Saving the world on a Sunday afternoon
The Tony Live Roleplaying System is a points based system. Players spend Character Points to buy and improve their character’s skills.
Characters can choose from a variety of Classes, or a multi-class combining any two Classes. They can also choose one of five Races: Human, Elf, Half-Elf, Half-Orc or Half-Ogre. Each Race has their own starting abilities, and after that the Race and Class determine the amount of CPs required for the different skills in the system. Each Race also has Thresholds for Life, Mana and Standing which are used to modify the CP cost of learning the associated skill, “Enhance Life”, “Enhance Mana” and “Improve Standing”. For every Threshold points bought, the CP cost for improving the value by 1 increases by 1.
Example: Axe, the Half Ogre Warrior, learns Enhance Life at a base cost of 1. As a Half Ogre, his Life Threshold is 57, so the first 57 points of Life only cost 1 CP each, the second 57 points of Life cost 2 CPs each, the third 57 points of Life cost 3 CPs each, and so on.
Bonus Life/Standing/Mana received from Guilds do not count towards threshold costs, only those bought with actual CPs count towards the threshold.
Humans form the majority of the world’s sentient population, and are generally considered to be ‘jacks of all trades’. They make the best Priests.
| Starting | Threshold | |
| Death Threshold | 10 | — |
| Life Points | 30 | 30 |
| Mana | 2 | 60 |
| Standing | 5 | 180 |
Elves are particularly noted for their Dexterity and for their magical ability. They do lack physical prowess and are somewhat weaker than other races. They make the best Mages and are good Scouts.
There are many different types of Elves, ranging from the diminutive Wood Elf to the tall, arrogant High Elf. All use the same skill table.
| Starting | Threshold | |
| Death Threshold | 3 | — |
| Life Points | 27 | 27 |
| Mana | 6 | 210 |
| Standing | 2 | 60 |
An Elven player should wear pointy-ears. The wearing of ‘Mr Spock’ hats, headbands, long hair etc. is not really sufficient.
Half-Elves have both the good and bad sides of pure Humans and Elves to a lesser degree. Thus, for example, they are more adept at the magical skills than Humans but not as adept as Elves. They make reasonable Scouts and Mages.
| Starting | Threshold | |
| Death Threshold | 6 | — |
| Life Points | 30 | 27 |
| Mana | 4 | 100 |
| Standing | 4 | 80 |
The child of an orc with an elf or human or the child of two half-orcs. They are tough and cunning, but do have a tendency to straightforwardness and literal-mindedness. They make good heavy scouts and warrior-esque priests.
| Starting | Threshold | |
| Death Threshold | 7 | — |
| Life Points | 33 | 45 |
| Mana | 1 | 40 |
| Standing | 4 | 100 |
A Half-Orc player should at least have a green or green/brown face. They should also speak in a hoarse voice.
The child of an ogre with an elf or human or the child of two half-ogre. They are very strong and tough, but rather dim – as a result, they make excellent tank-like warriors but struggle in other classes.
| Starting | Threshold | |
| Death Threshold | 7 | — |
| Life Points | 42 | 57 |
| Mana | 0 | 20 |
| Standing | 2 | 60 |
A Half-Ogre player should at least have a grey or grey/brown face. They should speak in a deep hoarse voice.
The 4 basic Classes available to all races are Warrior, Mage, Priest and Scout.
Any two classes can be combined, to form a Warrior/Mage for example, and in this case the CP cost for the skills is averaged between the two classes, rounding down with a minimum of 1 CP.
When calculating the costs for skills of the form n x level, you calculate the cost of a given level for each class, find the mean and round down.
Example: A Human Warrior buys Dexterity at 9 times level, and a Human Priest buys Dexterity at 12 times level. Kagan a Human Warrior-Priest buy Dexterity at 10, 21, 31, 42 etc.
You CANNOT multiclass the same classes e.g. you cannot multiclass Mage (Fire) with Mage (Earth)!
A character normally starts with 20 Character Points (CPs). A character may start with up to 100 CPs by spending Monster Points (MPs).
All new players receive 80 Monster Points (MPs) which they may spend on their character(s) as they wish.
CPs are spent on skills, with the cost related to the Character’s Race, Class and Guild.
A character starts with no money (there may be exceptions to this for certain campaigns where characters may start with some money or a loan, subject to approval from the Character Ref).
A character’s rank is simply equal to his total CPs divided by 10 (with all fractions dropped). Characters start with 20 CPs, and hence are at Rank 2. If a character has not used all his CPs, for example when saving for a high cost skill, they still count towards his Rank.
It is possible that you do not enjoy the new character you have created (particularly if you are new to the system). As such with permission from the Character Ref you may recycle the character if you have played 3 games or less.
When recycling a character all CPs earned for the old character are transferred to MPs for spending on your new character (likewise all MPs spent on the old character are returned). Any Danger Pay earned on games for the old character (including any spent) are transferred to the new character, with permission from the Character Ref. Any other money found or items created/found are lost.
Experience is measured by CPs which are gained for a specific character through playing or MPs which are gained through monstering. MPs may be spent on any character at the following conversion ratios:
| Character Rank | Conversion Ratio |
| 2.1 – 10 | 1 MP = 1 CP |
| 10.1 – 20 | 2 MP = 1 CP |
| 20.1 – 30 | 3 MP = 1 CP |
| 30.1 – 40 | 4 MP = 1 CP |
| 40.1 – 50 | 5 MP = 1 CP |
| 50.1 – 60 | 6 MP = 1 CP |
| 60.1 – 70 | 7 MP = 1 CP |
| 70.1 – 80 | 8 MP = 1 CP |
| 80.1 – 90 | 9 MP = 1 CP |
| 90.1 – 100 | 10 MP = 1 CP |
| 100.1 – 110 | 11 MP = 1 CP |
| 110.1 – 120 | 12 MP = 1 CP |
| 120.1 – 130 | 13 MP = 1 CP |
| 130.1 – 140 | 14 MP = 1 CP |
| 140.1 – 150 | 15 MP = 1 CP |
| 150.1 – 160 | 16 MP = 1 CP |
There is the proviso that you cannot gain more than 30 CPs on a character between games from spending MPs.
For players, the amount of CPs start with a base of 2/hour and adjusted for each adventurer for:
Points will be awarded for accurately portraying the character’s race (e.g. Half Orcs are dumb), expounding the views of the character’s Guild (e.g. Gladiators sneering at magic protection), staggering back at the effect of attack spells, good spell vocals, falling over and lying still when dead, etc, etc.
Points may be subtracted for poor roleplaying.
Points will be awarded for how well the character’s profession was played. Warriors consistently fighting, Scouts scouting ahead (and not just 20’ ahead of the party), useful and timely casting of spells, etc, etc.
As with roleplaying, points may be subtracted for acting poorly as your chosen class.
For GMs, the amount of MPs start with a base of half the Player base (rounded up).
There is then a pool of MPs equal to the difference between the Player base and the GM base, which can be assigned amongst the GMs as they deem fit.
Example: A 5.5 hour game gives Player Base 11, Monster Base 6, GM Pool 5
1 GM: Fred 11
2 GM: Fred 9 Bill 8, Fred 10 Bill 7 or however you see fit.
3 GM: Fred 8 Bill 8 Joe 7, Fred 9 Bill 8 Joe 6 etc.
Also if say someone helped you plot/stat but didn’t come up on the game and you want to give them some MPs, these must come out of the pool.
For monsters, the amount of MPs start with a base of half the Player base (rounded up). These points are then adjusted depending on how well the player followed the Monster guidelines outlined below.
A game is not a competition between the monster players and the character players.
A monster character may lose or win in an encounter, but a monster player can never lose or win.
Any character who is on the floor should not be considered a valid target. Similarly, any character who is effectively taken out of a battle should not normally be considered a valid target (e.g. an Entangled character).
Note that this guideline may be waived in certain circumstances. Usually only for plot reasons but any player who is known to collapse to the floor at the first sign of trouble is always a valid target.
There are several guidelines for battle encounters: