AG-Legion

Legion

This section explains how to handle Legions, which characters who have mastered the Aristocracy class can control.

Dominion

Legions are armies that can be controlled at will through the use of the Dominion, the ruling power of the nobility. As such, they are basically composed of commoners (and sometimes magical creatures or animals). Commoners are unable to resist the dominance of the dominion, and will carry out any orders, even if they are suicidal. Nor can they harm the Bluebloods. Legions are formed by nobles who have mastered the Aristocrat class, and accompany them. In other words, whether Legions live or die is up to the PC who has given its orders. For more details, please refer to the enshrinement of "Nobility (Blueblood)" in Part 4 (page 120).

Dominion Targets

The Dominion is effective against humanoids and Barbarous alike. It can also be used against animals and magical creatures that have been specially trained as Legions by acquiring special Noblesse.

Dominion's Area of Effect

Blue Bloods can place any number of commoners under their control. To bring them under control, they must be close enough to recognize them individually (about 10 meters). Also, to give orders, you must be close enough to give direct instructions (about 30 meters). It is also possible to give orders to the subject to carry out continuously, but it is common sense to refrain from giving too strict orders because careless orders may result in the death of the subject. In addition, once controlled, the effect is permanent, no matter how far away the ruler is. Also, the command will continue to be executed forever until it is canceled or becomes impossible to execute (i.e. death).

Bad Order: Don't leave a certain place → risk of starvation, etc. Common Order: Don't leave the territory → Free to stay within the territory

Resisting to the Dominion

Commoners cannot resist the Dominion at all and do not even get to make a check. If a humanoid tries to dominate a Barbarous, or vice versa, rolling a resistance check is possible. The TN for this check is equal to Aristocrat class level + Spirit bonus. Succeeding the Willpower check, you will not be dominated. The same opponent will not be able to control you again. Even if you are a commoner, you may be able to resist if you are a Transcendent (See FC Page 10). In that case, simply perform the same check as above. Barbarous of 16th level and above also have the same ability to resist. The check is the same as above.

Duration of Dominion Effect

As a general rule, the effect of Dominion is permanent. However, if the target dies, this effect is lost. Also, domination is removed after the ruler dies and 2-7 days (1d + 1 days) have passed. If the ruler is revived before then, the dominion is not lifted.

Legion Core Rules

Legions are formed and accompanied by blue bloods who have mastered the Aristocrat class. A Legion is a sort of game representation of an army, corps, or guard force that follows a nobleman. In reality, it is a group of people, animals, etc., who follow the instructions of the blueblood by contract. For more information on how to deal with Legions, please refer to the following section.

Forming a Legion

By forming a Legion, you gain the authority to command that Legion. Once a Legion is under your command, you can give orders to it. The formation of a Legion can be completed immediately by paying the "Formation Fee". This Fee is a simplification that represents the cost of maintaining the Legion's strength and morale, as well as the expenses necessary to keep the Legion with you. Once the blueblood has paid the "formation fee," they no longer need to take into account funds for equipment, food, etc. for their own Legion during the session.

Verifying your Legion and Fighting Strength

At the beginning of the session, you will be asked to confirm the Legion you have formed. The Legion will be at its maximum "Fighting Strength". If there are any effects such as [Well Supplied] (=>page 57) that increase the Fighting Strength, those effects will also be applied at this point.

Restoring Fighting Strength

The Legion's fighting strength may be reduced during combat. The Legion's strength can be restored by 5 points at a time by paying the Maintenance Cost specified by the Legion. You can pay the Maintenance Cost any time you are in a safe territory or in town. Also, by paying multiple times, you can recover more strength. You can never recover more than the maximum strength.

Concurrent Legion formation is not allowed

As a rule, a single blueblood can only form one Legion. When forming a new Legion, the old one must be disbanded while the new Legion is formed by paying the formation fee.

Non-Interference by Others

In general, the Legion you command does not allow other characters to interfere with it, and it will not follow orders or commands from anyone other than you. In battle, the Legion may be targeted by hostile characters or Legions for the purpose of reducing its strength (see page 115).

Formation Time Limit

Once you have formed a Legion, there is no time limit. Once you pay the formation fee, the formation will continue even after the session is over, until the Legion is wiped out (page 115), or you form another Legion. Legion wages (etc.) can be ignored in between sessions, as they can be considered being paid by the revenue generated by your territories.

Updating and Disbanding Legions

If a noble wishes to form another legion, he or she must disband the previously formed legion. There are no special conditions or time requirements for discarding a legion. You can immediately start a new Legion by paying for the new one. Abandoning a legion in the middle of a battle or in other situations where the legion is in danger is not an option. The GM has the final say.

Organizing Legions in Session

If you wish, you can take control of other Legions during a session. There are a few conditions that apply. - You must not have formed a Legion at that time. - If you have already formed a Legion, its Strength must be at its maximum. If any of the above conditions are met, a new Legion can be formed. If the strength of the Legion you have already formed has been reduced, you will be able to form a new Legion by paying the Legion's Maintainance Cost and restoring its strength to its maximum value.

Breaking a contract

If you wish, you can disband a Legion. If the Legion is disbanded, it is immediately disbanded and disappears from the scene. When disbanding a Legion, the Legion's Strength must be at its maximum.

Don’t count as characters

As a general rule, Legion don’t count as characters and aren’t treated as characters. At the same time, they are not subject to any of the constraints that characters are, including the time, distance, and money required to eat, sleep, and travel. For example, they cannot gain the effects of equipment or items that benefit characters.

However, it is okay to use them to make the scene more interesting

It is acceptable to give the Legion and its members personalities as long as they do not function as characters. These personalities can be used to liven up a scene or to express the character of the PCs, as long as the GM approves.

Waiting in a Secure Location

You can instruct your Legion to wait in a secure location, such as a city, and not to accompany you. The Legion will not act on its own initiative, but will simply stand by. If you have a means of long distance communication, you can have a waiting Legion join you from a distance. A Legion in standby has the information gathering ability of a normal person without character data, as well as the power to deter armed forces (i.e., hardly useful). However, they cannot be ordered to standby in dangerous places or situations, or to travel through them.

Legion Prerequisites

You must have acquired the Aristocrat Class before you can command a Legion. In addition, special prerequisites may be necessary for the formation of more powerful Legions or Legions of non-human races.

Handling Finishing Processes at the End of a Session

You must complete the finishing process at the end of the session if you had a Legion with you. Specifically, you need to restore the reduced " Fighting Strength" to its maximum value by paying "Maintenance Cost".

Repairing insufficient strength

When a unit's strength is reduced at the end of a session, the unit must pay the "maintenance cost" to restore its strength to its maximum value.

Failure to pay maintenance cost

If you do not have enough money in your possession to pay for maintenance, you must incur a debt for the difference. If you are unable or unwilling to incur debt, the Legion will be disbanded and you will receive the mark "Incompetence".

Handling Legion in Combat

Handling on the battlefield

The Legion will follow the Aristocrat in battle.However, Legion itself does not operate as a separate character. The Legion does not have its own coordinates during battle, but remains at the same coordinates as the nobleman. If you move, it will follow you regardless of how or how far you move. In addition, Legions do not have HP or MP, and everything is managed by "Strength".

Legion Behavior

Legions do not perform actions of their own volition. They receive orders from you, and take action as soon as you give them.

Targeting Legions

Legion reside at the same coordinates as you, and are not treated as separate characters. However, it is possible to target a Legion with melee attacks performed by a character or power that is hostile to you. If the Legion is attacked, its strength is reduced (=> page 115).

Handling Area of Effect

If a nobleman is subject to an area of effect ability, the Legion may also be subject to those effects at the same time. If a legion is subject to a wide range of effects, its strength is reduced.

Legion Combat Actions

This section explains what actions the Legion can perform under the command of a nobleman during combat. The Legion can perform the following actions

• "Substitution" by Legion
• "Support Attack" by Noblesse
• Retreat

“Substitution" by Legion

The Legion can take the place of an accompanying noble when he or she loses HP due to an attack or magic. The Legion's Strength will be reduced instead of your HP when taking your place. Substitution can be attempted even if your Strength is reduced to 0 or less, but the Legion will be completely wiped out. If a Legion is wiped out by a substitution, the extra damage will not be taken by the substituted noble.

Timing for declaring "substitution"

You can declare "substitute" right before reducing your HP from being hit by an attack, magic, unique skill, etc., but after the applicable damage has been determined. You can use substitute, no matter under what circumstances the noble's HP would be reduced. When you declare a substitution, the legion's Strength is reduced by the same amount as the damage you would take, after the damage is determined. Substitution can be attempted whenever the conditions are met (i.e. whenever you would lose HP).

Legion are unaffected by negative effects other than a reduction in Strength

Attacks and unique skills that cause secondary effects (such as entanglement and poison claws) other than HP reduction do not affect Legion in any way. If you perform a Substitution, these secondary effects are ignored.

Clarification: Can Legion use Substitute on any detrimental effects?

Even in situations where the nobleman has enough HP, the Legion's Substitute can be used to prevent troublesome unique skills and secondary effects.

Effects for which substitution is not possible

The Legion's Substitution cannot be used against disadvantageous effects or unique skills that do not reduce HP, or effects that only reduce MP. If you take damage but do not lose HP due to defense or damage reducing effects, the same applies. Substitution can only be performed in situations where your HP would be reduced without it.

"Support Attack" by Noblesse

As your Aristocrat level increases, you will be able to learn Noblesse that will allow you to command Legions. If you learn a noblesse that is denoted as [Crescent Moon Formation], you can make the Legion perform actions other than "substitute".

Noblesse Forms and Use Conditions

Each Noblesse has its own "Form," which determines when and under what conditions it can be used. The Noblesse that are particularly effective in battle are Declarative（ロ） and Granting (▽).

Declarative（ロ）

Declarative Noblesse can be declared as a minor action, allowing the Legion to perform attacks and other actions. You cannot declare multiple Noblesse of the same form at the same time.

Granting（▽）

Granting Noblesse extends the effects of Declarative Noblesse, or gives additional effects. If a matching declarative Noblesse is used, it may have multiple effects simultaneously.

Calculating the Power of Noblesse

Some Noblesse include the notation "Power (Strength) + Legion Level" or "Power (Strength -10) + Legion Level". The power is determined by rounding up the strength to the nearest ten, and then referring to the power table as per usual. In this case, the critical value is treated as 10. For example, if the Legion's strength is 25, the power is 30; if it is 12, the power is 20. If the Legion's fighting strength is 25, the power would be 30. The "Legion Level" is the same as the Aristocrat level the Legion can sign up for. For example, a "Scrappy Militia" is level 1, while a "Regular Soldiers" is level 4.

Retreating

When the Legion's strength is low and there is a risk of annihilation, the Legion can be ordered to retreat. Retreat is declared using a minor action. If you give the order to retreat, you will not be able to give any other orders to the Legion during your turn.

Handling of Retreated Legion

A retreating Legion leaves the battlefield immediately and is immune to any interference from all characters participating in the battle. After that, it cannot return to the battlefield until the battle is over. When the battle is over, they return to your side, at the strength they had at the time of their retreat.

End-of-battle effects are still effective

Any effects that only take effect at the end of battle still affect the legion, even if they retreated from combat.

Loss of Strength

When a Legion participates in combat, its "Strength" can be decreased by various things. The following is an explanation of these situations and how they are handled.

Reduction by "Substitution”

Substituting for a noble's HP loss will reduce their Strength by the same amount as the damage applied.

Reduction by being attacked

When the Legion is directly attacked by an enemy, its Strength is reduced by 1. There is no roll to determine accuracy or damage. The attack must be a "target: 1" some form of melee-, ranged- or magic attack or any sort of unique skill. It has to deal damage to HP to be effective.

Reduction by Noblesse ( vs. Legion ), etc.

Among the effects that target Legions, Noblesse labeled as "Flying Wedge Formation" and the like will reduce their strength not by a single point, but by a specified value.

Reduction due to being hit by area effects

If the coordinates where the nobleman (and Legion) resides are the target of an area-of-effect ability, their strength may be reduced. If the area where the Legion resides is the target of a wide range of effects, the Legion is treated as a single character for convenience until the process is complete. You cannot target the Legion itself, even with a wide area effect.

Area: Breakthrough effects

If the Legion is within the range of an “Area: Breakthrough” effect, roll 1d. On a roll of between 1 and 3, the Legion is affected. When caught in an “Area: Breakthrough” effect, the legion has its strength reduced by 5 instead of rolling for damage.

Area effects with a maximum number of targets

If you are caught in an area effect that has a maximum number of targets, such as "radius 3m/5", legions will be treated as a single character for convenience. If the legion is affected, the legion has its strength reduced by 5 instead of rolling for damage.

Wide-ranging effect that targets everyone within range

If you are caught in an effect that targets everything within a certain radius, such as "5m radius", the legion has its strength reduced by 5 instead of rolling for damage..

What happens when a Legion's Strength is reduced to zero?

When a Legion's Strength is reduced to 0, the Legion is considered to have been wiped out.

Legion Annihilation

When the Legion's Strength is reduced to "0," the Legion loses all its functions and is eliminated from the game. The formation is dissolved, and the nobleman is marked as "Incompetence".

Clarification: Relationship between Legion's Strength and Personnel

It is not explicit how many men the Legion is composed of specifically, instead abstractly represented as "fighting strength". Whether it is one strong individual or a group of skilled soldiers is left to the PC' s imagination. A decrease in the Legion's strength represents a drop in morale due to injury or fatigue, so basically no deaths are assumed. However, if the Legion is annihilated, it will be treated as if all the Legionnaires died (failed their death check), no matter how many there were.

“Incompetence Mark”

If, for any reason, a Legion's strength is reduced to "0", the Legion is considered to have been annihilated. A Legion that has been wiped out cannot be brought back to strength no matter how much "Maintenance Cost" is paid, and will be lost. Instead, you will be removed from the Legion and receive a "Incompetence Mark". The "Incompetence Mark " indicates that you have mishandled your subordinates, close friends, or collaborators in the Legion, and if you gain this mark, your fame (or infamy) will spread.

Disadvantages of the Incompetence mark

If you have earned the Incompetence mark, you will be required to pay an increased amount of money in addition to the formation fee if you wish to form a new Legion. The additional fee is determined by the Incompetence mark you have earned. If a nobleman is marked as a "Disgraced Noble" wants to form a new unit with "Scrappy Militia", he will have to pay an additional 100 gammels in addition to the contract price of 200 gammels for the new one, or the legions maximum strength will be reduced by 20% (rounded up to the nearest whole number). If you have already contracted with the "Scrappy Militia" in the past, you will only have to pay an additional fee of 100 gammels when you re-sign the contract. Please refer to the " Incompetence mark List" for the additional fees required. Please note that the " Maintenance Cost " remains the same even if you have acquired the Incompetence mark.

List of Incompetence Marks

Mark	Additional charges on contract	Reduced Strength	Reputation needed for Expunging
"Disgraced Noble”	0.5x	20%	20
“Lemming Marshal”	1x	30%	30
"Pied Piper”	2x	50%	50
”Butcher”	3x	70%	70
"Grim Reaper"	4x	90%	100

Worsening of the Incompetence Mark

If you have earned the "Incompetence Mark” and you are in a situation where you earn another "Incompetence Mark” (e.g. the Legion is wiped out), your "Incompetence Mark” will worsen. Worsening of the "Incompetence Mark” will result in either an increase in the additional cost of re-organisation or a greater reduction in strength. In addition, more honor points are required for a single refund. The Incompetence Marks are: "Disgraced Noble", "Lemming Marshal", "Pied Piper", "Butcher" and "Grim Reaper ", in that order.

Removal of "Incompetence Marks”

Incompetence Marks are treated as titles offering 0 Reputation, but they cannot be removed by the PC without permission of the GM. In order to remove it, a refund in reputation is required. In order to get a refund, you need to spend the specified number of reputation (reducing both your current and total). In the case of a refund, the Mark will revert to a lower level of incompetence. For example, the Mark "Pied Piper" can be refunded by spending 50 honor points to revert to the Mark "Lemming Marshal". Once the refund has been made, it should be noted in the honor item section as "Lemming Marshal (1st time, refunded)". It is possible to refund more than one level of honor points at a time, if you have enough unused reputation. Please list all steps in the honor item column.

Getting an Incompetence Mark again after a full refund

Once you have fully refunded all your reputation, if your Legion is wiped out again, you will start again with the lowest Incompetence Mark "Disgraced Noble". In this case, the Mark "Disgraced Noble (2nd time)" will be used to clarify the difference with the already refunded Incompetence Mark.

Incompetence Marks and Dishonor Marks

Incompetence Marks gained through the loss of a legion are treated differently to Dishonor Marks gained through the loss of a mount rider class (now p. 79, LL, p. 122). In addition, Incompetence marks and Dishonour Marks are seperate and require the payment of reputation for each to be refunded.

Note: Situations where Legion’s can’t be used in combat

If you are in a combat situation, such as a cramped room or back alley, and the GM feels that the use of your Legion is inappropriate, the GM may inform you before the combat and initiate the combat by withdrawing the Legion ("page 115). These situations should not be frequent, and should be resolved by your own ingenuity or by improving the situation.