Introduction

What is Soltherra?

Soltherra is a tabletop roleplaying game. A small group of players sit around a table, describe what their characters do, roll some six-sided dice, and find out what happens next. One player is the Game Master — they run the world, play the supporting cast, and ask the questions that make the players sweat.

The system is built around a single principle: describe what you do, and the dice will tell you how well you do it. A good description unlocks better rolls. A better roll produces a more decisive outcome. The game rewards players who think before they act and narrate after.

Core Ideas

Four things make Soltherra different from other systems.

No Classes — Gifts and Skills

There are no character classes. Your character is defined by six innate aptitudes called Gift s — Body, Wits, Presence, Resolve, Channeling and Appeal — and a set of trained Skill s that develop through experience. Two characters can both be excellent fighters while being almost nothing alike mechanically, because the paths to competence are as varied as the people who walk them.

Floating Pairings — Description as Input

Every roll pairs a Gift with a Skill . Any combination is valid — if the fiction supports it.

This is the Floating pairing system. Swinging a sword with raw strength is Body + Melee . Aiming the same blade at the gap between the enemy’s pauldron and breastplate is Wits + Melee . The difference isn’t which character is better — it’s what they described. Your narration determines what you roll, not just what happens.

Check out the Character Sheet to get some ideas of all the combinations you can do.

Simultaneous Combat — No Initiative

Combat uses Simultaneous declaration : all players and the GM declare actions at the same time, then everything resolves together. There is no turn order. No waiting. Every round, everyone commits to a plan and then discovers how those plans collide.

The result is tactical and often chaotic. The best moment in a fight is rarely the one you planned. Check out the Combat rules if you are curious.

Rewarding Creative Play

The system does not award points for optimization. It awards better outcomes for better descriptions. A player who thinks creatively about how their character approaches a problem will consistently outperform a player who just reaches for their highest number. The dice are the same for everyone. The descriptions are not.

What You Need to Play

• Six-sided dice. A handful per player. You rarely roll more than three at once, but you roll often.
• Two or more players, plus one person acting as Game Master. The GM runs the world; the other players each run one character.
• Character sheets. Pencil and paper works fine. A Character Sheet tracks your Gifts, Skills, and relevant notes.
• This website. Everything else you need is here. Or you can print the pages using the print icon in the top right corner.

Where to Go Next

Read these pages in order the first time. Each one builds on the last.

1. Dice Mechanics — How rolls work: evaluating dice, counting successes, and resolving who wins. Start here. Everything else assumes you know this.
2. Gifts & Skills — The full list of Gifts and Skills, and how floating pairings work in practice.
3. Character Creation — Assign your Gifts, choose a background, and spend your experience points (XP).
4. Magic — Item-based channeling: prepare, channel, seal, release. How magical energy works and what it can do.
5. Combat — Simultaneous declaration, Action Points, attacks, defense, and how fights actually resolve.
6. GM Guide — How to run the negotiation, when to say yes, when to say no, and the principle that overrides all the others.
7. Player Guide — How to play well: describe your approach, embrace your weaknesses, support the table.

The Glossary is always available. Every game term on every page links back to it. When a word is underlined, hover over it for the short version or visit the glossary for the full definition.