Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
White Dwarf Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Nest
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions, OSR, & D&D Variants
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
EN Publishing
Twitter
BlueSky
Facebook
Instagram
EN World
BlueSky
YouTube
Facebook
Twitter
Twitch
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions, OSR, & D&D Variants
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
A simpler system
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="The Horror" data-source="post: 1945787" data-attributes="member: 26472"><p>Time to pimp my favourite fantasy game: Talislanta. </p><p></p><p>Go over to the <a href="http://www.talislanta.com" target="_blank">talislanta website</a> and download their sampler from the downloads section.</p><p></p><p>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. </p><p></p><p></p><p>A quick summary of the system:</p><p></p><p>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. </p><p></p><p>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). </p><p></p><p>A result of 0 or less is a mishap. </p><p>1-5 is a failure </p><p>6-10 is a partial success </p><p>11-20 is a full success </p><p>21+ is a critical success </p><p></p><p>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. </p><p></p><p>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. </p><p></p><p>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. </p><p></p><p>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. </p><p></p><p>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. </p><p></p><p></p><p>The Horror</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="The Horror, post: 1945787, member: 26472"] Time to pimp my favourite fantasy game: Talislanta. Go over to the [url=http://www.talislanta.com]talislanta website[/url] 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 [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
A simpler system
Top