Avatar Legends: the Roleplaying Game is quickly becoming one of the most popular Powered by the Apocalypse RPGs on the market, with its focus on cinematic roleplay and narrative-first rules being a big selling point. For that reason, choosing the right virtual tabletop to run Avatar Legends can be crucial, as too much or too little can impede the flow of play. There are many options available online — let’s figure out which one’s right for you!
Avatar Legends: The Roleplaying Game
Before we get into the specific VTTs, let’s discuss how Avatar Legends works, to figure out what features of the system need the most support.
Avatar Legends is, of course, based off of the widely successful Avatar IP. In particular, it looks to emulate the shows Avatar: The Last Airbender, and Avatar: The Legend of Korra. The game’s designers, Magpie Games, thus try to make every session of Avatar Legends feel like an episode of the show. They offer multiple outlines to turn sessions into episodes and seasons. The combat, as well, is built to move fluidly between multiple engagements and bits of dialogue, with the intention of making a big, climactic build.
The core system of Avatar Legends uses the Powered by the Apocalypse template, which means it exists on a simple “play to find out” structure for its player character outlines and abilities. Instead of being divided into classes, such as by bending, players need to choose Playbooks that describe their narrative function within the story. The moves available in these playbooks run on a simple 2d6 form, with hits or misses both resulting in the story being furthered.
In a typical, three-hour session, players may only find themselves actually rolling once or twice, with the vast majority of the game being propelled by narrative roleplay and resource-spending. For these reasons, Avatar Legends is typically run as a Theatre of the Mind game, with much more emphasis on the roleplay than the tabletop. It’s typically best that, in a video call, the main emphasis is on the other players’ cameras.
So, which virtual tabletop compliments this best?
Roll20
Roll20 is a relatively lightweight client that can be used for free. Many of Roll20’s nicer features are locked behind a paid subscription. But, given Avatar Legend’s lightweight nature, features like Dynamic Lighting and APIs are probably unnecessary. Roll20 was one of the first VTTs to have a community-implemented Avatar Legends character sheet, and continues to enjoy decent support for it.
Roll20’s video-calling abilities are infamously janky, and it’s advisable to use a separate client, like Discord, for video calls. As you will see, this is the case for many of the Virtual Tabletops on this list.
Foundry VTT
Foundry Virtual Tabletop enjoys extensive community support for all its popular systems, Avatar Legends included. You can easily build a sheet from any playbook and roll using Foundry VTT’s automation features. Foundry’s many bells-and-whistles, like FX master, can add an extra atmosphere to the visuals you use in Avatar Legends.
Unfortunately, just like Roll20, many of these features are just overkill for a lightweight system like Avatar Legends. Foundry’s poor audio-visual system means you’ll end up staring at Discord or another client for most of the session.
Foundry also requires the purchase of a license, and either self-hosting, or paid hosting, of the server. Those choosing to run Avatar Legends in Foundry are probably doing so because they already own a license and hosting.
Role
Role VTT, found at playrole.com, was made to run face-first games like Avatar Legends. Unlike other VTTs, which are typically optimized for grid-based games like Dungeons & Dragons, Role was built specifically to facilitate video calls, over a virtual tabletop, in-browser. Most of your time using Role will be spent looking right at other people, no third-party client required.
Purchasing the Avatar Legends corebook gives you access to all the basic playbooks for your players to use as they see fit. It also gives everybody access to a downloadable PDF of the entire book! If you don’t want to purchase the book, you can also use Role for free and manually enter the playbooks, though this is time-consuming. As well, you do need to pay for the relatively cheap Role Patron subscription to get HD video calling and to use the limited audio player.
Role is definitely the best solution for those looking for the simplest and cheapest virtual tabletop to run Avatar Legends.
I wish I could just play this game instead!
Then you’re in luck! Here at StartPlaying, you’ll find many professional Game Masters who can run Avatar Legends for you on their virtual tabletop of choice. Relax and let the professionals handle it, and explore the world of Avatar Legends: the Roleplaying Game!
Salman Corbette is StartPlaying resident improv expert, offering weekly games and workshops to true roleplay connoisseurs
