| Talislanta | |
| Designer: | Stephen Michael Sechi, Jonathan Tweet (3rd edition), John Harper (4th edition), K. Scott Agnew (5th edition), Christopher Batarlis (Epic Edition / 6th edition) |
| Publisher: | Bard Games, Everything Epic Wizards of the Coast, Shooting Iron, Morrigan Press, Ludopathes Éditeurs (French) |
| Date: | 1987 (1st edition) 1992 (3rd edition) 2001 (4th edition) 2005 (d20 edition) 2006-7 (5th edition) |
| Genre: | Fantasy |
| System: | Custom, Omni System (d20 based) |
| Players: | 2-8 |
| Random Chance: | High |
Talislanta is a fantasy role-playing game published by Bard Games in 1987 that forgoes many of the tropes used by popular games of the genre in favor of a unique world and many new game mechanisms. There have been six different English-language editions and several foreign language editions published.
The game is set in Talislanta, a continent on the world of Archaeus. Magic is common and has reached a high level of technology.
In the 1st to 4th editions, characters are essentially pre-generated, with over 80 character types defined by race, nationality, ability scores, skills, equipment and background. Players pick the type of character they wish to play, then individualize it by increasing one ability by three points; decreasing one ability by one point; and adding an additional skill.
In the 5th edition, a more complex character generation system was introduced that was similar to other role-playing games.
All task resolutions, whether for combat, magic or skills/attributes, are resolved on a single table using a twenty-sided die. Five results are possible: Mishap, Failure, Partial Success, Full Success or Critical Success. The difference between the result gained and the rated difficulty of the task indicates how much of a success or failure was achieved.
In 1982 Stephan Michael Sechi, Steven Cordovano and Vernie Taylor formed the company Bard Games to produce their own Dungeons & Dragons supplements. In 1986, due to personal and financial disagreements that arose after the publication of The Atlantis Trilogy, Sechi sold his shares in Bard Games to Cordovano and left to begin work on a new role-playing game system and its supplements. Cordovano decided that he did not want to run Bard Games and sold it back to Sechi, giving Sechi the opportunity to publish his new game, Talislanta.[1] Sechi pointed to the Dying Earth fantasy novel series by Jack Vance as the primary influence, but there are many other sources of inspiration as well, including H. P. Lovecraft’s Dreamquest of Unknown Kadath, Marco Polo’s Travels, and Sir Richard Burton’s collection of the Arabian Nights. As game critic Rick Swan stated, "It's as if H. P. Lovecraft had written Alice in Wonderland, with Hans Christian Andersen and William S. Burroughs as technical advisors."[2]
After publication of the rules in The Talislantan Handbook in 1987, Sechi also published three supplements: The Chronicles of Talislanta, A Naturalist's Guide to Talislanta, and Talislanta Sorcerer's Guide.
In 1988, Bard Games published a second edition of Talislanta starting with The Cyclopedia Talislanta. This 88-page softcover book included continental and local maps; a listing of urban centers and important geographical features; and expanded list of flora and fauna; new character types; new types of transportation; and variant rules.
In 1989, Bard Games released Talislanta Handbook and Campaign Guide, a 152-page softcover book that combined The Talislatan Handbook and material from the three supplements. The book included:
In 1990, Bard Games published Talislanta Worldbook, a 183-page atlas of the world of Archaeus and the continent of Talislanta. Shortly after publication, Bard Games went out of business.
In 1992, Wizards of the Coast (WotC) — at the time a new, small, and relatively unknown company — acquired the license to Talislanta Original designer Stephen Michael Sechi collaborated with Jonathan Tweet to produce the third edition rules that included:
WotC's final Talislanta book was the full-length campaign Sub-Men Rising (1994) by Robin Laws. In an announcement printed on the last page, WotC announced that this would be "the last Talislanta book from Wizards of the Coast"; Talislanta products would now be published by Daedalus Entertainment, a small Canadian company that had produced the game Feng Shui.[4] However, Daedalus went out of business before its version was published.
In 1997, Pharos Press acquired the license to Talislanta in order to produce a new edition of the game in time for the tenth anniversary of Talislanta. Pharos had an ambitious plan to expand and revise all previously published material, then combine it one book. Plagued by production delays, Pharos got as far as producing a few ashcans, but failed to publish a product by the end of the year. Because they had missed the tenth anniversary, trademark holder Stephen Michael Sechi rescinded their license.
A small company called Shooting Iron acquired the license and in 2001 produced Talislanta Fantasy Role-playing, a 502-page 4th edition that was largely based on the never-published Pharos Press 10th anniversary edition. Shooting Iron also published the supplement Midnight Realm in 2005, a 152-page book detailing the plane of existence known as The Darkness, but then relinquished the license.
Morrigan Press acquired the license to Talislanta and published the following supplements under Shooting Iron's 4th edition rules:
In 2005, Morrigan Press released Talislanta d20 Edition, a new version adapted to the d20 System.
In 2006, Morrigan Press announced the upcoming release of a fifth edition that revised the magic system slightly and provided a variant character generation system. Over the next year, four books were released:
In 2008, Morrigan Press went out of business.
Launched in a successful Kickstarter campaign by Nocturnal Media in 2017, Talislanta: The Savage Land was released starting in 2018 to backers and 2019 for the rest of the world. Instead of taking place in the classic game's time, this prequel game takes place shortly after The Great Disaster, referred by the Savage Land denizens as "The Fall". Three rule versions of the game were completed and released: one based on the classic Talislanta rules, one released under the 5th Edition D&D OGL, and one using the OpenD6 system. The setting is low-magic due to the loss of magical knowledge and the survivors' prejudice against magic.
In 2023, Everything Epic launched a Crowdfunding Campaign on Gamefound.com to fund an all new edition of Talislanta known as the "Epic Edition", also known as the 6th and Final Edition written by Steven Michael Sechi and Christopher Batarlis. This edition is the ultimate version of the game, curated by Sechi to include the "Best of Talislanta" throughout its history. With all new Color Artwork, Never-Before-Seen characters, lore, over 100 Player Character Archetypes, over 100 Monsters in the Bestiary, and a 400 + page Atlas, this version of Talislanta will include the entire final vision the original creator Sechi had for the universe. Including four brand new books:
This edition is in development and is tentatively set to release to backers in November 2023 and to the rest of the world in December 2023.
Talislanta has been translated into several languages, including Italian (1997), German (1991–1992) and French (2005–present). The French edition, published by Ludopathes Éditeurs, is based on the 4th edition rules by Shooting Iron, and has resulted in seven books and seven PDFs.
Stewart Wieck reviewed Talislanta for White Wolf #11, rating it 9 out of 10 overall, and stated that "The true strength of Talislanta is its uniqueness. Here is a fantasy world without orcs and goblins and all those "standard" enemies [...] I highly recommend this world as a place where your imagination can run wild."[5]
In the March 1989 edition of Dragon (Issue #143), Jim Bambra called Talislanta "something out of the ordinary". Bambra found the art "visually appealing, and does an excellent job of conveying the atmosphere, places, and peoples of Talislanta. A flick through any of the four books reveals that Talislanta is special." He concluded, "Some may find the Talislantan game system thin on rules and mechanics, but it does an admirable job of handling all kinds of tests without interrupting the flow of the game. With only a few rules to learn, you can concentrate on role-playing rather than rule-playing."[6]
In his 1990 book The Complete Guide to Role-Playing Games, Rick Swan called the 1st edition "entertainingly written ... a model of clarity and elegance." Swan enjoyed the character creation system, noting that "Distinctive, enthralling characters can be created in a matter of minutes — it's an inspired system, one of the best of any fantasy RPG." The only flaw Swan found was a "lack of structure", wishing that more examples of play could have been given. Swan concluded by giving the game an excellent rating of 3.5 out of 4, saying, "For the adventurous, Talislanta is a role-playing nirvana."