So, after Bard Games published Atlantis, the partnership split up. Stephan Michael Sechi sold his stake in the company, went solo and started work on Talislanta. His former partner Steven Cordovano kept Bard Games, but shortly after decided he didn’t actually want it, so he sold it back to Sechi. Over the course of 1987, Sechi published the four volumes that make up the core of the Talislanta RPG — I’ve posted about them previously. In 1988, he started work on a second edition, which launched with this book, The Cyclopedia Talislanta (1988).

As usual, Sechi jams a ton of stuff into a fairly small package. The primary draw is the full-color maps of the entire world. That’s accompanied by a gazetteer that gives a short entry for every location of note on those maps. There are new monsters, expanded entries on flora and fauna, a dozen new character classes (as if Talislanta needed more — the core book has over 80!), a section on vehicles and a short rules expansion focused mostly on new skills. All in just 88 pages!

Unlike most Talislanta books up to this point, there are other contributing artists aside of P.D. Breeding (who handled the cover). Ron Spencer’s detailed, nightmarish pencils are my fave.