Basic Rules
The basic rules to play a character in Talishar are fairly simple. Each character has three attributes Physical, Mental, and Perception. Each attribute has a number of levels that range from 1-20. The number of levels each attribute has is determined randomly by rolling 1d20 for each attribute in order. No matter how you choose to do it the only rule is that the Physical and Mental attributes must have at least one level after racial modifiers and if the Percption attribute starts with zero levels it can never gain levels without magically raising it by one level.
The Physical attribute is a measure of a character's strength, agility, endurance, beauty, and health.
The Mental attribute is a measure of character's mental strength, mental agility, mental endurance, charisma, and mental health.
The Perception attribute is a measure of a character's senses of vision, hearing, taste, touch, and smell.
The level of an attribute determines the type of modifier that your character recieves when making skill checks that pertain to it. The average level is 10 with the modifier becomming a bonus if the level is higher and a penalty if the level is lower. If you have a low level in an attribute you do not have to worry as you will gain levels either by using them to complete tasks or taking the time and spending the money to train them up. Below is a table of the modifiers for each skill level.
Level 1: -9
Level 2: -8
Level 3: -7
Level 4: -6
Level 5: -5
Level 6: -4
Level 7: -3
Level 8: -2
Level 9: -1
Level 10: 0
Level 11: +1
Level 12: +2
Level 13: +3
Level 14: +4
Level 15: +5
Level 16: +6
Level 17: +7
Level 18: +8
Level 19: +9
Level 20+: +1 every level
Next in character creation is determining what skills your character possesses. To do this all characters get one level in a Melee skill of their choice, Defense, and their native language (Spoken). In addition to this characters recieve 1d6 levels that they can use to learn or improve any skill they want.
Skill and Attribute Checks
Finally whether your using an attribute or skill to complete a task you are performing a challenge. To perform a challenge you determine the level of the task, determine the Challenge Number (CN), then roll a number a d6s equal to your skill/attribute level, and add any modifiers to the roll. To determine the CN of a task you start with a base CN of 4 then add 1 for each level the task is above the character's skill or attribute level and subtract 1 for each level the task is below the character's skill or attribute level with a minimum of 2. If you roll equal to or greater than the CN then you are successful and gain Expierence Points (XP). If the CN is higher than 6 then any dice that are naturally rolled as 6 are re-rolled and added to the 6 until either no more natural 6s are rolled or the character is successful. Any die that nautrally rolls 1 is always considered a failure no matter if modifiers would make it a success.
For Example- Ragnor has level 1 blacksmithing and is trying to make a level 20 sword. His CN is 23. He rolls 1d6 and it is a 6. He re-rolls it and gets another 6 which gives him 12 and he re-rolls the die. The last roll is a 5 and so he has 17. Since he needed 13 he fails to make the level 20 sword and stops rolling. Had he rolled another 6 he would have continued rolling until he reached 23 or no more 6s were rolled.
Following is a table for the CN an XP based on the level difference of the task from the skill.
Task Level is 5+ levels lower from Skill/Attribute Level CN 2 XP 0
Task Level is 4 levels lower from Skill/Attribute Level CN 2 XP 2
Task Level is 3 levels lower from Skill/Attribute Level CN 2 XP 4
Task Level is 2 levels lower from Skill/Attribute Level CN 2 XP 6
Task Level is 1 levels lower from Skill/Attribute Level CN 3 XP 8
Task Level is 0 levels lower from Skill/Attribute Level CN 4 XP 10
Task Level is 1 levels higer from Skill/Attribute Level CN 5 XP 12
Task Level is 2 levels higer from Skill/Attribute Level CN 6 XP 14
Task Level is 3 levels higer from Skill/Attribute Level CN 7 XP 16
Task Level is 4 levels higer from Skill/Attribute Level CN 8 XP 18
For each level above 4 add 1 to the CN and 2 to XP
Combat
Eventually your character is going to get into a fight with some creature which leads us to combat. Combat is divided into rounds in which players take turns attacking with weapons, using spells, or using psionic abilities. To determine the order of who goes first each player and monster determine which weapon, spell, or psionic ability they will use, rolls 1d20, and adds their attribute modifier to the roll. The monster or character with the highest number goes first, then the next highest, followed by the third highest, and so on until everyone has taken an action and everything is repeated for the next round. In the case of a tie then the character or monster with the highest attribute modifier goes first and if that is a tie then a new roll is made between the characters tied with the highest taking the first action. Finally combat is essentially a skill challenge where the attacker and defender are competing against each to get the most successes. The CN for both the attacker and the defender is 4. Each rolls a number of d6s equal to either their skill level or the items level, which ever is lower. The attacker does damage equal to the weapon, spell, or psionic abilities damage * the number of success + any modifiers. The defender gets to subtract the armor, spell, or psionic ability protection points * the number of successes + any modifiers from the damage.
Example-Ragnor has level 5 melee and is attacking Clar who has 5 defense. Each rolls 5d6 trying to roll over 4. Ragnor has 3 successess while Clar only has 2 successes. Ragnor is using a lvl 5 sword with 5 damage and since he is using a melee weapon he adds his Physical modifier. Since his Physical is 12 he gets +2 so he does 5*3+2 for a total damage of 17. Clar is wearing level 5 leather armor with physical protection 2 so the damage is reduced by 2*2=4 and so subtracts 13 points from Health.
Attack and Damage Types
In Talishar there are three types of attacks which are Physical, Magical, and Psionic. If an attack is physical you use the defense skill, if it is magical you use the Magic Skill, and if it is Psionic you use the Psionic Skill. Spells may be either Physical or Magical attacks as noted in their description and Psionic skills may be either Physical or Psionic attacks as noted in their description. Unless noted under the item description all weapons are physical attacks. Also there are two types of damage Physical and Mental. If an attack does Physical damage then you temporarily lose a number of Physical levels equal to the damage and if the attack does Mental damage you temporarily lose a number of Mental levels equal to the damage. If either reaches 0 then your character falls unconscious and takes full damage from all attacks. If either of these scores drops to a level below 0 equal to 1/2 their level, rounded down, they die.
Example- Ragnor has a Physical level of 15 if he takes enough damage to bring it to -7 then he will die and must be either raised from the dead or his player must make a new character.
Spells and Using Psionic Skills
A character can cast a number of spell levels per day equal to their magic level after that they must make a successful Pysical check with a CN as if the task level was 1 level higher than their Physical level for each spell level cast above their Magic skill. A failed check means the character temporatily loses 1 Physical level for each level above their magic level. If their Physical Level reaches 0 they pass out.
Example- Ragnor has Magic skill level 3, a Physical Level 12, and has cast 3 level 1 spells already. He now casts a level 2 spell and so must make a Physical check with a CN 6. If he fails he will lose 2 Physical Levels. Alternately if Ragnor had cast three seperate level 1 spells he would make one Physical Check for each spell with a CN 5 for the first, 6 for the second, and 7 for the third. If he failed the first check, passed the second, then failed the third he would lose 1 Physical Level for the first spell and 3 levels for the third spell.
Similarly A character can use a number of psionic skill levels per day equal to their psionic level after that they must make a successful Mental check with a CN as if the task level was 1 level higher than their Mental for each psionic skill level above their psionic skill. A failed check means the character temporatily loses 1 level of Mental for each level above their psionic level. If their Mental reaches 0 they pass out. Both the increase in task level and Mental level loss is cumalitive.
Example- Ragnor has Psionic level 3, Mental Level 15, and has used 3 level 1 skills already. He now uses a level 2 skill and so must make a Mental check with a CN of 6 and if he fails temporarily loses 2 Mental levels. Alternately if Ragnor had used three seperate level 1 skills he would make one Mental Check for each skill with a CN 5 for the first, 6 for the second, and 7 for the third. If he failed the first check, passed the second, then failed the third he would temporarily lose 1 Mental Level for the first psionic skilll and 3 for the third skill.
Finally, spells and psionic skills are secondary skills that characters learn. These skills have levels but are more like the levels of equipment and their levels increase based on the Magic or Psionic skill levels at a rate that is stated in their descriptions. Also when casting a spell or using a psionic ability characters use their Magic or Psionic skill level for the skill check.
Regaining Temporary Attribute Level Loss
At some point your character may temporarily lose a level in one or more attributes and if the Physical or Mental attributes reaches 0 or lower your character loses consciousness or dies. So in order to keep adventuring your character needs to rest and regain levels that are temporarily lost. To regain temporary level loss in an attribute a character must rest for 8 hours uninterupted doing no more than light activities such as walking. At the end of the 8 hours the player makes an attribute test using their current attribute level against a CN whose task level is equal to their full attribute level. If the character succeeds they regain a number of levels equal to 1/4 their full attribute level plus their attribute modifier (minimum of 1 level) and they get XP for the attribute check. If they fail the character regains 1 level plus their attribute modifier (minimum of 1 level) and recieves 0 XP.
Example- Ragnor currently has a Physical level of 4 and his max level is 12. After resting 8 hours Ragnor rolls 4 dice against a CN of 12. If he succeeds he gets 4+2 levels back and 26 XP but if he fails he only gets 1+2 levels back and 0 XP. After passing the first check his new level is 10 and after resting another 8 hours he makes a new Physical check but this time the CN is 6 and if he passes he will have 12 Physcial and get 14 XP and if he fails he will still have 12 Physical but will get 0 XP.
Gaining Levels and Learning New Skills
All attributes and skills gain expierence (XP) as you use them. Once a skill or attribute has gained enough XP they gain a level and their XP drops to 0 plus any XP they had above the required amount
Example- Jar has an Strength Level of 14 and 1490 XP. He does a Strength test and gains 12 XP and so his Strength is now 15 with 2 XP.
To determine the number of XP that is needed to gain the next level simply add 1 to the current level then multiply by 100 and that is the number of XP need to reach the next level. (14= 14+1*100=1500 for level 15, 21= 21+1*100=2200 for level 22.)
Sometimes a character wants to either learn a new skill or improve existing skills or attributes without gaining XP. To do this a character must take the time to train and then at the end of the training makes an attribute check, using the attribute related to the skill, to see if they were successful. The amount of time required to learn or raise a level is a number of weeks equal to the level desired. The RM determines the cost that they think is appropriate. In the case of raising an attribute the check is done with a CN 1 level higher than their current attribute level. If the check is successful then the level is raised and all XP gained in that Skill or Attribute is reduced to 0. Also keep in mind that you may only raise 1 level at a time. If you want to go from level 2 Magic to level 4 you must spend 3 weeks and make a successful check to reach level 3 and then another 4 weeks training and another successful check to reach level 4. Finally, a character who is training is unable to do any other tasks as they are expected to be spending all their time in training. If a character misses training for a number of days equal to 1/8, rounded down, their total training time then they must start over.
Some attributes and skills can have maximum levels which means that they can never be raised above that level no matter how much XP you earn.
Descriptions and more advanced rules for character creation, combat, magic, psionics, skills, equipment, and creatures are being added and can be found by clicking on the links to the left.
One last note for the Realms Master (RM) on creating encounters. Since this is a skill based classless system it may seem challenging to create encounters for your players. Unlike other role playing systems characters do not have one general level to determine their overall power. Instead each skill has their own level. So when designing a combat encounter determine the average combat, magic, and psionic level of the party. This is simple as each characters combat level can be boiled down to the average skill level of the most powerful combat skill they have and their defense level rounded up. Similarly their magic and psionic level is the average of their most powerful spell or skill and their magic defense and psionic defense. (ie Ragnor has level 5 sword skill 4 defense for a combat level of 5, he has 1 magic defense and 0 levels of spells for a magic level of 1, and has level 3 psi blast and level 5 psionic defense for a psionic level of 4. So his average power level is 4. So the monsters he fights should have combat skills, defenses, magic skills, and psionic skills around level 4. In addition their attributes should be around the same level or average level of Ragnor's attributes. To make it simple you can have your players write down their average attribute level and power level on their character sheets to make it easier to create encounters on the fly.
This should be all the rules that you need to get started. I am currently working on more detailed rules and will be posting them in the appropriate sections. The links can be found to your left so check back if you want more detailed rules. It is up to the players and RM to determine what types of skills they want used in the game. They can be as simple as melee, ranged defense, magic, magic defense, psionic, and psionic defense for combat or you can make skills for specific weapons, skills, defense styles, psionic abilities, and spells. It is up to you. The important rules that take precedent over all others follow below in their application rank.
1. Have fun!!! If everyone is not having fun change a rule!
2. RM has final say! It does not matter what the other rules say the RM can change a rule to fit thier game. The only exception to this rule is Rule 1- Have Fun!
For any comapny or person who wishes to get a license to publish products for the Talishar Game System please send an e-mail using the Contact Me link above with "Game License" in the subject line.