Introduction

In addition to many other things, November is NaGaDeMon—National Game Design Month—and that’s as good a reason as any to finish the project that I’m now calling the Telharis RPG. What began about two years ago as an attempt to clean up the Pathfinder rules and make them more beginner-friendly has since developed to the point that it is effectively a new d20 game. The latest set of core revisions constitutes the fourth or fifth attempt at this project, and I’m determined to bring this version to the table.

My intention for this blog is to document my design process, starting with the core mechanics and then with more detailed treatments of subsystems. This will ideally both allow me to explain some of my design choices as well as allowing me to receive feedback. At the very least, I should be able to work through all of the core mechanics within the month, but my optimistic goal is to be ready for a playtest by the end of November.

I have also been working on a campaign setting in parallel with these rules, which is actually the source of the name Telharis. I may include certain aspects of the world design process in my posts, particularly as it relates to the implementation of character options. What this effectively means is that certain character archetypes from D&D or Pathfinder will not make an appearance in my initial rules since they do not exist in the setting. That said, it should be quite easy to adjust the system for different settings.

That’s enough text for now, I think. My next post will be a brief overview of the history of this project, and then on to the mechanics.