The Beast That Is Talislanta 4th Edition

I recently scored a pretty much untouched copy of Talislanta 4th edition on ebay. This mutha is five hundred pages long and makes my college Astronomy Textbook feel inadequate. If anybody ever breaks into our place I'll have Tal 4 as a nasty blunt weapon close at hand.

When I was younger I became intrigued by ads for Talislanta in the pages of Dragon magazine. It promised a more exotic world than that supplied by Tolkien-inspired fantasy. The slogan "No Elves!" certainly caught my attention. Sure, I loved Elves, and I'd read The Silmarillion over and over, but I also liked things when they got weird. The weirder the better.

Talislanta is said to have been inspired by Jack Vance, a writer who I discovered in my early twenties. It occurs to me that if I'd read Vance when I was younger he might have displaced Moorcock and Tolkien and become my favorite fantasy writer. Nobody does weird better than Vance, and his names are absolutely amazing. The Dying Earth is a wonderful book and probably his most famous work, but my favorite books by him are The Planet of Adventure books--which aren't actually fantasy. They're planetary romances of a sort. One of the great things about Vance is that his aliens are actually alien, and I guess that's what I'm looking for with Talislanta: something a little alien. I mean, this is fantasy! We can literally do anything. Right? So let's get our weird on.

I'm just getting into reading this thing, but it looks like a lot of thought and love went into this mammoth tome. Talislanta feels exotic and strange. It sure isn't a place I'd like to actually live, but I'd game in the setting any day. The book also nicely avoids dividing races into good and bad ones. While there are plenty of unpleasant cultures on Talislanta lots of the cultures contain both highly problematic elements as well as redeeming features. Plus everybody just looks pretty badass, which I also appreciate.

Any other Tal fans out there? Drop me a line in the comments and tell me what you like about the setting or what sort of games you've run.

I'll try do a follow up post later when I've more fully absorbed things.

BTW apparantly everything that's ever been released for Talislanta will be available as a FREE pdf from www.talislanta.com in 2010. Check out the site for more info.

Vin Diesel is an Old School Gamer

I'm not a Vin Diesel fan (although he's quite good in Pitch Black if you haven't seen it), but I've been interested in the fact that he seems to be the only celebrity who at all talks about gaming as a positive thing.

I'm guessing he's an AD&D 1E guy from what he says here:

D&D My Way: Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Make My Own House Rules

I've spent a lot of time in the last few years thinking about which edition of D&D is the best for me. I've got some real fondness for Basic D&D, AD&D 1E, OD&D, and I even think that if I was going to run the original Ravenloft: Realm of Terror boxed set I'd be willing to go with 2E just because that set is so brilliant(although I wouldn't pick 2E under many other circumstances). So. . .which edition (or retroclone) is the one I'd prefer? The answer is: there's good and bad with all of the above editions. There is no one ideal choice (although Moldvay comes pretty damn close in my book) which, I suppose, is WHY we all keep re-engaging with these rules.

I though I'd sort of found my answer in OD&D several years ago when I first stumbled onto Philotomy's OD&D musings (which you can find at http://www.philotomy.com/ ) . Initially, I was pretty fundmentalist. I thought: "Okay, just the three brown books from the original OD&D set. Who needs the Thief and screw variable weapon damage! We are going to go as old school as you can get!" Well almost. . .I didn't decide to play some crazy Blackmoor-styled Chainmail variant (although reading about that stuff is inspiring). Problem is that I almost never got to play OD&D, and when I did play it became clear that some of the elements of later editions were more valauble than I'd first believed. For example: I wanted more classes!

Which then led me to crack open my AD&D 1E Player's Handbook, and The Dungeon Master's Guide. The rules were both cumbersome and obscure in places, and in others as clear and as simple as daylight. My time looking at OD&D was very helpful, because for the first time I saw how AD&D had both retained and tried to move away from the previous ruleset. Instead of being clearer, AD&D was just obscure in different ways. I needed help, so I looked at OSRIC. I read posts online at various forums about AD&D. I studied, and I thought. In the end, I created a house rules document (which I posted here a few months ago) that took out all the stuff I didn't want, so my AD&D ended up looking more like OD&D. That was the hewing back AD&D approach, but it occured to me that there was another route to go as well.

What about OD&D with the supplements? That's when I started looking at Swords & Wizardry as an option. The PDF was free afterall, right? After poking around a bit, I found the wonderful S&W Companion at http://swcompanion.wikidot.com/ . The supplement at the S&W Companion site called White Box Heroes was pretty much exactly what I'd been looking for. So earlier this summer I ordered both S&W White Box and White Box Heroes from Lulu (along with the excellent S&W Monster Book).

I'm in the process of prepping a session for this Thursday with my gaming group. We decided that I was going to run a one shot of old school D&D for two of my players who are pretty much new to roleplaying. So what was I going to run them in? Moldvay? Holmes? AD&D? Nope. After almost deciding on Moldvay, I decided that using S&W White Box with the White Box Heroes book was just about perfect for new players. I revised an old OD&D character sheet I made, and I even created a house rules document and some reference sheets that are pretty spiffy.

I'm curious to see how OD&D/S&W plays with a few more options. I'll definitely post about it here afterwards.

In the end, I'm like a lot of folks who seem to be looking for something with the core simplicity of OD&D/Basic D&D with many of AD&D's options. James Maliszewski at Grognardia has called this D&D 0.75. The link to his post is here.

I've Started

I've started working on a pulp science fantasy novel that I'm hoping to actually finish. It occurs to me that while I've written lots of stories with genre elements I haven't written anything quite like this since I was eighteen. For long time I wrote stories with "literary" aspirations (largely because I was writing in a college MFA program that encouraged those sorts of stories), but I never wanted to write like Hemingway or Graham Greene. When I was thirteen, I wrote a number of stories that were pretty much pastiches of Michael Moorcock, but they brimmed with imaginative imagery. I feel like I've gone back to that well for the first time in a long time. Maybe, I'll have a few more things to say now that I'm in my late thirties.

BUT. . .the book IS going to have swords, monsters, a doomed heroine, and all those things that have drenched my journal and my imagination for a long time. I feel like I'm finally letting them out to play.

I'll update on my progress as I make some.

Best
Nick

Prince Valiant on Mars

The following is my implementation of an Edgar Rice Burroughs type Mars setting based on the Chaosium Prince Valiant Game by Greg Stafford (which is sadly out of print, but it shouldn't be too hard to track down a used copy). This is a brilliant little game that I highly recommend picking up if you're looking for something really rules lite and which does a good job of creating the feeling of old style adventures like Hal Foster's Prince Valiant, Flash Gordon, or even Burrough's Mars novels. The system is ideal for introducing new players to the idea of roleplaying. It is also notable for being influential on many later designs but was relatively unsuccessful when it came out. I've substituted dice for the coins the game uses, and I've created a set of careers and skills specific to Mars. For a fuller explantion of these notes see the Prince Valiant rulebook.

Maybe I'll try to write up some of the characters from the Burroughs books in the next few days.

PRINCE VALIANT ON MARS

SYSTEM

Characters are rated from 1-6 in just two attributes. These are BRAWN and PRESENCE. The rating indicates the number of D6s they may roll when making an attribute check. Attribute checks roll ONLY on the attribute.

Skills are rated from 1-6 and also indicate the number of D6s they may roll when making a skill check. However, unlike attribute checks, skill checks combine the skill and the attribute to get a total dice pool.

For example: If you were rolling on your Horsemanship skill and your Horsemanship was 3 and your Brawn was 2 you would combine these for a total dice pool of 5D6.

Any roll of 4 or higher is considered a success. Any character that rolls successes for ALL of the dice in his current dice pool has attained a COMPLETE SUCCESS. Any character who rolls a complete success may add 1 additional success to his roll.

If the action you take next round is related to the action you took this round (such as a continued opposed contest like a fencing duel between two characters)then the character may BANK his/her successes for the following round if they so desire (Note: this banking may only be done ONCE).

DIFFICULTY FACTORS

1 Successes: Very Easy

2 Successes: Easy

3 Successes: Normal

4 Successes: Difficult

5 or more Successes: Very Difficult

Skill contests (like combat) involve rolling your dice pool and comparing the number of successes with your opponent. The one with the most successes is the winner.

A tie indicates the contest was a draw.


CHARACTER GENERATION

Beginning character have 7 points to divide up between their attributes. Each attribute must have at least 1 point in it and no attribute may have more than 6.

ATTRIBUTES

BRAWN
PRESENCE

Next, divide 9 points among 6 skills, with at least 1 point to each. No skill may be rated higher than 6.

BASIC SKILLS

AGILITY
ANCIENT SCIENCE
ARMS
BATTLE
BRAWLING
CHARM
COURTESY
DEXTERITY
DISGUISE
FELLOWSHIP
FIREARMS
GAMING
HEALING
HUNTING
LORE
MECHANICIAN
MONEY-HANDLING
ORATORY
PILOTING
READ/WRITE LANGUAGE
RIDING
SPEAK LANGUAGE
STEALTH
TELEPATHY

OCCUPATIONS

(Red Martians)

Airman
Must have Arms and Piloting.


Assassin
Must have Arms and Stealth.


City Noble
Must have Courtesy and Telepathy.


Merchant
Must have Money-Handling and Charm.


Prince / Princess
Must have Arms and Courtesy.

Scout
Must have Hunting and Riding.

Scoundrel
Must have Brawling and Charm.


Slave
Must have Courtesy and Dexterity or Agility (Choose one)


Warrior
Must have Arms and Firearms.


(Green Martians)


Barbarians
Must have Riding and Firearms.


(Black Martians)


Pirates
Must have Piloting and Stealth


STORYTELLER POINTS

A character may use a single Storyteller point in order to invoke a Special Effect at an appropriately dramatic moment. This effectively allows the player to temporarily take control of the narrative and automatically declare that a particular event happens.

Here is a listing of the Special Effects that can be invoked:


SPECIAL EFFECTS

TERRIFY
SAVE IN COMBAT
FIND ESCAPE ROUTE
ESCAPE BONDS
FIND SOMETHING HIDDEN
HIDE
KILL A FOE IN COMBAT
KNOCK AN OPPONENT SENSELESS
INCITE LUST
SUPRESS LUST
INSPIRE INDIVIDUAL TO GREATNESS
CONFUSE CHARACTER
AROUSE PASSIONS OF CROWD


MODIFIERS SUMMARY

Melee

Mounted vs. opponent on foot +1
Superior Position +1
Superior Numbers +1
Flanking +1
Surrounding Opponent +3
Attack from Behind +3

Weapons

Normal Weapons +1

Ranged

Target Behind Cover -1 to -3
Draw and Attack -1

Morale

Positive: Love, Loyalty +1 or +2
Negative: Fear, Panic -1 or -2

Presence

Character has 1000 Honor or more than opponent: +1
Character has 10000 Honor or more than opponent: +2

RANGED WEAPON DIFFICULTIES

1 Success: Point Blank Range
2 Successes: Short Range
3 Successes: Medium Range (Default)
4 or more Successes: Long Range


ADVANCEMENT AND HONOR

(Awards per Session)

Minimum Award 100
Standard Award 200
Significant Award 300
Maximum Award 500

100 Known among circle
500 Famous in Home Town
1000 On the Road to Real Fame
10000 A Famous Adventurer
50000 Famous throughout the Country (and the World)

1 Skill increases 1 point at the 1000 Honor mark (and every subsequent 1000 mark).

1 Attribute increases 1 point at the 5000 Honor mark.

Skills may also be increased if a complete success is rolled. The character should then roll an unmodified skill roll (with no attribute combined) and if that roll also comes up all successes then the character may add an additional point to that skill.

Japanese Giant Robot and Monster Shows

Warning: YouTube nostalgia ahead!

I used to watch many of these shows and now inflict them on you!




For some reason I used to want to fly around in Rodak's bat wing space ship thing with the glowing white disco ball embedded in it.






Yikes! I'd forgotten I used to watch both Spectreman and Ultraman until I watched the openings!




"Use robot punch!"




Okay. . .I never saw this show when I was a kid, but I now want that guy's helmet.



Okay. . .I never saw this one either, but If I'd seen this when I was eight it would have been my favorite TV show ever. I would have then created a D&D campaign where they have laser guns, swords, and werelions on horseback.

Three Headed Monster Games

One thing I've always admired about the indie rpg scene is the very real way in which those folks support each other in publishing, promotion, and even just actually playing of each others games. It's nice to see a bit more of that sort of creative support coming together in the OSR. So check out the guys over at Three Headed Monster Games:

http://thmgames.blogspot.com/


I keep thinking about this fellow when I hear the name: