Introducing Legacy and Saga.
What is Legacy and Saga?
A Roleplaying Game Like No Other
Imagine your favourite tv drama, the tension of the spoken and unspoken. An entire story that lives and dies with little violence. Now imagine an action packed blockbuster, a grounded war movie, a survival story. Not only can Legacy and Saga fit each of these genres, but it can do them well, and it do them all at the same time.
Modularity
Saga’s many parts do not rely on each other to function, but rather can be played on their own. You can seamlessly chose which elements of the game suit the needs of your story. With varying skill trees and rule sets for different styles of play, Legacy and Saga can be exactly what you need it to be, without feeling like something is missing.
Complexity
Legacy and Saga is a game that is dynamic in its complexity. Its base systems are simple and easy to pick up, and it is designed for players to be able to learn the rules as they play, rather than before. What starts as a d20 game with a few dice, will eventually turn into a massively complicated collaborative dice storm.
Storytelling
The design of Legacy and Saga rules systems emphasize storytelling, with clear, communicable stakes in all levels of play. There are ways to lose without forfeiting the entire game.
Story and narrative in ttrpgs are not something that you can create effective explicit mechanics for. If you have a rule or mechanic that states if your character gains a benefit by giving an inspiring speech, a player just needs to say that their character gave an inspiring speech and they can receive the benefit. Additionally holding a player hostage to roleplay to mechanically engage with a game with make players simply not want to play the game.
However, implicit roleplaying mechanics are mechanics that apply consequence for both character and player for them to react to. Implicit mechanics help blur the line between player and character experience to create roleplay opportunities.
Vision
When I first started creating a fantasy world, I began to see my world not as something singular, but a collection of places, each with their own stories and stakes. Each place would have a perspective, an identity, eventually its own theme and structure of meaning. From that point I realized that much of this world did not truly belong to me. That there was both too much content for a single person to produce, and too many cultures that could be represented if authored by voices who belong to them.
Saga became a vessel to find collaborators to help populate this world, letting new life stem from my original vision. Now with the help of these collaborators, new fantasy settings are always brewing, and the world of Legacy and Saga grows, and with it many products to come.
Collaborators
Jesse T William
Project Manager
Writer
Jesse is the guiding vision for all of the Legacy and Saga products, based on their world and dming experience.
Tadhana Joy
Lead Writer For Indaari Kingdoms and Barkadan
Tadhana was once a paid player, then friend and first collaborator of Jesse’s. She is a multimedia writer and lead of the Indaari Kingdoms setting, inspired by her Filipino heritage. She has also contributed to Ebinibad.
Clara Efferin
Art Director
Clara is an Indonesian artist responsible for bringing life to almost every Legacy and Saga product.
Faith Barret
Lead Writer For Vianesh
Faith is a psychologist, trivia champion, pop culture jeopardy contestant, and avid ttrpg player. Originally a home game player, she eventually became a collaborator, leading the design of Vianesh, a colonial south Asian setting inspired by her relationship to her culture and the layers of colonization that have accumulated to form her identity as a Canadian Indian individual.
Nathan Coltura
Lead Writer For Xerexes
Nathan has also paid to play in Jesse’s games, a creative and caring player who became the lead designer for Xerexes. Xerexes is a Jewish inspired setting that provides reflections upon hope, death, patience, and destruction.
Products
Legacy and Saga Core Ruleboook
The Legacy and Saga core rulebook supplies a collection modular rules and guidelines for storytelling, combat, and creativity. The Legacy and Saga core rulebook is the primary product to be used in tandem with the rest.
Saga and Legacy supports short and long form storytelling.
Barkadan
Barkadan is a Filipino inspired grimey fantasy setting, and a small piece of the Indaari Kingdoms. This city of slums, noise, and plenty tells stories of desperation, disparity, and demons. Players only comfort will be the distant light of hope.
Cosmic Compendium Volume 1
The cosmic compendium details powerful beings for players to face. With a focus on each creature having a story to tell, and being a part of a family of creatures. With additional rules for players to access higher power, any collection of creatures can be used to structure a campaign and populate a world.
Guiding Ways
Guiding ways is a guidebook for those running Legacy and Saga, providing insights on how to run the game, create campaigns, and use Saga and Legacy products to run compelling ttrpg stories.
Aspirations and Despair Volume 1
Aspirations and Despair is an Anthology series, showcasing unique parts of Jesse T William’s world which belong to larger settings waiting to be expanded.