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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Jai Kel" data-source="post: 2171569" data-attributes="member: 1177">I have the  Talislanta d20 (d20Tal) book right here in front of me, and we will be starting our campaign this Sunday...I've been a fan of Talislanta (Tal) since Middle School back in the early 80s, and ran a small newsletter for awhile in support of Tal about 10 years ago.  So, I may be a bit biased toward the game/setting.   <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /> I could ask if you'd like the good news or the bad news first, but we'll just do it my way anyway...THE NEGATIVEtypos - the booke is absilutely full of 'em.  if That type a thang bothers you overtly much, stay aay from this une.   -Ugh, that hurt.   <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />   Anyway, the 4th Edition (Tal4) had a problem with this, too.  It may just be an inherent problem with small press.d20 - It is Talislanta for the d20 System, and many "purists" cannot stand what they consider to be an abomination.  I do not share this viewpoint, but I can relate.  When Tal4 was released I was some sort of purist and was grumpy about that book.  I guess we all get testy about change every now and then...  That being said, there were some dramatic compromises made in order to make d20Tal.  But only if you are a diehard previous fan will these changes really grate on you much.limited content - This isn't a real biggie, and it is an easy complaint to make.  The book could only be so big, and there were some things not included with this main sourcebook.  Fortunately, it looks like the publisher has a decent release schedule for additional material.magic spells - It's hard to explain why this could be a negative...  You see, there are no "spell lists" in Tal.  Magicians will only know a few select spells, and then these spells can be modified during casting.  The result is that what you have are some charts used to calculate a DC for a skill check to actually cast the spell.  More on this below...  Is this really a negative?  Well, if you're lazy it can be.   <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f61b.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":p" title="Stick out tongue    :p"  data-smilie="7"data-shortname=":p" /> THE POSITIVEThe Publisher - Morrigan Press is very responsive to customer feedback/questions.  They released an errata within hours of some rather large errors being pointed out to them.  Kudos to them!Organization - I think the book is very well organized.  You can find exactly what you're looking for very quickly.  This was not always the case in previous Tal versions.Uniqueness - d20Tal manages to capture the uniqueness of the Tal setting and "archetypes" very well.  (Archetypes is a holdover term from earlier Tal days when race & class were basically a single entity called an archetype.)  Equipment, regions, history, cosmology, feats, skills, races, classes, and everything else are all very unique to Tal.  Magic System - I think I am in the minority of Tal fans that like this new magic system.  It is based on feats and skills.  Here's a quick and dirty breakdown on the system:  There is no separation of Arcane and Divine magic in Talislanta.  Almost anyone could take the feats and spend some skill points in order to cast a spell.  As a character class, spellcasters are called Magicians with a variety of sub-classes (kind of like wizard specialists).  Each sub-class is good at a particular Order of magic like Mysticism, Withcraft, Invocation, Wizardry, etc.  Orders are actually feats that can be taken by any character, but Magicians get one for free.  There are then 12 different Modes of magic that can be used with each Order.  Modes are spell types such as Attack, Heal, Illusion, Reveal, etc.  These are represented with skills, and you'll need to invest heavily in skill ranks here if you want to be an uber-Magician. As spells are made more powerful, the DC to cast said spell increases.  PCGen - I am also a PCGen user, so I have been making my own personal Talislanta files to use with PCGen.  So far, I have found nothing with d20Tal that I have not been able make work in PCGen.  I think this is a good test of the game/rules design as it rapidly points out errors in math and references when you go to code a bunch of list files with data.  CONCLUSIONd20Tal is good.  Go get it.   <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" /> Actually, it's growing late on Friday night and I'm tired of typing.  I need to go and grab a Tazian Fire-ale or two...  If anyone has specific questions, I'll be happy to answer them.Thanks,Jai KelLinks:<a href="http://www.talislanta.com" target="_blank">http://www.talislanta.com</a><a href="http://www.morriganrpg.com/gm-talislanta.html" target="_blank">http://www.morriganrpg.com/gm-talislanta.html</a><a href="http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/talislanta-l/" target="_blank">http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/talislanta-l/</a></blockquote>

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