Thelonicans in TFT

(c) 2016 by Richard W. Smith - - - - Version 1.0.0

Thelonicans are playful, otter like people which stand about 2.2 meters high. (Tho they normally run on all fours.) They are not much respected, many people think of them as little more than animals. Their major handicap is that their hands are not as dexterous as human hands and partly for this reason they build less.

They have an otter like snout, but it is shorter and their face is more human like. Young thelonican have faces that look a bit like a pug dog, but as they age, their face gets a bit more otter like. They have thin legs, only just as long as a human, but a long torso and short wide tail. The tail both sculls for extra energy in the water, and is used to steer.

Young Thelonicans (of both sexes) get a sense of wanderlust and often travel. Eventually they find a mate and settle down on some river or stream. They prefer fresh water, but can swim and live for long periods in salt water. They tend to dig caves or make rude house of wood and thatch. Young thelonican are noted for their sense of humor. They tend to have good memory for song and poetry and many thelonican are effectively bards.

Their voices are high pitched with which they speak quickly. They have their own language, which humans and other races can learn, but not speak as quickly as a native Thelonican. When they speak other languages, they tend to snap out a sentence very quickly, then pause for a moment to let people mentally catch up, and then quickly blast out the next sentence.

A thelonican starts with: ST 7, DX 9 (–3 with hands), IQ 8, & +5 points to be added anywhere. Their MA is 11 (or 7) on the ground and 14 in the water. (Their maximum ST, DX & IQ are: 75, 50 & 40 respectively.) They do fist damage +4 unarmed (because of their claws and bite). Like most races they do +1 unarmed damage in HTH.
Their thick fur naturally stops 1 hit, provides +40 degrees of protection from cold and allows them to ignore water temperature for up to 4 hours.

• Their awkward hands give them –3 DX when using their hands with weapons and tools. They do not get this penalty for DX saving throws, climbing, unarmed combat, etc. Basically anything that does not require fine manipulation can dodge the –3 DX.


• Thelonican start as thin and wirey, but but can grow VERY strong. A thelonican spends 1/2 experience to improve ST.
  Note, altho they only spend 1/2 an attribute to raise their ST, the attribute counts full when deciding on what their attribute total is. So rapid increases to their ST will soon mean that it will take them a long time to earn enough experience to gain further attributes.


• Thelonican ground MA is based on running on all fours with their hands free of any encumbrance. (They can carry small items in their mouth.) If they want to stay on two feet, their MA is –4. They swim as fast underwater as they do on the surface. (Often they will swim with only their nose, eyes and a bit of shoulder above the water.)


• They can hold their breath for a very long time typically up to 15 minutes underwater. Slow swimming is fine, but very vigorous activity and fast swimming will reduce this down to about 8 minutes.


• They hear well underwater. Far more than a human can, noise underwater is understood by thelonican.


• After a long time in the water, a thelonican must spend 5 minutes / half hour in the water to groom their fir and protect its water proof properties. Traditionally they gossip, joke and tell stories while doing this.
  This does not have to be done immediately after leaving the water, but should be done before going into the water again.


• They love fun and humor. If a thelonican is played in such a way, the GM should give them a bonus 10 to 25 exp per evening.


• They have huge appetites, they eat about 1.5 times as much as a human does and the majority of the diet should consist of fish and meat. This means that even large lakes can become fished out if too many theolonicans are in an area. Thus they tend to spread out and not live in concentrated groups. Thelonican towns are quite rare.


• Thelonican heal quickly, normally 1 point of damage per day.


• Thelonican may buy the Bard talent for only 1 memory point.


• Vocal training allows a Thelonican to pitch their voice lower (often bards will wish to do this when preforming for human audiences). Their voice will then be high pitched for a human, but perfectly understandable. This is represented by buying Mimic talent. (Note, in my campaign Mimic only costs 1 memory point.)

(The experience is saved and is then spent in a block.)

Show Off: The thelonican may sacrifice 2 attributes worth of experience to gain a plus one charisma that only applies when the thelonican is joking, music making and storytelling for a long period of time (15 minutes or more). The thelonican must be fluent in the language of the listeners to gain this reaction bonus. (These attributes may be re-earned with experience.)

Fast Swimmer: The thelonican may sacrifice 3 attributes worth of experience to gain +4 to their base swimming MA. (These attributes may be re-earned with experience.)

Nasty Fighter: The thelonican may sacrifice 4 attributes worth of experience to gain +1 die to their unarmed combat damage. This represents their teeth and claws gaining supernatural sharpness and toughness. (These attributes may be re-earned with experience.)

Fast Runner: The thelonican may sacrifice 5 attributes worth of experience to gain +3 to their base MA. (These attributes may be re-earned with experience.)
This movement is gained by digging in the claws to the ground and snapping the ankle hard. This ability does not work if the thelonican has footwear or is on a rock like surface where their claws can not dig in at all.

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