[Kickstarter] Talislanta: Tales of the Savage Land

[Big Mac]

The Talislanta: Tales of the Savage Land Kickstarter just went live.

Tales of the Savage Land, a post-apocalyptic fantasy comic



This story of Severus, a living relic who may be the last of a legendary race, is set in the dark past of the classic RPG, Talislanta.

The fantasy world Talislanta debuted in a paper roleplaying game in 1986. The game was known for its non-traditional fantasy setting, which featured hundreds of unusual races, creatures, and archetypes, and for a series of print ads that ran under the headline, “No Elves”.

Now Talislanta creator Stephan Michael Sechi is back with a new vision of an earlier world of Talislanta — Talislanta: The Savage Land.

What is Talislanta?

Where the original Talislanta was set many centuries after a cataclysm known as The Great Disaster, TSL takes place just a few years after this catastrophe, which the inhabitants of this era refer to as The Fall. The great civilization of the Archaens is no more. The last kingdoms have fallen, and the sorcerer-kings have fled or been killed by their own creations. With them went all knowledge of spell-casting, leaving only primitive rituals and superstitions. In this milieu, Talislanta is truly a savage and dangerous land, ruled by wild tribes and beast-folk consumed by the constant struggle to survive.

The Web Comic and Graphic Novel

We want to introduce this exciting, post-apocalyptic fantasy world to you in a webcomic that will premiere in December 2015.

We plan to release new pages at the rate of about six per month (1-2 per week) throughout 2016 until we deliver the entire 80-page story. Illustrator Ben Dennett has already completed half of the story and as the finished pages are released, he'll be illustrating the remainder of the story.

After the web serialization, we'd like to compile the complete story in a graphic novel. If possible, if we can get enough support in this Kickstarter project, then the b&w webcomic will become a full-color graphic novel!

Our Project Rewards

We have an escalating variety of pledge rewards described for this project. Here's a brief overview of all the options:

• Webcomic: The primary product we're delivering! This is an 80+ page comic story that we'll deliver ever week by means of a subscription at DriveThruComics.
  
  +Plus Subscription: In addition to the new webcomic pages, you'll receive access to various new design materials, including sketches, character designs, roleplaying material like characters stats, and more. If you're a fan of the process, want to see behind the scenes, or don't want to miss any detail about Talislanta, then this is the choice for you.
  
  Graphic Novel: After the pages are released by webcomic subscription, we'll compile the story and print this as a graphic novel. If we can meet a stretch goal then the graphic novel will be in full-color.
  
  All-Access RPG: If you're a fan of the Talislanta RPG and want all the details about what's going on, then become part of the conversation! We'll add you as an "bcc" email recipient to game design emails between Stephan Michael Sechi and Stewart Wieck and emails with the RPG artists, editors, etc. This "all-access" lasts from the end of this project until TSL RPG is sent to press.
  
  Art Print: A high-quality digital reproduction of a color version of the page 2 splash page of the graphic novel (seen above). The print will be approximately 8x11 inches.

Stretch Goals

If we continue to raise funds well past our funding goal, then we'd like to add additional content and quality to the comic we're creating. This story will exist without these extras, but we'd really like to be able to include them and deliver them to you to make your experience with Tales of Talislanta: The Savage Land truly great!

At $6000 of funding we'll add a 6-page Prologue to the graphic novel and release that on Christmas Day instead of the first two pages of the story itself. These pages will show how Severus is discovered.. and captured.

At $12,000 of funding the graphic novel that otherwise will collect the b&w pages of the webcomic will be printed in full-color. Yes, that means all 80+ pages of the comic (and Prologue) will be colored and then included in the graphic novel.

If we manage to meet these goals then we'll talk to you about more great stuff we could add to this project!

Add-Ons

Add-ons are additional items that you'd like to have in addition to the rewards you receive as part of your pledge level. As of now we can only offer the printed graphic novel as an add-on to any pledge level of $40 or more (i.e. any pledge that already includes a copy of the graphic novel). If you would like an extra copy of the collected story, then please add $20 to your pledge amount. Select your pledge level and then just add $20 to your pledge amount. So if you choose the $40 reward, enter $60 as your pledge amount. We'll know this is for an extra copy, and there's no additional shipping charge!

The Creators

Meet the writer and illustrator of this webcomic/graphic novel:

Stephan Michael Sechi

About Stephan: Though for the past 15+ years I've made my living as a composer and music producer, back in the 1980's I was president of a small company known as Bard Games. While with Bard, I wrote a number of RPG supplements such as Complete Alchemist, and also created two RPG systems: The Atlantean Trilogy (The Arcanum, The Lexicon, and The Bestiary) and the Talislanta RPG. Talislanta evolved into a set of core books and supplements that would eventually extend across five different editions, one of which as published by Wizards of the Coast. A few years ago I decided to give away PDF versions of all of the many Talislanta books online. Thanks to the hard work of a bunch of Talislanta-fans (led by Marques Jordan), all the old titles can now be downloaded for free from Talislanta.com. Two years ago, I found I still had the gaming bug in me, and decided to create a new RPG based on the Talislanta milieu. I'm excited to say that this game, called Talislanta: the Savage Land, will be released by Nocturnal Media in 2016, along with a webcomic, graphic novel and soundtrack album based on the game.

Ben Dennett

About Ben: Storytelling has always been at the heart of my artistic endeavours. My experience so far has included creating concepts, layouts, and storyboards for animation and films. I left the big smoke of London several years ago and I am now blessed to live and work in West Cornwall, UK surrounded by ancient ruins, burial mounds and the big blue sea — inspiration enough for visualising many tales of adventure. I am currently working with Steve Sechi and Stewart Wieck at Nocturnal Media to illustrate the first Talislanta webcomic — "Tales of the Savage Land”.

The Kickstarter is being run by Stewart Wieck, who is the former owner of White Wolf.

I'm still looking into exactly what the RPG side of the Kickstarter will give fans. If I find out, I'll post it here.

[Big Mac]

This Kickstarter is one for the comic that is going to lead up to another Kickstarter for a Talislanta RPG, which will happen next year, but there were a couple of backer levels that have "RPG" in the description ($5.00 USD and $35.00). I I asked Stewart Wieck about these at the Talislanta group on Facebook. Here are the two different RPG backer level descriptions, along with what Stewart said about them:

$35.00 USD:

ALL-ACCESS TSL (RPG only) - You like comics, and you really like roleplaying games, but you LOVE Talislanta RPG. You'll recieve none of the comic but all of the RPG-related PDF extra content that's included with the "Plus" subscription. Plus, "all-access" to TSL RPG emails as described in the project text.

That does look a little unclear.

There is a $35.00 level called "All Access TSL (RPG Only)" that says no RPG content but all of the RPG-related PDF content.

People are going to want to know what RPG PDFs they get for pledging $35.00 USD.

That pledge refers to the RPG portion of the "bonus" material we're including as we complete the RPG. Sorry if that's unclear. This project is for the comic/graphic novel. That actual RPG is later.

Hopefully the "Our Project Rewards" section of the KS page makes everything clear, but I'll go retouch it to be certain.

My advice is to avoid this backer level, until there is a better description of "what you actually get for your $35.00" available. If you are a Tal uber-fan and you want the comic anyway, go for one of the other levels that includes this. But if you are a RPG fan, and don't want the comics, buying into something that might just be a $35 USD preview is going to leave you with $35 USD less to spend on the proper RPG Kickstarter next year.

$5.00 USD:

TALISLANTA!!! - Delighted to hear that Talislanta is returning, but you don't want the webcomic? This pledge is a nice boost for the project and tells us you're out there... waiting for the new RPG. You'll be among the first to see some new artwork that will appear in the upcoming RPG.

RPG is also mentioned in the $5.00 pledge level.

Is that literally going to be $5.00 USD to see a preview of art from the RPG book...but nothing else?

The $5 pledge is like a tip jar.

I'm not sure how that is different from the $1.00 tip jar level, to be honest.

Hopefully there will be some clarification of exactly what you get for $5 or $35 in the updates for this project soon, but I would suggest that this one is really best for comic fans.