Talislanta: FKR, 1987 style

 Talislanta. Legendary Talislanta. The game without elves! The game that gave you predefined characters that were race and class, rolled into one. A good game. Sadly underrated, though.

But today: Let’s take a look at Talislanta’s resolution system. Because it is eminently useful for FKR gaming.

This here is Talislanta’s Action Table (2e):

Pretty simple, eh?

Whoever’s “turn” it is, rolls a d20, and the ref looks up the result.

At my table, I’d have a player roll 2d20 and pick the lower result if the character is in some disadvantageous situation, and roll 2d20, pick higher if the situation is advantageous. 

So let’s say my Callidian Cryptomancer (hah!, gotta love those Tal character types!) is trying to escape from a couple of angry neighbors (don’t ask). Physical activity is not exactly a cryptomancer’s specialty, so I have to roll 2d20 and pick the lower result:

A 1 and a 3. Hoo boy. Cryptomancer’s too slow or too clumsy to escape, and now the neighbors… you get the picture.

But let’s say he somehow manages to evade them, only to be surrounded by a handful of street urchins with clearly bad intentions. Thank the gods he has the Radiance spell! He’ll use it to blind them so he can, hopefully, escape for good this time. Casting spells is a skill a cryptomancer definitely is good at, so I’m rolling 2d20 again, but this time, only the higher result counts:

18! Yes! It looks like a supernova explodes above the cryptomancer’s head, blinding and hot. The urchins scream in pain, trying to shield their eyes with their hands, but too late.

See how simply and evocative this is?

By the way, my buddy Eldrad Wolfsbane uses a similar system:

If you want to ask him about how it works in-game, join our Free Kriegsspiel Revolution server 🙂