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One of the nice things about unpacking (maybe the only nice thing) is getting reaquainted with forgotten books, DVDs and stuff.

So yesterday I found my stash of Talislanta books.



Talislanta was a stand alone RPG set in a very funky fantasy realm with none of the cliched Tolkeinesque elements in it and tons of cool, mad, ideas.

I remember the old Dragon ads that sold me on it:



So I went hunting for what was on the web and found this

http://talislanta.com/

Which has all the RPG books as free legal downloads.

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

Hurray for the information age!

If you're looking for where to start the Chronicles book is good. It has no rules but is an A-Z tour of the various grimdark races and nations of Talislanta.

http://peedeepages.com/talislanta/pdf/1e/stage2/originals/chronicles_of_talislanta.pdf

How grimdark are they?

How about the Aamanians who worship the harsh and intolerant god Aa, and torture unbelievers. Their arch enemies are the Zandir who worship pleasure and luxury. They of course share a city divided by a massive wall.

That's nothing you say?

Well how about the Batrean Concubines, beautiful women who emit alluring pheremones and usually end up running the show behind the scenes. The only problem is the Batrean men who are crude brutes and have no sense of smell. So they make their living selling their own women into slavery.

OK, that's pretty dark, so how about the Mandalan Mystic Warriors. The Mandalan's are strict pacifists ruled by an oppressive empire, to resist it some dress in black and use their mystic powers to engage in non-violence resistance. So yeah, Tibetan Buddhist/Ghandi/ninja/jedi/Batman.

And it just goes on like this for pages and pages.

I'll have to do a full retro review at some point.

I have the chronicles, and really liked the setting, but disliked the mechanics. I just didnt get it back then.

I tired to download some of them, and kept getting 404 errors. Is it just me?

They were working this morning but now I'm getting the same.

Maybe it's a bandwith issue? Esp since I just yoinked 2 gigs worth of data from them?

I kind of liked the dead simple mechanics. Every stat or still was rated as plus or minus, ie my Thrall might have Strength +3 Intelligence -2 and then you apply them to a d20 roll.

It's not too creative but darn if it ain't easy.

I think that if I looked at it again, I might 'get it' with the mechanics. It was, what, 20 years or more ago that stuff came out? And back then I was a big Ad&der, so I think that colored my ability to get into a whole different system. I'm much more flexible today

I always liked the giant flying Manta with the guy on the back holding the reins. Could never figure out what it exactly was.

And I love the prices in that ad you posted. $12 for the Chronicles, $9.95 for the campaign book. At the time I thought they were a little pricey

I'll keep my eye on their site and see if it resolves. If nothing else, I'd like the grab the d20 version of it.

The site is back up!

I guess it was a bandwith issue.

Which is why I didn't mention it till my downloads were done

Kid_Kyoto wrote:
How about the Aamanians who worship the harsh and intolerant god Aa, and torture unbelievers. Their arch enemies are the Zandir who worship pleasure and luxury. They of course share a city divided by a massive wall.

Ah, so THAT's where Privateer Press got the idea for Caspia/Sul from.

I'm sure the Israel/Palestine conflict had NO bearing on the inspiration of either company.

Kid_Kyoto wrote:
I kind of liked the dead simple mechanics. Every stat or still was rated as plus or minus, ie my Thrall might have Strength +3 Intelligence -2 and then you apply them to a d20 roll.

It's not too creative but darn if it ain't easy.

Theres something to be said for simple. IMO it allows more enjoyment of the game, especially in a RPG. I know some people like games that end up being a small study in algebra, but I myself really dont like spending several minutes calculating my target number.

LOL, haven't seen this one in a dogs age.

"Still no elves!!!" LOL

Good find,but have an issue with downloading the character sheets. The site still under construction?

Good amount of material, either ways!

Great stuff there!!!