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T h e ro l e P l ay i n g G a M e

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Everything you need to play in this beloved setting

and create your own heroic legends!
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T h e ro l e P l ay i n g G a M e
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Chapter 1: Welcome to The Game 1

 Credits Acknowledgements
The Avatar Legends shows, comics, and books have inspired us for years. They
Project Manager
taught us lessons on heroism when we were younger and represented many of us
Elizabeth Chaipraditkul
in a meaningful way when we missed seeing ourselves on TV. It’s been a dream to
Lead Designer work on this project!
Brendan Conway The staff at Magpie Games is supported by a number of wonderful people,
Core Designers many of whom helped bring this dream into reality. Thank you to our AMAZING
Brendan Conway, James Mendez Hodes,
Kickstarter backers! This book was made thanks to your enthusiasm, love, and
Marissa Kelly, Mark Diaz Truman
support. Thank you for journeying to the Four Nations with us and making this
book a success!

Contributing Designers
Sharang Biswas, Lee Francis IV, Sen-Foong
Lim, Yeonsoo Julian Kim, Daniel Kwan
Additional Design
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We would also like to thank Michael Dante DiMartino, Bryan Konietzko, and
the folks at Avatar Studios for creating the fantasy world that we love so deeply.
We would especially like to thank Dr. Lee Siu-Leung, whose translation and
calligraphy work is iconic for the original material and this book. We would also

Elizabeth Chaipraditkul, Alexi Sargeant
Development
Elizabeth Chaipraditkul, Brendan Conway, Miguel
Ángel Espinoza, Marissa Kelly, Mark Diaz Truman
Writing
Sharang Biswas, Elizabeth Chaipraditkul, Brendan
Conway, James Mendez Hodes, Yeonsoo Julian Kim,
Simon Moody, Lysa Penrose, Mark Diaz Truman
Copy Editing
Monte Lin, Kate Unrau
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like to give a huge thank you to Joan Hilty for all her work with us on this project
and the help she provided in getting our representation of the Four Nations just
right. Also, thank you to our “Team Avatar” over at ViacomCBS—Jeff Whitman,
James Salerno, Alexandra Maurer, Russ Spina, and Linda Lee. It’s been amazing
delving into this world with you and thank you for all the time you’ve invested in
making our work shine!
We’d like to acknowledge the Asian and Indigenous cultures that influenced
the Avatar Legends properties and our game. A special thanks to members of
those cultures who spent time with us helping to understand their communities
and inspired our work within Avatar Legends; your work with us has made our

Layout and Graphic Design

Miguel Ángel Espinoza

Art Direction
e game more inclusive, more thoughtful, and more exciting at every level.
We can’t express how grateful we are for all the freelancers we worked with on
this project from writers, to contributing designers, to editors. For all the conver-
sations we’ve had about culture, our favorite characters, and what it truly means
to be a member of the Four Nations! Thank you for helping to shape the DNA of
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Marissa Kelly this project, all the amazing work you did, and how you helped bring this game
Art to life. Also, thank you to our CPP GMs and our community moderators who’ve
Avatar Studios & Viacom International Incorporated
helped to shape the community around our game and keep it thriving. You’ve all
Miguel Ángel Espinoza, Abe Dieckman,
been an integral part of our team and we could not have done this without you.
Patrick Spaziante, Richard Suh
Thank you also to Christi Cardenas for helping to make Avatar Legends: The Role-
playing Game a reality. You are an amazing partner and agent, and we are so deeply
Additional Art: Pete Hague, Syd Mills
grateful for all of the ways in which you make our games possible. Thank you!
m

Proofreading Finally, Avatar Legends: The Roleplaying Game’s mechanics are based on the
Katherine Fackrell Powered by the Apocalypse framework originally developed by Vincent and
Chinese Translation Meguey Baker. We would like to sincerely thank them for creating a game system
Dr. Lee Siu-Leung, Tony Lee that has inspired and influenced our design so deeply and brought a new genera-
tion of designers, players, and publishers into the tabletop gaming hobby.
Calligraphy
Dr. Lee Siu-Leung
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Indexing
Elizabeth Chaipraditkul, Derrick Kapchinsky

Licensing Liaison
Mark Diaz Truman

Staff Support
Kate Bullock, Sarah Doom, Derrick Kapchinsky,
Adam McEwen, Chris Samson, Sarah Satiel
Printed by LongPack Games
Special thanks to:
Avatar Legends: The Roleplaying Game text and design
Christi Cardenas, Michael Dante DiMartino,
©2022 Magpie Games. All rights reserved.
Arthur “DJ” Desin, Joan Hilty, Bryan
Konietzko, Linda Lee, Alexandra Maurer, ©2022 Viacom International Inc. All Rights Reserved. Nickelodeon, Avatar Legends and
James Salerno, Russ Spina, Jeff Whitman all related titles, logos and characters are trademarks of Viacom International Inc.
 Table of Contents
Chapter 1: Welcome to The Game............................... 5
Avatar Legends............................................................................. 6
What is an RPG?............................................................................7
The Avatarverse........................................................................... 8
Playing to Find Out..................................................................... 12
What You Need to Play.............................................................. 13
Chapter 2: The World of Avatar.................................15
Exploring History........................................................................16
The Four Nations........................................................................19
A World of Balance.................................................................... 28
Navigating the Eras..................................................................... 31
The Kyoshi Era.............................................................................32
The Roku Era.............................................................................. 44
The Hundred Year War Era........................................................56
The Aang Era.............................................................................. 68
The Korra Era.............................................................................. 78
Chapter 3: Fundamentals of Play............................... 93
The Conversation ...................................................................... 94
Framing Scenes...........................................................................95
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Core Elements.......................................................................... 100
Starting a Game....................................................................... 104
Chapter 4: Making Characters................................. 107
Setting Up Your Game............................................................. 108
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You’re the Hero!.........................................................................112
Chapter 5: Core Moves.............................................125
Using Moves in Play..................................................................126
Basic Moves............................................................................... 127
Balance Moves........................................................................... 137
Advancement Moves................................................................142
Custom Moves.......................................................................... 143
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Combat Exchanges...................................................................146
Statuses.......................................................................................151
Basic Techniques....................................................................... 154
Weaving it All Together............................................................ 158
Chapter 6: Playbooks................................................163
Ten Core Playbooks..................................................................164
The Adamant.............................................................................167
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The Bold......................................................................................171
The Guardian............................................................................. 175
The Hammer.............................................................................179
The Icon..................................................................................... 183
The Idealist................................................................................187
The Pillar.................................................................................... 191
The Prodigy................................................................................ 195
The Rogue..................................................................................199
The Successor............................................................................203
Chapter 7: Advancement.........................................207
Earning Growth ....................................................................... 208
Growth Advancements............................................................210
Advanced Techniques................................................................211
Specialized Bending..................................................................216
Changing Your Character.........................................................218
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Chapter 8: Running The Game.................................221
The GM’s Role...........................................................................222
Agendas......................................................................................224
Baselines..................................................................................... 225
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Guidelines..................................................................................226
GM Moves..................................................................................229
NPCs...........................................................................................234
Portraying NPCS.......................................................................238
Managing Bending ...................................................................239
Running Fight Scenes.............................................................. 240
Chapter 9: Seasons & Campaigns............................ 245
Starting Campaigns................................................................. 246
Crafting a Season......................................................................250
New Seasons............................................................................. 255
Chapter 10: Running Adventures............................ 257
Creating Adventures.................................................................258
Adventure Tools........................................................................261
Adventure Hooks..................................................................... 264
The Vanishing Act.....................................................................267
Using this Adventure.......................................................... 268
Summary.............................................................................. 268
Introduction.......................................................................... 271
Escalations............................................................................272
Important Characters & Groups........................................ 273
Important Locations............................................................276
GM Advice............................................................................277
Appendix A: Techniques.......................................... 279
Universal Techniques............................................................... 280
Group Techniques.....................................................................281
Waterbending Techniques.......................................................282
Earthbending Techniques.........................................................283
Firebending Techniques.......................................................... 284
Airbending Techniques.............................................................285
Weapons Techniques............................................................... 286
Technology Techniques............................................................287
Appendix B: NPCs....................................................288
Kyoshi.........................................................................................291
Roku............................................................................................292
General Iroh...............................................................................293
Aang........................................................................................... 294
Korra...........................................................................................295
Appendix C: Play Materials......................................296
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CHAPTER 1

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WELCOME TO
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THE GAME
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 CHAPTER 1
This chapter introduces you to Avatar Legends: The Roleplaying Game and gives you a general
overview of the setting and what you do in the game, along with an introduction to roleplaying
if you are new to roleplaying games! It also covers the materials you need to play and safety
tools to keep the game fun for everyone at the table.
Avatar Legends: The Roleplaying Game is a heroic adventure game
set in the world of Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Legend
of Korra. This world is a fantasy setting inspired by Asian and
North American Indigenous cultures, a land filled with breath-
taking landscapes, majestic hybrid beasts, and unique marvels of
technology and industry. Yet, it is also a world defined by strug-
gle in which there are no absolute villains or perfect heroes—
only people with complex motivations who come into conflict
with others while striving to forge a future they believe is best.
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Originally, this setting was only a single show—Avatar: The Last
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Airbender—that told the story of Avatar Aang’s journey to mas-
ter the four elements and save the world. But this world’s history
spans thousands of years, and over time, many more of its stories
across multiple eras of Avatars have been told—including com-
ics, novels, and of course, the epic series featuring Aang’s succes-
sor, The Legend of Korra. Together, these works make up Avatar
Legends, a broad term for all of the different stories that detail the
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adventures of heroes of the Four Nations (and Republic City).
This vast universe of Avatar Legends is often referred to as the
Avatarverse—a universe that encompasses the entire human
and natural history of this unique world.
Avatar Legends: The Roleplaying Game gives you and your
friends a chance to create your own Avatar Legends stories
within five distinct eras, including tools for creating your own
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heroes and your own adventures in the Avatarverse. You and
your friends get to be the team of heroes at the center of your
own show, exploring the Four Nations, confronting threats, and
saving the day just like Team Avatar.
If you’ve never played a tabletop roleplaying game before,
welcome! Starting a new hobby can feel daunting, but everything
you need to learn how to play is included right here in this book,
including how to make your heroes and tell amazing stories in the
Avatarverse. Don’t be afraid to jump in and get started; the best
way to learn how to roleplay is to try it out for yourself!
6 Avatar Legends: The Roleplaying Game
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A World of Adventure
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Many people in the Avatarverse are benders, possessing the
ability to manipulate one of the four elements—earth, fire, air,
or water. But whether they’re benders or non-benders, the peo-
ple of this world have faced centuries of trials and tribulations,
conflicts within and between nations, peoples, and even spirits!
For most of the world’s history, the Avatar—a human capable
of bending all four elements—has been responsible for maintaining
balance in the world and serving as a bridge between the spiritual
and physical planes of existence. Following a cycle through the
elements from earth to fire, fire to air, air to water, and water back
to earth, the Avatar reincarnates after each lifetime into a different
nation, carrying forward the Avatar Spirit and its great responsibility.
Many people look to the Avatar for guidance and justice, hoping to
see the most capable bender in the world solve their problems and
placing an enormous burden on this lone person to be a savior.
But the Avatar is not the only hero in this world. Many are
called to bring balance where there is disorder and seek jus-
tice where there is suffering. Some of these heroes are benders
themselves, but others use martial arts, weapon training, or
technology to triumph in their amazing adventures and build a
better world. These heroes might sometimes stand with the Ava-
tar in times of great trouble, but often they must join with other
heroes—without the Avatar’s guidance—to bring balance.
What is Avatar Legends: The Roleplaying Game?
In Avatar Legends: The Roleplaying Game, you and your friends tell
a story about a group of young heroes who join together to fight
for what’s right in a complicated and nuanced world. One of
your friends acts as the gamemaster (GM), describing the prob-
lems the heroes face and the people they meet along the way;
the rest of you take on the roles of individual heroes, seeking to
make the Avatarverse a better place.
This game focuses on stories of adventure and the personal
journeys of heroes through the various trials in their lives. It’s a
game for people of all ages who want to look at the Avatarverse
beyond the scope of the existing shows, comics, and stories
and explore the meaningful actions heroes take for the good of
others. If you have ever wanted to throw yourself into the Ava-
tarverse and craft your own adventures alongside your closest
friends, then Avatar Legends: The Roleplaying Game is for you!
 What is an RPG?
A tabletop roleplaying game (sometimes abbreviated to TTRPG
or RPG) is a storytelling game for three to six people played at a
table—or online— with pen, paper, and dice. The game plays out
as if you and your friends were cooperatively telling a story togeth-
er. Over a few hours, your collective tale evolves and changes, go-
ing to new and unexpected places based on the characters’ actions.
You may even end up playing multiple sessions that build on the
events of your first session and deepen the characters’ stories!
Most players take on the role of a character in the setting of the
game. Alongside your friends—who play their own characters—
you describe what your character looks like and what they do. You
say what they say, either describing their words (“I say something
intimidating and glower at the guard!”) or speaking them verbatim
(“I say, ‘I’ll never forgive the Fire Nation!’”). You think about how
your character thinks and feels, and you guide all their actions.
One of your friends plays a special role—the gamemaster
(GM). They portray the rest of the world, including all the other
characters. They describe what every other character does or
says and fill in any holes in the setting so that everyone at the
table shares the same imaginary world in their heads. In a game
focused on an existing property, like Avatar Legends: The Roleplay-
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ing Game, the GM also helps to productively introduce existing
elements like major characters or events from the setting.
Very importantly, the GM isn’t playing against the other
players. They’re here to try to represent the world faithfully while
building out a set of interesting conflicts—to say what happens
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and what exists in a way that makes the fictional world make sense.
And they’re here to keep things compelling and exciting—which
includes honoring how awesome the other players’ characters are!
Your Heroes
In Avatar Legends: The Roleplaying Game you play one of the many
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heroes of the Four Nations. Your goal is to protect the world
from harm and stand up for those without the power to stand
up for themselves. You fight on the side of what is right, even if
that is the most difficult path to take, and you understand that to
achieve peace there must be balance in all things.
Each player in Avatar Legends: the Roleplaying Game creates
their own hero using a playbook, a kind of hero archetype—a
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set of abilities and details and story elements all wrapped togeth-
er to help you make the coolest character possible. Each hero is
known as a player character (PC) in contrast to characters not
controlled by the players called non-player characters (NPCs).
You and your fellow PCs are the main characters; your decisions
matter the most to the tale you’re telling together. As you play, the
GM presents the PCs with locations, situations, and characters
that create new, interesting choices and events. For example, your
characters might be invited to a soiree at the Earth King’s palace, a
spot you know will attract several thieves looking to steal the King’s
precious jewels. Your GM describes what the party looks like, the in-
teresting guests attending, the surprising events that take place, and
the dangerous actions of the thieves. You decide what your heroes
do to respond to the situation at hand!
The Rules
For the most part, a tabletop roleplaying game plays like a conver-
sation—you take turns speaking, describing the action or sharing
dialogue, reacting to each other, switching back and forth between
in-character and out-of-character speech. But the conversation leads
to places of uncertainty, times when no one knows what happens
next. When one character tries to jump from a burning building to
safety—across a ten-foot gap—no one knows for sure what hap-
pens: do they make the jump or come crashing down?
In those moments, you turn to the game’s rules; they help
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you to figure out what happens in moments of tense uncertain-
ty, guiding the conversation forward into new, interesting, and
surprising outcomes. The rules themselves provide guidance on
when they come into play, but most of the time, the GM has to
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provide some additional interpretation to help the mechanics fit
the very specific situation in your game.
What’s more, the GM also acts as a kind of impartial judge, help-
ing the table determine when the rules come into play. If there’s ever
doubt about whether or not the rules apply, the GM acts as the final
arbiter and decision maker. If a character is jumping from a burning
building, the GM might look at the rules and the situations in which
they’re supposed to come into play, and then decide that, yes, there
absolutely is uncertainty here. Time to go to the rules!
If, on the other hand, a character is jumping from one building
to another when there’s no fire and the two buildings are practically
touching, the GM might look at the rules, look at the situations in
which they’re supposed to come into play, and decide that there’s no
real uncertainty here. There’s no tension. The character just does it.
The Story
Telling a story together through roleplaying isn’t like writing a
screenplay, in which a sole writer is in complete and total control
over the narrative. Instead, the GM offers problems for the
players to confront while making room to be surprised by how
the PCs respond to the conflicts at hand, and the players make
choices about what their characters do, playing off each other
and finding out what happens together.
Thus, each individual story of Avatar Legends: The Roleplay-
ing Game is like an episode of your own television show—the
heroes learn about problems, figure out what they want to do,
engage in some action, then discover the resolution of those
problems through their choices. But unlike those shows, nothing
is scripted, and you play to find out what happens!
But a single episode rarely resolves everything. You and your fel-
low companions might defeat a dangerous villain and save a village
from destruction, but that doesn’t mean that there are no further
problems for the heroes to face. In fact, that defeated villain might
reveal that there are larger forces in play, leading to the companions
undertaking a larger mission that spans multiple sessions of play.
That larger overarching story—composed of multiple, com-
plete story episodes—is called a season. Sometimes groups only
tell short stories, perhaps a single episode or just two or three,
but often the longer stories are what makes roleplaying games
truly memorable. After all, what could be better than getting to
watch the heroes you and your friends created grow and change
over the course of many adventures?
Chapter 1: Welcome to The Game 7
 The Avatarverse
While all the rules and advice in this book are designed to
support stories in the Avatarverse, there are a few core ideas you
need to keep in mind while you play. Avatar Legends: The Roleplay-
ing Game tells stories of adventure and action against the back-
drop of the Avatarverse, a fantasy setting in which any individual
person can change the course of history…but no one can escape
the decisions of the past.
In other words, the potential for change is infinite—there
is always a new challenge to be met, a new future to be built,
a new legacy to be forged—but the Avatarverse is a place in
which people remember what came before, whether that be
the great deeds of Avatar Aang and Fire Lord Zuko, the terrible
destruction wrought by Fire Lord Sozin, or the innumerable
warlords and bandits that lived and died long before Avatar
Kyoshi first learned earthbending. The past matters, now more
than ever, and the consequences of your actions will echo long
after you are gone.
The stories you tell through this game are not stories of the
battle between good and evil. Instead, they are stories about
how people try to make a better future while dealing with the
problems of the past. They are stories about misguided figures
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who take things too far and heroes who make sacrifices to find
compromises and new ways forward in equal measure.
Your characters in this story are always capable heroes with
the training and willpower necessary to make the world a better
place. They’re drawn together by events that called them to
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undertake an important struggle—see Outline the Inciting
Incident, page 111—but that goal is too large for them to
accomplish overnight. Instead, they will have to work together to
make a meaningful difference. Sometimes that means they must
discover a hidden truth or deep learning; sometimes it means
they must win the trust of a worthy ally; and sometimes that
means they must defeat a dangerous and powerful foe.
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Each of these goals is complicated by the characters’ own in-
ternal struggles, the way they are torn between their principles as
they deal with problems. For example, the heroes might finally
confront a murderous bandit who has been terrorizing the near-
by villages, only to discover the bandit is keeping a community
of people fed who would have otherwise starved. Will the heroes
set things right no matter the cost? Or do they seek redemption
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for the bandit based on his good deeds?
Even though each episode’s story will likely be about a partic-
ular conflict or villain or problem, the decisions the companions
make echo throughout the setting. And when you play a full
campaign, you not only encounter the long-term effects of your
own actions, but you also see how your character is changed and
shaped by the decisions you make. Forging a better future also
means forging a new version of yourself!
8 Avatar Legends: The Roleplaying Game
The Eras
Each game of Avatar Legends: The Roleplaying Game begins with your
group picking an era as the backdrop for your game. The eras are
each tied to the span of an Avatar’s life—except for the Hundred
Year War era during which Avatar Aang was frozen—and focuses on
distinct themes which define the type of game you play. The full text
of Chapter 2 describes these eras more deeply, but here’s a quick list
that describes the rough focus and details of each era:
The Kyoshi Era covers the events right after The
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Shadow of Kyoshi novel. Play in the Kyoshi Era
if you want to fight in battles against rogues and
bandits and deal with governmental corruption as
the nations establish their borders.
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The Roku Era covers the time right after Sozin
became Fire Lord and before Roku married. Play
in the Roku Era if you want to deal with tensions
between different nations and the trials of main-
taining an uneasy peace.
The Hundred Year War Era focuses on the time
just before Avatar Aang’s awakening at the begin-
ning of Avatar: The Last Airbender. Play in the Hun-
dred Year War era if you want to rebel against unjust
rule, protect the weak, and stand up to tyranny.
The Aang Era is set immediately after the events
of the Imbalance comics trilogy, some time after
the end of Avatar: The Last Airbender. Play in the
Aang Era if you want to heal the world after trage-
dy and help push it into a brighter future.
The Korra Era covers a period that takes place
after the events of the Ruins of the Empire comic
trilogy, sometime after the end of The Legend of
Korra. Play in the Korra Era if you want to deal
with the repercussions of imperialism and play in a
modernized era.
The Four Nations
For centuries, the world has been split into four distinct nations
each with their own cultures and customs. While individuals
from these nations often form lifelong bonds of friendship and
love, the nations themselves are often in conflict. Your heroes
may travel from place to place or stay in one location, but they
must always contend with the politics and peoples of the places
they visit during their adventures.
You can read more about the full history of each of the Four
Nations—and locations that only exist in later eras, like Repub-
lic City—in Chapter 2. For now, here’s a short summary of each
of the Four Nations, their history, and some of the most import-
ant issues that are likely to arise if they appear in your game.
 The Earth Kingdom
The largest of the Four Nations, the Earth Kingdom has been
ruled by a monarchy for much of its history. It is known for its
sheer vastness and diversity of both geography and peoples. De-
spite the history of hardship in the rural areas neglected by the
government, the citizens of the Earth Kingdom are known for
their strength, resilience, and unyielding nature. When they are
knocked down, they rarely stay down for long. They draw their
strength from the immortal earth and immovable mountains.

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The Fire Nation
The Fire Nation is located on a group of islands to the west of
the Earth Kingdom. It boasts an impressive military, and its navy
is a force to be reckoned with. This is in large part because travel
by water is a necessity on the islands. In addition to its military,
the Fire Nation is known for its robust economy and industrial
achievements. The Fire Nation is filled with people who value

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innovation, technology, discipline, and strength of all kinds.
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The Air Nomads
Determined to focus on a spiritual life separate from the rest of the
world, the Air Nomads roamed the world while maintaining four
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distinct Air Temples in nearly inaccessible locations. Tragically, Fire

Lord Sozin ordered the Fire Nation military to kill all Air Nomads at
the start of the Hundred Year War (page 58); Avatar Aang was
the only survivor. Over a century later, a number of people gained
airbending abilities during the Harmonic Convergence, ushering in
a new Air Nation under the guidance of Aang’s son, Tenzin.
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The Water Tribes

Divided into the Southern Water Tribe and the Northern Water
Tribe—alongside a smaller group based in the Foggy Swamp—
the people of the polar tribes are skilled at sailing and navigating
challenging terrain. However, there is a long history of tension
between the two tribes, and the Southern Water Tribe has often
struggled while their Northern counterpart thrived. Both are
known for their powerful loyalty and unrelenting perseverance,
like the waves of the ocean crashing onto the beaches’ shores.

Chapter 1: Welcome to The Game 9