Avatar:The Rogue

Bin is featured as an example for the Rogue playbook.

The Rogue (潑賴
(pōlài)) is one of the playbooks for Avatar Legends: The Roleplaying Game, an outline of a character archetype that can be customized in the game. The Rogue is one of the ten playbooks featured in the Core Book, and is described as a vagabond who has strugggled to survive. They have never felt they belonged and they have become a rebel and a troublemaker to make it. Their balance principles are Friendship vs. Survival.

Description

The Rogue is a rulebreaker, a joker, a delinquent — a figure on the fringes who snipes at the people in charge. Play the Rogue if you like the idea of being a troublemaker.

Troublemaking, lonely, attention-seeking, selfish. The Rogue is an outsider and a miscreant, whatever their background or training might be. If they are from a Privileged or Military upbringing, they might look like a different kind of delinquent than one from an Outlaw or Urban background, but in either case, they are known as a troublemaker even among their own people. Someone with an Outlaw background might be stereotyped as being a criminal by people from other backgrounds, but a Rogue with an Outlaw background is trouble even for other criminals.

The Rogue became such a scoundrel and rulebreaker out of a need to survive. Something in their circumstances and background threatened their life, perhaps outright, perhaps metaphorically. For some Rogues, they became rulebreakers because they needed food; for others, they became rulebreakers because life threatened to drain them of personality or hope or will. Whatever the case, they did not just start causing trouble for the heck of it — or rather, causing trouble for the heck of it helped them survive in the first place.

• Starting stats: Creativity +1, Focus 0, Harmony -1, Passion +1
• Demeanor options: Acerbic, Joking, Cynical, Sly, Extreme, Wild

Principles

The Rogue's principles, Friendship and Survival, represent their struggle with their habits, formed out of a need to survive, and their desire not to drive others away with the same bad habits.

The Rogue's principle of Survival is their drive and need to selfishly make it through difficulties alive — but not necessarily well, or triumphantly. They grew whatever defenses and strategies they needed to make it through bad times mostly intact, but their defenses and strategies often left others out in the cold, and tended not to produce constructive results. A Rogue acting on Survival is not trying to win a fight; they are desperately trying to survive it, at any cost. A Rogue with a high Survival is self-centered, but practically impossible to destroy.

The Rogue's principle of Friendship, however, represents their desire to actually form bonds over their desire to simply survive. Surviving at all costs includes the cost of most relationships, and the Rogue is aware of this tragedy. Committing to Friendship means deciding that maybe connections with their companions matter more than just avoiding harm. A Rogue with a high Friendship is willing to turn their hard-won survival skills and strategies to the task of helping their friends.

The Rogue finds a new way to combine these two principles in their Moment of Balance. In their Moment of Balance, the Rogue realizes that protecting their friends is a way to survive, too—that protecting the people they care about protects the Rogue, as well. The Rogue breaks all the rules, but does it to help others, and thereby helps themselves.

Characteristics

Moment of Balance

You learned early on that you had to do what you needed to survive, and that sometimes that meant you lost friends. Now, you find a new balance: rulebreaking isn't something that just drives people away — it's something you can use constructively, with your friends.

Moves

• Roguish Charm
• Slippery Eel Hound
• Is That the Best You Got?
• You're Not My Master!
• Casing the Joint

Growth question

Did you get a friend to join in or approve of one of your bad habits?

The Rogue's growth question is all about sharing their bad habits with new friends. If the bad habit becomes a way to bond with others, then the Rogue can grow and learn to change.

Characters

The known Rogue playbook characters from Avatar Legends: The Roleplaying Game are:

• Baljin
• Bin
• Chesa
• Ganzaya
• Norbu
• Pianchir Jing
• Zeebee