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Retro Review-The Chronicles of Talislanta 1986 (aka Welcome to Crazy Town)  [RSS] Share on facebook Share on Twitter Submit to Reddit
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Made in in
[MOD]
Otiose in a Niche






Hyderabad, India

Continuing my look back at the books, magazine and comics of my 30+ years as a gamer.



This time I'm going to leave the familiar comfort of reviewing old GW stuff (snark, nostalgia, new things suck, bring back the Squats, get off my damn lawn you kids, mix and serve) and take a little ride to a place I like to call Crazy Town.



But officially is called Talislanta.

The year was 1990, I had the first paycheck from my summer job when I spotted this on the shelf at B Daltons.

Remember book stores? There used to be these awesome places called book stores... You could buy books in them. Made of paper even.

And I remembered the ads in Dragon Magazine.

(Remember magazines, there used to be these things called magazines, we'd get information from them)



These were the days when D&D ruled the dining room tables and basements of America (with a few weirdos playing games like D&D With a Slightly Different Combat System or Not D&D Please Don't Sue Us) so if a flaming skull guy promised 'No Elves' I was willing to give it a shot. Especially at 50% off.

And it was AWESOME.

First off, this book has a great direction. No stats, no rules, just in-universe descriptions of a new fantasy world from this guy.



Why doesn't my beard look like that?

The story (such as it was) is that this guy, the wizard Tamerlin if you must know, Dimension Doored over from his 'normal' presumably elf-filled, fantasy world to explore the place next door Talislanta. There was a dedicated Talisman RPG (a pretty good one IMHO) but this particular book could be used or adapted for any game.

And not only was Talislanta refreshingly free of Elves, it also had no humans, no horses, no elephants, oh and two suns. Just because.

Now of course it did have lots and lots of rubber forehead type aliens, humans but for skin tone or some other small change. And yeah people could ride around on Silver Manes, Grey Manes and Frost Manes (which are TOTALLY NOT HORSES) but at least the effort was made to make the place different. It wasn't the Age of Rens Faires (as my friend once put it) it really was different. The names and fashions drew on Arab and India influences which gave it a great feeling of familiar but alien. And mixed into that was just tons and tons of mad ideas. The author/creator Stephan Michael Sechi
really just threw in everything and somehow made it all work.



Any one of the settings introduced here (and there's close to 40 of them!) could be dropped into an RPG and provide weeks of adventures and stories. Put together it's like drinking a really rich wine. You take a few sips and then cleanse the pallet with a trip to the Forgotten Realms or some other forgettable setting.

And the art! All the art is by PD Breeding Black and all of it is as detailed and rich as the picture of Tamerlin up there.

Sometimes I feel guilty about these Retro Reviews since I'm usually introducing some rare out of print book most people can't get.

But not this time.

Yeah, sure the book in my hands is from 1986 and long, long out of print. This particular copy has been dragged to 5 or 6 countries over the years. You can't have it.

But as it happens Sechi has put the PDFs for every Talisman book, all 5 editions, online. For free.

http://talislanta.com/

So feel free to grab a copy and read along as we hop the train to Crazy Town.

http://talislanta.com/?page_id=5

 
   
Made in us
Esteemed Veteran Space Marine




My secret fortress at the base of the volcano!

A free .pdf, you say? I might have to check this out so I can steal... er, liberally borrow... ideas from it!

Emperor's Eagles (undergoing Chapter reorganization)
Caledonian 95th (undergoing regimental reorganization)
Thousands Sons (undergoing Warband re--- wait, are any of my 40K armies playable?) 
   
Made in us
Powerful Spawning Champion





There is not this idea.

The whole "NO ELVES" thing is hilarious. I think I vaguely remember seeing one of their books in the early 90's. Since I would have been 7 or 8, it's a very, very vague memory, but that one angry dude on the cover, giving a sidelong glance at the audience? He looks familiar.
   
Made in in
[MOD]
Otiose in a Niche






Hyderabad, India

OK with the preliminaries out of the way we can get to the meat of Talislanta.

OK we've established there are no elves (not even a few little ones hiding in the forest, no elves! At all!)



OK we've established there's a bit of insanity going on here, 2 suns, no horses, no @#$^ing humans even (everyone has some strange skin color or mutation).

And OK we've established some pretty nice art, especially for 1986 when this was published.

But surely that's not enough to justify 5 editions of the RPG (with a new one on the way) and people (well me) writing about it 30 years later.

No, no it isn't.

And stop calling me Shirley.

Talislanta has all of this elf-free madness and the fact of the matter is it is really, really good.
Let me show you.


We being our tour in the land of Aamen.
I should note that Sechi/Tamerlin gives the countries in alphabetical order which makes the story within the story even harder to follow. I mentioned there was a bit of madness here right?

Fleeing the Elven tyranny of his world our hero Tamerlin casts dimension door (or possibly Gate or Plane Shift) and steps through into Talislanta. Fortunately he's not porting in blind, he has a guidebook from a wizard who came before.

Following the advice of the book he goes up to a comely young woman, bows and asks her about obtaining a room for the evening, a bottle of local wine and her company for the night.

It does not go well.

It seems since the book was written there was a war. And the kingdom is now ruled by the Orthodox cult. People wear shapeless colorless robes, try to live pure lives and are generally regarded as the most monotonous people in Talislanta. They worship Aa the Omnipotent and live their lives according to the Omnieval, an iron-bound book that contains all knowledge worth knowing.
(It's a bit out of order, but I should note the land across the bay is Zandu, which is ruled by the Paradox cult. Everyone these wears wild colors and worships thousands of gods. Which is awesome.)



They're ruled by clergy who deal out mana points as a reward. And if the chance to earn points doesn't keep your loyalty and obedience, there's also an army of knights in white armor with flaming swords to keep you in line. One thing I really liked was the mention that their armor is actually black iron but laquered white. Because the one thing you don't expect in an RPG supplement is a reference to the Bible's whited sepulchres.

Spoiler:


I spoilded the next because the art for Arim is a bit NSFW. Unlike the usual Medieval-lite world Talislanta is more in line with the ancient times, slavery is common and accepted. Arim is a grim, cold, harsh land inhabited by grim, cold, harsh people. For some reason I always think of Armenia. Which is weird since I've never been there.

It has an interesting take on law enforcement. If someone wrongs you, you post a message in the town square calling for vengeance and offering a fee. The Revenant Cult, a group of secretive robed assassins will then poison your target's dog, break his pots, beat him up, or kill him as appropriate. Anyone could be a Revenant, and no one is safe.

An assassin-heavy society is a polite society.



Batre is a small tropical island inhabited by brutish men, and the most attractive women in Talislanta.



The women have powerful pheromones that can twist a man around their fingers. Unfortunately their men suffer from chronic sinus problems, making them immune.

Needless to say Batre is a frequent target for slavers.



Carantheum, wealthy desert kingdom, elemental magic, dune ships powered by magic engines. Tall, jade-skinned humans. Positively normal for Talislanta.
The king is selected every 12 years by a trial involving quests and a dungeon. Because of course there's a dungeon involved.


The Crescent Isles, cannibals, Godzilla-sized demons.



The Dark Coast, a jungle land populated by the four-legged Mud People and their arch-enemies the four-armed Ahazu. And the peaceful plant-loving Green Men.

Plus winged apes, buried treasure, magical plants... Basically a whole campaign just sitting there waiting for you.



Djaffa, desert nomads, sharpest traders around.



Faradun, a wealthy trading kingdom that worships the god of material wealth and personal gain. A social order that has Monopolists, Userers and Mongers (with marks being at the bottom I imagine).

Any amount of fraud, lies or tricks are fine. So basically they're the Ferengi. A year before the Ferengi even showed up in Star Trek (much less before they were developed in DS9).



Gao-Din is pretty much the first 'normal' setting we've had. A former penal colony turned pirate isle, the sort of place Fafrd and the Grey Mouser might hang out. Anyone can end up there, so it's the perfect place to start a game, even if your characters are from opposite sides of the world.
A King or Queen of Thieves is elected each year and there's just 3 rules to remember:
1-It's illegal to kill a fellow thief.
2-Illegal to tell the secret passwords to an outsider.
3-Illegal to steal anything worth more than 20 gold.
And punishment for any crime is being fed to the sea demons.
The author points out this system seems to work about as well as any other.



Harak, harsh wasteland inhabited by grey-skinned humanoids on flying lizards with spiky boomerangs. Their words for survive and fight are the same.

Once a group of scholars had a theory the Harak were good folk in a harsh environment and in a more comfortable realm they'd change. To test this they approached a tribe, raised their hands in peace and offered gold and jewels.

Without a word the Harak killed everyone one of them, ignored the gold, stole their supplies and rode on.

The book is just full of great fluff like this that does a much better job of selling these kingdoms than dry text can.



Imria, inhabited by muchus-covered lizard men slavers. Whose ships are pulled by giant sea slugs.

Yeah on one hand they're lizardmen, a classic (dull) fantasy archetype. But on the other... They're about the most disgusting creatures you can come up with.



Jhangara, jungles, swamps, (not too many temperate forests in Talislanta) brown and sepia-colored humanoids trying to eek out a living while hunted by swamp demons.



Jungles of Chana filled with Chana Witchmen, cannibal. head-hunting sorcerers. Makes Jhangara seem pleasant.



Khazad, a northern waste with scattered ruins from long-forgotten civilization. You might find ancient gold funeral masks, brass urns with imprisoned demons, or get eaten by a Necrophage (totally not a ghoul).


L'Haan is totally not the land of the snow elves. It's a magical northern realm inhabited by the noble blue-skinned Mirin with their magic swords and spells and… look, they're not elves OK? Would flaming skull guy lie?

They're locked in an eternal war with the ice giants, who you'll hear from soon.



And last for tonight, we have Mog. Another !@#$ing swamp. Big sloth-like humans called the Mogroth who dredge the swamps for bits of gold and amber which they trade for strong drink.

Well that takes us halfway through and I realize when summarized together like this, the kingdoms run together, even in my mind. And that's a problem. Because while Sechi gives us several desert kingdoms and several jungles he makes a real (and largely successful) effort to make them all seem different and unique. Harak is not Djaffa any more than Mongolia is Algeria. Breeding's art does a lot to help with that, giving these lands unique fashions and looks.

Next time I'll cover the second half of the alphabet and some of the interesting products that came out after this.

Like an RPG where every one of these of these weird races was playable. Even the dung merchant.

Have we gotten to the dung merchant yet?

The dung merchant is coming.

 
   
Made in us
Powerful Spawning Champion





There is not this idea.

Hm, so NO ELVES but a lot of other cliches in there.

I do kind of love the giraffe/lizard thing in the not snow elf picture.
   
Made in in
[MOD]
Otiose in a Niche






Hyderabad, India

 toasteroven wrote:
Hm, so NO ELVES but a lot of other cliches in there.

I do kind of love the giraffe/lizard thing in the not snow elf picture.


Some cliches certainly, pirate city stands out, but some original ideas, some novel twists on old ones and some cliches (evil lizardmen) redeemed by great delivery.


 
   
Made in in
[MOD]
Otiose in a Niche






Hyderabad, India

And we're back with N-Z!



Nefaratus is a shadowy, black, iron, island inhabited by a race of lawful good demon hunters and...

No they're evil. Through and through. Totally irredeemably evil. Like even worse than the snot covered lizard slavers.

The Black Savants however are demon hunters. That's because they worship devils. Their ships are rowed by rows of enslaved demons bound in silver chains driven on by copper skinned devils.

Even Evil Island has a nice twist.



Oceanus is a floating city inhabited by green-skinned nomadic folk who wear armor of fish scales and helmets made from the skulls of sea demons (Talislanta is not a particularly safe place to be a demon). The legend is that their homeland sank and they were cursed never to set foot on dry land again. To this day none of them will walk on land out of fear of a great doom.



Phantas is a floating city inhabited by wizards who once ruled a great empire. Now most of their knowledge is lost and it's all they can do to keep their city floating. They are one of the two nations that can make windships, and their other export is dream essence, an addictive magical drug made from well, the essence of dreams.

Decadent wizards on the edge of the world... A bit of Elrik in there but I think they have a nice unique character.



The Plains of Golarin is another wasteland filled with ruins and beastmen. It's also home of the Watchstone, a pillar several miles tall with a staircase carved in the side.



The Quan Empire is one of my favorites. The Quan (the fat guy in the middle) conquered several races one-by-one to build their empire. Finally they went to the Kang (the not-Orc in the front) and just sent wagon after wagon of gold and jewels for seven days and said 'join us and be rich'.

One of the captive races is Mandalans, a peaceful scholarly race. And you can play a Mystic Warrior, magic pacifist ninjas who thwart the plans of the Quan, but aren't allowed to hurt anyone.

Quan is one of the entries here that in 3 pages gave me inspiration to run a whole campaign, or pick them up and drop them into 40k.



It's really hard not to type Rajasthan there, which would be a bad mistake. It's Rajanistan.

The official religion of the state is called the Black Mystic Cult who worship the dread entity known only as Death. The inhabitants have horns in their foreheads and chins and wear black robes with skull masks.

So yeah, Rajanistan is Evil Land, through and through.

Not to be confused with Evil Island of course.

The entry comes with a great story about nomadic tribesman getting the best of them. Like a lot of the fluff in this book the only way to do justice would be to type up the whole thing. Lucky it's available as a download huh?



The Seven Kingdoms is the closest thing to Good Guy land in this book, some of the later books started there to give readers a better point of view to start with. But that doesn't make them normal. I mean look at that cover.

(The 7 Kingdoms entry is same art in B&W).

You'd think the weekly meeting of the Seven Kingdoms standing committee on road maintenance would make for a dull image. Lucky the members are such a colorful bunch.

I'll start with the Cymril, the green skinned wizard in the back. Yeah, race of wizard warriors, city of green glass, but, I must point out, they are totally not elves.

The Muses are the fairy chick. And they're a race of fairies, live in the glades, sip nectar, practice the arts. Not elves either.

The Ardua, the blue dude with the tentacle dreadlocks, were a flying race devolving into a land-bound one. Now the best they can do is glide.

The Gnomekin, short dude with mohawk, are not halflings. Live in burrows, make stuff out of crystals. Not gnomes either.

The Kasmir, wrinkly dude in the cloak are walking plot devices for lazy dungeon masters. They hoard treasure, they're the best money lenders in Talislanta, and build towers full of intricate death traps because they don't trust anyone to guard their stuff. Neat idea but the Jewish stereotypes are hard to miss which is unfortunate...

The Thralls are my second favorite of the bunch. Created by a sorcerer as a warrior race they are all identical (except for gender). To create a bit of individuality they tattoo themselves from head to foot. So it's the colorful chap in the front wearing his formal spikes to the meeting.

But my favorite of the 7 has to be the Sindarans, the guy with the ring through his head and the ears.



They have two brains.

They're among the smartest people in Talislanta, and play games that are incomprehensible to mere one-brained people. They are also completely incapable of comprehending magic, any effort to try drives them insane.



The Shadow Realm, wastelands, ruins, Shadow Wizards, Iron Citadel...

Evil Berg.



Silvanus, Gypsy Land.



The Sinking Lands, mud, evil snails, legendary floating city.



Tamaranth, home of the Gryphs winged eagle men, and the Ariane, an ancient magical race who are not elves.



Thaecia, beautiful island, wise people, magic, Festival of the Bizarre, no elves.



Thaecian Isles, mysterious, demons, evil temptress witch, and Godzilla-sized stone creatures who take a week or more to have a conversation.



Urag, ruled by the Ur, 7 feet tall, 500 pounds, with their buddies Darklings, short imp guys and the Stryx, spikey eagle dudes.

Now I could be wrong but I think these guys might be evil.



The Volcanic Hills, another of my favorite races, the Saurans, 7' tall dinosaur men who like to forge weapons over active volcanoes.



And of course various evil bugs including the Raknids "a hideous cross of demon and scorpion". Did they really need to say hideous? I mean is it even possible to have a nice, attractive blend of demon and scorpion?



Werewood, home of the not-werewolves and their mortal enemies the not-vampires.

World of Darkness came out 5 years later. Just saying.



The Wildlands of Zaran feel like a dumping ground for ideas that didn't quite rate a kingdom of their own.

Places like the Abarrant Forest, a magical experiment gone wrong, or the Labyrinths of Sharan, ancient ruined mazes now overrun with rat/skunk people. More wastelands and some clever city states.



Yeah one of them is Amazon city, they can't all be winners. But then we have the wealthy city of Hadj. Their city sits next to ancient burial mounds of their ancestors. They made their fortune selling passes to adventurers to explore the tombs, and then splitting the loot with any survivors. Sometimes Talislanta was a Dungeon Master's dream for high concepts that lend themselves to gaming.

And then there's Maruk. A once great city that was cursed. Crop failures, plague, lice, rats, you get the idea. The people make their living as dung merchants and are considered harbingers of doom in many lands.

And a playable character class



The Wanderers of Ashann, mysterious blindfolded sorcerers, last survivors of an ancient land who wander the ruins for unknown reasons.



And the rest.

Getting near the end now...



Xanadas, wise savants, not elves.



Yrmania, land of enlightenment and civilization.



And finally Zandu. The other half of Aaman, Zandu worships the Paradox Cult whose holy book the Great Mysteries has 100,000 questions and no answers. The two nations are separated by the great barrier wall, and every year they fight a tournament to decide who gets to occupy the wall and collect the tolls.



See what I mean about every page having a whole campaign just sitting there ready for you?

So that's the place. Still some of the best $6 I ever spent.



I doubt I've looked at this book in 10 or 15 or more years but going through it it's amazing not just how much I remembered from it but how many memories it then triggered from other Talislanta books or the campaign I ran. I'd still love to do a game where a group of normal characters (either D&D characters or real world charcters) are dropped there. Harder, if not impossible, to do in the internet age, but it could be fun.

So I'm going to do at least one more long post with some of the stuff from the RPG.

Yeah there's a lot in here that's pretty obviously re-skinned D&D or random ideas from the author's gaming group. And no elves?



You can make up your own mind on that.

So you might not like everything in this, but this is a book where you can flip to a random page and have a solid start for fantasy RPG or story. And that's pretty awesome.

This message was edited 3 times. Last update was at 2016/08/18 15:43:16


 
   
Made in gb
Decrepit Dakkanaut




UK

I remember enjoying reading the Talislanta stuff, although I came in later with the 3rd edition WoTC tried before they were seduced by the dark side and gave up on RPGs to print money (or was that magic cards)



(more explosion in a crayon factory tattoos there too)


 
   
Made in ca
Knight of the Inner Circle




Montreal, QC Canada

Oh Talislanta! I'm in the Beta for the new Edition "The Savage Land."

It is a fun game, and the variety of different races and classes does make it a very different Experience then other more traditional RPG's.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2016/08/17 21:03:12


Commodus Leitdorf Paints all of the Things!!
The Breaking of the Averholme: An AoS Adventure
"We have clearly reached the point where only rampant and unchecked stabbing can save us." -Black Mage 
   
Made in gb
Longtime Dakkanaut





That's the edition I played. Great game, but we all went off to uni and the campaign petered out.

Hodge-Podge says: Run with the Devil, Shout Satan's Might. Deathtongue! Deathtongue! The Beast arises tonight!
 
   
Made in us
Troubled By Non-Compliant Worlds





This and 'Skyrealms of Jorune' were two of the better indie rpgs of the time.
   
Made in us
The Hammer of Witches





A new day, a new time zone.

One thing I really like about taking trips down gaming memory lane is analyzing how art styles have changed over the years.

"-Nonsense, the Inquisitor and his retinue are our hounoured guests, of course we should invite them to celebrate Four-armed Emperor-day with us..."
Thought for the Day - Never use the powerfist hand to wipe. 
   
Made in in
[MOD]
Otiose in a Niche






Hyderabad, India

 Bookwrack wrote:
One thing I really like about taking trips down gaming memory lane is analyzing how art styles have changed over the years.


See anything interesting?

 
   
Made in gb
Fixture of Dakka







You've repeated the Silvanus image in there, Kid.

2021-4 Plog - Here we go again... - my fifth attempt at a Dakka PLOG

My Pile of Potential - updates ongoing...

Gamgee on Tau Players wrote:we all kill cats and sell our own families to the devil and eat live puppies.


 Kanluwen wrote:
This is, emphatically, why I will continue suggesting nuking Guard and starting over again. It's a legacy army that needs to be rebooted with a new focal point.

Confirmation of why no-one should listen to Kanluwen when it comes to the IG - he doesn't want the IG, he want's Kan's New Model Army...

tneva82 wrote:
You aren't even trying ty pretend for honest arqument. Open bad faith trolling.
- No reason to keep this here, unless people want to use it for something... 
   
Made in in
[MOD]
Otiose in a Niche






Hyderabad, India

Thanks I'll fix it tonight

 
   
Made in gb
Pauper with Promise




Notts, UK

 Kid_Kyoto wrote:



Urag, ruled by the Ur, 7 feet tall, 500 pounds, with their buddies Darklings, short imp guys and the Stryx, spikey eagle dudes.

Now I could be wrong but I think these guys might be evil.



That furry hand on the left - what is it attached to (the little fish daemon dude looks puzzled by it)? Is the big dude in the middle holding the same spear and the birdman? Where's the big dude's left hand? Why is he sitting in such a weird way - is it his non-Euclidean chair?

It's a very confusing picture, no wonder they all look so cross!

Loving your retro series KK.
   
Made in in
[MOD]
Otiose in a Niche






Hyderabad, India

iIRC their weapon of choice was a staff with a severed claw on the end. But yeah I see what you mean.

 
   
Made in se
Longtime Dakkanaut






Now that's how you introduce a setting!
So much character and interesting cultures to get one hooked, right from the start.

Quite a contrast to a certain fantasy game released about a year ago

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2016/08/18 16:19:16


   
Made in ca
Knight of the Inner Circle




Montreal, QC Canada

Yeah Talislanta is...special in that regard.

My Muse Character is probably the most normal of the lot and hes a man sized Fairy with Purple hair with a pixie at his side who he can communicate with telepathically.

Its a weird setting, Magic can get pretty crazy (We once destroyed a sizable city by summoning an unstoppable horde of demons to distract the locals from the fact were stealing an Airship). The rules are pretty easy to pick up too, all you need is a D20.

Commodus Leitdorf Paints all of the Things!!
The Breaking of the Averholme: An AoS Adventure
"We have clearly reached the point where only rampant and unchecked stabbing can save us." -Black Mage 
   
Made in in
[MOD]
Otiose in a Niche






Hyderabad, India

And we're back for a bonus entry, looking at the RPG that went with the world book.

As I recall on that fateful day in B Daltons I was torn between Chronicles and the RPG but picked Chronicles since it was rules-free and could be dropped into any game.

A week later I was back to get the RPG and the rest is history.



Tell me that ain't a great cover.

I won't do a real review of the RPG but some quick highlights. It had a simple easy mechanic: roll d20s, 6+ succeeds (11+ for a full success, 20+ for a critical success). Stats were just pluses or minuses, a zero was normal, +1 good, -1 bad etc. Skills were additional bonuses on top of stats.

Simple and limited yes, but a welcome relief from D&D's haphazard system and more complex systems like GURPS, Shadowrun or Star Wars.

But the real fun was character creation, just choose a type from the list, apply some modifiers and go.

And what a list!



An Inquisitor! A concubine! An assassin!

Needless to say the classes were not even close to being balanced, and something like
a third of them could do at least some magic (including the concubine, because at this point why not?). Even what would seem to be evil NPC races like the devil-worshiping Black Savants were playable.



Or a Darkling Warrior with his -4 intelligence, -4 will power, -2 strength and -2 dexterity. Though you do get +2 perception.

"Darklings are miserable creatures, sinister and conniving in nature. Physically unimposing and prone to cowardly actions they are only marginally effective as warriors."

They're really selling these guys. Let me go look at that concubine's stats again.

I mean the Ferran Thief as +8 dexterity and the ability to emit foul odors at least.



Yes Ice giants. Because why not play a character who melts at room temperature. 10' tall, 1200-2000 pounds, +9 strength in case you're wondering.



The Kharakhan Giant in contrast only gets +8 Strength.

And there's the Mandalan Mystic Warrior, a servile sage by day, ninja by night! Magic and combat skills, but can only use capture/restrain weapons. Zen, pacifist magic ninja superheroes. Tell me you can't use that idea somewhere?



Alas my favorite character does not get a picture, pity the mighty Maruk Dung Merchant.
-2 charisma, starting equipment includes sackcloth garments and a dung wagon. in a later book Maruk would get Luck Wizards (who had a better name I don't feel like looking up right now) who would try to syphon off their city's curse and drop some bad luck on their foes. Again, I think I can use that idea.



Yes of course you can play a Raknid, which you will recall is a 'hideous blend of demon and scorpion'. We don't make judgements here.



You can also play a Quan Noble, with minuses to your strength, dexterity and constitution, no magic or combat skills. But the starting equipment includes 20-40 slaves AND a harem of 20+ consorts (of the gender of your choice, we don't judge here).



Four different types of dinosaur men (only three shown), another courtesan and a dancing girl, and a two-brained Sindaran (+8 intelligence).



The Thralls show up,with pluses in just about everything but intelligence (-2 there) and 'inability to comprehend magic'. Their skills are 'primary combat, mounted combat, and weaponless combat'.

Ah yes, as I remembered, the Ur use clubs tipped with the claw of some beast they killed. Because at this point why not?

And some of my favorite throw-away ideas.

The Xambrian Wizard Hunters hunt wizards. Y'see millennia ago some necromancers enslaved their ancestors and thanks to black magic these same necromancers are still being reincarnated today. The Xambrians hunt down and kill their latest incarnations where ever the might be.

That's a novel right there.

The Yassan Technomancers, because at this point why not throw in some magical technology specialists, it's not like it will upset the logic of this world.

And the Yitek Tomb Robber, because on Talislanta tomb robbing is lucrative enough to support whole tribes.



No elves? No horses either!



And wagons are for wimps!

So there you go. My favorite and craziest fantasy setting of all time. Tons of great ideas, cool settings, nifty character types and great art.

And available for free, legal downloads from the author.

Hard to beat that.

http://talislanta.com/



And it's still alive. A web comic was funded on Kickstarter, and a new version of the game is on the way.

Oh and did I mention the album of Talislantian music? There's an album of Talislanta music.

It's nuts. And I love it.

 
   
Made in ca
Knight of the Inner Circle




Montreal, QC Canada

Yeah that's the stuff right there! Game is straight forward and unlike most systems, is not a rehashing and reinvisioning of Tolkien fantasy.

The character classes are truly fantastic and the setting has a little of everything for everyone. I can't wait until "the Savage Land" Is out of Beta.

Commodus Leitdorf Paints all of the Things!!
The Breaking of the Averholme: An AoS Adventure
"We have clearly reached the point where only rampant and unchecked stabbing can save us." -Black Mage 
   
Made in in
[MOD]
Otiose in a Niche






Hyderabad, India

 Commodus Leitdorf wrote:
Yeah that's the stuff right there! Game is straight forward and unlike most systems, is not a rehashing and reinvisioning of Tolkien fantasy.

The character classes are truly fantastic and the setting has a little of everything for everyone. I can't wait until "the Savage Land" Is out of Beta.


Geeze at this rate I might get hooked back in.

 
   
Made in gb
Joined the Military for Authentic Experience





On an Express Elevator to Hell!!

Brilliant review as always, please keep them up!

And nice that it is still available, at a very reasonable cost!

Epic 30K&40K! A new players guide, contributors welcome https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/751316.page
Small but perfectly formed! A Great Crusade Epic 6mm project: https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/694411.page

 
   
Made in gb
Pauper with Promise




Notts, UK

It's not my cup of tea, but has inspired me to dig out my old Traveller books...
   
Made in gb
Fixture of Dakka






"I spoilded the next because the art for Arim is a bit NSFW. Unlike the usual Medieval-lite world Talislanta is more in line with the ancient times, slavery is common and accepted."

But only the attractive women, it seems.

Now I've got a hankering to try and find the RPG settings I remember from my childhood. They all had elves, though, so clearly aren't as ... cool?
   
Made in in
[MOD]
Otiose in a Niche






Hyderabad, India

So I mentioned how one of the great things about the Chronicles of Talislanta is how you can take bits and pieces and drop them into any game. So i thought I'd try and challenge myself

Fantasy

Spoiler:
"Oh..." the elf moaned as he sat up. "Last thing I remember was being in the inn, and that green-skinned guy buying us all drinks. Where are we?"
In the dim twilight he could make out the bodies of the rest of the party sprawled across the field. In the distance he could just make out a river.
"We're not in the city, that's for sure."
Then the suns began to rise.
Both of them.
"Uh-oh..."

(The adventure and campaign would then be a 'normal' group of adventurers trying to find their way home and figure out the madness of Talisalanta.)


Fantasy

Spoiler:
The demon reared up with a roar, and from the skies two more descended on leather wings.
"Oh @$%^!" The elf muttered, drawing his bow.
Suddenly from behind them black bolts of eldrich force struck! The ebon beams wrapped themselves around the wrists and ankles of the three demons pulling them helplessly to the ground. Small black creatures swarmed over them, binding the demons in silver chains.
"Praise the Tree Gods!" The elf said as he turned to their rescuer. He walked up to the small group of tall men in face-concealing helmets and dark robes.
"Thank you for your hel-" was all he could say as a Black Savant uttered a foul word in his dark language and the heroes were knocked unconcious to the ground.
"Take them along as well, they can help row, or if they're too weak for that they will make adequite fodder for the demons." He said as they left.

(The party would then have to escape from a group of devil worshipers who like to enslave demons)


Space Opera

Spoiler:
"Lord Captain, I feel this trip is highly illogical."
"Really Magos, why is that?" He replied wearily. They'd had this discussion before but for all their boasts of enhanced intelligence tech priests did not seem to understand when to drop a subject.
"The Maruk is impoverished. For the last 500 years its entire tithe has consisted of..." If he still had a nose he would have wrinkled it "...dung. And then there's the matter of the curse."
"Surely you don't believe in such claptrap."
"Nearly a decade ago Maruk's entire Imperial Guard regiment was lost in the void when an unexplained series of airlock malfunctions flushed them into space."
"Accidents will happen."
"Before that, 80% of the regiment froze to death when they were accidentally deployed on the ice world of Theta-Gamma 45, instead of the tropical world Gamma-Theta 54."
"I don't have to tell you how sloppy those clerks can be."
"And before that the entire regiment was captured by orks when they discovered they'd been issued Type 494 Lasguns and Type 49 power cells. Should I go on?"
"No, no, I know the history well. But where you see an impoverished work with nothing to offer, I see a world filled with desperate people who will do anything for a glimmer of hope. And where ever there is desperation, there is also profit."
It was a that moment the lights went out as the ship's four redundant plasma reactors abruptly failed. The deck lurched as the antigrav system, the only thing holding the ship's gigatons of steel in orbit suddenly turned off.


Urban Horror

Spoiler:
Joey looked down at the revolver. It had been in his dad's closet for years. He'd never fired it. He'd never even properly taken it out since he found it years ago hunting for Christmas presents. Now it sat in his lap like a deadly lump.
Ray was driving like a madman, no surprise there, his girlfriend was still trapped in that house. And Dr. Nekrous was doing who-knows-what with her!
Next to Ray in the shotgun seat Terry sat with a shotgun in his hands. Unlike Joey Terry had been shooting that thing since he was a kid. While Ray was snarling and muttering curses, and Joey was mute with shock at what they'd seen Terry was just frighteningly calm.
And then there was Xam. They'd all seen him around school with his black leather and long hair, but none of them really knew him. To tell the truth Joey wasn't sure how or when Xam joined their little group.
Xam sat there with a smile, like a kid who finally got his trip to Disney World. He was just holding his backpack and toying with his medallion. Joey worked up the courage to ask.
"So uh, Xam, do you uh, know any of the missing girls?"
"Me? No, no."
"Then uh... I mean this is going to be dangerous."
"It's a family thing."
"Family?"
"About 10,000 years ago Nekrous enslaved my ancestors in Atlantis. Since then we've hunted and killed him 43 times but he's always reincarnated."
A long curved knife appeared in his hand. Joey hadn't seen him take it out.
"But you know what they say, 44th time's the charm right!"
Joey managed a chuckle.
He realized he was in a car full of crazy people. And he couldn't tell if Xam was craziest or sanest one there.

 
   
Made in us
Knight of the Inner Circle






We had the fourth edition and joked they said "no elves" but had a ton of masked races..
They just hid the elves...

 
   
Made in us
Gargantuan Gargant





New Bedford, MA USA

I remember running a Talislanta campaign just after graduating high school. I let one of the other players buy my collection of books off of me, planning to rebuy them later on, then the one place that sold them went out of business.

Thanks for the blast down memory lane, and the links to the PDFs.

   
 
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