Talislanta
I saw this ad in Dragon magazine countless times during the 1980's. You know, back when Dragon magazine was good by having articles that were truly useful and were not completely focused on just A/D&D; there were actually articles about non-TSR games included at times also. The point being that the ad caught my attention and made me wonder what this Talislanta game was all about. My gaming group was all about fantasy games at this stage and would pick up any new fantasy games we ran across to try out. We had played enough of the available games that it was time for something new and something different for the group.
I remember that none of us were old enough to drive yet when I bought Talislanta. I was over at my buddy Jamie's house and there was a game store about a mile down the road. We were dedicated and would walk to that store every time we were at his mom's house; at least, until I was driving. We were browsing the games on the shelves and then we noticed the Talisanta Handbook and Campaign Guide with the tattooed Thrall Warrior standing in a combat ready pose on the cover. Our custom at that time was to split the cost of any new games we purchased to just try out. If both of us liked it, then we would get another copy. If one of use liked it and the other did not, the other person would buy out the other half or just go half again on the next purchase. If both of us did not like it, then we were only out half the price of the game. With the modern prices of these types of games it might not be a bad idea to get some like-minded people and arrange a purchase arrangement like that again.
I could go on and on about the coolness of Talislanta but I think anybody reading this could be better informed by going to the Wikipedia entry and then going to the Talislanta Library to check out the official Talislanta products that Stephan Michael Sechi has made available for download. It's a true shame that there are no new Talislanta products to grace the store shelves but the creator has ensured that Talislanta will never "die" by making the game available in this manner.
Oh my goodness! So much vintage gaming goodness. I never saw this game outside of that Dragon Magazine ad. (But frankly... I think they were on to something with the "no elves" thing.)
ReplyDeleteHELL yeah! Grab all that stuff & go with it. I am in total agreement on the "no elves" thing.
DeleteTalislanta has been called the Rasputin of RPGs, as it has simply refused to die in spite of things that have killed lesser games. I've been picking up used stuff where I can and have most of the older stuff. One day, I might get around to running it.
ReplyDeleteHa! The Rasputin of RPGs has a certain ring to it. Running Talislanta is great because it is so unique compared to the old standard of campaign settings.
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