#encyclopedia talislanta

Volume III of the Cylopedia Talislanta (1989) and the following three volumes (I’ll get to them another time) follow the same structure as Volume II. This one takes a look at the Wilderlands of Zaran, which are mostly desert wastelands. There is a distinctly Dark Sun vibe to some of this stuff, which is interesting, since Dark Sun is still a couple years off. Lots of barbarian types riding big lizards.

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!

Originally, The Cylcopedia Talislanta was intended to be a single volume, but folks kept asking for more, so Sechi eventually obliged. The Cylcopedia Talislanta, Volume II: The Seven Kingdoms (1989) focuses on one small section of the world (which is still dense with inhabitants, factions, cultures and general strangeness). Each of the kingdoms is profiled, as are four major cities and a number of regional magic systems. New critters and new kit round out gazetteer portion.

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.