I've seen Talislanta come up a a couple times in the past few months and so I thought it might be neat if we had a thread just for it.
>New To Talislanta: talislanta.com
>Rulebook Downloads: talislanta.com
Starter question: Best edition for new players?
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Have a pity bump
Can someone summarize this for me? Is it an 80s rpg, or is it a setting for adnd?
From looking through the 3rd ed bestiary it seems to be a vintage fantasy heartbreaker with some kickass art from old MTG guys. It also seems to be easy to convert to TSR D&D.
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What is better? Archetypes or Paths? I really want to know with which edition I need to start
The paths give additional customization to the player. Nothing keeping you from using the archetypes as NPCs additionally.
It's not a heartbreaker though. Its success exceeds that definition.
Talislanta is the best 80s fantasy game out there.
>Best edition for new players?
Second edition. It's the easiest and quickest to learn. Not the best magic system, but it's also easy to grok in a few minutes.
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Talislanta 20th edition, AND STILL NO ELVES!
It's a fantasy RPG that is distinctly not D&D. No races allowed from outside the world, so no elves etc.
The new art is just required to be terrible isn't it.
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>all books out-of-print
>fans have to donate books to scan
>fans have to volunteer to OCR and clean the scans
>creator has to literally give PDFs away
>last release was 10 years ago
>"success"
Yes it was more successful than what you would call a "heartbreaker". Those don't make it to foreign publication or stay afloat long enough to have five editions. Don't act like this is claiming stellar amounts of commercial success and notoriety.
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So, 2nd ed. is recommended for it's ease of play - which edition has the much-acclaimed magic system, and how does it differ from 2nd ed?
I know 4e (aka big blue book) and 5e have it. I'd have to check 2nd again to see if it's there too, but I'd wager that it is comparable.
Nope, 2nd doesn't look as free at the cursory glance, my bad.
Trivarian, a game priced at 800 gold Lumen and upwards. Somewhere Talislanta certainly boasts a game maker worse than GW.
The best part is only dual-encephalons can understand and play it - it's literally made by and for autists.
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I compiled the races available in 5e. Somebody care to roll? 1d87
Rolled 68 (1d87)
Let's see if I remember how to do this....
68
We are a Rajan.
5’4” to 6’4”, 100-200 lbs.; Dark brown skin, wiry build, black hair, blood-red eyes,
horn-like protrusions from chin and forehead.
A sinister fatalistic folk that regards Talislanta as Hell and likes concealed weapons.
20 HP
INT 0
PER 0
WIL 0
CHA -2
STR 0
DEX 0
CON +1
SPD 0
RC 0
We get to choose ether combat rating (CR) or magic rating (MR) +2, the other will be 0.
Zero is standard. And we get to shove around up to two additional points if we choose to.
Skills: Culture (Rajan) +5, Doctrines (Black Mystic Cult) +4, Language (Rajanin - native), Weapon
(small blades) +1.
Quirks: Terrain Familiarity (desert)
Starting Equipment: Dark gray cloak; veiled turban or headress; loose fitting garments bound with
cords; darkmane hide boots; Rajan dagger, coin purse with 20 gl in assorted currency.
We could also roll for male (1) or female (2).
Pardon me if I'm slow, first time doing this.
We are also apparently living under a black iron mask wearing necromancer death cult. Ah, joyous days in the city of Irdan.
Necromancer Muslims are awesome and terrifying. Too bad they're like the typical hapless dime-novel villains who always fuck up and lose to the good guys (Dracartans).
Djaffir have better masks though.
Nothing bad about some honest pulp. The way I see it you are given a large assortment of hat races and can build upon that as a GM. The way the setting is structured it is also easy to seamlessly drop some homebrew races into the setting, or stuff from other settings with a vaguely comparable tone.
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I'm a pleb and can only really get games after playing or listening to let's plays instead of just reading. Is Talislants just "I dye my hair to express myself!" Or is that just how it was in the one podcast I could find?
Looks like a bitch to learn to run since there is a whole world devoid of known creatures/people.
Right, much like how Jaws was a failure because it isn't making money right now.
>"I dye my hair to express myself!"
It is not one of those newschool narrative games with aspects and meta influence by the players, if that is what you are asking.
The rules are not to complex and you don't have to learn every bit of lore. If you get into the general vibe I feel like you really can't misrepresent the races. It is fun pulpy post fantasy apocalypse adventures. You can easily think of the races as mutants or the star wars cantina, or the one from heavy metal. You have organic leeway with the world. Its like Thundar the Barbarian, John Carter/A Princess of Mars or Flash Gordon. A big ol' lovable 80s toybox. At least that is the way I look at it.
A pauper can live 15 years from that.
Or -more likely- get knifed day 1.
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You grasp those straws with all your might.
Yes, nobody ever bought any of the 37 published books ever.
Why do you need to act like it's "I can't get half the first printrun out of my garage" tier?
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Are defensive bitches a big demographic of this game's playerbase? Maybe that's why it's dead.
It's contrarian. It hates D&D for being vanilla so it randomly throws in differently-colored humans and real world history into a grab-bag setting, mistaking originality for quality. The perfect game for hipsters who aren't cool enough to organize groups for storygames.
Sadly there is not much talk, so I was commenting on an assessment I thought incorrect.
Why does switching things up a little bit constitute hating? It operates on a different aesthetic that's all.
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Rolled 57 (1d87)
Good, the troll left - let's not feed him anymore. Poor pleb will never know the awesome glory of adventure in Talislanta....moar pix, pls!!
Also, I'm gonna roll up another race type...
Manra
A tribal shapechanger.
INT +0
PER +1
WIL +0
CHA +0
STR +0
DEX +1
CON +5
SPD +0
CR +0
RC +1
MR +1
HP 20
Skills: Culture (Manra) +5, Language (Chanan dialect - native), Linguistics +1.
Shapechange +1
Quirks: Terrain Familiarity (jungle)
Starting Equipment: Abbreviated garments of woven plant fibers; neckalces of dried flowers, woven vines, beads and feathers; whipsash worn around waist; pouch for herbs; 40 gl in herbs and precious stones.
Do we want to give our guy a background path?
1d4 if so.
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Rolled 2 (1d4)
you betcha!
Rural, raised in a small village
or other relatively undeveloped settlement.
That's fitting.
We get STR +1 or CON +1 and 6 skill points to be allocated to Agriculture, Handicraft
(Artificer), Brewer/Vintner, Conveyance,
Cook, Fishing, Haggle, Language, Livestock,
Ride or Swim.
We can also buy a Quirk.
Available Quirks: Animal Empathy, Hobby,
Literate, Pet, Single Minded, Tantara,
Tireless, Tough.
And get more gear.
Starting Gear: Sturdy linen breeches and
tunic; hide boots; domesticated animal
of choice (non-mount); waterskin; coin
purse with 6 gl in assorted currency.
I'm a redbook Talislantan - this stuff is new to me: which edition added this background table? And, since it's d4, what are the other results?
There is no table, normally you choose. I just compiled them in a list for Veeky Forums and our love for rolling.
This is 5e.
The 4 Background paths are Nomadic, Rural, Tribal and Urban. They are for upbringing and can only be taken once. I'm a bit iffy on if they are obligatory since they are just listed among the other paths. But since they have no added age and fewer skill points I conclude they are supposed to be taken first.
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Does 5e also have the much talked about magic system?
Yes, it's basically the same as 4e. The main difference between 4 and 5 is that 4 just has the big old list of archetypes and 5 has the paths in place of that (plus a few archetype samples build out of the paths).
Cool, thanx brother Talislantan. Stay out of the Wilderland storms.....
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