Quote from: Skywalker;956281Most RPGs consolidate their skill list with each edition, to which the Omni system seems no expectation. This is simple extrapolation (and a trend which I personally due to its simplicity at the table), which doesn't really need to be attributed to any nefarious agenda.

Quote from: tenbones;956433Savage Lands, for me, hits the sweet-spot in terms of setting conceits, and necessity. YMMV

Quote from: CRKrueger;956451BTW, since you're also kind of a Savage Worlds nut, are you planning a Savage Savage Lands at some point?

QuoteTalislanta: Connecting the New Age and Savage Land Eras

GMs and players who are familiar with the original Talislanta RPG are likely to notice a number of connections between New Age Talislanta (the setting for the original game) and the Savage Land. Some of these connections include:

The Great Disaster

Denizens of the Savage Land refer to the cataclysm that destroyed the Archaen civilization as The Fall. New Age Talislantans call this event The Great Disaster.

History

The Savage Land era preceded the Talislantan New Age by at least a thousand years,and possibly a great deal longer than that. The Dark Age that followed The Fall lasted for untold centuries before Talislantans once again began to keep accurate records of time.

Geography

While New Age maps of Talislanta are considered to be fairly accurate, maps from the Savage Land era were notoriously unreliable, and based mainly on legends, heresy, and superstition. Adding to the confusion, the chaotic magical maelstrom known as the Gyre altered not only the topography of Talislanta, but the very fabric of the Talislantan reality. Put simply, the world of the Savage Land is a far different place than the Talislanta of the New Age.

The Unknown Lands

Those who are familiar with the original Talislanta Wordbook will notice that the Unknown Lands mentioned in that tome seem very different from those that appear in the Savage Land RPG. Some may theorize that this is because during the Savage Land era, the supercontinent of Talislanta had not yet split apart into the separate continental blocks that New Age legends would refer to as the Unknown Lands. Another possibility is that at least some of the New Age accounts of the Unknown Lands are fictitious, or at best based on half-forgotten legends of places and peoples that existed in the Savage Lands epoch.

One example of this is The Plains of Armageddon, home of the Vandar tribe(s), which in the Unknown Lands book was said to be part of a continent called Altarus. Yet in the Savage Land, this region seems like it was located in the area known in the New Age as The Wilderlands of Zaran, or possibly The Plains of Golarin.

Similarly, accounts that appeared in the Unknown Land book regarding the continent of Draknar were almost certainly based on the ancient empire of the Drakken, which was probably located on the continent of Talislanta; or, on a landmass connected to the continent by a land bridge that collapsed during The Fall.

The Fate of the Archaens

While many (possibly most) Archaens perished during The Fall, it's apparent from reading the history of the New Age that a number Archaens escaped the cataclysm. Some of the most powerful sorcerers - such as Koraq, Arkon, and Mordante - fled to other worlds, dimensions, or even other eras. The ancestors of the Phantasians escaped in windships to the island of Phantas, and were not heard of again until many years later.

Some believe that a small handful of Archaen sorcerers never actually left the Savage Land, but instead went into hiding in isolated tower-keeps or strongholds. If these stories are true, some of these individuals may eventually make their presence known to the primitive inhabitants of the Savage Land, either for benevolent or not so benevolent purposes.

Religion in Talislantan History

With few exceptions, organized religion does not play much of a role in the life of those who live in the Savage Lands. The Ra have a warped religion of sorts, based on their limited understanding of the Torquar, a cabal of black magicians and sorcerers who created their race. It could be said that the Narada worship Nature, though not in any formal manner.

Organized religion doesn't really re-appear in Talislanta in any significant way until the New Age. Even then, many theorize that most if not all of the entities worshiped by Talislantans of the New Age were actually powerful magicians and sorcerers whose origins date back to the pre-Disaster Archaen Age.

Missing Races

Experts on New Age Talislanta will notice a number of races present in the New Age who appear to be absent from the Savage Land era. Chief among these are the Ariane, a mystical race who dwell in the Maze-City of Altan. Those who know of the Ariane's uncanny abilities might well assume that they would have survived The Fall. However, it is not known for certain that the Ariane actually lived in Talislanta before The Great Disaster. Some believe the mystics may have arrived later, possibly to help repair the damage done by the Disaster.

As for other races: the avian Gryphs and Aeriad are known to have arrived in Talislanta after the Great Disaster ravaged their homeland, which is believed to to have been the "unknown land" referred to in legend as Temesia.

The Sindarans arrived in Talislanta during the latter part of the Archaen Age, as refugees from another dimension. It's said that they fled Talislanta during the Fall, disappeared for centuries, and reappeared during the New Age. Where the Sandarans went is unknown; some believe they tried to return to their home dimension, but were lost or trapped in a temporal rift caused by the Gyre.

Ancestral Races

A number of races depicted in the Savage Land RPG appear to be the predecessors of peoples who would later inhabit Talislanta during the New Age. While folk like the Beastmen and Azraq seem to have changed very little over time, other races underwent changes of a more or less profound nature; either through the process of evolution, or more likely, through mutations caused by exposure to the Gyre.

The following is a list of Savage Land races and their possible New Age descendants:

Azraq = Araq
Beastmen = unchanged
Boglins = Darklings, Gnomekin, Gnorls
Drakken = Sauruds, Saurans
Drudges = numerous, including Monads, Bodor, Ispasians
Druhks = Drukhs, Yrmanian Wildmen
Golgoths = Farad, Za, Kharakhan
Imazi = Ahazu, Nagra, Manra, Jhangarans
Kasir = Djafir, Yitek, Danelek, Dracartans
Narada = Green Men, Virdir, Mang
Ra = Shading, Rajans
Reavers = Harakin, Mangar, Gao, Orgovians, Oceanians, Vird
Shaka = Jaka
Shan = Quan, Mandalans
Talosians = Parthenians
Thrax = unknown - possibly extinct (?)
Umar = Ur
Undermen = Ferrans (?), Subterranoids
Vandar = Thralls
Virago = Danuvians
Warloks = Xambrians, Rahastrans
Witchmen = Chana, Kang, Mondre Khan, Na-Ku
The Withen = Wanderers of Ashann (?)
Yann = Hassan, Vajra
Bringing Existing Characters into the Savage Land Milieu

If you're already playing another fantasy RPG, you don't have to create a group of entirely new characters in order to start playing TSL. If your GM will allow it, you could simply bring your existing characters into the Savage Land milieu.

If you're currently using the D&D 5th edition or D6 system for your game, bringing your PCs into TSL is a snap. All the conversions from your system to the TSL system have already been done, so all your GM needs to think of is how best to get the PCs into a new and alien milieu.

In terms of your current campaign's plot and continuity, there are many ways that characters from other games could end up in the Savage Land. A miscast  teleportation spell, a cursed artifact, a witchgate or magical portal, a Spelljammer or windship lost in a magical maelstrom (such as the Gyre or an inter-dimensional rift), a prank played on the characters by a mischievous godling, demon, or rival magician, the possibilities are limited only by the GM's imagination.

What happens when characters from another setting arrive in the Savage Land? If any of them are spell casters, will their spells function the same in the magically-chaotic environs of the Savage Land? If they openly engage in magic-use, will the spell-casters be regarded as gods? Or will they be regarded as kin to the Archaens, who most inhabitants of the Savage Land despise, and blame for The Fall and the collapse of civilization? Even if they don't use magic, can the PCs find any friends or allies of among the tribes, or will they earn the enmity of powerful enemies who will stop at nothing to capture them or destroy them?

If you're already playing a Talislanta campaign set in the New Age, bringing your characters into the Savage Land would is even simpler - at least, on the surface. Your characters may recognize some of the peoples, places, and creatures they encounter here. But they too will likely be regarded as outsiders, and treated with suspicion. To say the least, going back in time and meeting your ancestors from a long-bygone era could lead to all sorts of unexpected events - and possibly even have consequences as regards the Talislantan timeline.

Who knows? Maybe your characters will become great and mighty warlords, their names forever etched in legend by the peoples of the Savage Land. Maybe your characters' actions will help bring back a semblance of civilization to the Talislantan world. Or, perhaps they will end up causing yet another Great Disaster...

Good luck, and have fun exploring the Savage Land.

SMS

Quote from: tenbones;956452While I wouldn't say I'm a Savage Worlds *nut*.

Quote from: CRKrueger;956455You're not a Savage Worlds lunatic, but you're doing FR Greybox in SW, that qualifies you for Nut status, but in a good way.

Quote from: Skywalker;956450I agree the number should be tailored to what the setting needs. The references to using 2e as a base for TSL is what made me ask the question as I found that list to be longer than I thought it needed to be, especially in light of my experiences with 4e and Atlantis which had some consolidation. Good to hear that this seems to be the case.

Quote from: stevesechi;956616Sorry, should have been more specific - what I meant was that I used 2e as the starting point for the main rules. For the Skills, I picked a few from 2e and 4e, rewrote those as needed to fit the miieu, then added a few more that pertained specifically to characters in TSL. At first, I didn't choose enough, so on the 2nd draft I added a few more.

Quote from: trechriron;957013I interviewed several creators of the Talislanta: Savage Lands; you can download the PDF transcript here -> https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B_lJhbSwBglnQXhRbEhMNnQ1NXc

Quote from: stevesechi;957092Thanks, Trentin,for doing that interview and for posting it and helping support the new TSL RPG - very much appreciated.

Thanks to Doug, Desi, Mark, and Dean for being interviewed,and more importantly, for not outing me as "a royal pain in the ass". I learned on this project that I seem to only have two modes when it comes to Talislanta: 1) "ah, the hell with it, let 'em do whatever they want with Talislanta, I have music stuff to do" (see 5the), or 2) "I'll get back to the music stuff as soon as I finish the art direction and editing and some writing and some re-wqriting, etc" (see TSL).

Thanks again to all of you for your hard work and support of Talislanta, not just for TSL, but throughout the years.

Quote from: tenbones;957109Steve,

You rock (literally!). It's been very gratifying for me to be part of the project, given that Talislanta has given me so much enjoyment for decades. Now I think I can squeeze a few more in there.

I should translate that being a "pain in the ass" means that he made sure we didn't sneak any Elves in, and I totally respect you for that hahahah

And thanks to Trentin for the the interview. It was fun!!!