Good Luck, John

In Legend in the Mist, the core play loop consists of the narrator describing threats to the heroes, which they may either address or ignore. Threats might be subtle and potentially long-term:

The police officer purses her lips, narrows her eyes, and glares at you. You’ve avoided a citation, but you’re on her list.

Or they might represent immediate danger:

The goblin smirks, points at the barbarian, and hefts a banana cream pie.

You might be tempted to resolve the first threat immediately, but it’s far more interesting to allow this threat to linger across multiple scenes:

You notice Officer Malone on the corner. She sees you looking and rolls her eyes.

Then when the heroes are trying to break into the police station, it’s the perfect opportunity for Officer Malone to catch them in the act.

As you squat down to pick the lock, the door knob turns and you look up into the face of Officer Malone. She sighs.

How our heroes deal with the threats we make determines whether the game grips the imagination or not. In the case of the goblin and his pie, the barbarian might try to scare the little fellow away.

I jump in the air, wave my arms about, and scream like a wild-man.

The hero uses their {tag}Strong as an ox and {tag}Dangerous reputation tags to gain a +2 to the standard 2d6 roll. With a result of 10, they succeed cleanly. The narrator rules they’ve addressed the threat and now have several options. The most obvious — and boring — is to apply a status to the goblin. With two power (thanks to the two tags, {tag}Strong as an ox and {tag}Dangerous reputation) the hero could apply up to {status}Intimidated-2 status to the goblin.

The {status}Intimidated status would be helpful in the future, but the goblin still has the pie ready to throw we discover when the narrator shifts the spotlight to the wizard:

The goblin recoils in horror from the barbarian’s display and prepares to throw their pie at you instead.

But what if, instead of applying the {status}Intimidated status, the hero had chosen to define a new narrative truth by creating a new tag on the goblin? Players have this power too. Not just the narrator. In this case, the hero might choose to add the {tag}Shaking with fear tag to the goblin. Why would they do this instead of intimidating the goblin?

As a narrator, I’d argue the goblin is intimidated by the barbarian and not necessarily by the wizard — come on, look at that weedy wizard. So although the goblin has an overall status of {status}Intimidated-2, that won’t negatively affect their threat to the wizard. However, any goblin that’s been {tag}Shaking with fear will tell you they’re less accurate with a pie.

An even better option instead of applying the {tag}Shaking with fear tag would be to scratch the goblin’s {tag}Banana cream pie tag because then they’ve been disarmed and can’t attack the wizard next.

Shrieking in terror, the goblin fumbles their pie. They struggle to catch it before it crashes to the cobbles, spraying banana cream across their leather shoes. Their lower lip quivers as they slump to their knees.

Remember, threats may be immediate or subtle. Here, the wizard is being threatened with a goblin on the verge of tears. Of course, that’s nothing a fireball can’t fix.

A status lasts only a short while. It’s a temporary truth that becomes more true as the status increases in value, but it’s still short-lived. To return to the intimidated goblin, if the barbarian gives the goblin {status}Intimidated-2 during a scene and does nothing else intimidating, that status will fade. After a few turns, the status will reduce to {status}Intimidated-1 and finally, by the end of the scene, the goblin will no longer be intimidated.¹ Of course, if the barbarian continues to stomp about and make a nuisance of himself, the goblin will probably remain intimidated.

Folks have wondered whether it’s better to apply a {status}Harm-3 status or give a hero a new tag like {tag}Broken leg. I’ve heard it said that a fight is over when the first bone is broken. Based on my experience breaking bones, I had no interest in fighting or anything other than getting medical attention. But more importantly, a tag like {tag}Broken leg becomes a new narrative truth. By itself, a tag is neither good nor bad. It’s simply the truth. The same goes for a broken leg.

Consider the song Good Luck John, by Joe Crookston, after the “bad luck” of losing his horse, John has “good luck” when his horse returns with a pretty white mare. Unfortunately, the mare kicks him in the leg and breaks it. Oops. Bad luck again. However, an army comes by recruiting and skips John because of his broken leg. Good luck again. This dichotomy continues throughout the song, where John’s broken leg acts as the narrative truth driving his story. If it hadn’t been his leg, it would have been something else.

When to use tags vs status

I try to follow a simple rule for whether to create a tag or a status as the consequence of a threat. If I expect the truth of the situation to escalate to a climax, then I use a status. In all other cases, I try to use a tag (or scratch an existing tag).

Are the heroes trying to convince a guard to let them into the castle? The climax is when they apply {status}Convinced status sufficient to overcome the guard’s {limit}SKEPTICAL-4 limit. On the other hand, if the heroes just want to cut the guard down where he stands, the climax comes when they overcome the guard’s {limit}HARM-3 limit with {status}Wounded statuses before he sounds the alarm.

However, if the heroes sidle up to him in the small, cold hours of the night and hand him a fifth of whiskey to “keep him warm”. They can apply the {tag}Drunk as a skunk tag to him, slip through the gate, and let him worry about whether to sound the alarm and get into trouble for drinking on duty.²

The interplay between tags and statuses in Legend in the Mist allows heroes to craft the adventure they’re looking for, but it does require thinking beyond numbers go up. This isn’t as easy as it sounds, but if you give it a try, your games will be more exciting and satisfying.

¹ As a narrator, it’s our responsibility to signal this loss of intimidation as a new threat during the scene. It’s delicious.
² Rest assured the heroes will meet this guard again when he’s sporting the tags {tag}Disgraced and {tag}Bearing a grudge.