Talislanta 4th Edition
Mime Assassin
Shooting Iron Games? How does it compare to the other incarnations of
Talislanta, what's good, and what's bad about the setting?
Figure I'd do this *before* I bought the damn thing...
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________________________________________________
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Sidhain
"Mime Assassin" <scream...@enter.net> wrote in message
news:%%ic8.989$eI1.2...@monger.newsread.com...
> Has anyone taken the plunge and bought/run Talislanta 4th Edition from
> Shooting Iron Games? How does it compare to the other incarnations of
> Talislanta, what's good, and what's bad about the setting?
>
> Figure I'd do this *before* I bought the damn thing...
>
> --
You know where copies are for /sale/??
Try some reviews over at RPGnet. There are several.
http://www.rpg.net/news+reviews/reviews/rev_4684.html
Is one..
Torben Ægidius Mogensen
> Has anyone taken the plunge and bought/run Talislanta 4th Edition from
> Shooting Iron Games? How does it compare to the other incarnations of
> Talislanta, what's good, and what's bad about the setting?
I haven't read the earlier versions of the game, so I can't compare
with these, but I can give you a short rundown of my opinion of the
4th edition book.
Appearance:
The book is very large and solidly made, so it seems good value for
money on that ground alone. There are no colour pictures, but that
doesn't bother me. The b/w pictures are, generally, good and a few of
them can be seen in colour at the website.
Rules:
The rules have supposedly been streamlined compared to earlier
versions, and they do seem quite nice. In particular, I like the
magic rules, which are simple and flexible and still have flavour.
There are a few quirks, such as the "no more than 6 magic items" rule,
but that was probably included to avoid rampant munchkinism.
Setting:
Most of the book describes the setting.
The book has a map of a large continent and short descriptions of each
nation on this continent and adjoining isles. The descriptions are
somewhat strangely organized: The continent is divided into 6 or 7
areas which have a chapter each. Inside each chapter, the nations are
listed alphabetically, which in many cases means that small
unimportant nations are listed before the important ones. This makes
it hard to get a good feel for the regions during the first region.
Also, it would be nice with a short historical overview of each region
instead of having to pick out bits and pieces from each nation
description.
There are several dozen races that can be used for player characters.
Some are human in appearance, but others range from strange to weird.
The races are mostly confined to local areas, except when traveling.
The creatures are also strange, with few resembling Earth animals.
Since so large an area is described, each part gets only a brief
description, and even large nations have only a few localites
described and the map names only a few towns in each nation. This
means that a GM will have to add a lot of detail himself to play the
game (or wait for modules that add such detail). I would have
preferred the book to give a more detailed description of one or two
of the areas (e.g. the Western Lands or the Seven Kingdoms) and leave
the rest for later supplements.
Overall, I like the book in spite of the criticisms above. Last I
looked at the webpage, it was sold out (though a few shops may have
copies), but a 2nd printing was planned. No date was specified,
though.
Torben Mogensen (tor...@diku.dk)
Mime Assassin
Viktor Haag
> "Mime Assassin" <scream...@enter.net> wrote in message
> news:%%ic8.989$eI1.2...@monger.newsread.com...
> > Has anyone taken the plunge and bought/run Talislanta 4th
> > Edition from Shooting Iron Games? How does it compare to the
> > other incarnations of Talislanta, what's good, and what's bad
> > about the setting?
> >
> > Figure I'd do this *before* I bought the damn thing...
> >
> > --
>
> You know where copies are for /sale/??
You should be able to get it from your FLGS. The one in my
neighbourhood has carried it, and it's in Canada, so it must be
in the distribution network.
--
Viktor Haag : Software & Information Design : Research In Motion
+--+
"OSs and GUIs come and go, only Emacs has lasting power"
Viktor Haag
> There are a few quirks, such as the "no more than 6 magic
> items" rule, but that was probably included to avoid rampant
> munchkinism.
And (ironically) this rule only encourages munchkinism, as PCs
inclined to munchkinniness will no doubt want to minmax on this
rule, continually trying to improve their limited store of magic
items.
This is quite clearly a rule that should get thrown in the bit
bucket, or transformed into something more useful.
Suppose, for example, that something really bad(tm) happens to
characters that carry around to high a concentration of mana on
their persons. You could get lots of legs with something like
that. It would then be appropriate to give magic items a
"signature" rating appropriate to their relative "power". You
could even make "signature" variable, based on the skill or
attentions of the items creator (so that a finely enchanted
assassin's dagger has a small bonus, but it's chief virtue is
that it has a signature of 0, and thus appears like a completely
normal item).
The "6 items rule" as it stands is just an example of regrettably
poor game design, imho.
> The descriptions are somewhat strangely organized: The
> continent is divided into 6 or 7 areas which have a chapter
> each. Inside each chapter, the nations are listed
> alphabetically, which in many cases means that small
> unimportant nations are listed before the important ones.
I believe the reason for this ogranization is clear once you know
the publishing history of the game. I believe that the setting
descriptions is really just an amalgamation and replublishing of
a series of "region sourcebooks" from previous editions of the
game.
I can understand why the publishers did this, as it probably
lowered their costs considerably. However, it was again a
regrettable decision. I think the material from the sourcebooks
should have been rewritten and reformed with the clear idea that
it was going to all be included in the main book. This would
likely have added months, if not years, to the publishing time,
and added costs for paying a writer to do this work. But it would
have produced a better end result.
> Since so large an area is described, each part gets only a
> brief description, and even large nations have only a few
> localites described and the map names only a few towns in each
> nation. This means that a GM will have to add a lot of detail
> himself to play the game (or wait for modules that add such
> detail). I would have preferred the book to give a more
> detailed description of one or two of the areas (e.g. the
> Western Lands or the Seven Kingdoms) and leave the rest for
> later supplements.
I think SI's tactic here is to get the entire game into one
book. I'm not entirely sure that it plans to release any further
material. At least, that was their *original* tactic which
explains the nature of the 4th ed book.
> Overall, I like the book in spite of the criticisms above.
> Last I looked at the webpage, it was sold out (though a few
> shops may have copies), but a 2nd printing was planned. No
> date was specified, though.
Torben's right -- for details on the current state of affair
state of affairs with Talislanta, see
<http://www.talislanta.com/talislanta/talnews.htm>
--
Viktor Haag : Software & Information Design : Research In Motion
+--+
"Who's a liddle fear demon? Come on! Who's a liddle fear demon?"
Wrathchild
>
> You should be able to get it from your FLGS. The one in my
> neighbourhood has carried it, and it's in Canada, so it must be
> in the distribution network.
Hell, it's in the stores here in Denmark, Europe ...
--
Wrath
----------------
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want to make fullest use of your available
weaponry. It is unnatural not to do so,
and to die with a weapon yet undrawn."
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Jeremy Reaban
"Wrathchild" <wrath...@hippie.dk> wrote in message
news:vzyc8.1926$PE.2...@news000.worldonline.dk...
> > > You know where copies are for /sale/??
> >
> > You should be able to get it from your FLGS. The one in my
> > neighbourhood has carried it, and it's in Canada, so it must be
> > in the distribution network.
>
> Hell, it's in the stores here in Denmark, Europe ...
I think the original asker's point was that it was a very very small
print run (like 1200 or something), so it's very hard to find.
Sidhain
> > You know where copies are for /sale/??
>
> You should be able to get it from your FLGS. The one in my
> neighbourhood has carried it, and it's in Canada, so it must be
> in the distribution network.
>
>
Well no one locally has it, or can order it at any FLGS, as appearently
Shooting Iron is sold out of the print run and haven't done another (yet)
Viktor Haag
And according to the Shooting Iron website, the first run has
sold out. But they're working on another run, apparently.
--
Viktor Haag : Software & Information Design : Research In Motion
+--+
"Ooh I've always wanted one of these! I can't wait to
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