Time to pimp my favourite fantasy game: Talislanta.
Go over to the
talislanta website and download their sampler from the downloads section.
The sampler only gives the first chapter of the book, which is a kinda overview of the entire system. There is an entire chapter devoted to combat and another to magic as well. Both of those really flesh out things a lot better.
A quick summary of the system:
Stats and skills are all listed as +/- a number. The stat values correspond directly to the stat bonuses from D&D 3rd ed, which might help when making comparisons on power levels.
To make a skill check: Roll a d20. Add your skill and it's governing stat to the roll. Subtract the difficulty of the task (-10 for difficult, -5 for easy). Check the action table for the result (printed on the character sheet).
A result of 0 or less is a mishap.
1-5 is a failure
6-10 is a partial success
11-20 is a full success
21+ is a critical success
Combat is much the same. Roll a d20, add both your Combat Rating stat and your weapon skill, subtract their CR + weapon skill as the difficulty. Check the result on the table. All damage for weapons is set. A full success does the base weapon damage, whilst a partial success does half the weapon damage. Armor subtracts from the damage dealt.
A critical hit does whatever the intent of the action was (based on the description). If the PC wanted to decapitate the enemy or cut off his hand then he pretty much does it. Against a PC or major NPC a critical hit means the opponent must make a CON save on the action table (roll d20, add twice the CON stat). The negative modifier for the CON save is the damage inflicted (though I use the weapon skill of the attacker instead). Full success is no effect. Partial success gives -5 on all actions until wound is healed. Failure or mishap means incapacitation or unconsciousness. You won't die from CON saves unless your hit points are reduced to negative values, in which case you are pretty screwed.
Magic works in a very similar way. There are 12 or so modes of magic. Modes are things like attack, defend, influence, conjure, summon, move, heal, etc. The mode a spell falls under is determined on an effects based system. So if you want to cast a fireball, that would be an attack spell and governed by the attack mode.
Anyhow, you roll a d20, add your Magic Rating stat and your mode rating skill level, and subtract the difficulty of the spell (determined by area, range, duration and level of effect). Check the action table to find out the result of the spell. Note that determining the difficulty is very very easy to do since there are only 2-4 modifiers for each mode (you can see them in the sampler). Spell users also get a -1 penalty for every spell after the first cast during a day, meaning they can't go around casting spells indefinately or they'll get so tired they'll start screwing things up. This -1 penalty does not apply if you roll a critical though, so powerful magicians can knock off the low power spells without even blinking an eye all day long.
In essence that's the entire system. Of course, there are still all the rules for parrying, dodging, chases, enchanting items and so on, but they are all very very simple and follow the general rules outlined above. I'd say it is one of the most effective rules light systems I have ever encountered, and well worth the look.
The Horror
