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In the first post on that game page, Lee Fisher asks, "Is this basically fantasy 7 Wonders? What are the key differences?" The answer, of course, depends on what you consider similar and what you're looking for in a game. Lost Legends consists of three "levels" (i.e., rounds of play) and at the start of each round players draft and play cards one by one. Okay, that's two things in common; what else do we have?
In Lost Legends, you're one of five heroes, with each hero starting with different abilities. In the image below, my guy has the ranged ability and magic skill, as shown in the upper left of his card. He starts with two mana (blue), two endurance points (green), and seven hero points (money). At the start of the round, you receive six "upgrade" cards, choose one of them, pass the others to your left neighbor, then reveal and pay for your upgrade. You get a discount for certain upgrades depending on your skills, but instead of buying an upgrade, you can flip it upside down and add the skill on that card to your current abilities, receiving one hero point at the same time. In later levels, you need far more skills – double-ranged, triple-ranged, etc. – to receive discounts on upgrades, and if you can't afford the upgrades, you're unlikely to defeat the creatures you face then.
Upgrades come in four types – armor, weapons, magic, and artifacts (I think) – and you can have at most three of each next to your hero. Once you've drafted five cards, you toss the final one, then it's time to face the monsters. Each level, you create a monster deck with three random creatures per player, then you deal one creature face-up to each player. Some creatures have special abilities that affect you when they come into play; they also have limited immunity to certain types of attacks, like the Giant Spider that cuts damage from handheld weapons in half (because if you get close, naturally he's going to web your face).
You choose a weapon and do damage to the creature; you can choose only one weapon each attack (since you can't handle, say, a bow and an axe at the same time), and you choose the damage dealt if choices are available. The Rune Axe, for example, can be used as a handheld or ranged weapon, and if you have the handheld skill, the last line shows you can do an extra point of damage no matter you choose in the first line. If you fail to kill the monster in a single attack, it strikes you back; if your endurance drops to zero, you're out for the round.
When you kill a monster, you flip the card and tuck it under your hero card, claiming that card as a scalp, if you will. Monsters come in four types, and the first player to kill a monster of a certain type receives a trophy (the tile on the upper right of my hero) and an experience cube (the red cube). If someone later has the same number of animal scalps of that type, he takes that trophy tile and gains an experience cube. Every time you claim or take a trophy, you gain a cube, which is a point at the end of the game. The trophies themselves are also worth points, and multiple trophies are available for players who claim two animals of a particular type, or one animal of each type, or three animals of any single type. The earlier you claim one of these trophies, the more points its worth.
Killing monsters gives you experience points as well, with the experience track going from the bottom of the hero card clockwise to the top. As you hit certain totals (3, 6, 12, ...), you get to boost one of your naturaly abilities, such as mana or endurance. Reach 16 experience points, and you'll score 8 points at the end of the game. This total can be increased to at most twenty points if you reach thirty experience.
Killing a monster also gives you a financial reward that you must split with your neighbors. While thematically I suppose this is you being a generous hero, in game terms it seems you're keeping someone who's been knocked out of the round from being permanently out of the running, since that player will have funds for future upgrades.
Players take turns attacking the monsters they face, and if on a turn you don't think you'll kill the monster in question (and thus take damage yourself), you can move the monster in front of another player, then take either the wandering monster in the middle of the table or the mystery monster off the top of the deck. Thus, you get to possibly stick someone with a monster he's poorly equipped to handle, while trying to find easier kills for yourself.
When the monster deck runs out, the level ends and you move on to the next one, with the monsters and upgrades both getting progressively stronger. In the end, players tally their points from experience, trophies and few other things, and whoever has the highest score wins. I suppose Lost Legends took that last aspect from 7 Wonders, too...
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