Talisman the board game is great but certainly has a beer and pretzels quality that I thought would carry over to the RPG. Instead, Talisman Adventure Fantasy Roleplaying Game (PDF) is a nuanced dark fairy tale set in a magical world of competing alignments, ancestries, and powers. It impresses me.
I love Talisman the board game. I’ve bought everything for it since second edition and played it consistently over the decades. I even wrote about how to use it as a D&D Adventure Generator Using Talisman the Board Game. I received a free PDF of the RPG to review.
Talisman Adventures FRPG takes everything wonderful about the board game, puts a fairy tale twist on it, and provides a living, breathing world to experience everything in. PCs can go on challenging adventures in a long-term campaign. The RPG is not about one quest to claim the Crown of Command. It is about hundreds of quests for a variety of different reason driven by the PCs. In addition, the game has a real old school feel while maintaining modern design sensibilities. There is alignment, traps, ten levels of advancement, and more.
Everything in Talisman Adventures FRPG is driven by kismet or fate. Player characters have light fate and Game moderators have dark that drive many game mechanics. PCs often have two choices for character advancement with an either or option. If your scout becomes a guide he cannot also become a brigand. Fate, once chosen, leads along different paths. The game uses 3d6 with a kismet die that can create additional harmful or helpful effects.
Leywalkers can create portal anchors that allow them to teleport. They also have inherent magic points that they can use to do psychic damage, share with others casters, or use themselves if they are a spellcaster.
Can you use the board game with the RPG? Yes. The Fate counters translate directly. The miniatures will work well and the cards can be used as hand outs of sorts. You will also see magic items, spells, and more make a direct translation from board to RPG. Becoming a slimy, little toad is still a thing.
This RPG is wonderful. It is different enough from both the board game and other fantasy RPGs that I would find new surprises to enjoy. It has its own depth and developed setting. Yet it is also familiar is many ways, with great old school vibes, and in many ways like the board game from which it springs. If anything could bring me back to running a fantasy RPG, Talisman Adventures Fantasy Roleplaying Game would be it. Highly recommended.
I love Talisman the board game. I’ve bought everything for it since second edition and played it consistently over the decades. I even wrote about how to use it as a D&D Adventure Generator Using Talisman the Board Game. I received a free PDF of the RPG to review.
Talisman Adventures FRPG takes everything wonderful about the board game, puts a fairy tale twist on it, and provides a living, breathing world to experience everything in. PCs can go on challenging adventures in a long-term campaign. The RPG is not about one quest to claim the Crown of Command. It is about hundreds of quests for a variety of different reason driven by the PCs. In addition, the game has a real old school feel while maintaining modern design sensibilities. There is alignment, traps, ten levels of advancement, and more.
Everything in Talisman Adventures FRPG is driven by kismet or fate. Player characters have light fate and Game moderators have dark that drive many game mechanics. PCs often have two choices for character advancement with an either or option. If your scout becomes a guide he cannot also become a brigand. Fate, once chosen, leads along different paths. The game uses 3d6 with a kismet die that can create additional harmful or helpful effects.
Ancestries
Talisman has dwarves, elves, humans, and even sprites and trolls. More unusual is the ghoul as a playable character. Unique, however, is the leywalker.A leywalker manifests the inherent magic of the Realm itself. Known as Children of the Portal, the leywalker is deeply connected to the magical webs of magical power that crisscross their world.
Leywalkers can create portal anchors that allow them to teleport. They also have inherent magic points that they can use to do psychic damage, share with others casters, or use themselves if they are a spellcaster.
Alignment
Good, evil, and neutrality are inherent qualities to the Talisman world. A character’s alignment can dictate what magic items they can use. Different places may be dedicated to good or evil with different effects depending on the character’s alignment.No Initiative
Combat flows based on what actions the player characters want to take. Initiative is not hard and fast but instead is fluid based on the circumstances. However, each PC gets to take one turn before any other PC takes a second action.Priests Don’t Use Weapons
Priests can kill using spells. But they take a vow not to use weapons. Some priests lean into this motif and focus on healing. Other priests develop cold hearts and can return the harm others cause them with weapons to a spell they later cast.Prophets Suffer from Visions
Prophets either receive clear visions but suffer if they talk or write clearly about them, or they receive clouded and confusing visions that they can talk about. Either way, prophets know a lot but their lives are messed up.Followers
Strangers and even Enemies can become a Follower. A Follower gives the PC they follow special abilities just like those gained from ancestry or class. Followers have Loyalty that must be maintained. If Loyalty ever falls to 0 for 24 hours, the Follower departs.Random Encounters
Talisman is full of random tables and random encounters to assist the GM in adventure building. Random tables are included for a variety of different circumstances from random benefits a Follower provides to PC aspirations to what monsters are encountered.Can you use the board game with the RPG? Yes. The Fate counters translate directly. The miniatures will work well and the cards can be used as hand outs of sorts. You will also see magic items, spells, and more make a direct translation from board to RPG. Becoming a slimy, little toad is still a thing.
This RPG is wonderful. It is different enough from both the board game and other fantasy RPGs that I would find new surprises to enjoy. It has its own depth and developed setting. Yet it is also familiar is many ways, with great old school vibes, and in many ways like the board game from which it springs. If anything could bring me back to running a fantasy RPG, Talisman Adventures Fantasy Roleplaying Game would be it. Highly recommended.
