Talislanta: The Savage Lands

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Nope. Talislanta's roots are far, Far, *FAR* more Jack Vance than Tolkien.

In fact, I'd go so far to say that any similarities to Tolkien are superficial at best. Something we tried really hard to do in Savage Lands is to portray the post-cataclysmic era in stark contrast not only to the modern Talislanta era (Editions 1-5), but to give some sense of how far the world has fallen from the Archaen Empire. An Archaen sorcerer by any standard of the game would be like a God in terms of actual power.

The world is dark and really savage (no pun intended), and this edition was meant to capture that. if only to show that despite the many centuries before the modern era - it still is only a shadow of the ancient era. The playground of the setting is the garbage heap of the Sorcerer-Gods. Filled with nifty stuff to genocide other tribes... or your own.
 
Well for those interested - the KS fulfillment is finally happening. Books and dice should be shipping within the next two weeks.

I assume after that, Talislanta: The Savage Lands should be available for print on demand at DTRPG. You can already purchase the PDF for Open d6, d20 5e, and classic Talislanta systems there.
 
I'm really enjoying this... Great job. I bought it recently (pdf) with the original ruleset. Which are lite but very cool at the same time and won't get in the way of the game.

Dark and grim jus the way I like it.

And the art is FANTASTIC!
 
Well for those interested - the KS fulfillment is finally happening. Books and dice should be shipping within the next two weeks.

I assume after that, Talislanta: The Savage Lands should be available for print on demand at DTRPG. You can already purchase the PDF for Open d6, d20 5e, and classic Talislanta systems there.
Dammit, every time I see mention of one of these games I remember that we're never gonna get to find out what kind of insane chess game Wieck was planning with all those IPs he was buying up and I'm all sad and shit.
 
I'm really enjoying this... Great job. I bought it recently (pdf) with the original ruleset. Which are lite but very cool at the same time and won't get in the way of the game.

Dark and grim jus the way I like it.

And the art is FANTASTIC!

Thanks!

While it is clearly intentional to be grimdark, for my part I also tried to inject a lot of "wonder" into specific things. The Narada in particular. I had a huge concept idea that never made it into the book for space reasons. But we bandied about putting it into something to come after... but with Stewart's passing, that ship may have sailed.

But yeah - it's a dark brutal world. The whole point was for the PC's to create their tribe and expand it and create the world that might one day become the Modern Talislanta of the previous editions.
 
Thanks!

While it is clearly intentional to be grimdark, for my part I also tried to inject a lot of "wonder" into specific things. The Narada in particular. I had a huge concept idea that never made it into the book for space reasons. But we bandied about putting it into something to come after... but with Stewart's passing, that ship may have sailed.

But yeah - it's a dark brutal world. The whole point was for the PC's to create their tribe and expand it and create the world that might one day become the Modern Talislanta of the previous editions.

It definitely has that 'sense of wonder' by the bucketload. The whole setting is very evocative and as a GM I was just constantly thinking I could do loads of different stuff with it So I found it very inspiring. Who knows what you could find in or underneath those war-torn ruins? :smile:

I love the characters archetypes as well. Each has its own specific flavour but yet the interplay between them is RPGing gold. There was obviously a lot of planning that went into that aspect of the game. Not ez to survive on your own in such a dark setting.

So far, this is one of my favourite games. It combines pretty much everything I'd want to see in a (post) Sword and Sorcery game. :smile:

If anyone was thinking about having a look at it I'd highly recommend it.
 
There's a 5e Talislanta? How did I not know that?
 
There's a 5e Talislanta? How did I not know that?
It was 5e Talislanta not a 5e D&D version of Talislanta.

And it was short lived as I recall. I own just about everything Talislanta but 5e shot right by me. Might have been I hesitated since it felt close to after 4e was released.

Now that I think about it I swear I purchased a subscription to their books but I don't think I received everything....
 
Well to be more specific - there is a D&D 5e version of Talislanta: the Savage Lands. It's currently available on DTRPG as a pdf (soon to be POD).

Talislanta 5e is the fifth edition of Talislanta itself.
 
Well to be more specific - there is a D&D 5e version of Talislanta: the Savage Lands. It's currently available on DTRPG as a pdf (soon to be POD).

Talislanta 5e is the fifth edition of Talislanta itself.
Duh. Yes how did I miss that as it's one of the versions I backed in print...
 
I would like to point out Morrigan Press did 5E Talislanta and it was terrible, copy/paste errors, lack of editing. It did offer career+race system, but it was obviously ill thought out and not playtested at all.
I still encourage people to grab 4E, its easy enough to homebrew new race/class combos.
 
I would like to point out Morrigan Press did 5E Talislanta and it was terrible, copy/paste errors, lack of editing. It did offer career+race system, but it was obviously ill thought out and not playtested at all.
I still encourage people to grab 4E, its easy enough to homebrew new race/class combos.

Yeah the last Talislanta campaign I ran was 4e with elements of 5e Tal. 5e was very messy. Good ideas for some mechanics, but bad implementation/editing.

Savage Lands is *far* lighter, but you can port over anything from 4e you want with little trouble.
 
Nothing I'm aware of, unfortunately. There was talk about possibly doing a a lot more (including a Talislanta 6e). But then things got "complex".

I have *nothing* but love for the Savage Lands team. Wonderful people all the way around.
 
Nothing I'm aware of, unfortunately. There was talk about possibly doing a a lot more (including a Talislanta 6e). But then things got "complex".

I have *nothing* but love for the Savage Lands team. Wonderful people all the way around.

That's a shame... But in all fairness, it's a pretty complete game in itself. I'm just being greedy. :smile:
 
Did the D6 version ever see print?
It will. None of them have been delivered to KS backers yet. In theory they are shipping this week or next week.

I backed for all five print versions but they had to cut Savage Worlds and Pathfinder. Sad but understandable.
 
I hate being poor. I so want to get this game, but when a $30CDN PDF is out of your price range, I need to re-evaluate my spending. I love the art. I knew very little of this game beyond the ads in the Dragon Magazine back in the 80's. Thanks to Tenbones, I know a little more now, but an RPG game with little to no magic users? Sign me up.
 
Backers should be getting their copies now. Some got them a couple of days ago. I got mine this morning. So naturally - DTRPG should be having them available for POD/PDF soon.
 
Got mine yesterday. Boy the D6 version is much thicker than the Other ones
 
Got mine on Monday. The quality of the book is really great. It makes me want a full color new edition of the original so bad.
 
So who's running the PbP? I call 'not me'. I'd like to but don't have the time to read up on everything.
 
I'm prepping a 5e Tal Game, as I got a gift. It sounds cool, it reads cool, but I'm trying to wrap my head around what type of play style I should go with? Pulp? Standard D&D? Fantasy Vietnam? What's the default?
 
I'm prepping a 5e Tal Game, as I got a gift. It sounds cool, it reads cool, but I'm trying to wrap my head around what type of play style I should go with? Pulp? Standard D&D? Fantasy Vietnam? What's the default?


Well, for Talislanta's base system, it's got some high magic places, and low magic places, and a mix of S&S and other fantasy---I think it comes close to adventuring in a weird fantasy setting like Barsoom, Jorune, etc. I think it quite often (even with its prodigious magical system in 4E Tal), tends to run a bit like Conan for the PCs. Though PC spellcasters are common, some spells are harder to cast, and the penalty for casting keeps any caster from overdoing it, but it is an adventure game, leaning to action. That being said, Savage Lands is, even MORE, Conanesque just with alien races and no PC magic and can be run as survival fantasy (but not Vietnam, not quite THAT bad.), or more Epic, with the tribal play.
 
Just got my hardcover of the Original Edition Rules this week. :thumbsup:
 
I'm prepping a 5e Tal Game, as I got a gift. It sounds cool, it reads cool, but I'm trying to wrap my head around what type of play style I should go with? Pulp? Standard D&D? Fantasy Vietnam? What's the default?

There is no default. It's a big ass playground for you to do all those things or something else. Wanna get buck-wild? Use the Gyre to pull in elements from your other 5e games.

*Personally* - I run it like Dark Sun (so pulpy as hell). Primitive, brutal, unforgiving, but full of wonder and adventure. I like all the elements of the pre-Cataclysm that litter the setting, with more advanced "stuff" that the primitive PC's/NPC's have to figure out.

With the new Tribe rules, those kinds of elements can be huge game changers in terms of the politics of a given region. You can start small and work your way into becoming a tribal warlord setting about conquering the world.

Get crazy!
 
Well, for Talislanta's base system, it's got some high magic places, and low magic places, and a mix of S&S and other fantasy---I think it comes close to adventuring in a weird fantasy setting like Barsoom, Jorune, etc. I think it quite often (even with its prodigious magical system in 4E Tal), tends to run a bit like Conan for the PCs. Though PC spellcasters are common, some spells are harder to cast, and the penalty for casting keeps any caster from overdoing it, but it is an adventure game, leaning to action. That being said, Savage Lands is, even MORE, Conanesque just with alien races and no PC magic and can be run as survival fantasy (but not Vietnam, not quite THAT bad.), or more Epic, with the tribal play.

With the base system you can get a TON of mileage with Savage Lands since the core rules are pretty compatible with the previous editions (with a few tweaks required, most can be done on-the-fly).

But with 5e, you're effectively opening up all the D&D material too. Which makes Savage Lands a pretty interesting playground. Though if you wanna play it "as intended" D&D is very high-magic natively compared to Savage Lands. But run it as you'd like!
 
With the base system you can get a TON of mileage with Savage Lands since the core rules are pretty compatible with the previous editions (with a few tweaks required, most can be done on-the-fly).

But with 5e, you're effectively opening up all the D&D material too. Which makes Savage Lands a pretty interesting playground. Though if you wanna play it "as intended" D&D is very high-magic natively compared to Savage Lands. But run it as you'd like!
In 5e, the basic calculations don't include magic, so that's not an issue, although I'd assume some of the ancient empire weapons could be magical in nature. Thing is I can make a system sing any tune I want with enough mangling, the problem is that the books don't give a sense as to the tone of the setting, at least I haven't been able to discern it yet. Hence why I asked.
 
The "tone" is that of survival. You're playing one of the races that survived a cataclysmic catastrophe (which is actually still ongoing) and depending on what race you pick, it's your job to figure out how your'e going to survive and thrive in the aftermath. There are a number of obvious possibilities -

  • Form/join a tribe of your own using the tribe-mechanics. The expansion of the tribe will require resource gathering and production which naturally leads to exploration.
  • Freeboot it. Get your party together and just go hog-wild "hexcrawling" and play it like Fantasy Mad Max.
  • Epic Sword & Sorcery. Gather power and go conquer an established tribe and take it over. Go explore the ruins of the insanely powerful Archaen Empire - of which *you* might be one of their creations. Seek the power of the Ancients and stick it to those that are in your way.
  • Discover what secrets might exist that go beyond the assumptions of the illiterate savages that rule the Savage Lands. Maybe there are secrets from the Archaen age - maybe Archaens themselves (if you wanna go this route ... go download some the classic Talislanta stuff like the Archaen Codex).
  • Tribal War campaign.
Depends on how you want to scale things. Think of it like Dark Sun with less magic (unless you want to put it in there for PC's to discover).
 
I see that The Savage Land is supposed to be compatible with Talislanta 5th Edition. How compatible is that with 4th? Or even earlier editions, for that matter? Basically, what is the edition back-compatibility for Talislanta in general?

Edit: never mind, I'm dumb.

Savage Land looks cool, so does Talislanta proper.

Edit 2: Tenbones, would you consider running a pbp game of it sometime? Might be a good way to showcase the game for those who haven't played. It looks awesome.
 
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I see that The Savage Land is supposed to be compatible with Talislanta 5th Edition. How compatible is that with 4th? Or even earlier editions, for that matter? Basically, what is the edition back-compatibility for Talislanta in general?

Edit: never mind, I'm dumb.

Savage Land looks cool, so does Talislanta proper.

Core mechanics are the same. Primary differences are slimmed down skill-list. And the magic system is reduced to a being barely there (it's largely a skill-system). But if you wanted "more magic" you could literally port over the magic systems from any of the previous editions (which of course are freeeeeee) with ease. Of course that would definitely give those magic-wielding PC's/NPC's some huge advantages. But hey, rock on if that's what you want.

Edit 2: Tenbones, would you consider running a pbp game of it sometime? Might be a good way to showcase the game for those who haven't played. It looks awesome.

Normally I'd love to. But I'm afraid I don't have the time. My life is freaky busy. Let me consider it deeper tho.
 
I'm kind of surprised there isn't more pbp Talislanta play. System seems simple enough that it would be well suited for online play.

What's your favorite edition and why?
 
I'm kind of surprised there isn't more pbp Talislanta play. System seems simple enough that it would be well suited for online play.

What's your favorite edition and why?
Mine is either 4th or 5th edition...but that's because those are the only ones I've tried:smile:. I only heard of the system after it became free.
Of course, if anyone else was running another edition, I'd have probably played.

And I've used the system for PbP, which went pretty well after the griefer* dropped by himself. I think he disliked my GMing style:wink:.
Well, at least it went well right until I had to drop the game due to RL issues.

*There's always a griefer joining any PbP game. The trick is to find him or her early on and apply boot-to-the-ass liberally:grin:!
Sorry, can't find a link to the PbP. Might have been deleted. Most of you couldn't read it anyway, it was a forum where you need approval to even see the threads.
 
Mine is either 4th or 5th edition...but that's because those are the only ones I've tried:smile:. I only heard of the system after it became free.
Of course, if anyone else was running another edition, I'd have probably played.

And I've used the system for PbP, which went pretty well after the griefer* dropped by himself. I think he disliked my GMing style:wink:.
Well, at least it went well right until I had to drop the game due to RL issues.

*There's always a griefer joining any PbP game. The trick is to find him or her early on and apply boot-to-the-ass liberally:grin:!
Sorry, can't find a link to the PbP. Might have been deleted. Most of you couldn't read it anyway, it was a forum where you need approval to even see the threads.
I have not had a griefer here, yet. Had one that seemed to me to be a P.I.T.A. at TBP but he failed to get his desired outcome and left.
 
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