Talisman (board game)

Talisman: The Magical Quest Game was produced by Games Workshop. It is a fantasy themed board game for two to six players. The game was first released in 1983 and has gone through several revisions. While the most current revision is the Third Edition (1994), the Second Edition was available longer and more popular than the Third Edition. All versions of Talisman are currently out of print. The game (especially the Third Edition) is loosely connected to Games Workshop's Warhammer Fantasy setting.

First Edition

The first edition of Talisman was nearly identical to the Second Edition: the differences between the two are purely cosmetic. See the discussion of the second edition below for information on this version of the game.

Second Edition

The object of the game is to progress through a series of regions and reach the Crown of Command. The game contains three regions: the Outer Region, the Middle Region and the Inner Region. Players start in the Outer Region and try to progress inward. The Inner Region contains the Crown of Command. To reach the Crown of Command, players must pass through the Valley of Fire. A talisman is required to do this, hence the name of the game.

Each player selects a character, or "hero," at random at the beginning of the game. Each character has different special abilities and a set location in which to begin. Each character has several attributes: Life, Gold, Strength and Craft. Each character begins with four lives and one gold. Strength and Craft are used for two different kinds of combat: physical combat and psychic combat. One of the main goals of the game is to build up a character so it is strong enough to venture inward, eventually to the Crown of Command. Once at the Crown, a character can cast the Command Spell causing opponents to lose one life each time it is successfully cast.

Game play consists of players rolling a die and moving about the regions. At each location in the regions, the board indicates what takes place. Some locations have set events or encounters, some are random. Many locations indicate to draw a number of Adventure cards. These cards contain numerous events. Some indicate the character has met an enemy who must be fought, some indicate that the character has found an object or magic object or received a bag of gold. All these events help build up the character.

Building up the character is one of the game's main activities. This can involve gaining followers, increasing in Strength and Craft, gaining and casting spells, gaining lives, obtaining gold and acquiring objects and magic objects. One magic object a character must eventually possess is a talisman, which allows the character to pass through the Valley of Fire, a portal to the Inner Region.

Second Edition Expansions

Throughout its history, Games Workshop released several expansions for the game. These include:

Talisman Expansion Set: added new spells, adventure cards, and heroes
Talisman The Adventure: added cards, heroes, replacements for the Crown of Command, rules clarifications, character sheets, and additional slotted bases for up to 12 players
Talisman Dungeon: added the Dungeon board, cards, heroes and FAQ
Talisman City: added the City board, cards, heroes and character upgrade classes
Talisman Timescape: added the Timescape board, cards, heroes, updated rules clarifications and updated FAQ (loosely based on the Warhammer 40,000 science fiction setting)
Talisman Dragon: added dragon-related cards and heroes. It contained 87 new Adventure cards (including 20 new dragons and wyverns to encounter), 4 new Character cards (Dragon Priest, Dragonrider, Dragon Slayer, and Questing Knight), as well as four new character stands, a simple rule sheet, and a Dragon King card.

Each expansion added new locations/regions, characters and Adventure cards to the game. Some added new spells, objects and magic objects. Some even allowed characters the opportunity to bypass the Valley of Fire and be transported directly to the Inner Region or the Crown of Command.

Third Edition

Games Workshop released the Third Edition for Talisman in the spring of 1994. The Third Edition contained a new board which included many of the same locations as the Second Edition, but had a totally new art treatment. The Inner Region was removed in this edition, replaced with The Wizard's Tower. In the Tower, heroes encounter numerous traps and tests via new Tower cards on their way to the Crown of Command. In the Third Edition, just reaching the Crown of Command wins the game.

The Second Edition used cards to represent the characters in the game. The cards were placed on plastic bases (called "slotta bases") and moved about the board as the game was played. Paintable lead miniature figures for the characters could be purchased separately. The Third Edition did away with the stand-up character cards and instead included plastic miniatures. It removed many characters from the Second Edition and added new ones. This edition also added an additional character attribute, Experience, to make it more like a role-playing game.

Third Edition Expansions

City of Adventure: added the City board, cards, heroes and character upgrade classes; based loosely on the Talisman City expansion available for the second edition
Dungeon of Doom: added 2 additional game boards and was based loosely on the expansion Talisman Dungeon for the second edition
Dragon's Tower: added a playing board, a dragon model and card tower, extra rules, a die and additional characters

Legacy

Despite being out of print for years, Talisman continues to be a popular game among many loyal fans. There are several active communities for the game on the Internet and many individuals have produced their own versions of the game. Many have produced custom expansions, complete with custom Adventure cards, characters and objects.

It was rumored (November 2002) that Games Workshop would re-release the game in a limited printing, featuring only the main board. This game was released in April 2003. The suggested retail price of the Talisman box set was US$75.00. Games Workshop then unofficially announced that they are done with the game and do not plan on manufacturing it or any of its components ever again.

International Editions

Talisman was translated into several languages: Finnish (2nd Edition), French (2nd and 3rd Edition), German (2nd and 3rd Edition), Italian (2nd Edition), Czech (2nd Edition), Slovak (2nd Edition), Hebrew (1st and 2nd Edition), Swedish (1st and 2nd Edition), and Polish (2nd Edition). All save the last were only translations of the original game.

The Hebrew Edition (Israel)

The Hebrew edition was published by Meytzuvin Israel. It was published in both 1st and 2nd edition.

Even years after Meytzuv went bankrupt, the game is still played by many fans in Israel. During the Champions' Hall 2nd convention—ChampsCon 2006—it was described as one of the greatest board games in RPG history and was the most popular uncirculated board games played in the convention.

The Polish Edition

The Polish edition, published in 1991 by Sfera as Magia i Miecz (Sword and Sorcery) was based on 2nd edition rules, and was the only edition with new artwork for all cards (which many people consider better than the original one). All 2nd Edition expansions were translated, although some were bundled together (Talisman Expansion cards came together with the main set, and The Adventure cards with Dungeon). Furthermore, the Polish edition had one additional expansion, Jaskinia (The Cave), with a new board, cards and heroes. The Cave had some tough monsters and only very advanced heroes could think of going inside.

The Magic Sword

When Sfera lost the Talisman license from Games Workshop, they published a clone of the game: Magiczny Miecz (The Magic Sword). The main board was changed (it had four regions, and The Beast, copy of the Dragon King alternate ending, instead of the Crown of Command), the heroes and cards were different (although many were just copies of the original ones with changed names), and the terminology was changed (event cards instead of adventure cards, sorcery cards instead of spell cards, etc.). The Magic Sword had all new graphics (no images from the Polish Talisman were kept, except for the re-edition of Cave, as all expansions were re-released under new names) which wasn't received very well as compared to Talisman. Magic Sword also had one more board, Krypta upiorów (The Crypt of Wraiths), with some interesting innovations.

Magic Sword wasn't very well received by Talisman fans, although it appealed to many new players. Later, a second edition of this game, with improved graphics, was released (this time only the main set).

External links

The Talisman FAQ
An HTML version of the Talisman Second Edition rules
Information on Talisman Second Edition and most of its expansions
The history of Talisman from its creator, Bob Harris
A flowchart of a turn in the game
Open Directory Project: Talisman
About the Polish Edition
A full breakdown of the Contents of Talisman 2nd Edition
A full breakdown of the Contents of Talisman 3rd Edition
Forum group

Talisman | Fantasy board games | Adventure board games

Talisman (Brettspiel) | Talisman (jeu) | Magia i miecz (gra) | Talisman (brädspel)

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