing a world with one of your own design; or even replacing the ship and all the worlds with a single, completely unique setting. All of these and more are valid, but it is an important step to consider this before moving onto the actual content so that it doesn't clash with other aspects of the universe.
And that's it for laying the foundation for you very own world! You have the basic concepts in place, it's now time for you to think about what/who can be found there. A good way to start is with the cryptids, and how they influence the environment. Then, you can think about the kinds of creatures that would benefit from this environment and how they would interact with each other - before finally adding any natives (Guidance on designing encounters of all kinds can be found in the next chapter). Of course you might not want to do it in this order! Feel free to just start with whatever you think is neat and work from there. Don't forget to have fun with it!


Features
If you're moving onto designing the environments, remember that the setting should imply the genre, and its inhabitants need to fit in there. For example, a horror may be set in an obviously haunted super dungeon laden with skeletons - as expected. But there are, of course, ways to subvert player expectations by doing the opposite of this: a fairground-themed world with a sinister twist, sending patrons to their grizzly demise. Though, this is difficult and should be done carefully and deliberately. Either way, this will start you off thinking about the features that might exist - both naturally and... unnaturally (*Makes unconvincing ghost noises*).

Guide - Table of Contents