Talislanta thread. We had a pretty good one last week, let's have another.
Some news: Talislanta is getting a new book in 2016, called The Savage Land, based on the post-apocalyptic period just after the Great Disaster when the world was a huge mess.
There was a recently successful kickstarter for a Tal comic book: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1861515217/tales-of-the-savage-land-a-post-apocalyptic-fantas
All the Talislanta game books are available for download, free and legal, here:
http://talislanta.com/?page_id=5
So, is there anything worse in the world than an army of Vasps?
>>44282270
So, can someone give a word-limit pitch of Talislanta?
I have the 4th edition book just sitting on my hard drive, should I have gotten 5th edition? Is it something that I could just find players for or would hey all need to read 300+ pages of setting to be able to play a character in that world?
>no elves in this setting
>three elves on the cover
>>44282735
I only count two, green guy on top and brown guy on bottom.
>>44282758
tattoo guy on left
>>44282902
That one doesn't looks as elfy to me, too burly.
>>44282554
>So, can someone give a word-limit pitch of Talislanta?
Talislanta is a fantasy RPG for people who are bored with the fantasy genre.
>I have the 4th edition book just sitting on my hard drive, should I have gotten 5th edition?
I prefer 4th, myself. The general consensus seems to be that 5th is unnecessarily complicated compared to the others. But it does have a cool character creation system. In the last thread most people seemed to prefer 2nd ed.
>Is it something that I could just find players for or would hey all need to read 300+ pages of setting to be able to play a character in that world?
In my first game of Talislanta I just read up on the area and culture my character came from. The rest is pretty easy to roll with.
>>44284262
>Talislanta is a fantasy RPG for people who are bored with the fantasy genre.
But I'm not bored of the fantasy genre. I've rarely been able to play a standard fantasy game because everyone else is always bored of it. Should I avoid the game then?
>>44284330
What I mean is that it feels very different from a lot of traditional fantasy games. The game has orcs and elves with the names filed off. But it clearly isn't drawing it's primary inspiration from Tolkein. In that respect it's pretty refreshing for people burnt out on that kind of thing.
>>44282554
>hey all need to read 300+ pages
Just read this short intro and see if it interests you or your players.
The "no elves" thing seems to have both attracted and repelled gamers during its day. Some like the fact that Talislanta is a non-standard European Tolkien campaign setting, while others mock it for having so many races with pointy ears.
As if pointed ears make the elf, ears are more often pointy than not for every fantasy race ever made.
>>44284788
Looks neat. Is that book for free on the talislanta page?
>>44285303
Everything is free from 1st to 5th.
>>44285319
Even the completely fiction books?
>>44285331
Well, there are these Manuscripts:
http://talislanta.com/?page_id=1224
Let's have some music.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J1Z4NTP5kNY&list=PL28Hge4P7xTD7pae5DNm-YpTTnc4Vcq7o
>>44285303
>>44285331
Yes, The Chronicles of Talislanta is the fluff book, it's free too:
http://peedeepages.com/talislanta/pdf/1e/final/optimized/chronicles_of_talislanta.pdf
>>44285480
Aww yeah, I remember the Talislanta soundtrack. Had it a long time ago but now it's lost.
Bump because I'm curious and have not had a chance to read anything yet.
Worst race? Best race?
Does this setting keep with the "One culture one kingdom" cliche?
>>44289558
It's mostly one culture=one race. There was a lot of magic influence and wizard breeding going on. Races do however sometimes work together to form kingdoms. It's not really to the detriment of the setting. In my opinion it has that pulp heavy metal vibe to it.
>>44289558
>Worst race?
Maruk dung merchants.
>Best race?
Probably Xambrian Wizard-Hunters, they have a shit-load of anti-magic powers.
Talislanta is not a game where all the races and classes are balanced. Some suck, some are decent and some are powerful, that's just the way they the world is.
>Does this setting keep with the "One culture one kingdom" cliche?
Mostly yes. Though the Quan Empire is multi-racial, and two warring nation-states (Aaman and Zandu) are of the same race, and there are dozens of displaced races that have no homeland but wander around.
I mainly like the barbarian type races.
Mondre Khan, who fight a guerilla war against the Quan/Kang Empire and Araq, a fast breeding soldier race that is masterless after the great disaster and is in danger of hunting land dragons into extinction.
Worst race... a few feel realy dated and stupid.
It is pointless to be a Danuvian male (housemen to the Amazon warrior women).
Batreans are awful because of the stupid sexual dimorphism (males are club swinging apes and females are beautiful girls with pheromones).
>>44290273
>Talislanta is not a game where all the races and classes are balanced. Some suck, some are decent and some are powerful, that's just the way they the world is.
I didn't mean best/worst mechanically. I meant best/worst in terms of flavor.
>>44290630
Oh, well, in that case my favorites are:
Ahazu four-armed berserkers, I like the striped tiger design on them and their culture of "if defeated in battle, become slave of winner" puts a new spin on battle-ragers, plus they have weird weapons.
Callidian Cryptomancers because of their glossolalia and knowledge of codes, cyphers and cryptography in a medieval world makes them neat mages.
Gnorl Rhabdomancer because they're secretive little gnomes that know all the secrets of the universe but lose power if they reveal any secret or anything is revealed about them + plus candle spirit magic and stick divination.
Worst are probably: Ice Giants, while playable, are basically just "raawwr, kill!" and that's boring. Monad servitors are too dumb and unskilled, they just know how to lift things. Ur warlords same the thing, they're just ogres really, they need some type of interesting shamanic magic to make them better. And yeah, you'd never want to play a Danuvian male or a Batrean ale, they suck.
>>44293115
>but lose power if they reveal any secret or anything is revealed about them
For real or a myth spread about the people so they don't give away secrets? I figure a setting like Talislanta will have the equivalent of YGWV.
This might get boo'd around here, but there's a decent reddit for Talislanta here: https://www.reddit.com/r/Talislanta/
It's slow-moving but has some good resources.
>>44293302
>For real or a myth spread
It's what the Gnorls claim, I guess you'll have to play one to find out.
>a setting like Talislanta will have the equivalent of YGWV.
I have no idea what that acronym means. Your Glorantha Will Vary?
>>44293382
Yes, it means your Glorantha will vary. It's something said by Glorantha fans whenever they answer a question "Well canon [...] but YGWV."
>>44293382
>I guess you'll have to play one to find out
Well any chance I have to play in Talislanta would be if I read the books and run a game myself, I think.
>>44293500
It definitely will vary because
a) some material that was published isn't canon because of legal issues
b) there are 4 versions of the game published by 4 different companies, each of which wanted to change both the rules and the setting a bit
c) shit's all mysterious and never clearly spelled out, yo
>>44290630
Favorite? I'm pretty partial to the Mogroth. They're very relaxed and have an interesting perspective on life that makes for fun interactions with a party or NPCs.
Last favorite? Xambrian Witch Hunters. Their powerful in a very unfun way and can easily derail a campaign with their mission.
Kasmir Trapmages are fantastic too, so many things they can do...wish the rules were a little more elaborate in the traps department just so they could shine more.
It's the variety of archetypes that make Talislanta so interesting to me.
>>44284388
>But it clearly isn't drawing it's primary inspiration from Tolkein
Neither does D&D.
>>44295072
Maybe mechanically. But from a setting perspective? The fantasy is absolutely Tolkienesque. Only a few official D&D settings really move away from that.
What is a Talislanta
>>44286567
I swear I saw that sword somewhere else
>>44296684
Abaddon the Despoiler has a very similar sword.
>>44295179
>Maybe mechanically. But from a setting perspective? The fantasy is absolutely Tolkienesque. Only a few official D&D settings really move away from that.
D&D is a bunch of Tolkien races/monsters set into the world of Conan the Barbarian with a heaping helping of schlock Weird Tales pulp material tossed in.
>>44290110
>It's mostly one culture=one race.
That's interesting. Reminds me of the ancient Greek and Roman views of race and culture group being basically the same thing. Livy writes of the views on syrians, anatolians and egyptians as being all distinct races.
Rhese threads are really good fr intoducing people to the setting. I never before got past the slightly dated art and clunky layouts, now I'm really interested in getting to know the setting.
>>44295179
>The fantasy is absolutely Tolkienesque
Not even slightly.
>>44297006
Yes, this, and with Vancian magic thrown in. And even then the Tolkienesque races that inhabit the game are nothing like how Tolkien described them.
>>44297426
"Not even slightly"
Nigga what
Who do you think came up with elves and orcs and shit
>>44282554
>ave gotten 5th edition? Is it something that I could just find players for or would hey all need to read 300+ pages of setting
Have you got friends to play with?
Just tell them "trust me this shit is awesome" and whip out an adventure with premade characters.
Make it a point to use it to introduce the setting and its mores. Show them some fucking weirdness to grab their attention.
They'll be the ones that'll want to know more about the setting. They'll be the ones searching for weird shit to play as and to go see; even if you restrict access to the setting info and only show them drawings with 2 lines of description for each character type.
It works, man.
>>44282735 >>44282758
>>No Elves in this setting
>>No Elves in the cover.
Seems fine to me.
>>44284388
>The game has orcs and elves with the names filed off.
no it hasn't.
There's no orcs or Elves here.
>>44297551
>Who do you think came up with elves
Can't have been Tolkien considering that they've been popping up for centuries before him.
>>44284388
Blimey. Well what IS it drawing its primary inspiration from then.
>>44297671
It looks like it might be Vance. That's good. Vance is pretty alright. I'm not uncritical of Vance but he tends to be a fun read and his settings are certainly original and detailed, even if his societies do come across as a bit "more exotic than thou".
>>44297551
Orcs and Hobbits are Tolkien's inventions, Elves and Dwarves aren't. And none of those races are portrayed in D&D as they are in Tolkien's books.
this talk about the races makes it sound to me like we need a Tier chart for all of them, one from a fluff perspective, another from a gameplay one, for now let's do it for 2nd edition since that seems to be the most popular one around here
>>44297426
And PCs are generally along the lines of Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser.
>>44297671
Jack Vance's Dying Earth stories and his Planet of Adventure series, plus Moorcock Eternal Champion, Weird Tales, the Rubaiyat, Marco Polo's Voyages and A Voyage to Arcturus.
That and a heap of Turkish opium, according to the author himself.
>>44284987
>accessible
That's just a lie. The combination of no default culture and very minimal details given for the cultures that do exist means that it's impossible for players to just make a character and jump in. The GM has to make up a lot of information regarding where the campaign is and how things work there, then unload that information on the players.
>>44297652
>>44297643
>>44282735
An elf by any other name is still an elf. Like how sometimes in JRPGs humans are called humes or homs or some other thing, but they're still humans.
>>44284788
>>44282554
The original rulebooks can't explain Talisanta's premise because it was embodying a trend that they couldn't describe from the inside. Talisanta is the kind of cheesy 80's fantasy embodied by Heavy Metal magazine, the covers of power metal albums, or what the kid in the back of the classroom would be doodling. If you want to be an oily muscle-man covered in spikes and riding a dinosaur, Talisanta is for you.
>>44300650
>no default culture
That's true.
>and very minimal details given for the cultures that do exist
That's a lie. The cultures are described in intricate detail, down to their cuisine, unique magic systems, fashions and superstitions. Plus the archetypes in 2nd edition already had races, classes, abilities, magic, equipment and skills all picked for you, so you could start playing in 5 minutes. (later editions became as complicated as...D&D).
You either didn't read the books or you're trolling for a reaction.
>>44300930
But you couldn't just pick any archetype without conferring with the GM first. Only a couple of them would make any sense at all in the campaign. You really couldn't do anything on your own or else you'd end up not even sharing a language with the other PCs.
And each culture got an average of three pages. They intentionally went for breadth over depth, and they said as much.
>>44301046
>But you couldn't just pick any archetype without conferring with the GM first.
Never says that anywhere. Sure, if you pick at random you might end up with a Dracartan Thaumaturge and a Rajan Torquar in the same party (chances are small though) but that's true of any fantasy setting and no different from having a elven paladin and a drow assassin together in one party if you pick random races/classes in D&D.
>language
Almost everyone is assumed to know Common Talislan as the inter-species language. If the DM wants to make racial languages a thing that's optional.
>And each culture got an average of three pages.
That's not enough? It's plenty for starters. Up above you were complaining it wasn't accessible. If it had 50 pages per culture *that* would be inaccessible.
If you wanted more detail you bought the Cyclopedia books, which had much more info.
What exactly are you complaining about? You can't seem to get your complaints straight.
>>44301212
My complaint is that some chucklefuck back in the 80's said it was accessible when it's not at all. It intentionally avoids looking too similar to real-world cultures or recognizable fantasy touchstones, which is a stylistic choice, but it means that it's hard as hell to get into. The differences between the races/cultures are a lot more pronounced than in D&D, where you can be pretty sure to get along with the party as long as you don't play an evil asshole, unless the DM has specifically said it's an evil campaign. In Talisanta every culture has a different idea of what constitutes an evil asshole and none of them match. It's a hard setting to get into because there's nothing that you'd recognize from anywhere else in reality or fiction and because it's very easy to accidentally be or do something that doesn't fit the campaign at all. That doesn't mean it's necessarily bad, but one thing it isn't is accessible.
It's a non-standard fantasy world, sure, but that's a plus, not a negative. For beginners it's about as accessible as D&D, with it's specific class powers, hundreds upon hundreds of spells and mountains of lore for settings like the Forgotten Realms.
Tekumel is hard to get into, Talislanta is pretty easy to grok.
Spikes galore.
Without having gotten into the "meat" of the system, the game looks pretty cool I'll probably never get a chance to play it though. Anyone who does play this which edition do you like 4 or 5?
>>44305800
2E is my favorite, it's probably the simplest of all. You can just pick an archetype, pick a few spells and weapon proficiencies and you're ready to play.
3rd, 4th and 5th editions get progressively more complicated. Unnecessarily so, in my opinion, although the magic system in 4th is pretty cool.
This setting has the Coneheads in it.
>>44300684
>An elf by any other name is still an elf.
Tell me what you know about the races on the covers that makes them elven.
[spoilers]if you say "ears", guess what, humans have skin. elves have skin. all elves are humans[/spoiler]
>>44308233
fuck me, can't even tag properly.
i stand by it
>>44308233
Ears. Pointy ones. On a creature that's basically human apart from the pointy ears. So the green fucker, the fucker with the mohawk, and probably the tattooed fucker. Fuzzy logic comes into play, like the question of how many grains of sand make a heap or how many hairs you need on your head to not be bald, but you can't use that line of reasoning to say that a single grain of sand makes a heap or a guy with a single hair isn't bald.
It wouldn't even be an issue if they didn't specifically brag about not having elves. You don't need to call out FFIV or Warhammer 40K for having elves that they call by other names, because those games don't pretend to have no elves.
Recomended starting adventure to complere newbies (both gm and players) to this system? For 4th edition let's say.
>>44308372
The Scent of the Beast is low-level and has a lot of introductory notes that help new players and GMs.
It's awesome that mostly all the books are available for free, I kinda wish there was a print on demand option though.
Personally I love having a physical copy for my rpgs, at least for core books.
>>44303770
How else would you know they're evil?
Is anybody playing Talislanta on roll20.net or any other online forums?
>>44308359
>Ears. Pointy ones. On a creature that's basically human apart from the pointy ears
Then none of them qualify since they're not even remotely human.
>>44314293
I was in a brief game. Unfortunately the GM seems to have disappeared. :(
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8RUYejtvMwM
This video is the thing that got me into Talislanta. I love it to death.
>google Talislanta
>click on seemingly official site
>help kickstart Talislanta webcomic
Fucking pathetic!
