Again, just packed with stuff. I love Talislanta for all its wild details. I can’t really imagine playing in it, but I enjoy reading it and skimming off ideas for my own games. These books should be on every worldbuilder’s shelf, honestly. And they can be, at least digitally, for free — Sechi licensed the world out to a few companies after he gave up the tiller, but he always retained the rights, so just about everything is available in PDF on Talislanta.com. The only things that seem to be missing are some of the cyclopedias, but I might just not be seeing them, because that would be an odd oversight. Still, if they aren’t there, they’re usually inexpensive on the second hand market. Just be careful when you buy them — I had a devil of a time keeping the Roman numerals straight for some reason and bought multiples of a couple volumes instead of the one I was missing. I’ve talked to other Talislanta fans who have had the exact same problem, so beware! Maybe it’s a curse!

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The player’s section has the requisite dozen new character classes. Up to this point, all the multitude of classes for Talislanta have been sort of like actions figures to toy lines you’ve never heard of before — they look cool but are essentially empty vessels, waiting to be filled. This book introduces notes for how to roleplay the many weirdos presented in this book, which is a big step in making the world feel comprehensible. Talislanta will always feel too big and too overstuffed — that is part of the charm — but these roleplaying notes help you get a handle on at least your character. That gives you a fighting chance for grokking the rest of the world.

The GM section has a bunch of culture specific new rules. I’ve not read these closely, but “Dual-encephaly” sure sounds promising. There are also three scenarios, which I also feel like is new territory for Talislanta — I don’t recall scenarios in other publications to this point, but they’re super important in helping to understand the world. Each is brief, but does a good job of introducing their corners of the world.

Again, a team of artists. I love P.D. Breeding’s cover here. It reinforces just how bizarre the world generally is. I also feel like I have seen a Sindaran-like character in a movie, portrayed with prosthetics and make-up. Masters of the Universe? Last Starfighter? Help me out here.

The post The Cylcopedia Talislanta, Volume II: The Seven Kingdoms (1989) appeared first on Vintage RPG.

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.

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