Alternate fantasy RPGS

[tecnowraith]

hello, it's been awhile since i posted anything on here, so here it goes. Are there any alternate fantasy RPGs similar to The Dark Crystal, Bionicle or any other that has no human or your typical fantasy races? I'm looking for something unique and different for a core game or setting. I know there is Talislanta and a few others but but are out of print and hard to find.

Any others that are more recent?

 

[jdrakeh]

The Stone of Souls RPG by Mythopoetic Games is very much inspired by The Dark Crystal. It can be downloaded for free, here (scroll to the bottom of the page).

 

[Mercurius]

Talislanta is actually not hard to find--the Big Blue Book (4th edition) is around on Ebay and other places. It is probably the definitive book, as the 5th edition is split into three books and thus more costly.

Other classic "alternative fantasy" settings include Tekumel: The Empire of the Petal Throne and Jorune. Both have humans, but both are very different than the standard "vanilla" fantasy. You could also look at Sundered Skies and Agone for different takes on a fantasy setting, although both have humans as a dominant presence.

More recent? I honestly don't know--I haven't seen many alternative, unique, fantasy settings in recent years. As with the movies, it seems the majority of newer settings are just re-hashes of old material.

 

[jdrakeh]

Oh, I almost forgot! There's also Urutsk, which is a very Tekumel-like game. It's currently in development, but if it sees completion, I'll have a hard time not thinking of it as this generation's Tekumel. Note that the blog also discusses another game (i.e., the entries alluding to mecha and firearms are not Urutsk related).