Talisman

[Gabriel]

So I know about Relic (Talisman 40K). I've seen listings for Kingdom Hearts Talisman. But today I saw a listing for Batman Talisman.

OK USAopoly, get on the ball. I want Star Trek Talisman and Final Fantasy VII Talisman. Bonus points if you hurry up and do Robotech Talisman before 2021.

 

[Bunch]

Oddly enough yesterday I played sword & Skull with the boys and I'd call that Pirate Talisman Lite.

 

[FeralToaster]

I play Talisman on the computer (regular and the Horus Heresy version) pretty often, I enjoy it as a cool down from CK2 and Civ. Never played it as an actual boardgame though.

 

[Raleel]

I played the board game a lot back when it first came out. I have a copy of Relic. I like the iPad version of Talisman as well. Could get kind of long if you had a bunch of risk-averse people

 

[Voros]

I played the iPad version and it was a lot of fun. I intend to pick up the boardgame eventually.

 

[Brock Savage]

I used to play Talisman on Steam with friends quite a bit.

 

[dbm]

Back in the day we had almost all of them: Talisman, Expansion, Adventure, Dungeon, Timescape and City. I think we had given up playing by the time Dragons came out.

It was good for it’s time, when the only real alternative fantasy board games were Blood Royal and Warrior Knights. But in gameplay terms it was really basic, probably on a par with Monopoly. Modern board games blow all three of those out of the water, for my money.

 

[Necrozius]

I have the board game (first re-edition from Black Library about 10-15 years ago, then got the “upgrade box” when FFG bought the rights).

It was fun but the RNG can make it so god damn tedious. We buffed it by starting off with slightly better stats and a few more gold pieces. Also made it so that if someone reached the center, the group could vote on stopping the game then and there.

I much preferred Runebound, but that was essentially multiplayer solitaire.

 

[Gabriel]

I had 2e Runebound. It never clicked with me. I eventually sold it.

I also used to not like Talisman very much. But for the past several years I play the FFG 4e of it with some regularity.

The game dragging on after someone reaches the center used to be a big problem when I used to play 2e with others. Back then the first person to the crown of command never won.

I can't say I've had that issue with 4e. I can't point to any difference in the game that changes things. The rules and card mix are the same. The only addition is Fate, and that would seem to enhance the tendency to overly grind instead of trying to win the game. Regardless, games I've played on 4e are usually about 2 hours instead of the 6 hour marathons the game used to be on 2e.

The only change we've made is the Crown of Command affects ALL players on a roll of 4-6. Everyone has to choose to surrender or lose a life instead of choosing a single player. But I'm pretty sure that's the way we used to play 2e as well. I've campaigned to remove the die roll for crown of command activation, but I never seem to win that argument. Sadly, no one ever seems to want to play with an alternate ending either.

Anyway, I generally like the game. Maybe it's just because it's familiar. I'm interested in these Monopoly-like reskins of the game. I think Talisman is a good fit for such reskinning, much better than Monopoly.

 

[Bunch]

I had 2e Runebound. It never clicked with me. I eventually sold it.

I also used to not like Talisman very much. But for the past several years I play the FFG 4e of it with some regularity.

The game dragging on after someone reaches the center used to be a big problem when I used to play 2e with others. Back then the first person to the crown of command never won.

I can't say I've had that issue with 4e. I can't point to any difference in the game that changes things. The rules and card mix are the same. The only addition is Fate, and that would seem to enhance the tendency to overly grind instead of trying to win the game. Regardless, games I've played on 4e are usually about 2 hours instead of the 6 hour marathons the game used to be on 2e.

The only change we've made is the Crown of Command affects ALL players on a roll of 4-6. Everyone has to choose to surrender or lose a life instead of choosing a single player. But I'm pretty sure that's the way we used to play 2e as well. I've campaigned to remove the die roll for crown of command activation, but I never seem to win that argument. Sadly, no one ever seems to want to play with an alternate ending either.

Anyway, I generally like the game. Maybe it's just because it's familiar. I'm interested in these Monopoly-like reskins of the game. I think Talisman is a good fit for such reskinning, much better than Monopoly.

I dunno I'm a bit scared to see what Seattle Talisman would look like in play.

 

[Skywalker]

Talisman is the father of the adventure game genre, and it also suffers from its biggest issues, which are randomness and lack of player interaction. I have a lot of fond memories of Talisman but would struggle to play it today.

My two favourite games in this genre today are:

- Xia: Legend of a Drift System, which deals with the randomness by having multiple levels of randomness and allowing players to choose between them.
- Middle Earth Quest, which deals with the randomness by having one player play Sauron directing all the antagonism.

In both cases, the reduction in randomness also goes someway to deal with the lack of player interaction as that interaction is given meaning.

 

[Gabriel]

I got Relic the other day. I scored the premium edition for cheaper than the price of the regular edition.

I've only played one game so far. It seems more hack and slashy than regular Talisman. Nearly every card draw was a monster. There were non monster draws, but they seemed relatively rare.

The exploding dice mechanics added a lot of uncertainty. I got in a fight with a rank 1 monster, and after a long string of exploding dice, I was staring down a battle roll of 27. I lost that one. I'm not sure how I feel about this mechanic. It means there's a chance you could make any roll, but it also means there's a chance you could lose at any time. It eliminates that late game thing of drawing a rank 1 monster when your attribute is a 7 or more and just saying, "OK, I win. Next." I suppose I'll have to see how it plays out.

The inner region also struck me as creating a very different endgame. In Talisman, you have two routes: one that tests Strength and one that tests Craft. So in regular Talisman, you focus on one stat or the other and go down the endgame route which caters to your preferred attribute. In Relic, there is only one route through the inner region, and that route tests all three character attributes (strength, willpower, cunning). On the other hand, none of the spaces can halt your progress like in Talisman. So, it seems the endgame strategy is to be balanced in order to face the varied skill checks, or at least be tough enough to take the penalties for failing the challenges you're weak at.

The only thing the premium edition does is provide painted busts for the characters. They look nice enough. But when it boils down to it they're just pawns. In fact, for all practical purposes, you play with a colored pawn with these busts plugged on to the top. Ultimately, I'm simultaneously glad I got the premium edition and that I didn't pay any extra for it.

I don't like all the card shuffling that needs to be done. For a regular game of Talisman we only need to shuffle three decks: Adventure, Spell, and Character. But for a game of Relic, it requires shuffling 10 sets of cards: quest, character, red threat, blue threat, yellow threat, mission, power, wargear, relic, corruption. It makes setting up and resetting the game a pain in the butt.

Anyway, that's my rant about Relic. I'm not entirely sure what my ruling on it is. It was sort of Talisman-like, but didn't really seem to scratch that same Talisman itch. It was far more about constant battling monsters than the Talisman feel of exploring and encountering weird stuff. It will at least be a good change of pace, but not sure if it's really on par with Talisman for me.

 

[Charlie D]

I love Talisman. I play 2e (Timescape and the Chainsaw Warrior) and 4.5 a lot. 4.5 was great because FFG created fate which evens out the randomness a bit. I like the supplement Blood Moon for the werewolf and Halloween theme. It teams well with Harbinger because the events feed off of each other. I like playing the swashbuckler who is still around after several editions. The vampire hunter and grave robber from Blood Moon are great also. Also in Blood Moon you can become a werewolf and if the angry mob catches you your character dies.

Always played it as a boardgame. Great stuff.

 

[Charlie D]

Talisman 3E had a 3d dragon tower to climb with a mini dragon to fight on top.