The concept of bound daemons is really important to the setting, and is really why the setting exists. Everything springs from that and exists to justify them. The idea of anti-heroes binding demons to their will and gaining special powers through them, while wrestling those daemons have troublesome desires of their own and facing enemy sorcerers who do the same, is the original concept for the game.
The Power of Daemons
There is no magic system. All magic is through Daemons, either via the powers of bound daemons or through rituals. All adventurers (PCs) start with one bound daemon, and significant NPCs likely have at least one bound daemon. Each daemon has a handful of special powers, and might be slowly taking control of the character who “bound” them.
This means daemons have a big effect on the game. they each therefore have Desires and Needs to help in roleplaying them.
Daemons are also freeform, to an extent. There is a table of 20 powers, which looks rigorous (and ideal for a d20 roll), but the way a power is used might be open to interpretation. It’s likely that in playtest, the actual list of daemon powers will change somewhat, and their stated effects might be revised and refined.
But for now, interpret them more broadly and try not to limit them too much. Have fun with them.
Daemons Not Demons
The difference in spelling is not just an artsy affectation. The daemons in this game do not hail from Christian ideas of damnation, and are more like spirits and djin. An early spelling of power-granting spiritual entities was daemon.
So they are not “evil”. But they also are not “good”. They are alien, and do not naturally inhabit this world, so what they really want is unknowable (and if they even weant anything we might understand). They do try to help humanity, but that “help” can be a problem. In a way, they are cosmic horrors that players might control at their whim.
They are not out to deliberately sabotage every players “wish.” But they might misunderstand exactly what a player wants (that’s where bindings come in) and their enthusiasm to ‘help’ can cause problems…
Inspirations
This system is inspired by the bound demons in the Stormbringer RPG, but demons in that game were so powerful that they overwhelmed play. If any PC had a bound daemon, all PCs needed them. But they also had little inherent character – it was entirely up to the GM’s whim if they roleplayed the demons. Some GMs roleplayed them to the hilt, but emphasised the problem side, and owning demons could be a problem. Other GMs treated them just as a piece of equipment completely under the player’s control (and honestly, that rules encourage this). This menat whether demons were useful or a doom was entirely due to chace. The rules had no guidance.
The LND system also pays homage to the demons in the Sorcerer RPG, which itself was likely strongly influenced by Stormbringer. The demons there had a wider set of powers, but the text gave a lot more guidance for GMs.
Those two games strongly influence the shape of deamons in LND. The system tries to be guided freeform. The daemons have a lot of guidance for how to use them, but their powers are not yet strongly defined. The text doesn’t give string guidance for how the GMs should play the daemons – that’s deliberately left open, for now. We shall have to see how it works out.
Read Legends Never Die!
