I used to play Talislanta way back when. For those who aren’t familiar with it, it’s main tagline was “No Elves.” It was supposed to be a whole new world, different from the traditional fantasy worlds. It also boasted a very simple task-resolution system and a horribly screwed up magic system. But it was fun to play. (And yeah, truth is, there WERE elves - plenty of them - but they weren’t CALLED elves, they were called “user fees”.)
Talislanta is the little RPG that couldn’t. It’s been owned by about five different companies now, some of whom didn’t release a single book before going under. Andy Warhol once said, “In the future, everyone will own the rights to Talislanta for 15 minutes.”
Well there’s now a fourth edition, available from Shooting Iron press. I found it at a bookstore in Evanston, Chicago and bought it on sight. It’s really great, and I’d like to get a copy of it for a friend. Problem is, you can’t find this thing anywhere. This is a book that I heard was coming out for a long time. What I heard was: “It’s coming out, it’s coming out, it’s coming out, it’s out of print.” The initial print run must have been about four copies, and they’re all sold out. No game store I’ve checked online has it, even the ones that claim they do on their sites (calling them reveals a different story - ah, the joys of online shopping.)
I don’t know if this is appropriate or not here, but I really would like to find this book for my friend. If anyone has seen it in their area, please email me and let me know where!
Until then, does anyone else have it? Has anyone else played it? I think the new magic system looks very cool but I’m not sure how well it would play.