Intro

In Legend in the Mist, character advancement works differently than in most traditional RPG’s. You don’t gain 20 experience points for killing a goblin. Instead, Heroes in Legend in the Mist advance more like Heroes in a story – by pursuing or walking away from their personal Quests and by confronting their weaknesses.

In this How To Play video, we’ll explore the game’s Hero Development system, which works like this:

• Each of your themes can grow by gaining Improve.

• Themes can be evolved or replaced by gaining Milestones or Abandon, resulting in dramatic character transformations.

• By going through these tribulations, your Hero gains precious Promise, which leads to even more dramatic changes or enhancements, called Moments of Fulfillment.

Improve

Improve is the most straightforward way for your Hero to, well, improve! Each theme has its own Improve track.

You can mark Improve in two ways. One way is by spending time Reflecting on the theme while camping, whether you’re meditating or training or so on. Another way is by using your weakness tags in actions and reactions. Although you’ll take -1 to your Power on that roll, you’ll mark 1 Improve on that weakness tag’s theme. Basically, the more time you devote to an aspect of your life and the more you confront your weaknesses, the more you improve!

When you mark the third Improve, that theme expends and you gain an Improvement!

Improvements

There are multiple types of Improvements you can pick for a theme. 

• You can create a new power tag the same way you did during Hero Creation.

• You can remove a weakness tag, though keep in mind that weakness tags are one of the ways you can Improve.

• You can also add a weakness tag to increase your improvement opportunities.

• You can gain a Special Improvement. Each theme type offers five Special Improvements with unique benefits and rules that enhance the theme. For example, the Devotion themebook has the Special Improvement Bodyguard, which allows you to take any Consequences intended for your Devotion in their place.

• You can also spend an improvement to “tighten up” your theme, resetting Abandon, Milestones, or both on the theme to keep it from changing.

• You could also mark Promise, if you’re looking to build up toward a more substantial change in your character.

We’ll cover all of these later in the video.

Whenever you improve a theme, you can also rewrite or update one of your power tags or weakness tags. If something’s changed with your Hero, this is a great way to show it.

Keep in mind that the Fellowship theme also works like a Hero theme, meaning you can mark Improve on it and give it improvements as well, as a group. After all, teamwork makes the dream work!

Milestone: Evolving A Theme

In the life of every Hero, great or small, there are moments that define them or reveal who they truly are. These moments of crisis and growth are represented by the possibility to evolve or replace a theme, and what triggers them is how your Hero treats their Quests.

You mark Milestone on a theme whenever your Hero achieves a major success in their pursuit of its Quest. It is always your decision when a Milestone is achieved – did my Hero take a big step toward achieving their goals, and uphold their Quest? However, the game offers a general guideline: each Milestone you mark should signify an achievement that is greater than the previous Milestone, not more of the same.

Sometimes, however, a Quest reaches a sudden conclusion, without going through three Milestones. If the narrative calls for it, there’s nothing stopping you from marking two or even three Milestones at the same time. Sometimes change is gradual, and sometimes it comes all at once.

When you mark the third Milestone, your theme evolves – there is now something new for you to achieve, a new Quest, a new horizon, and your theme changes accordingly. In other words, your Hero is literally taking this aspect of their life to the next level. You have the option to change the theme’s type or Might level, and to rewrite or replace some of your tags. You also gain Promise for this dramatic transformation.

Abandon: Replacing A Theme

Development doesn’t just go one way. Sometimes a Quest is lost because the Hero tried and failed, and sometimes the Hero simply changes their mind and turns their back on it. Every time your Hero ignores or fails at one of their Quests, mark Abandon on its theme. If you mark the third Abandon, that theme is lost forever and must be replaced. Just like with Milestones, it is your choice as a player when to mark Abandon, and you can also choose to mark 2 or 3 Abandon all at once if the narrative calls for it.

Note that there are other ways to lose a theme. If you Make A Sacrifice as explained in our Advanced Actions video, you may pay by replacing a theme. Furthermore, taking a tier-6 status puts your themes in the hand of the Narrator who can choose to transform one of them into something else.

But that’s not actually a bad thing! Change can be necessary after all, giving an opportunity for something new to shine! Whenever you replace a theme, you gain 1 Promise for the theme itself and an additional Promise for every power tag, weakness tag, or Special Improvement gained from improving the theme.

You then create a nascent theme to take the replaced theme’s place. Your nascent theme represents a new aspect of your Hero’s identity and starts out with just a title tag, weakness tag, and Quest. The next two times you mark Improve, you instead gain a new power tag. After that, your nascent theme becomes a regular theme.

Promise

Finally, we have Promise. Promise represents a deep overall change in your Hero, building up over time by evolving or replacing themes and going through life’s ups and downs. Unlike Improve, Abandon, and Milestone, Promise isn’t tied to a specific theme, but to your entire Hero. When you collect 5 Promise, your Hero reaches a Moment of Fulfillment.

This moment gives you special rewards that can change the narrative in a grand way. In a Moment of Fulfilment, you can safely retire your Hero or completely rebuild them from scratch. You could also make a discovery or unearth a lost truth that shakes the foundations of the world.

You can also gain a Quintessence, which is a special mechanical upgrade. This includes such abilities as Virtuoso, which allows you once per session to treat a roll of 7-9 as a 10, or Jack of Many Lives, which allows you to once per scene gain a story tag that reflects a tag you had in a theme you evolved or replaced.

For more info on what’s possible with a Moment of Fulfillment, check out the Hero Development chapter in the core book.

Outro

You can also learn more about Legend in the Mist by watching the rest of our How To Play series. And while you’re going through our channel, be sure to like and subscribe for more Legend in the Mist videos.

Until next time, good fortunes on your journey!