Lore

While traveling, players will learn new facts about the world, such as secrets or forms of specialized knowledge. This can include facts about Antagonists, facts about the world’s history, facts about its culture and people, specialized academic or scientific knowledge, and so on. In Last Odyssey, information of this type that would not be common knowledge for the player characters is referred to as Lore. When players learn Lore, they will be granted 1 🜹 for each single piece of information they learn about a topic for the first time, with the total amount of Lore available on a certain topic depending on how important it is to the campaign. Generally speaking, Lore about an adventure-level topic will grant up to 5 🜹, and a campaign-defining topic may grant a total 10 🜹 or more. Players are also able to learn more than one Lore statement at a time, but each individual piece is worth 1 🜹. By the end of a Lore-heavy campaign, the players will have an extensive Lore bible that they can refer back to when needed. Heroes cannot earn 🜹 for learning the same piece of Lore more than once.

Making Use of Lore

Players can use relevant Lore that they have learned to solve puzzles, bypass trials, or conduct successful investigations. This does not require the expenditure of 🜉, the use of 🜹, or the casting of any dice. If the players and the GM agree that an item of Lore will help them succeed on a task, it simply does. This aspect of Lore makes it useful for simulating certain forms of Hero knowledge that are otherwise outside of the mechanical scope of Last Odyssey. Here are some examples:

• Language. GMs that want to make language a centerpiece of their campaign can represent it as Lore. The more adept the Heroes become at a language, the more 🜹 they earn, and the more they can say, write, and understand. This applies equally to living languages and dead ones.
• Technology. In some settings, remnants of past technology are scattered around the environment. Learning to use and operate this technology is a matter of Lore. The more technological Lore the players gather, the more they can use the technology of the ancients, allowing them to solve puzzles, gain equipment, and sometimes even gain advantages in combat.
• Ritual Magic. While Heroes may innately use the power of Mana, there are certain uses of it that require more involved study and practice. In settings with high magic, or with occult or spiritual elements, certain powers can be invoked by elaborate series of steps that the players can perform. The players must know all of the steps of a ritual to use it, and learning each step will net them 1 additional 🜹.
• Etiquette. High-risk social situations such as courtship or diplomacy will have strict rules around how to behave. If players are not already well-versed in matters of etiquette, its rules will count as Lore. Players’ relative skill at a given type of etiquette would correspond to the amount of Lore 🜹 they have earned during the learning process.
• Exploration. Learning the locations of lost trade routes, ruins, or hidden temples also counts as Lore. In this case, the players earn 1 🜹 per clue as to where the thing they are seeking is located, and also earn additional Exploration 🜹 when they arrive.