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Post by Hexenritter Verlag on Jul 29, 2018 0:12:26 GMT -5
I've mentioned Talislanta several times and figured that I'd do a little post on it. It was first published in 1987 by Bard Games of whom some of the older members might be familiar with & it first started publishing supplements for Fantasy Roleplaying Games in 1983; notably the Complete Alchemist, the Complete Spell Caster & the Complete Adventurer in that year with Stephen Michael Sechi as the primary contributor. Stephen Michael Sechi then eventually created Talislanta series of books for Bard Games. If you trust Wikipedia Mr. Sechi primary inspiration for Talislanta was Jack Vance's Dying Earth stories, which is true; if you read the interview he gave posted on the Talislanta site ( Interview is here) he also mentions that Dave A. Hargrave's Arduin Grimoire was an influence as well. Even though I never played or ran Talislanta myself I fell in love with it's exotic and alien locals and cultures. I'd spend hours pouring over Talislanta books & started creating my own worlds, even go so far as draw new alien fauna & flora for my worlds. But none of my friends cared about all that, all they wanted to play is D&D or Palladium Fantasy. All the notes, drawings and maps I created influenced by Talislanta that I lost in moves is heartbreaking. Talislanta was one of my primary influences but not the only one like Mr. Sechi comics also influenced my creativity. Though I didn't know it until now, he & I were inspired by many of the same writers (minus Vance - or at least his Dying Earth stories). If you go to this page on the Talislanta page you'll find nearly all of the published Talislanta material legally available for free as PDFs by Mr. Sechi's full approval and guidance. I was a member of the Talislanta yahoo group at the time that the process began & followed it closely. The only reason I haven't made a solid effort to run Talislanta is not having players & a irrational need to have my games in print first. I've owned the first two or three editions of the RPG, plus the D20 version of which I still own. If you want to check out a fun and exotic fantasy RPG, check out the link above and pick one of the five editions or the D20 version. Mr. Sechi launched a kickstarter in March of 2017 for Talislanta Savage Lands and a few products tied to it have been released via DrivethruRPG, but the main product hasn't been released yet and I am not sure when it will be. It is to be set before the civilizations had became what they would eventually become. I didn't back the project so I cannot comment on its progress. |
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Post by El Borak on Jul 29, 2018 16:07:24 GMT -5
I remember hearing of Talislanta and IIRC it has no elves, which is a departure from most games and tells you to expect something different. Another game I've not looked at closely. So many good games, so little time.  |
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Post by Hexenritter Verlag on Jul 29, 2018 16:50:47 GMT -5
I remember hearing of Talislanta and IIRC it has no elves, which is a departure from most games and tells you to expect something different. Another game I've not looked at closely. So many good games, so little time. Yup 'No Elves' is the games motto. Some people say they do have elves because the asinine belief that if a race has pointy ears it is then an Elf even if there is no other similarity to Elves whatsoever to the said race. |
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Post by Q Man on Jul 29, 2018 20:47:10 GMT -5
I've seen the name but did not realize it was a full fledged game, I thought it was just a setting.
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Post by Hexenritter Verlag on Jul 29, 2018 22:38:11 GMT -5
I've seen the name but did not realize it was a full fledged game, I thought it was just a setting. I saw the ads for it in Dragon & found a used copy of several of the books back in the late 80s to early 90s and it was a full game but I wasn't big on the archetypes for character creation but I loved the setting. Now that I am more well versed in games like Holmes Basic, B/X D&D and BECMI with their concept of race-as-class the archetype based system doesn't bother me anymore. The spell system is also inspired by Vance but goes about it in a different manner than D&D's version. |
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Post by Hexenritter Verlag on Jul 29, 2018 23:17:16 GMT -5
Prior to Talislanta Bard Games published a pseudo-Historical the AtlanteanTrilogy, beginning with 'The Arcanum' RPG/Supplement in 1984, which actually started life as the Complete series of supplements put out the year before in 1983. They formed the basis of 'The Arcanum' and things eventually were expanded & revised into a proper system as the 2e Arcanum. The Atlantean Trilogy was intended to be modular (much like Rolemaster was initially) to be used as supplements for other RPGs or as a complete system and setting that could stand on its own. Stephen Michael Sechi was one of the core creators of The Atlantean Trilogy and two years after its 2e; Mr. Sechi created Talislanta. A new edition of Arcanum is in development, it seems to be just a reorganization of the original core game while another company is producing another game based upon the follow up books 'The Lexicon' & 'The Bestiary' using the Omni System; which is a rules like generic RPG system based upon the Talislanta rules. I am not sure if the Atlantean Trilogy' rules located in 'The Arcanum' supplement are based upon a proto-Talislanta system or if it was it's own thing.
Update: I had to rewrite this blurb as I learned new info that warranted the editing.
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Post by mao on Jul 30, 2018 9:08:30 GMT -5
I played a little quite some time go. It kinda seemed like PC inflation(the PCs were more powerful than D&D to attract purchasers)
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Post by Hexenritter Verlag on Jul 30, 2018 12:18:44 GMT -5
I played a little quite some time go. It kinda seemed like PC inflation(the PCs were more powerful than D&D to attract purchasers) That could be, as I never played it I just loved the setting. |
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Post by El Borak on Jul 30, 2018 23:09:32 GMT -5
I played a little quite some time go. It kinda seemed like PC inflation(the PCs were more powerful than D&D to attract purchasers) That was 2E, 3E and etc. |
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Post by mao on Jul 31, 2018 4:06:28 GMT -5
I played a little quite some time go. It kinda seemed like PC inflation(the PCs were more powerful than D&D to attract purchasers) That was 2E, 3E and etc. So true |
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Post by Jakob Grimm on Aug 2, 2018 14:06:38 GMT -5
That is a great user friendly site. It has the site map displayed on the right hand side to make everything easy to get too.
And I like this organizaton too,
Endorsed Sites
Talislanta Mailing List
Talislanta on Reddit
Talislanta On Facebook
Google+ Talislanta Community
The Piazza Tal Forum
S.I. Legacy Site
Khepera Pub. Tal Forum
Tal Website Stat Counter
Fan Sites
Talislanta Music Archive
3rd Edition Sheet
John Steele's Talislanta pages
Windshipyards of Nizrin
Tipop's RPG Pages
Talislanta Imports
Azalin's Talislanta Page
Girls Of Tal (M-Rated)
The Minotaur's Tal Page
The Library at Jalaad
Talislanta Miniatures
Dungeons & Talislanta
FATE of Talislanta
LiveJournal's Talislanta Community
Archived Fan Sites
Maps Of Talislanta
John Harper's Tal Page
Through The Witchgate
Talislanta Central
Tamar: The Talislanta Zine
Talislanta Notebook
Seraph's Talislanta Page
Temple Of The Seven Moons
The Crucible Archives
Museum Of Lost Archaeus
Codex Of The Moons
Tipop's Old Talislanta Site
Heart of Shabaal
Dale's Talislanta Page
The Sanctum Alcedon
Italian Version of Talislanta
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Post by simrion on Feb 6, 2021 11:53:41 GMT -5
A little "thread necro." As Ebon I too fell in love with the Talislanta mythos but have never actually played. Rules light before rules light was even a concept. Most actions are based on an open ended results chart something like Miserable Failure, Failure, Partial Success, Success & Major Success. Blends roll play with "role play" as the Gamesmaster is encouraged to describe the results especially the major failures and successes. Sadly I've failed to get my group away from more crunch-heavy games. They've been spoiled by the likes of character building/optimizing CRPGs.
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Post by The Perilous Dreamer on Feb 6, 2021 15:26:18 GMT -5
A little "thread necro." As Ebon I too fell in love with the Talislanta mythos but have never actually played. Rules light before rules light was even a concept. Most actions are based on an open ended results chart something like Miserable Failure, Failure, Partial Success, Success & Major Success. Blends roll play with "role play" as the Gamesmaster is encouraged to describe the results especially the major failures and successes. Sadly I've failed to get my group away from more crunch-heavy games. They've been spoiled by the likes of character building/optimizing CRPGs. By CPRG I assume you mean a computerized RPG. I have often wondered about these, it always seems like a delusion to me. All I can imagine is the frustration of trying to play a game with so many limitations and restrictions. It seems to me like it would be the ultimate railroad. I want to play in a face to face game with a ref like myself. Something I will probably never get to do. |
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Post by simrion on Feb 6, 2021 18:38:04 GMT -5
Yes, exactly! Most of the current CRPGs allow players to grow/expand/modify their character with new feats and abilities much like 3rd D&D. Things like an ever expanding skill and feat list. Turns into an exercise of character optimization. Not necessarily a bad think but many of my players feel "trapped" or limited by merely having a class/hit die/item choice. They want their character to be individualized by the numbers and lists of abilities on their character sheet.
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Post by simrion on Feb 6, 2021 18:38:53 GMT -5
And of course the non-permanent nature of CRPGs where if your character dies you can respawn it and continue the game, or save it and reload it.
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Post by youngbuck on Feb 21, 2021 1:53:49 GMT -5
I have never cared for CRPGs, which is odd for someone my age, but I have trouble thinking of CRPGs as RPGs at all.
Talislanta is rather intimidating given the amount of free material that is so readily available. Most established games have a price barrier between you and the material.
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Post by The Semi-Retired Gamer on Sept 18, 2022 19:34:48 GMT -5
I missed this thread, so a little bit of necro...
Talislanta grabbed the attention of my gaming group because it was such a departure from D&D with a very unique world and races. We played several campaigns before returning to D&D. I played several Gnomekin Warriors and Crystalmancers along with Thrall Warriors. The ART was simple and elegant to use. I really need to get all of that material from their website and do some printing.
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Post by simrion on Sept 19, 2022 4:55:11 GMT -5
I have never cared for CRPGs, which is odd for someone my age, but I have trouble thinking of CRPGs as RPGs at all. Talislanta is rather intimidating given the amount of free material that is so readily available. Most established games have a price barrier between you and the material. Yes, the amount of background fluff IS intimidating. There's a lot there. Unlike Runequest or 3.0/3.5 D&D it is mostly campaign background and much less rules additions. The Omni system that powrs Talislanta is simple and elegant, though demanding for the DM to make creative story advancing decisions off-the-cuff. Especially if a player roles a critical success or catastrophic failure on the success table ;-)
I run 3.0/3.5/Pathfinder ATM because it's what my long time group demands. Unfortunately 90% of game time is a drawn out combat further impacted by decision paralysis, i.e. I have so many options on my character sheet I don't know which one I should use! As DM if they take too long I start counting down from 10 out loud. If you don't decide by 0 you've missed your turn.
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Post by The Perilous Dreamer on Sept 19, 2022 12:06:24 GMT -5
I have never cared for CRPGs, which is odd for someone my age, but I have trouble thinking of CRPGs as RPGs at all. Talislanta is rather intimidating given the amount of free material that is so readily available. Most established games have a price barrier between you and the material. Yes, the amount of background fluff IS intimidating. There's a lot there. Unlike Runequest or 3.0/3.5 D&D it is mostly campaign background and much less rules additions. The Omni system that powrs Talislanta is simple and elegant, though demanding for the DM to make creative story advancing decisions off-the-cuff. Especially if a player roles a critical success or catastrophic failure on the success table ;-)
I run 3.0/3.5/Pathfinder ATM because it's what my long time group demands. Unfortunately 90% of game time is a drawn out combat further impacted by decision paralysis, i.e. I have so many options on my character sheet I don't know which one I should use! As DM if they take too long I start counting down from 10 out loud. If you don't decide by 0 you've missed your turn.
You mention decision paralysis, I am curious, how old are your players? Yeah, combat should not take forever IMO. I played in a 2E game and the DM tracked all the segments to each melee round. So with 6 players a melee round was taking over 20 minutes. In OD&D I have run a melee round for 30 players in much less time than that. Of course I run combat as simultaneous (no initiative to track) and when I call on a player, they quickly tell me what they are doing in a short sentence and what they rolled. I tell them if they hit and they tell me the damage they rolled. This can take no more than 20 sec per player and the ones that played the most often complete it in about 6 seconds (oddly enough the length of time I use for a melee round). At least that is the way it worked in college. I find that now, it is really difficult to get people focused enough to make combat move at the breakneck pace it should move at. |
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Post by simrion on Sept 19, 2022 17:18:47 GMT -5
Yes, the amount of background fluff IS intimidating. There's a lot there. Unlike Runequest or 3.0/3.5 D&D it is mostly campaign background and much less rules additions. The Omni system that powrs Talislanta is simple and elegant, though demanding for the DM to make creative story advancing decisions off-the-cuff. Especially if a player roles a critical success or catastrophic failure on the success table ;-)
I run 3.0/3.5/Pathfinder ATM because it's what my long time group demands. Unfortunately 90% of game time is a drawn out combat further impacted by decision paralysis, i.e. I have so many options on my character sheet I don't know which one I should use! As DM if they take too long I start counting down from 10 out loud. If you don't decide by 0 you've missed your turn.
You mention decision paralysis, I am curious, how old are your players? Yeah, combat should not take forever IMO. I played in a 2E game and the DM tracked all the segments to each melee round. So with 6 players a melee round was taking over 20 minutes. In OD&D I have run a melee round for 30 players in much less time than that. Of course I run combat as simultaneous (no initiative to track) and when I call on a player, they quickly tell me what they are doing in a short sentence and what they rolled. I tell them if they hit and they tell me the damage they rolled. This can take no more than 20 sec per player and the ones that played the most often complete it in about 6 seconds (oddly enough the length of time I use for a melee round). At least that is the way it worked in college. I find that now, it is really difficult to get people focused enough to make combat move at the breakneck pace it should move at. So we range from 23 to near 60...how about that for a spread? The main game occurs on a Thursday eve with about 2 hours play time and another game every two weeks 0swapping between 3.5 D&D and Star Wars 3.5.) Sadly in both the players are sadly hesitant and constantly 'book flipping" for rules advantage and/or decision paralysis. Hurts my brain... |
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Post by The Perilous Dreamer on Sept 19, 2022 19:14:58 GMT -5
You mention decision paralysis, I am curious, how old are your players? Yeah, combat should not take forever IMO. I played in a 2E game and the DM tracked all the segments to each melee round. So with 6 players a melee round was taking over 20 minutes. In OD&D I have run a melee round for 30 players in much less time than that. Of course I run combat as simultaneous (no initiative to track) and when I call on a player, they quickly tell me what they are doing in a short sentence and what they rolled. I tell them if they hit and they tell me the damage they rolled. This can take no more than 20 sec per player and the ones that played the most often complete it in about 6 seconds (oddly enough the length of time I use for a melee round). At least that is the way it worked in college. I find that now, it is really difficult to get people focused enough to make combat move at the breakneck pace it should move at. So we range from 23 to near 60...how about that for a spread? The main game occurs on a Thursday eve with about 2 hours play time and another game every two weeks 0swapping between 3.5 D&D and Star Wars 3.5.) Sadly in both the players are sadly hesitant and constantly 'book flipping" for rules advantage and/or decision paralysis. Hurts my brain... I feel for you. The 5E game I played in, two of the guys were AD&D players back in the day(and the others were in their 30s), one of whom was reffing and I also played in his B/X several years ago; however, all of them spent a whole lot of time talking about the rules. The players were indecisive and try as I did, I could not get the game to move any faster. In combat, they invariably would make bad decisions because of the character builds and it was more about flash, than it was about effective action. The older I get the more I treasure those early days when the action moved at a breakneck pace. |
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Post by simrion on Sept 20, 2022 4:59:00 GMT -5
So we range from 23 to near 60...how about that for a spread? The main game occurs on a Thursday eve with about 2 hours play time and another game every two weeks 0swapping between 3.5 D&D and Star Wars 3.5.) Sadly in both the players are sadly hesitant and constantly 'book flipping" for rules advantage and/or decision paralysis. Hurts my brain... I feel for you. The 5E game I played in, two of the guys were AD&D players back in the day(and the others were in their 30s), one of whom was reffing and I also played in his B/X several years ago; however, all of them spent a whole lot of time talking about the rules. The players were indecisive and try as I did, I could not get the game to move any faster. In combat, they invariably would make bad decisions because of the character builds and it was more about flash, than it was about effective action. The older I get the more I treasure those early days when the action moved at a breakneck pace. Yeah, BiTD we were more willing to "hand wave" and/or accept DM fiat decisions if relatively fair just to keep things moving. Now days the players seem to want a rule for everything. Heck, WoTC even crafted Rules compendiums for the last couple of versions (3.5 & 4) just to clarify things. |
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Post by The Perilous Dreamer on Sept 20, 2022 9:29:32 GMT -5
I feel for you. The 5E game I played in, two of the guys were AD&D players back in the day(and the others were in their 30s), one of whom was reffing and I also played in his B/X several years ago; however, all of them spent a whole lot of time talking about the rules. The players were indecisive and try as I did, I could not get the game to move any faster. In combat, they invariably would make bad decisions because of the character builds and it was more about flash, than it was about effective action. The older I get the more I treasure those early days when the action moved at a breakneck pace. Yeah, BiTD we were more willing to "hand wave" and/or accept DM fiat decisions if relatively fair just to keep things moving. Now days the players seem to want a rule for everything. Heck, WoTC even crafted Rules compendiums for the last couple of versions (3.5 & 4) just to clarify things. BitD I never got push back on my rulings, one because I was always pretty fair and two because in 1975 and thereabouts, the people I played with gave complete buy-in to the game along with having an extensive fantasy reading history, along with mythology and fairy tales. Even the last face to face campaign I ran from 2009 up until my wife got sick, it was not the first time players that pushed back on things it was the AD&D players in my game, since they were used to more rules than OD&D. |
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Post by simrion on Sept 20, 2022 17:48:49 GMT -5
Yeah, BiTD we were more willing to "hand wave" and/or accept DM fiat decisions if relatively fair just to keep things moving. Now days the players seem to want a rule for everything. Heck, WoTC even crafted Rules compendiums for the last couple of versions (3.5 & 4) just to clarify things. BitD I never got push back on my rulings, one because I was always pretty fair and two because in 1975 and thereabouts, the people I played with gave complete buy-in to the game along with having an extensive fantasy reading history, along with mythology and fairy tales. Even the last face to face campaign I ran from 2009 up until my wife got sick, it was not the first time players that pushed back on things it was the AD&D players in my game, since they were used to more rules than OD&D. I started in 1980. TTRPGs were my "video game." Many of my current players either grew up with real video games or bought into them whole hog. One of my players is older than I am and he's all about the character build/optimization hence 3.5 is what appeals unfortunately. I rarely make anything of my own adventure or campaign wise these days, too time consuming for the later editions. I do have plenty of published options so I go with those and tweak as needed. I come to places like this forum to live vicariously and get my OD&D fix. |
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Post by The Perilous Dreamer on Sept 20, 2022 17:52:20 GMT -5
BitD I never got push back on my rulings, one because I was always pretty fair and two because in 1975 and thereabouts, the people I played with gave complete buy-in to the game along with having an extensive fantasy reading history, along with mythology and fairy tales. Even the last face to face campaign I ran from 2009 up until my wife got sick, it was not the first time players that pushed back on things it was the AD&D players in my game, since they were used to more rules than OD&D. I started in 1980. TTRPGs were my "video game." Many of my current players either grew up with real video games or bought into them whole hog. One of my players is older than I am and he's all about the character build/optimization hence 3.5 is what appeals unfortunately. I rarely make anything of my own adventure or campaign wise these days, too time consuming for the later editions. I do have plenty of published options so I go with those and tweak as needed. I come to places like this forum to live vicariously and get my OD&D fix. Do you have any notes of your own adventures or campaign, before you were kind of forced into the current paradigm? I agree that for the later editions trying to do it all is too time consuming, where that is not the case for OD&D. Shame we can't have a mini-convention for the forum and game together for a weekend. |
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Post by simrion on Sept 20, 2022 17:54:16 GMT -5
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Post by The Perilous Dreamer on Sept 20, 2022 17:57:52 GMT -5
Awesome!! Let us know how that goes. And maybe you will hear some good stories from the two WDZAs. |
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Post by The Semi-Retired Gamer on Sept 21, 2022 18:13:06 GMT -5
Speaking of Talislanta, there will be a 5E version coming to kickstarter soon! It might be worth checking out... |
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Post by The Semi-Retired Gamer on Sept 21, 2022 18:14:26 GMT -5
Speaking of Talislanta, there will be a 5E version coming to kickstarter soon! It might be worth checking out... ...it says that Epic Talislanta will be dual-statted! |
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Post by simrion on Sept 25, 2022 18:20:30 GMT -5
Awesome!! Let us know how that goes. And maybe you will hear some good stories from the two WDZAs. Went off pretty well! I simplified initiative to a D6 for group and had players take turns rolling each round (and adding a reaction bonus.) I used a fan made adventure from Dragonsfoot that had pregens and I transferred them to AD&D sheets. I also incorporated roll xD6 under stat for actions outside the rules (where x is the number of dice identifying the difficulty of the task.) Even some of the "old timers" that I normally run 3.5 for had a good time so there is hope for the future. The Monk character was on fire with stunning and even killed one foe out right with a single blow! A friend with a 3D printer and too much painting time on his hands printed up both table scale and larger display pieces for the celebs to take home with them. One (Greg) who hasn't played in near 30 years stated "I should really get back into playing this game." |
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