Hi there, everyone!

I’ve recently been re-watching Avatar (and going through Legend of Korra for the first time), and wow, this system was born to be the best one to be used for that universe yet! I’ve previously made a bending system for Pathfinder that works exceptionally well for d20 (although I admit I might be a teensy bit biased), but I’ve been having trouble doing the same thing when I port the power of the elements into the Narrative Dice System.

Ironically, the part I’m having the most trouble with is because of something I love this system for: the range band system. Force users have fast reflexes, but with the exception of Force leaps, they aren’t exceptionally mobile, and the Enhance power and thhe Quick Movement talent are enough to do this reasonably. Benders, on the other hand, are exceptionally mobile, with airbenders running at the speed of the wind, flying, and constantly dashing around the battlefield, waterbenders creating ice ramps and sliding along them to avoid obstacles and give themselves more speed and pushing themselves across the water’s surface like they’re living motorboats, and earthbenders gliding across the ground, jumping and clinging to walls and ceilings. Modeling that enhanced mobility is making this hard for me.

So, I thought I’d come on over, show you guys what I’ve got, and see if you can help me put it all together. Now, there’s already a “NDS Fantasy” floating around, and it’s my opinion that re-fleshing the specialization will be the easy(-er) part of this, so right now I’m focused on removing the Force system and replacing it with bending. I want to keep it as close to how the Force works currently as possible, and with the exception of perhaps a Universal spec for each element, I don’t want the different types of benders to each be their own career (seriously, the biggest Avatar-based system out there on the interwebs makes the bending styles into their own classes, and it drives me nuts!). So, without further ado, here’s what I’ve got so far:

Bending Basics:

Here’s what I’ve got so far for each bending style.

Airbending:

Earthbending:

Firebending:

Waterbending:

So there you have it. What I’ve got so far for each of the styles, which is mostly just the basics of combat. I need help figuring out how many Power trees there needs to be for each element (I was thinking five each, if we can come up with enough upgrades for them all), how to lay them out, and what unique talents each bending style would have. Also how to model the things that AREN’T just fighting. Let me know what you think, and what suggestions/improvements/idea you have.

Please, no spoilers for Legend of Korra seasons 3 & 4; I’m still in the middle of getting through them for the first time. I’ll post when I’m done and then you can spoilt o your heart’s content! Which I guess means I should put a spoiler warning here for all of tLA and seasons 1 & 2 of LoK: SPOILERS FOR THOSE THINGS! There, you’ve been warned!

Thanks for your help!

First thought: Earthbend rock into armor around you and increase your soak.

Yes: I was thinking that airbending would increase defense mainly through difficulty upgrades, waterbending through defense, and earthbending through increasing soak.

Firebending, of course, sucks at defense and so doesn't have much in the way of defensive abilities.

A way that you can improve the mobility is by borrowing the rules for a Jetpack - effectively making the character a silhouette 1 vehicle.

It would allow them to use planetary scale range bands for movement.

Have you considered just redefining the distances across range bands and just keep movement the same?

Non benders or mook benders would be minions anyway, which can only double move if they don't attack, anyway.

I like this idea, as I too love Avatar. Why don't you just make each different bending tree a talent tree on it's own? I mean, the term "Universal" really has no meaning, and if you're going to have them all be different Universal trees anyway, why not just make 1 career (Bender), and the 4 specializations in that Career be each of the elements? Kind of tomayto/tomahto to me really, as it's essentially just classification terms. But seems fitting to have Bender just be a career, and each element be a spec within that career.

For Earthbending, my personal favorite, I would have Move be front and center to that talent tree, for obvious reasons.

Let's see, random ideas that you can mechanicize out how you like:

1. Ability to create cover at will with a Bending check. Personally I think the cover mechanic in star wars is kind of lame, but hey there you go. Maybe give it double the benefit, since cover is almost always a giant slab of granite. So, just double the setback dice values for cover for this ability.

2. Armor as mentioned above. Give yourself a rock suit. Decide what type armor you want to immulate and go with those stats.

3. Mass knockdown due to seismic strikes.

4. Ranged attack obviously, allow expenditure of more pips to throw larger objects, basically the rules for the Move power as an attack should be fine.

5. Replicate the Enchance Force/Leap trick, but instead they build themselves a launch platform of rock that hurls them up or outward.

6. Replicate the Sense ability to know if people are nearby. Toph's Daredevil-esque trick of course.

7. Replicate Bind's abities, since they could trap them in a column of stone, and even slowly crush them if they wanted. We've seen this used plenty of times.

8. Instant bolthole. Able to bend out a hidey hole for their friends to escape detection, assuming they are not in line of sight of enemy.

9. Metal bending, though this should be waaaay down the Earthbending tree.

I could probalby think of others, but I'd have to really sit down and think about it.

Another way to do it, is to have them all just be 1 talent tree basically, and simply swap out the element. For the most part, they all do the exact same stuff, just with different flavor text. They are all able to be used as a travel power, they can all be used for defense and offense, they can all be used as a form of restraint, though Fire would be more about trapping you in a circle of flame, and earth would be literally grabbing you and holding you still. But that's basically flavor description, mechanically "you are unable to move from that location for X turns" seems reasonable.

And what about nonbending PCs? The Sokkas, Ty Lees, Sukis, Mais, and Asamis of the world? Just like non-Force-Sensitive need to be equal in play to Force Sensitive, non-benders need to have a roughly equal footing, mechanically, to benders.

And if I was too change the relationship of the range bands, of anything I would make them closer together.

I was toying with the idea of borrowing freon the jet pack and making some things work on vehicle scale. It doesn't solve the entire problem, because that solution doesn't fit for everything, but it solves some of it.

EDIT: Sorry, KungFuFerret, you posted as I was posting, the majority of that was for Kaosoe. The reason your idea of a "bender" career is distasteful to me is because it shoehorns people. If you want to be a bender and you're from the Earth Kingdom, you HAVE to be that career, with that specialization. Sure, you can branch out later, but you have no choice on where you start. What if your character is a beat cop for a rinky-dink little town who got swept up in a grand adventure, while your buddy's character competes in Earth Rumble, and you're both benders. You're obviously leaning towards Colonist/Marshal as your starting spec and he's leaving towards Colonist/Performer (he's the guy who plays Fire Nation Min; he's not a very good earthbender yet, so they give him the character everyone hates because they know he's gonna get defeated ). I would much rather these two characters take different starting specs and branch out later than stuff them in the same spec because of one aspect of their character. My philosophy has always been that bending is a tool a character uses, not who the character is. And Aang's son Bumi is a great example of this.

Also, if Bender is a career and each of the specs in that career is a different element, no one except the Avatar (who should never show up as a PC in your game) would be able to take more than one in-career spec, forcing them to pay the out-of-career cost for every new spec they get.

EDIT 2: Also, I have not seen any guns in Legend of Korra yet. Please review my spoiler requests in the original post, as the introduction of firearms seems like it'll be a big plot point later.

And what about nonbending PCs? The Sokkas, Ty Lees, Sukis, Mais, and Asamis of the world? Just like non-Force-Sensitive need to be equal in play to Force Sensitive, non-benders need to have a roughly equal footing, mechanically, to benders.

What about them? This thread has been about how to do the mechanics of Benders. Let the other people who are not benders be one of the many perfectly functional and viable non Force user careers in this game. Mauraders, Bounty Hunters, all of the Outdoorsman style classes (probably the most thematically appropriate, given the technology level pre-Korra), etc etc. No reason they can't be those careers, and be just as useful as a bender. I mean, FFG went to a lot of trouble to make non Force users on par with Force users (at least at first). If you're basically just reskinning Force users as Benders, and mixing/matching their abilities a bit, fundamentally, they shouldn't be any more powerful than Force users, when compared to a non Force user.

If you're using Korra level technology, then basically anything is doable. It's essentially Steampunk level tech, so Outlaw Tech, and all the other gadgety/sciency classes are totally doable. You can even use the rules for Slugthrower weapons, since they have guns at that point in the show.

Absol197, what I was suggesting was not change anything about movement in the game at all, just redefine what each range band means to you. For the adept non-benders, they seem to have no problem keeping up, so I don't see the need to futz with movement too much. Otherwise, use enhance as your basis for advanced movement for your benders.

I have toyed with the idea of making them all the same, or at least similar. I can see the virtue there: it keeps the amount of mechanics relatively small and is easier to balance.

The reason I haven't embraced it completely yet is because of the lore of the setting. In Star Wars, the Force is the Force is the Force: anyone using it, despite their personal beliefs about it, are using the same Force as everyone else and it does the same things. The different bending elements, on the other hand, are very different. Airbendersent are the only ones who can fly; earthbenders are the only ones who can make permanent structures, unless you're in the (ant)arctic, in which case waterbenders can too, but they're more fragile. And as for the example of trapping someone, that ability had different difficulty levels and different levels of permanency between elements. Earthbenders and waterbenders can do it and walk away, and the trap remains. They don't need to keep bending to keep the person trapped. Sure, ice will eventually melt, but it's effectively the same. Air and firebenders have to bend continuously to do it, and once they stop, the trap ends. And firebending specifically is only a trap of the target believes it is. If they're okay risking getting burned, they can jump out without resistance.

I suspect a compromise might be the best way to go; make the powers MOSTLY just a point of flavor, but have some aspects or powers be element-specific.

Now I just need to get my brain to accept that!

Yeah I think the "mostly the same with some unique bits" is the best way, simply because we see them all do very similar stuff, at least when it comes to combat. Outside of combat, yeah they can do some very different things. But they all use their powers to block attacks/shield themselves. They all use them to attack back. They all use them to travel around (Firebending would literally just be Jetpack rules, and done). Etc etc.

If you are trying to keep the rules simple, and not give all of them different mechanics, which you stated earlier frustrated you, even though you then defended keeping them different because they are fundamentally different I mean, they are all based on very real, and very different martial arts styles. To say that the Bending disiciplines are all unique fighting skills seems reasonable to me. But, I mean unless you are the Avatar, you are only going to have 1 Bending style. So you could either have all the different styles on the skill sheet, and limit each player to 1 per character...or just make Bending one skill, and save page space. In the end, it's pretty much the same thing.

Now, seeing as you are watching Korra for the first time, I will not mention a few other factors that series introduces, to avoid spoilers. But that seems like the way to go in my mind for the mechanic side of things. Keep the mechanics basically the same, perhaps even just duplicate the talent tree, and simply add in the unique talents for each of the special things (healing for Water, lightning for Fire, etc) off to the side on the copied talent tree.

I would probably have the different Bender trees, be a mixture of specific Force powers, and talents that are appropriate for the style.