GW's Talisman: anyone played

[kengar]

I was in my FLGS today and saw several sets of the fantasy board game Talisman on the shelf. I'd never seen this game before and I assumed it was a new game. Looking on GW's site though, I don't see any info. There are a number of fan sites on the web so I guess it's an older game. I wondered if anyone here had played it? How does it compare toi HeroQuest?

Just curious.

 

[Simplicity]

Are you kidding? Talisman is a GREAT game.
It's a classic. If you like board games and D&D,
you should buy it.

It's better with all of the expansion sets, but even the
basic set is pretty fun.

There's a bunch of different classes, each with a beginning Strength score, a beginning Spirit score, and some special
powers. You try to get to the center of the board (which
requires either a high strength or spirit score to do so).
You can collect items and followers. You can cast plenty
of nasty spells.

Unlike HeroQuest, no GameMaster is necessary (which is nice).

 

[Joshua Randall]

The game is fun as long as your don't take it seriously. It's not well balanced, though - some characters are much stronger than others, and there are some ba-roken items you can pick up. Still, I have many fond memories of all-night Talisman games in my wasted youth.

 

[Simplicity]

The game is fun as long as your don't take it seriously. It's not well balanced, though - some characters are much stronger than others, and there are some ba-roken items you can pick up. Still, I have many fond memories of all-night Talisman games in my wasted youth.

The non-balancedness is part of the fun. When you start the game and you draw the troll... You know you're gonna have a good night.

I've found that it helps to give players a choice of among 3 different characters that they drew.

 

[NeuroZombie]

The $75 price tag for the new set keeps me from getting it, although I had played the original ages ago and loved it.

Maybe if I hit the lottery

If you got the means, get it, you won't be sorry!

 

[Tortoise]

I've got the new one. Nicely done. Instead of all the cardboard stand-ups and counters they have plastic figures and stackable plastic pieces in place of the counters.

Played it Wednesday night for 3+ hours before we all got tired and decided to call it an evening. Great fun.

No troll in this one, but there is a minotaur.

 

[Pigeon]

Talisman is the best.. boardgame.. ever..

Or at least the one i enjoyed the most. The orignial was better but it costs a fortune these days so the new one is a good alternative.

 

[Tratyn Runewind]

Hello,

Hmm, nice to see it getting out into the stores.

Here and here are the last couple of recent ENboards threads on the subject.

Posted by Joshua Randall:
some characters are much stronger than others, and there are some ba-roken items you can pick up.

Yeah, as I mentioned on one of those previous threads, the first item in the "Notes" section for all the Talisman events on a friend's Origins schedule was "No Prophetess". As far as broken items go, the Warhorse usually tops the list around these parts, followed by the Wand; the Runesword (for the Evil characters) and the Staff of Mastery are also highly prized, though not really broken.

Posted by Tortoise:
Played it Wednesday night for 3+ hours before we all got tired and decided to call it an evening. Great fun.

The game does often take awhile using the standard rules. The "Chaos Bloodbath" option can speed it up quite a bit - only one Talisman card (though we usually leave the Adventure-card Talismans in the deck), and no respawns for dead characters.

Hope this helps!

 

[Mangrum]

I spent many an evening playing Talisman (along with all its sundry expansions) with my college buddies back in '90 or so. White Wolf was truly the boardgame god back then. I even collected the miniatures for all the characters; come to think of it, I still have to paint about half a dozen of them.

Admittedly, arguing over interpretations of the (often vague) rules was as much a part of our Takisman experience as the game itself.

 

[Joseph Elric Smith]

it is a great game
ken