About Legendary Talents

Legend and myth are filled with the exploits of heroes who defied logic, reason, and the very laws of physics. Whether the hero in question is Cu Chulainn, Beowulf, Hercules, Pecos Bill, Coyote, Son Goku, or any of the numberless other heroes whose stories are scattered across the world, the one thing these heroes all have in common is abilities that exceed the mortal limitations average people are familiar with.

The talents presented at the bottom of each combat sphere, called ‘legendary talents’ are truly extraordinary, drawing from elements such as American folktales, Celtic mythology, anime, and wuxia films. If you don’t feel that such options are appropriate for your game world, perhaps because you envision a grittier world or a world whose physics more closely mirror our own, you can simply forego the following options. However, if you believe that your game world should be truly fantastic, exceeding the bonds of physics and reality as we know it in our world, those options can assist in allowing you and your group to have truly fantastic adventures.

While a character using legendary talents should not be more powerful mechanically than a character using only basic talents, they nevertheless introduce powers and concepts that allow a character to move far beyond the limitations of their mortal kin, and might not be appropriate for all tables. A table using only basic talents will find itself working in almost any story from the gritty to the fantastic. A table using legendary talents, however, will find itself moving more towards the realm of superhero stories and wuxia adventures, where mortal men leap mountains and bend rivers through nothing but the power of their own bodies.

Legendary talents are only available with GM permission, but if the GM has granted permission, any character can spend a talent to gain a basic talent or a legendary talent of their choice. However, unlike basic talents, legendary talents often come with prerequisites that must be met before they may be taken.