Talon Dunning is an artist and also an illustrator. His artwork was featured in multiple supplements for the West End Games rendition of Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game during 1997 and 1998. Later, his work appeared in online supplements for the Wizards of the Coast version of the same roleplaying game in 2008. Here's a list of his credits:
- Wretched Hives of Scum & Villainy (designer, contribution uncredited)
- Tapani Sector Instant Adventures
- Hideouts & Strongholds
- Love Is a Warm Blaster, Star Wars Adventure Journal 17 (never published)
- "Bounty Postings," (official Star Wars RPG website from Wizards of the Coast)
Talon's connection with West End Games started back in 1996. His high-school friend, Paul Danner, who is an author, was tasked with working on the Star Wars Roleplaying Game supplement titled Wretched Hives of Scum & Villainy. Because they both loved roleplaying games, when Danner's editor told him to add "more NPCs," he contacted Talon. Danner asked for permission to use some characters Talon had made for their personal Star Wars games in recent years. Talon, who was residing in Alabama at the time, gave his consent. He then sent Danner copies of most of the characters he had developed for his games, along with several starship, droid and equipment designs. Subsequently, Danner incorporated a number of Talon's characters and designs into his book. These included Norrin Vaxx, Var'Rotha Fin'Rotha, Sha'Dria, Sil Vaturha, Vallikor En-Vahdi (as well as his species, the Ipharian-Da'Lor), Arissa Fawn, Lynnori and Denell Kel'Vannon, in addition to the "Nullifier" Diffusion Armor and the dark side creature known as the Derriphan. Furthermore, the two starships described in the book, "Chaser" (originally named "The Tequila Sunrise") and "Starbound Misfit" (the initial YT-1930), were inspired by Talon's designs. Finally, while he didn't contribute any art himself, several illustrations in the book were based on character sketches provided by Talon.
Due to contractual limitations, Danner couldn't credit Talon as a contributing designer in the book's credits. Therefore, Talon requested that his friend compensate by promoting his artwork to his WEG editors. As a consequence, Talon received his first professional job, creating artwork for the supplement Tapani Sector Instant Adventures. Later, Talon continued to illustrate Hideouts & Strongholds.
Not long after completing the artwork for one of Danner's stories featured in the Star Wars Adventure Journal, West End Games declared bankruptcy. They then lost the Star Wars license. The story, along with the accompanying art, was never officially released in print.
In 2008, Wizards of the Coast contacted Talon. They wanted him to create four portraits for a series of articles called "Bounty Postings," which would be published on the Star Wars RPG website. These portraits were in color and only existed in digital form. They included the characters Dool Pundar, Harno, Oorn Noth and Tyrnia Masak. Later that year, Talon got another commission. This time he would illustrate six more "Bounty Postings" characters: Irf Chaud, Meekah Hozard, PK-99, Regera Girawn, RiVaal and the Sarvool Twins. The "Bounty Postings" series of articles represents Talon's only direct involvement with the Wizards of the Coast version of the Star Wars Roleplaying Game.
Examples of Talon's Star Wars artwork, in addition to his work for other roleplaying games, are available on his website, The Art of Talon.[1]