Update!

Just got word that the KS for Talislanta: The Savage Lands Kickstarter is going to officially drop next week (March 28th) and I've been told I'm free to discuss the game. We had to get another publisher and do the scheduling-shuffle, but it's finally happening and being put out by Stewart Wieck's Nocturnal Media.

Disclaimer - I wrote a lot of the setting and race material. So I can answer questions along those lines.

I'll prime the pump a little bit.

The large number of races in classic Talislanta will be curtailed for some important reasons. The setting of the Savage Lands is the era after the great cataclysm, and many of the races set in Talislanta did not exist. The cataclysm is like a magical apocalypse, and the magical energies rampant on the world are in many ways like unadulterated chaos, which would push a kind of evolution of these proto-races into the variety of races that those familiar with classic Talislanta uses.

So some of the races in the Savage Lands are actually the progenitor races for those that would come centuries later (in Talislanta 1e - 5e).

This also means there will be some new races that simply went extinct that will also be playable. The setting is brutal, savage, highly tribal, but the remnants of the Archaen Empire - which was rich in magical and technomantic creations can still be found and in the case of some of the races - Talosians (technomantic sentients) fully playable.

Magic use is relatively low, it's extreme barbarism, but the setting is in fact rich with magic "stuff". So it's fantasy post-apocalypse as a conceit. Sci-fantasy by implication.

Quote from: tenbones;953080Update!

Just got word that the KS for Talislanta: The Savage Lands Kickstarter is going to officially drop next week (March 28th) and I've been told I'm free to discuss the game. We had to get another publisher and do the scheduling-shuffle, but it's finally happening and being put out by Stewart Wieck's Nocturnal Media.

Disclaimer - I wrote a lot of the setting and race material. So I can answer questions along those lines.

I'll prime the pump a little bit.

The large number of races in classic Talislanta will be curtailed for some important reasons. The setting of the Savage Lands is the era after the great cataclysm, and many of the races set in Talislanta did not exist. The cataclysm is like a magical apocalypse, and the magical energies rampant on the world are in many ways like unadulterated chaos, which would push a kind of evolution of these proto-races into the variety of races that those familiar with classic Talislanta uses.

So some of the races in the Savage Lands are actually the progenitor races for those that would come centuries later (in Talislanta 1e - 5e).

This also means there will be some new races that simply went extinct that will also be playable. The setting is brutal, savage, highly tribal, but the remnants of the Archaen Empire - which was rich in magical and technomantic creations can still be found and in the case of some of the races - Talosians (technomantic sentients) fully playable.

Magic use is relatively low, it's extreme barbarism, but the setting is in fact rich with magic "stuff". So it's fantasy post-apocalypse as a conceit. Sci-fantasy by implication.

I shall keep an interested eye on this

It's germane to some of the threads active on the forum now (specifically the ones about "Elves and Dwarves in RPGs", and some of the discussions going on in the "What happened to D&D?") - Savage Lands speaks in many ways directly to many of the issues raised there, without pandering.

While Talislanta has been brought up in one of those threads as an example of a game that doesn't have elves and dwarves (though it has a couple of its own surface-level analogs) Savage Lands goes *far* beyond that. When I say it's savage, there is very very little connective tissue that anyone could draw on to D&D races. And this is less by design (on my part) but more to cleave to the conceits of what Talislanta assumes implicitly. A big part of the writing was taking those assumptions of Talislanta - with 30-years of maturation of play and re-think these assumptions with a much clearer view of the setting and just GO FOR IT.

Savage Lands attempt to re-cast Talislanta from an atomic level in the shadow of a world-devastating event that destroyed not *just* a civilization of incredibly powerful spellcasters, but by the conceits of what the system has allowed in past editions - this was a civilization that would be like Gods, not just "powerful spellcasters". The aftermath of that event is where Savage Lands takes place, and the primitive PC's the those that have emerged from that ongoing catastrophe.

In many ways it's a bit like Planet of the Apes, and all the Gorilla-people are in the process of establishing their new order in the shadow of the remnants of this Godlike Empire - which in some cases were the creators of your race you might be playing.

Mechanically the system is still Talislanta with some tweaks and new additions. Still relatively light, there are new sub-systems for creating your own tribe, including rules for tribal warfare. It's still 95%+ true to all the previous editions (Action table, stat values, etc. are all the same).

Race selection has been pared down - but still still very healthy and done with the intent of showing the playerbase what this era of Talislanta was like. Many of the races are the literal creations of the Archaens that were created from the technomantic bio-vats for various express purposes (like warfare, etc) and various NPC races that could with GM agreement could be used. Each of these races will have tribal practices and may even have sub-tribes.

This *is* Talislanta - but not the Talislanta of previous editions. It's darker and more savage. It's low-magic (VERY low-magic), and is nothing like D&D. Moreso in this edition than ever. There are none of the races that one would recognize in bog-standard D&D races (or likely any other), but I guess one could make the case for the Ariane (who are one of the survivors of the pre-cataclysm event - but I'd say they're not like D&D elves). So if you've never played Talislanta, or you've not played it in years, it would be a good jump-on point as I've said upthread.

Quote from: tenbones;953142It's germane to some of the threads active on the forum now (specifically the ones about "Elves and Dwarves in RPGs", and some of the discussions going on in the "What happened to D&D?") - Savage Lands speaks in many ways directly to many of the issues raised there, without pandering.

While Talislanta has been brought up in one of those threads as an example of a game that doesn't have elves and dwarves (though it has a couple of its own surface-level analogs) Savage Lands goes *far* beyond that. When I say it's savage, there is very very little connective tissue that anyone could draw on to D&D races. And this is less by design (on my part) but more to cleave to the conceits of what Talislanta assumes implicitly. A big part of the writing was taking those assumptions of Talislanta - with 30-years of maturation of play and re-think these assumptions with a much clearer view of the setting and just GO FOR IT.

Savage Lands attempt to re-cast Talislanta from an atomic level in the shadow of a world-devastating event that destroyed not *just* a civilization of incredibly powerful spellcasters, but by the conceits of what the system has allowed in past editions - this was a civilization that would be like Gods, not just "powerful spellcasters". The aftermath of that event is where Savage Lands takes place, and the primitive PC's the those that have emerged from that ongoing catastrophe.

In many ways it's a bit like Planet of the Apes, and all the Gorilla-people are in the process of establishing their new order in the shadow of the remnants of this Godlike Empire - which in some cases were the creators of your race you might be playing.

Mechanically the system is still Talislanta with some tweaks and new additions. Still relatively light, there are new sub-systems for creating your own tribe, including rules for tribal warfare. It's still 95%+ true to all the previous editions (Action table, stat values, etc. are all the same).

Race selection has been pared down - but still still very healthy and done with the intent of showing the playerbase what this era of Talislanta was like. Many of the races are the literal creations of the Archaens that were created from the technomantic bio-vats for various express purposes (like warfare, etc) and various NPC races that could with GM agreement could be used. Each of these races will have tribal practices and may even have sub-tribes.

This *is* Talislanta - but not the Talislanta of previous editions. It's darker and more savage. It's low-magic (VERY low-magic), and is nothing like D&D. Moreso in this edition than ever. There are none of the races that one would recognize in bog-standard D&D races (or likely any other), but I guess one could make the case for the Ariane (who are one of the survivors of the pre-cataclysm event - but I'd say they're not like D&D elves). So if you've never played Talislanta, or you've not played it in years, it would be a good jump-on point as I've said upthread.

Sounds awesome! Let me know if you'd like to do a Q&A in #rpgnet (the chatroom, not the website).

Quote from: Dan Davenport;953412Sounds awesome! Let me know if you'd like to do a Q&A in #rpgnet (the chatroom, not the website).

Definitely. I already talked to Doug about it (one of the other writers) and we wanted to do it before we switched publishing. Now that's settled I think it'll be go once the KS is officially on. I'll ping ya!

Is there an actual play for Talislanta: Savage Land?

What makes it savage and barbaric in actual play?

I've heard good things about Talislanta over the decades at conventions, but I never had anyone in my crew who owned the books or played the game.

So tomorrow is the official KS launch

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Quote from: Spinachcat;953937Is there an actual play for Talislanta: Savage Land?

As in on YouTube, live etc?

Quote from: Spinachcat;953937What makes it savage and barbaric in actual play?

Classical Talislanta is set among the rise of great kingdoms and city-states from an apocalyptic dark age. There is still a *lot* of wild areas filled with the ruins of great Archaen empires and tribal beast-men. The conceits of classic Talislanta, in its various editions, are that these new empires and kingdoms are finally coalescing from the barbarism of the dark age. Much of the lost knowledge (including Magic) has been recovered but even then it's still nothing compared to what came before the cataclysm. It should be mentioned that the rules for that magic IS included in some of the supplements, so it can be used in play.

Talislanta: The Savage Lands is set *IN* that post-apocalyptic dark-age when the first inklings of civilization start. The conceits of the Savage Lands *is* barbarism. Many of the races that are playable are the product of sorcerous hybridization of the ancient empires that ruled like gods over the planet. These same godlike sorcerers that tore reality asunder and wiped themselves out. So the premise of Savage Lands is you're in a very tribal setting, in a very hostile environment. Survival is a big factor beyond just going out killing shit and taking loot.

So there is very little writing, very little personal magic - there will be ritual magic but nothing like you'd see in D&D or even classic Talislanta. The various races vie for control over territory - there will be rules for tribal mass combat. But having said that - since this era is so close to the "Great Cataclysm" there is, in many ways, more "loot" to be found and scavenged from ruins than classical Talislanta. In fact, many of the things available in Savage Lands will be extremely rare, or even extinct by the time modern Talislanta comes around (including you).

Tribal politics and intra-tribal politics will be things to deal with. The world itself is *dangerous*, and so your PC's will need to be ready to deal with everything. Everything from crafting goods and gear, to dungeon-diving, exploration, maybe even some time-travel if your GM feels like getting buck-wild, because those Archaens did some nifty and not-so-nifty shit with their magic.

Quote from: Spinachcat;953937I've heard good things about Talislanta over the decades at conventions, but I never had anyone in my crew who owned the books or played the game.

I can't tell you how many times I've heard this. My sales pitch can't be better than this: Try it. All editions of modern Talislanta are FREE (//www.talislanta.com). The system is ridiculously easy to learn, it only uses one d20 (if you use 4e or 5e). All editions are compatible with the only big differences being magic-systems, which can be plug-and-play pretty easily.

I generally feel what turns people off is the lack of "classic D&D races" and to a large extent, analog cultures. The truth is while you might pin down a few races as being "elves" or a gnomekin as a "gnome" - they're really not exactly D&D. Same with the cultures. While a lot of the conceits of Talislanta might make you say "Oh flying ships? game did that." "Magical cataclysm of an old Empire? Forgotten Realms did that." - etc - Talislanta did all this stuff in a relevant fashion before anything I've seen in D&D. (In fact - the whole Netheril concept is almost a complete rip-off of Talislanta, conceptually that it makes me kind laugh.) The vast majority of the setting is very much sword-and-sorcery, which also attracts its own crowd, not that you can't do campy-D&D, or epic fantasy with it, you most certainly can (and should).

Give it a shot. It literally costs you nothing financially. And if you like it - I'm reasonably sure you'll love Savage Lands.

Yeah but are there Batrean Concubines and Danuvian warrior women?  What about Thralls, Arianes, Kharakan Giants, etc?

Quote from: CRKrueger;954005Yeah but are there Batrean Concubines and Danuvian warrior women?  What about Thralls, Arianes, Kharakan Giants, etc?

So many of the races that you know from Talislanta are actually the descendants of older races that splintered off many centuries earlier where The Savage Lands takes place.

Danuvians and Thralls do not go by those names in Savage Lands - they're largely unchanged, just less "civilized". The guy in that image is a Vandar, they will become the Thrall warriors of modern Talislanta. Remember, some of those races were created by the Archeans for specific purposes (in the case of the Thrall and Danuvians - WAR) so you'd be playing one of the first Vandar or Virago that form the tribes that would later become the kingdoms of Taz and Danuvia, respectively.

Arianes are unchanged. They're probably the most similar to their later Talislanta descendants largely due to their transcendental magical philosophy and practices.

Not only are Kharakan's in play, but several other "beast-men" types that have gone extinct, some quite intelligent and dangerous. Some races have not yet emerged. One of the things that I haven't really spoken about is what we call "The Gyre" - they remnants of the magical cataclysm that destroyed the Archaen empire and almost destroyed the world. It's like a mutagenic force that warps reality, time and space. Some of the races that you know of in classic Talislanta are merely the descendants of mutated races from the Savage Land - which we'll be introducing. So you'll lose some, but gain some.

Tenbones- will this include the rules, or will you need the SWExD?

It's pretty much PHB/DMG/Monster Manual all in one book. The rules are largely closest to 2e which is slim but easily modified to taste and still easy to port in sub-systems from other editions with little finagling. The idea was to keep things quick and easy to get you straight into things.

I don't know what the stretch-goals are.

Looks pretty great!  I'm excited to check out the KS.  Thanks for keeping us informed.  Looking forward to seeing some of the prehistory of Talislanta!

Quote from: tenbones;954020It's pretty much PHB/DMG/Monster Manual all in one book. The rules are largely closest to 2e which is slim but easily modified to taste and still easy to port in sub-systems from other editions with little finagling. The idea was to keep things quick and easy to get you straight into things.

I don't know what the stretch-goals are.

Not that SWExD is much, but good to know that it's an all in one book:)

And it's LIVE!!!!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1861515217/talislanta-the-savage-land?ref=nav_search

Three rulesystems - 5e, OpenD6, and TSL