Any interest in Talislanta here?

Getting an open online table for it together as we shitpost.

Oh yeah, where? Roll20? Care to post a link?

Discord for now, I'll set it up on Roll 20 tomorrow after we have our session 0 and figure out what we want the game to be about. I feel that with a setting this rich and unorthodox it's important to have a solid premise at the outset.
Inquire here: discord.gg/h6D3juF

Always liked the aesthetics of the game but I have no idea about the system. Seems too big to get into honestly.

The system is very simple. It uses the same resolution mechanic for every action: you state intent, roll a d20, add up modifiers, and find it on a short action table, the same for all actions. Magic might look complicated, but it's both flexible and straightforward once you get the gist of it, and uses the same resolution mechanic.

Is there a more or less coherent guide to setting that isn't just a listing of all countries and races?

I'm interested in Talislanta, but such infodump is a bit too much for me.

Aside from the books themselves, no. I recommend just reading about one region at a time, as each has a distinct flavour and enough meat to be a complete setting in itself. You don't need to know the entire setting to run a game about, say, the clash of champions.

The Chronicles of Talislanta is the best place to start, IMO. You can just look at the pictures and read a small section that looks interesting, without losing anything.

Cover looks like this.

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>an herd of erd

Spotted the eaglelander.

True, some of it looks like prog rock... and some of it looks like death metal.

But I was referring more to the Heavy Metal movie than the music.

Whatevs do ye mean?

A herd of erds.

A herd of nerds? Where?

Speaking of which, Roger Dean's/Asia's artwork is a perfect fit for Talislanta, and no doubt inspired the author (who is a musician as well).

I will now dump some of it for inspiration.

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It's not an elf if you don't call it an elf. That's how it works, right?

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Basically yes, considering there is no interpretation of a fictional creature by itself more valid than another and that the barrier of entry for Elf has been put so low by countless interpretations that it is becoming meaningless. So name is indeed a solid metric.

>Game line promotes itself as 'having no elves'
>Cover of this book has like 3-4 elf looking motherfuckers
They don't think it be, but it do

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Don't bother. That guy's a butthurt master baiter fishing for (((you)))s who trolls every Tal thread.

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And now some other Roger Dean pieces.

So Elvaan in Final Fantasy 14 aren't elves? What about all the verious -mers in Elder Scrolls?

Those are some nice wood elves you have there.

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No, that's just a pic I got off Google. I've never seen the ashcan edition. Did it have something different in content or just a different layout?

>the idea of enchanted coins that are enchanted so that they don't give off any magic reading in a detect magic.
I don't think that's possible using standard spells. Only ancient Archaen magic could create null-magic fields and stop the detection of magical auras, AFAIK.

Wouldn't piss me off even if it was possible; it's something Rhialto would do on a whim for shits and giggles, so it's acceptable creativity in Tal.

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Reminder that all the Talislanta books (all editions) are legally available for download for free here, thanks to the generosity of the game creator:

talislanta.com/?page_id=5

Tal has a troubled publishing history, the ashcan was supposed to be the be all and end all edition, prior to the blue book, but the publisher dropped the ball, so very few were printed, so they are as rare as hen's teeth.
and VERY sought after by the fans. I don't think even SMS has one.

Elder Scrolls uses both Elf and -mer, so I'd say those are Elves because the game itself calls them Elves.

Nobody has PDF'd it yet? Does anyone have the digital contents of the book or was that lost?

Continuous Ward against Reveal. Granted that would take months and a wad of shekels per coin, but it's doable.

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Oh hey, I was just thinking of starting a thread when I finish the 4e book, I'm only 30-ish pages in. Talislanta looks and sounds hella fun, but I know finding a group isn't going to be easy because I can only tolerate text-only Roll20 games and never played an actual real life RPG session

So if the game's so simple and straightforward, why are the 500 pages in the book?

>why are the 500 pages in the book?
Tonnes of setting info. Which you can read in small bite-size pieces at your leisure, not all at once.

The 4E book is like a D&D PHB, DMG, MM and setting sourcebook all rolled into one.

Oh, then it makes sense. Hell, that actually makes for a pretty thin rulebook proper.

Which is why Tal fans make hernia jokes about the Big Blue [Fucking Heavy] Book, like here:

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Yeah, good luck finding any Talislanta players.

If you scour the entire internet you might find 4 people in the whole world who want to play this game.

If you like it, you'll basically have to run it and convince other gamers to give it a shot.

"Hey guys, let's run a game, here's a 500-page-long book, have fun!"
Yeah, I can see it.

>open table invitation literally half a screen up
>oh noes no group

But user, I want to play with friends

>finding a group
If you had friends you wouldn't need to look.

Ouch

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>Come at me, bro!

I put wings on your Imrian, so you can fly while you enslave!

Haha! Total copy.

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I'm in. I'm loving the setting and the system takes about ten minutes to work out, as far as I can see. Toss a post in the game-finder when you're ready. Plenty of people have the stomach for a setting if it's interesting, and Talislanta is certainly that.

That would only protect against 1 spell, Reveal. There are other ways to detect magic, including divination, magic sight, third eyes, etc.

All that for a coin that may or may not work isn't exactly worth it, but knock yourself out.

Against the Mode, Reveal. And yes, there are other ways to detect magic including straight MR rolls, but the Mode is the easiest and most widespread magical way to detect magic.

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This looks familiar but I can't quite remember it. Is it on Castabulan?

Don't think so, I remember reading this is a place Tamerlin once camped out. Could be that it is not on Talislanta but another continent.

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That's a pretty good dark elf you've got there.

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Thank you.

Seems like it might have the same problem as Vampire or Degenesis: the different playable clans or races all hate each other, so you either get a party of totally mismatched PCs who have a painfully contrived excuse to be together, if they have any at all, or you get some players who are butthurt because the GM won't let them play what they want.

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That's a pretty good... acridian you've got there?

Not quite. There's a wide variety of PC options, and some of their factions and nations may hate each other or be at war, but if you look at, say, the 4e archetype list, it generally isn't too hard to figure out a premise that allows them to work together.
Or, you know, have a session 0 and talk it over before you make dudes.

Never been a problem for me. I've had Aamanians and Zandir in one party, arguing constantly, but it doesn't mean they're going to slit each other's throats. They're adventurers, trying to make coin, ideological zealots generally don't hire themselves out as mercs.

Other way around, if anything. Wizards of the Coast designed the 3rd edition of Talislanta, and people like Jonathan Tweet and Stewart Weick worked on it long before MTG was a thing.

has anyone else noticed that under the rainbow elf, it says
>breeding-black
?

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I wouldn't say that, you have a large group that is fine in the seven kingdoms, the quan empire is another, the various beastmen of the central continent are shown to be able to work together in submen rising. Or you just use your imagination to make character connections.
Session 0 is generally a good thing.
They also have ritualized their conflict to that champion fight for possession of the wall.

Patricia Breeding-Black was one of the main artists on the line, and a very fine one at that.

But don't google her name at work, what with that unfortunate combination of words.

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