From: v124jw4y@ubvmsd.cc.buffalo.edu (Benjamin R Pierce)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: Re: Talislanta
Date: 29 Sep 92 17:46:00 GMT
Organization: University at Buffalo
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41

In article <1992Sep29.001105.29659@fcom.cc.utah.edu>, davis@news.ccutah.edu (mike davis) writes...
>v124jw4y@ubvmsd.cc.buffalo.edu (Benjamin R Pierce) writes:
>		I Disagree.  I have been running Talislanta since 1987.  The
>new edition ruins the whole system!!  In the earler editions beinging charaters
>where balenced, now with them changing the combat ratings some are so
unballeinced that they are unplayable!  The same goes with the magic rating.  
As for it 
>being disorganized and decentralized, are you high or just plane STUPID!  There
>is no effert to be concestant with the earler supplments!!!  As for being too
>disorganized, listing charaters types alphebetacly makes more sense the listing
>them geographicly!!  As for the "new" magic system insteed of giving everyone
>the same basic spells and saying they all started with the same spells, now
>everyone basicly starts with the same spells but you get the joy of reading
>the same spell discritions 15 times!!!  The one thing I liked about Talaslanta,
>other than the world, It was VERY consitent!  Noe WOC has gone for design by
>committy and not having the creater having finally approveal.  Off hand I am
>very PISSED at how they runied my favoret game!!  
> 
>	Also as for if I am familler engough to say this,  I helped write the
>conversion notes in Pawns for Talislanta.
> 
> 
> 
>					Mike Davis 


Aaaah.  How lovely to get such a rational, well written response to my post.
In response to your above points:

1. I have yet to notice serious imbalances in the character archetypes; whereas
   one race may have higher overall stats, another will be given more equipment
   to compensate.  My group has tested most of the archetypes fairly thoroughly
   at this point, and none seems to completely dominate (besides which, most
   of the players I enjoy gaming with tend to play a character for the role-
   playing challenge, not the stats).


2. I didn't say the earlier edition of Talislanta was inconsistent; merely
   that they were disorganized.  When I go to the Bard Games booth at GenCon
   and ask for one book that will allow me to play the game, and they can't
   show me one, I consider that disorganized.  The new book at least includes
   all the information you need under one cover.

3. No, I'm not high.  As for being stupid, maybe so, but I can at least spell
   "balanced", "unbalanced", "plain", "effort", "consistent", "alphabetically",
   "instead", "descriptions", "Talislanta", "comittee", "creator", "approval",
   "favorite", "familiar", "enough", and arrange my thoughts in something 
   resembling grammatically correct English.

4. True, there is very little effort to be consistent with the earlier
   supplements; this is one complaint I have with the new system.  However,
   it's a minor complaint, and one that could be applied to any number of
   second edition role-playing systems.  Overall, I think it's a small price
   to pay if they can rescue what was basically a very good, but floundering,
   world concept.

5. So they have similar spells for a number of different fields; I don't see
   your beef.  It makes sense to me that different people would take different
   approaches to the same end, and it adds a bit of color to what always 
   struck me as a rather bland magic system.


In closing, no, I don't think the new edition of Talislanta is perfect, but I
think it's a damn sight better than the Bard Games "Rules? Uhh, I think there
are a few in this book..." edition.  I bought the original Talislanta books
simply because I liked the world a lot (same thing I did with Jorune); now I
actually have a system which seems to work.  I stand by my earlier statement;
I feel that the new edition is a great improvement.  If anyone wants to discuss
this in a reasonable manner, I'd be more than happy to.  In the meantime, I'm
going to see if there's any way to put "poorly-written, insulting posts with
no intelligent points in them" in my killfile.




                                                        --Ben
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc