Now Recruiting New Webmasters!

By Marques | Published: December 7, 2011

It has been way to long guys! Long story short, Drohem disappeared off the face of the earth last May and nobody has had any success locating him. Due to a variety of things going on in my own life, including eight months of not having a working computer, I have let this website go untouched for far to long. But we’re back in the game! To avoid what happened with Drohem ever happening again I think it would be a good idea to have a few active webmasters.

At this point the only real duties would be posting the occasional article for the website. When I get my stuff together in February the community will have the option of restarting the book scanning project on its own. I would have no problem continuing to put the PDF’s together as I have done thus far. But the cleanup process and finding scanners will have to fall into somebody elses hands.

If nobody ends up getting that project started I will be able to resume it at a later time, but when that time will be is a complete unknown for me right now. As far as I know all of the files used on the site to this date exist both on my hard drive and on the Tal.com FTP storage website. So you will not be limited in any way from doing your own thing or starting up new projects. All that I ask is that whoever comes in try and keep their posts color coordinated with the site. I’m always open to new ideas and color themes but so far, on my own, I haven’t found much else that works. The more colors you introduce the more it starts to look down right gaudy =P.

Again nothing is set in stone, just a personal request to keep that in consideration when making new posts and articles. John Steele has already signed up as one of the new webmasters. A while back I prepared two large video tutorials on everything you need to know to get the most out of WordPress, which is the front-end that Tal.com uses for creating and adding new content to the website. Is anybody else interested at this point in time? Either reply in the comments of this post or send me an email through the website. Very exciting!!!

Posted in Talislanta Community News, Website News | 4 Comments

A Phaedran’s Best Friend

By Drohem | Published: May 19, 2011

I have been thinking about pets a lot lately due to some real life troubles with my seven-year-old dog Pinto, and naturally this train of thought turned to role-playing games, characters, and pets in the Talislantan milieu. I had taken my best buddy to see a veterinarian recently due to the plaque build up on his teeth, and was shocked to find out how bad it truly was and how many teeth he had to loose. Naturally, it was an expense oral surgery. Please consider this advice: have your pet’s teeth checked regularly and try to practice oral hygiene with your pet.

With thoughts of my pet weighing on my mind lately, I started to think about which creatures in the Talislantan world are considered pets and roughly correspond to our real world pets like dogs, cats, birds, fish, insects, and reptiles. There is a good list of creatures from the various Talislanta books that have it specifically noted in their descriptions that the creature can be trained, breed, or raised as a pet. A good majority of these creatures are some type of Avir species. Besides the Avir and sub-species, there are some interesting creatures that would make a good pet for a Talislantan character like Catdracs, L’lathas, Moonfish, Quaals, Smokks, Rayeks, or Rajan Scorpions.

Now, I am talking about normal, or mundane, pets that are analogous to real world pets and not magical familiars, mounts, or other supernatural creatures that can easily be found as pets by some Talislantan characters. Although, some of these creatures can easily be seen as pets and companions like the various Equs sub-species. Besides those creatures specifically noted in the various Talislantan texts, there are some other creatures that could also be easily seen and used as pets for characters in the Talislantan milieu such as Machakkas, Rictus, Sapients, Skanks, Tardisites, Weirdlings, or Whisps. Also, I think some Talislantan insects could also be pets like Caravan-Bugs, Gold Beetles, and Sniper-Bugs. It is noted that some Rajan keep Rajan Scorpions as pets as well.

After thinking about this for a while, I came to the realization that I have had less than a handful of player characters in my gaming career that kept and maintained a pet while adventuring, and, I am sad to say, not one of them was a Talislantan character. I have had characters that had pets in the background, back at home base, or for description only, but I mean normal pets that are at the character’s side during actual gaming. Since there are quite a few creatures that have been described as possible pets throughout the various Talislantan texts, and a number more that could easily be considered possible pet candidates, it would seen to follow that some players out there have explored this aspect of the Talislantan world.

My curiosity has been sparked, and so I would like to ask my fellow Talislanta community members a few related questions. Did you have a Talislantan character that owned a pet, and incorporated it into a good deal of the character’s game play? Did you have more than one character that owned a pet? I have phrased these questions in the past tense, but I also mean if you have any current and active characters as well. Also, please elborate and note which creature was owned as a pet in the Post a Comment field below. I think it would be interesting to see which creatures were actually owned and kept as pets by characters during game play.

Did you have a Talislantan character that owned a pet, and incorporated it into a good deal of the character's game play?

View Results

Loading ... Loading ...
Posted in New Poll | 4 Comments

Play-by-Post Talislanta Community

By Drohem | Published: May 3, 2011

RolePlay onLine is a website dedicated to Play-by-Post gaming of all game systems and genres, and, currently, there is an active and dedicated community of Talislanta players there that are spread out over eight games. All of these games have made most, if not all, of the threads available for public viewing. Although, some of the games may require you to login into RPoL to confirm User age due a Mature or Adult content rating. Half of the eight games are based on the 4e Talislanta rules, two games are based on the 5e Talislanta rules, and the final two games are based on the 3e Talislanta rules. Some of the players of the Talislanta community on RPoL play in Talislanta games across the editions, and many of the players are in several Talislanta games at once.

The premise of the various games are just as eclectic, imaginative, and interesting as the multitude of characters for the games. The games cover a gamut concepts and plot devices from the Talislantan milieu, and cover nearly every corner of Talislanta and some of the other continents. As well as the wonderful diversity of themes explored in the games, each game has an unique quality that enhances the feeling of exploration and discovery. The general quality of writing from the community of Talislanta players on RPoL is excellent, and this helps to enhance the emulative and immersive experience.

Play-by-Post gaming can be a fickle beast, and certainly does not work well for some people, but it can be a satisfying and enjoyable alternative, or supplement, to tabletop gaming for others. I invite you to come and take a look at the Talislanta games and community on the RPoL website and see if PbP gaming might suit your tastes. If this type of gaming seems interesting to you, then please come and join us there. The Talislanta community there is very receptive to new players to the game system and setting! Below I have included the game’s name, rules edition, hyperlink, and the GM (using their RPoL name). In addition, I have noted if the game is currently accepting new players. Or start your own Talislanta game there!

Currently Active Talislanta Games on RPoL:

5e Rules: A Plethora of Wondrous Bygones by Kilgs; accepting new players.
5e Rules: Buyer Beware by Maded.
4e Rules: Archaen Legacies by writermonk.
4e Rules: When Falls the Darkness by Xhaosdaemon.
4e Rules: Wind of Fate by drwheat.
4e Rules: Midnight Revels by SevenStringHadean; accepting new players.
3e Rules: The Return of the Tirshata by drohem.
3e Rules: Thieves and Thrones by RaccoonMask; accepting new players.

Posted in Talislanta Community News | 4 Comments

Sorcerous Hybridization and Neomorphs

By Drohem | Published: April 22, 2011

One of the defining characteristics of the pre-cataclysm Archaen societies is the creation of Neomorph races through the process of Sorcerous Hybridization, or Alchemical Hybridization depending on the edition of the Talislanta game system. In the current, post-cataclysm Talislantan milieu many of the races inhabiting the continent of Talislanta are the viable, surviving Neomorphs created by the ancient Archaens. Ever since reading the New Alchemical/Magical Skills section of the Sorcerer’s Guide (p. 58) I have been fascinated with the concept of Sorcerous Hybridization, and the ability to create new races from the existing Talislantan races. The ability for a character to utilize the Sorcerous Hybridization rules have been in nearly every edition of the Talislanta game system. The process of Sorcerous Hybridization was greatly expanded in the The Archaen Codex (p. 25) with the change to Alchemical Hybridization, and the addition of the field of Biomancy, which is a branch of Thaumaturgy that is primarily occupied with the creation of new lifeforms. The concept of Biomancy was later refined further in the Codex Magicus: The Orb Revealed (p. 87) .

Although there are several significant barriers in the game system to prevent every Acolyte and his brother from being able to create new lifeforms at their leisure, it still seems an achievable goal for a player character, or the mad scheme of a non-player character for a devious Gamemaster. Unfortunately, I have not been able to engage the Sorcerous/Alchemical Hybridization rules as either a player character, or as a non-player character while acting as a Gamemaster. Naturally, at some point I hope to employ these rules in one of my games as either a player or Gamemaster, but it is one of many items on my Talislanta Bucket List and it may take a while to get around to exploring the Sorcerous/Alchemical Hybridization rules. Until I get a chance to explore these rules myself, I would like explore this fascinating concept vicariously through my fellow Talislanta community members’ experiences and tales of its use in their games.

Have you used the Sorcerous/Alchemical Hybridization rules with any of your characters and created a new species with it? As Gamemaster, have you used the rules for non-player characters and allowed them to create new species? If you have created a new species for your Talislanta games using these rules, how did it turn out? What were the races of the original male and female subjects used? What was the Neomorph like, both physically and mentally? How were they introduced into your Talislantan milieu, and how were they received by the world at large? Please share your stories, experiences, and tales with the Sorcerous/Alchemical Hybridization rules and the impact on your Talislanta games with other community members by using the Post a Comment form below.

As either a player or Gamemaster, have you employed the Sorcerous/Alchemical Hybridization rules in any of your Talislantan games?

View Results

Loading ... Loading ...
Posted in New Poll | 2 Comments

Abundance of Archetypes and a Stable of Characters

By Drohem | Published: April 15, 2011

There can be no doubt that one of the enduring strengths of the Talislanta game system is the abundance of playable archetypes, and that they represent a varied array of potential play styles. However, this massive smörgåsbord of different cultural, political, and religious backgrounds for players can prove to be frustrating for a few reasons. The first and foremost reason is that there are just so many interesting archetypes to investigate, and so little time to get around to playing them all effectively. Another source of frustration that can stem from the cornucopia of Talislantan archetypes is when one or more characters are rendered ineffective a good portion of the time due to the mix of play style, group dynamics, and the archetype’s skills, special abilities, and hindrances.

One of the way to mitigate the latter frustration is to allow your players to have a stable of several characters to choose from between adventures. Naturally, the switching of characters between adventures would be weighed against the dictates of the campaign game play. However, allowing this option for your players can be both helpful and interesting because it provides players with opportunity to realign their group dynamic in new and interesting ways from adventure to adventure throughout the course of the campaign. This can be a subtle and powerful twist the nature of the campaign as it gives the players a little more latitude in steering the flow of the campaign with character choice and group realignment.

As a GM would you allow each player to have a stable of active characters to choose from adventure to adventure? Or do you only allow each player to have one active character at a time in the campaign? Are there any drawbacks in allowing each player to have a stable of characters in a campaign? Do you have any experiences playing a game in this way? Please share your stories with us via the Post a Comment form below.

Posted in Website News | 6 Comments