via Steve Sechi on Facebook:

QuoteOkay, after a long period of "radio silence" it's time for some Talislanta: Savage Land updates. There's a good bit of news here, so I'll start from the top.

After some delays, TSL version 1.0 was finished about 5-6 weeks ago. Kudos and thanks, first of all, to the TSL 1.0 writers and editors for their contributions:

Doug Bramlett
Desi Conrad
Anthony Herring
Dean Poisso
Jon Whitney
Mark Williams
Kevin Forbes

TSL manuscript 2.0 was completed today, with the exception of stats and equipment "prices" (more on that another time), which hopefully will be finished this week. 2.0 included a massive re-write of 1.0, with many new additions.

 Once stats have been added, manuscript 2.0 will be finalized, and ready for initial playtest. I'm hoping that this will begin next week or the week after, at the latest.

John Harper has volunteered to run the first TSL playtest group in his regular Tuesday night gaming session. The initial playtesting wil be done by Tal-savy players only, as there are parts of the new game system that will need some tweaking, and for initial playtest purposes we're going to use Tal2 rules in a few spots.

Among the new rules that John's group will eventually be testing: the new Mass Action System designed to allow smooth transition from individual to group-level actions (which so far has gotten a lot of positive feedback), new rules for Survival, and Tony's brand new (today!) Barter rules.

All of the new rules use game mechanics based on the Action Table, so they should be easy to learn and fast-playing.

Lastly, one of the new additions that I like best: the massive Random Encounter Tables, which by example show players and GMs what the inhabitants of the Savage Land era are like, and also provide numerous adventure seeds and ideas for GMs. Each major region has its own Table, which can be used to create random but area-specific encounters - or just as a source of ideas.

 Content-wise, TSL features a solid mix of original-Tal peoples and creatures plus brand new tribes, flora and fauna. One of the major design points was to develop the TSL milieu in a way that helps to explain things that would occur "later" in the original Tal game.

For longtime Tal-players, TSL wil show what the predecessors of several original-Tal races were like, and help fill-in their back-stories with new info. For example, TSL explains the origins of original-Tal peoples such as Thralls, Jaka, Xambrian Wizard Hunters, Ahazu, and the Green Men. And creatures that were categorized as "extinct" in original Tal books show up in TSL, live and in the flesh.

None of these connections are explained in TSL, so those who are not familiar with the original Tal milieu won't be sitting there and scratching their heads. But if you're a longtime Tal fan, you'll be able to connect the dots between the two milieus, and hopefully get a little extra enjoyment out of TSL.

Disclaimer - I'm one of the writers mentioned above. So since Steve has gone public... I figure a little pimpage might be of interest here.

Didn't know about this. Is it a new edition with additional setting info?

Quote from: The Butcher;830070Didn't know about this. Is it a new edition with additional setting info?

Pretty much. It's in the era before "standard" 4e/5e right after the Cataclysm in subsequent years where the tribal remnants that would later form the familiar races of Talislanta are starting the long climb back to civilization. So you'll see the Thralls v.1.0 and the Jaka's precursors - pretty much everyone you can think of. There's some definite surprises. Lot of races that will have gone extinct by the 4e/5e era as well.

In tone - it's very much tribal and low-magic (though magic exists, most civilized cultures were wiped out, so it's mostly ritual magic.) It will have a very Sword & Sorcery vibe. It's pretty dark, but if you liked Talislanta... you're going to get to see a period that has not really been explored.

System is being rebalanced and re-tweaked. But if you've played any version of Talislanta - you'll immediately be familiar.

I'd also add - if you've never played Talislanta, or never thought about it, this would be be a good point to jump in. OR you could go to

//www.talislanta.com

The entire game is free. Every edition. It's all right there for your gaming pleasure. Courtesy of Steve Sechi, who has gifted the game back to the RPG community.

Edit: So I'm clear - this is not Talislanta 6e. It's a standalone edition of Talislanta set in the age before the modern era. As for 6e Talislanta... I can't speak for that.

Hm, if I think the overall tone reached perfection in 2e, and
the system in 3e (with regression in both areas after that) what am I likely to make of this?

The encounter stuff and mass action system sound interesting regardless.

Quote from: Arminius;830107Hm, if I think the overall tone reached perfection in 2e, and
the system in 3e (with regression in both areas after that) what am I likely to make of this?

The encounter stuff and mass action system sound interesting regardless.

Well for what it's worth - I liked 3e best. I came to love 4e.... 5e has issues, but some nuggets of awesome in it.

The goal for this system is get back to a more streamlined state while leveraging some of the new ideas from the later editions. You'll note that Steve even mentions using 2e to plug in for the playtest! So there you go.

Great news, thanks for sharing. Will this be PDFs or actual books at some point? I really like the look of the books, they hold up well even by today's standards.

Quote from: Kravell;830135Great news, thanks for sharing. Will this be PDFs or actual books at some point? I really like the look of the books, they hold up well even by today's standards.

I'll have to find out. I *believe* they will be print and PDF. I'll verify tomorrow.

Official response:

Steve Sechi

QuoteRecently put together a revised plan, and I'm happy to announce that Savage Land will be produced by a combination of Jerry Grayson Khepera), John Harper (One Seven), and myself.

Jerry will be handling the initial layout of the book, and will be the publisher of any other products that are related to TSL (of which we already have a couple planned, but more on that later). Jerry will also be in charge of what he refers to as "art wrangling".


John will design the look of the TSL book, and will also be working on the TSL game system. He will also be the publisher of the Savage Land RPG.

I've already been working on the project as creative director, and as chief editor and writer on the much-expanded 2nd draft. I'll also be doing the art direction, with the help of Jerry's previously mentioned "wrangling".

We're should have the 2.0 manuscript ready for initial layout in a week or so, depending on the availability of our stat-guys, Doug Bramlett and Tony Herring (both have actual jobs that they have to work at in addition to all the work they're doing on TSL).


Once we get the Tribes and Bestiary chapters laid-out, we can start assigning art. There's going to be a LOT of art in this book, and I expect it to take 2-3 months to get all of it completed. With all the other little (and not-so-little) things that need to get done, I'm hoping to have a 95% finished book by October. We plan to start our Kickstarter campaign soon after that,with a projected release date for the book of late November or early December.

That's the plan - or at least most of it. There's also the soundtrack CD, which we're working on now (and will talk about more soon), and at least one other thing that I can't mention just yet.

So print and PDF. And yeah - we have a soundtrack.

If you love the beautiful work done in Atlantis - the 2nd Age (and it's a really nice book) by Khepera, then you have an idea of what you're getting.

Posted a question in that skills thread, bumping this because it's probably a more relevant place.

What's your opinion on 5th vs. 4th (or 2-3)?

Quote from: Brad;830542Posted a question in that skills thread, bumping this because it's probably a more relevant place.

What's your opinion on 5th vs. 4th (or 2-3)?

4e did something I came to really like: Chargen was much looser and gave players the ability to really customize their characters. 5e continued along that path and arguably did it better.

4e is much tighter and contained. 5e has problems because of editorial issues and the fact there was a change in publisher between both editions. When I normally run a Talislanta game right now - I use 4e as the base, and 5e for supplementary stuff, but 4e rules will trump 5e when questions arise.

5e needed another editorial pass. It's still playable though. The differences between 4e and 5e are like the differences between 3.5 D&D and Pathfinder (but I wouldn't use either of those games as an example of how Talislanta plays).

So when in doubt - go 4e.

If you want something very tight and cohesive and no-fuss: I *highly* recommend 3e.

3e chargen is all templates and you just make a stat-tweak here and there. Also the magic system changes pretty radically in design between 3e and 4e/5e. Same task resolution but the mechanics change. It gets much more granular in 4e/5e. 3e is fast and slick. And it still works well with a lot of 2e stuff as needed. 3e also has "levels". 3e holds together remarkably well.

Across all the editions - task resolution mechanic never changes. You can supplement any of your editions with another edition with very little conversion. The sole exception is magic, where in 3e and earlier your spells are templated out for you. In 4e and 5e you're given the raw mechanics with schools giving you bonuses/penalties and they add modes of use. ESSENTIALLY an Eldritch Bolt from 3e and earlier editions are essentially the same, the underlying mechanics of 4e and 5e are more fiddly bits. But backwards engineering is doable.

First art is coming in. I believe this is the archetype art. The cover is still being painted.

Let me know if you guys want to do an #rpgnet chat Q&A.

I'm banned. Next trick!

Quote from: tenbones;842238I'm banned. Next trick!

Not from #rpgnet, you aren't. That is MY domain, unrelated to RPGnet, the website. It's just a legacy name from way back when it was the official RPGnet chatroom. Hell, the Pundit himself has a Q&A scheduled there tomorrow.

Try the link in my signature now if you don't believe me.

Quote from: Dan Davenport;842240Not from #rpgnet, you aren't. That is MY domain, unrelated to RPGnet, the website. It's just a legacy name from way back when it was the official RPGnet chatroom. Hell, the Pundit himself has a Q&A scheduled there tomorrow.

Try the link in my signature now if you don't believe me.

DOH!!!!! sorry man!!! Hahahahahaha! Hey I might be game for that. I'll need to talk to Steve to see what I can spill and what I can't.