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The World of Georic 1989-Present

Saturday, April 17, 2010

Oh Tal, how I miss you less when you are free!

I had heard rumblings late last year that Steven Michael Sechi, the creator of the Talislanta role-playing game, was going to make all Tal books available for free download. This was confirmed en masse this month.

I haven't read his actual reasons for doing so, but many in my mind make sense:

Tal 1st and 2nd editions were Bard Games productions. 3rd was WoTC (their first pride and joy). 4th and 5th editions are such a collection of fly-by-night, reorganized, double super secret reorganized, and non-existent companies that it was safer to let the rights go by the wayside for the third party publishers and maintain whatever dignity is left and introduce a new generation to "NO ELVES" fantasy roleplaying without profit.

The fourth and fifth editions of the books seem to be the "recommended" editions. I owned 4th edition Tal. It was a beautiful book. So beautiful in fact, that my buddy Scott picked up a copy thinking I didn't own it yet. I already had two in my possesion.

Third edition was my personal choice. I ran it numerous times. The magic system was fleshed out better than 2nd, but still extremely basic. I fondly remember, with only a zing of nostalgia, wanting to support this little company out of Renton, Washington the was bringing back this cool game. Somewhere I still have copies of The Apothecary, their newsletter detailing Tal, Primal Order, and this new card game, tentatively titled, Mana Burn or Mana Flare. I also remember that little card game, renamed Magic: The Gathering take the world by storm and ironically close up WoTC's RPG lines, and waiting months for Sub-Men Rising, the final book for the company, to arrive in a game store near me.

If I were to run Tal today, I would use 2nd edition. It's such a ridiculously simple ruleset that I ran my first con game with it (The Crystle Dungeon, a hack-and-slasher wet dream at Lehicon IV at the GW Motor Lodge.) The only items on my makeshift GM were the one page rules references and the map of the scenario behind it, and a cheesey "The Crystle Dungeon" filled out on graph paper. If I had been introduced to rules-light games as a teen, Tal 2nd may have become my game of choice for life.

The only thing I feel slightly guilty about is the new material over the last four years or so. Some of the new sourcebooks/scenarios looked fantastic and were well-received by the Tal community. With no real local game store, I was unable to pre-order these items (The Northern Realms in particular) and get hardcopies. Of course, the money was better spent on the wedding, house repairs, and old bills, but I don't buy much RPG, and if I want something, most people know it's high quality stuff.

So, if you're familiar with role-playing, download a book or two. If you've played it with me (even as the AD&D "alternate world summer game" during college) Take another good look at it. For free you might be able to set up a game or three.

http://www.talislanta.com/

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