Talislanta rises once more. (Disclaimer, I helped write the previous edition of Talislanta: The Savage Lands, I did not contribute directly to this edition. So take my opinions with a grain of salt. I'm biased, but I'm also pretty objective - they did a great job).

I just received my hardcopies... in a gorgeous slipcase (not my picture credit Gary Dowell from the Talislanta FB group)



It's technically the 6e of Talislanta, but it comes with a huge D&D5e Conversion book. This time, like the previous prequel edition, it's full color and gorgeous.

Here is the cover of the old 2e Talislanta


The new cover with the Thrall Warrior is much more S&S and says "yeah, come get it."


The book clocks in at 248-pages. Here's the table of contents:








Each race and monster has its own page, full color. There is a Players Guide, Game Masters Guide, Atlas which covers all the history and regional stuff updated to the modern state which takes place after an event from years ago called the Beastman Uprising. Think Post-Greyhawk wars but much better.

The system is largely the same. Which is good. The Talislanta system is still one of the best ever created. There are rules for Windship combat, Mass Combat, techno-magic. The setting for those that are not familiar with Talislanta is very old-school S&S+High Fantasy. It is wondrous, brutal and awesome.

Skill based, but with "elements" of level acquisition (I'll explain later if anyone wants to know).

Magic - is like a hybrid of 2e and 3e. It gives you options of the "Vancian" (where you cast from memory). But you can also cast from written sources, but it takes twice as long to cast. You pick the spell from your list, you decide what level you want to cast it at. That's your penalty to cast it. You have spellcasting skill based on your archetype which you can increase like any other skill.

Magic casting uses the same Action table as any other skill. You do *not* want to fail or critically mishap (roll below 1), as you could blow your own head off.

My Thoughts on casual perusal
The system is complete, it's clean, and it covers literally everything you could want to do in the setting. It scales very high in terms of power-level. If you liked the older editions, you'll feel *right at home* here. It is 99% backwards compatible. The only thing that really has changed is the Magic System (which seems to change every edition) and those changes are ironically are still compatible with every other edition. You could literally have all magic systems from all editions running simultaneously without missing a beat.

You still only use one table - the glorious Action Table.



And everything stems from Stat (which ranges from -5 to +5) + Skill +d20 and any modifiers due to environment/gear.

Anyhow, if anyone is interested - feel free to ask. For those that want to play a great game that is *not* D&D, but is old school, zero-woke bullshit, S&S and directly inspired by Jack Vance and a handful of mushrooms. Give it a try, you won't regret it.

Lastly - I haven't cracked the 5e conversion book because I don't really give a shit about 5e-D&D. I think it's a bad system to run Talislanta on, even though our conversion for 5e in the Talislanta: The Savage Lands edition which I helped write, was solid. If you guys want, I'll field and look up any questions you might have about the conversion book. It's HUGE.

Nary a pancho-wearing gaucho-orc was to be found.




Frazetta-fan approved






Ninja representation



Edgelords!





And everything in-between. Don't get me started on the weird shit.

Do you know when this will be available for non-backers? I've been waiting for this to start delivery before I spent $.

That's a good question. A lot of people are asking on the Talislanta FB page now. The PDF's are available on Drive-Thru... but I've not seen anything about when they're going to get more books or if they're going to just do POD on DTRPG.

Hmm... I'll poke around behind the scenes.

Quote from: tenbones on December 05, 2024, 03:31:12 PMThat's a good question. A lot of people are asking on the Talislanta FB page now. The PDF's are available on Drive-Thru... but I've not seen anything about when they're going to get more books or if they're going to just do POD on DTRPG.

Hmm... I'll poke around behind the scenes.

They got rid of the Batrean Concubines, I heard.

Quote from: crkrueger on December 05, 2024, 03:33:36 PMThey got rid of the Batrean Concubines, I heard.

Hey what's up Big Green.

So now my eyebrows have been raised. Batreans never factored heavily into my games, tho my wife played one once, but sure enough. They've been removed.

I dug into it and it appears the publishers wanted to avoid "sex-trafficking" as an overt archetype, which was one of the changes they made. I'm not sure if the Batreans have been removed from the game as if "they never existed" or that they're part of the new status-quo where the Dark Coast has been over-run and they're effectively wiped out.

Another consideration is editorial has mentioned that some races simply didn't make the cut due to space and lack of real relevancy. They definitely wanted to narrow things down since there is such a metric ass-ton of content in Talislanta. Still.. while when you're talking about full-color spreads and pages dedicated to a fairly insignificant archetype... I get it... but it still rubs me wrong for the obvious reasons.

Hmm it's definitely a yellow-flag. Mainly because Talislanta fans already know what the deal is with the setting. It's already established trying to sell to the Woke crowd is a losing bet... they need to be selling to the OSR crowd that has never played Talislanta. I don't see why they can't understand this. Even among D&D players, most aren't reactionary Woke activists, they're just chewing the D&D cud.

It's a minor thing, but it grates. I do see that they tried to roll some of the Batrean schtick into other archetypes. Other players have noticed it too. Batreans narratively have been genocided it appears.

Strangely... I'm not sure what to think. They nuke the Batreans with narrative reasons (their region was invaded and decimated). They dance around it politely when asked - clearly they don't want to invoke the Woke mob upon them. But then they include the Thaecian Enchanter




I guess it comes out in the wash. Its not like they're avoiding sexy-art, the usual slavery elements from the usual suspects are intact. So I guess we'll all have to decide for ourselves.

Weren't Batrean men brutish monsters? I'm saddened there will be no Dung Merchant Archetype.

I read that some of the midnight realms archetypes made it in. I need this bad. I have a complete Tal collection except for Savage Lands.

The books are beautiful.

Did Armite's make the cut?

Now that is some damned impressive art!  Well done!

Quote from: M2A0 on December 05, 2024, 07:35:42 PMWeren't Batrean men brutish monsters? I'm saddened there will be no Dung Merchant Archetype.

I read that some of the midnight realms archetypes made it in. I need this bad. I have a complete Tal collection except for Savage Lands.

The books are beautiful.

Did Armite's make the cut?

Arimites are definitely in and they look great. I'll put some art up later.

Yeah the Batreans males are gone too. Nothing really prevents anyone from just putting them in, their stats are the same but you know.

The art is *spectacular*. It's a shame you don't have Savage Lands, it's gorgeous as well. Some of the art from that game made it in (monsters and such) The bestiary is also superb. I'll put up some pics of it as well.

Quote from: tenbones on December 05, 2024, 04:53:14 PMStrangely... I'm not sure what to think. They nuke the Batreans with narrative reasons (their region was invaded and decimated). They dance around it politely when asked - clearly they don't want to invoke the Woke mob upon them. But then they include the Thaecian Enchanter




I guess it comes out in the wash. Its not like they're avoiding sexy-art, the usual slavery elements from the usual suspects are intact. So I guess we'll all have to decide for ourselves.

Well, "devout pleasure-seeker" can easily be spun as "sex-positive and empowered", which "harem slave girl" cannot. They're probably in the unenviable position of trying to please both sides. Trying to ride that narrow lines where the grognards won't feel they've betrayed the setting, and the wokies won't come around and throw rocks through their windows.

It looks like a quality product. Talislanta continues to interest me, though at this point I'm not optimistic on ever getting to play it. I'm in much the same boat as M2A0, in that I'd buy in if there's a reasonably priced hardcopy available. I rarely spend money on pdf-only, especially if it's something I'm buying as a collectible.

Do you know if there's been any talk of VTT support? Sadly that also has to play into my RPG buying decisions these days.

Quote from: tenbones on December 05, 2024, 04:53:14 PMStrangely... I'm not sure what to think. They nuke the Batreans with narrative reasons (their region was invaded and decimated). They dance around it politely when asked - clearly they don't want to invoke the Woke mob upon them. But then they include the Thaecian Enchanter




I guess it comes out in the wash. Its not like they're avoiding sexy-art, the usual slavery elements from the usual suspects are intact. So I guess we'll all have to decide for ourselves.

You could just ask Secchi, couldn't you?  Although he may not want to really talk about it, which I guess itself would be an answer.

From what I've read behind the scenes, it was more of a call from the publisher Everything Epic.

Edit: My observation is that someone alerted the mob at TBP and they started a thread listing all the objectionable material from the older editions and the groundswell started. My conjecture is that due to the general history and fragility of all Talislanta editions getting off the ground, they didn't want to risk it.

My personal experience with the rest of the team is that there were definitely a variety of political views but at no point did any of it affect me personally in developing The Savage Lands which is way more "hardcore" than older editions in terms of tone. I *assume* nothing different happened here except they took precautions (which is not the choice I would have made - unless it was a space issue, which I do understand). The rest of the game looks pretty rock-solid to me thus far. It's still pretty metal. I lament the Batreans... but whatever. It does make my eyes itch a little. But since I'll never know the truth, I'll let the game stand on its own.

Quote from: ForgottenF on December 05, 2024, 10:41:27 PMDo you know if there's been any talk of VTT support? Sadly that also has to play into my RPG buying decisions these days.

From the publisher: "We're looking into VTT solutions."

Arimite Revenant


Arimite Knife-Fighter


Talislanta Atlas
All of it is excellent sandboxy, old-school goodness. Regional information with lots of encounter tables. It's wide open for you to create your own adventures. They go over cultures, worldviews, religions, and lots of little details to give GM's everything they need to get into the setting with lots of room to make it their own.

The encounter tables are customized for each region and range from a d100 table. There are a LOT of regions and therefore a LOT of Encounter Tables.

Water Encounter table sample


Finally they're going hard on the Baratus windship pirates. Which they've provided airship combat rules.


Lots of huge monsters to fight.

Sea Dragon


Exotic kick-ass locales like...

Rajanistan - City of the Death Cults


Rajan City of Irdan


The Maze-City of Altan


Lots of spells, regional gear, magic items, history and different ages of lore, including old High Sorcery content which is like Epic Level magic from D&D.