This is my first post here on the forums and I'll start of by appoligizing if my english is a bit wonky, since it's a second language to me.

Me and a couple of friends have a tabletop gaming group (where I somehow became the major GM sort of) and enjoy playing Talisman 4th revised edition from time to time. We use a lot of house rules as we think it makes the game even better..blab lala...

To the topic at hand!

I'm trying to come up with a rule to promote players into playing their characters in a way that, in my opinion , makes it a bit more immersive. For example, if you play as the warrior you would naturally focus on strength to beat your opponents in meele while if you would play the wizard you would most likely focus on building up your craft to get an asortment of spells. They way I'm going to try and do this is by setting a "combined stats"-limit:
"You can have a maximum of 9 craft and strength points combined (Ex. 4 craft + 5 strength = 9, 2 craft + 7 strength = 9). This does not include bonuses from objects and/or followers."

So, because of the starting values of characters their craft and strength max out differently. Ex. a warrior who starts with strength 4 and craft 2 would max his strength at 7 with a craft of 2. He would excel in battles as warriors should do, but he is going to have a hard time in physic combats. He always has the option to choose to balance his build with a 5 strength/4 craft build instead, but would only be fairly good in both battles and physic combats. The wizard on the other hand would be the opposite to the warrior. I put the limit at 9 because then a 3 strength/3 craft character could go for craft and get their full complement of 3 spells. If the limit would be higher, some "strength based"classes would be able to get 3 spells as well, which is kind of what I'm trying to avoid.

Also, the different characters would be more unique according to their starting stats. The troll, for example, could end up with a total of 8 strength (starts with 6 strength/1 craft) which would be the highest possible by any character.

I think this rule should work out nicely for the monks ability and the psychic blast-spell as well.

Bosses and end game monsters will be a challenge, which I think they should be. Also, we have divided the adventure cards so that the outer region is a "starting area" with easier encounters and the middle region is the more challenging one.

I guess you should use house rules for gaining stats so you can choose which to raise. We use experience tokens instead of craft/strength thropies.

Remember, "This does not include bonuses from objects and/or followers" , so you can use these to tweak the characters stats.

I understand that there is a big risk of unbalance with this rule, especially if you use it without any other house rules (we use quite a lot of them), but this is why i made this post and it is the best I have made it this far to think of a rule that would encourage players to play fighter characters as fighters and spellcasters as spellcasters without overhauling the whole game system.

Well then? Any thoughts or suggestions?

The only thing you talk about that interests me is the thing you paid the least attention to

Quote

We use experience tokens instead of craft/strength thropies.

Please elaborate.

I imagine it will be like in 3rd Edition. Craft/Strength points are just converted into XP, which you can spend on either attribute.

1 hour ago, Bludgeon said:

The only thing you talk about that interests me is the thing you paid the least attention to

Please elaborate.

I'm sorry. Since my goal with this post was to have my idea of the rule posted above evaluated, I did not put much attention to our current homebrew rules.

These are the rules we use for experience: Instead of trophies, you get experience tokens for defeating monsters and other characters. We use green dice poker chips, but you could use whatever tokens you wish. The amount of experience tokens given is decided by the craft or strength your opponent has without any bonuses given by objects, trinkets, followers and/or spells. So if you defeat a craft or strength 5 enemy you would get 5 experience tokens. The monster card is kept as a normal trophy for other use, ex to complete wanted posters in the city. Experience is also awarded for defeating enemies not represented with a card (For example the drunk farmer in the tavern). To upgrade craft or strength you need your current value(x)+1 experience tokens. You may also choose to trade 5 experience points for a spell if your craft allows or a fate token. You do not get experience for defeating your own followers or enemies that state another reward if not kept as trophies.

I hope this elaboration was good enough otherwise I am happy to share our whole list of homebrew rules if there is any interest.