Talislanta: The Savage Land (D6 Edition)

Discover the dangerous past of the classic Talislanta RPG.

Talislanta is a fantasy roleplaying game and game-setting that was first published back in 1986.

Unlike most RPGs from the 1980s, the Talislanta milieu was not based on traditional Western mythology. It didn’t have the usual Tolkien-esque trappings of games like D&D; in fact, ads for the game proudly proclaimed, “No Elves”.

The original Talislanta RPG was inspired by the fantasy novels of Jack Vance, and by other sources such as H.P. Lovecraft’s The Dreamlands of Unknown Kadath, Michael Moorcock’s Elric novels, and The Travels of Marco Polo.

The game was set in a strange world of twin suns and seven moons that seemed to be practically overflowing with exotic peoples, places, and creatures. The time was the New Age, a Renaissance-like period that started a thousand or more years after The Great Disaster, a cataclysm that marked the fall of the once-great Archaen Age.

During this era, Talislanta was still a dangerous place, especially in the wilderness regions that lay beyond the walled cities. But for many who lived in the New Age, there was also a sense of hope, and the possibility of greater things to come.

That Was Now.

This Is Then...

Talislanta: the Savage Land is a prequel to the original Talislanta game. It takes place just a short time after The Great Disaster, which the inhabitants of this era refer to as The Fall.

This period is like a nightmarish version of our own Dark Ages. All knowledge of spell-casting has been lost; maps are nearly non-existent, and much of the world is unknown. Most of those who survived The Fall are illiterate, and governed by superstition.

There are no nations, city states, or even laws. In their place, tribes of warriors, nomads, slavers, and refugees struggle to survive in a hostile wasteland, torn by centuries of warfare and a malevolent magical maelstrom known as the Gyre.