Fans of Talisman (the Game, not the Stephen King book) Unite!!!

Cafe Society
1

Does anybody else enjoy the game Talisman, produced by Games Workshop?

Not realizing that the game went out of print some years back, I gave my copy, along with several expansions, to a close friend about seven years ago (Memo to self: No good deed goes unpunished). When I looked to buy another copy a couple of years later, I was told that it was not produced anymore, and that I had better be prepared to spend an arm and both legs for a used copy.

Long story short- I found a copy (reasonably priced) of the 2003 reprint edition on Ebay last week. It arrived yesterday. I am so happy! The gameplay is just how I remembered it. Simple to play, but exciting, challenging, and as fun as all get out. I got Mrs. Consigliori to play, and she loves it, just like every other new player I introduced to Talisman back in the day. And she generally dislikes “fantasy” types of games (she’s the resident Boggle expert). We’re going to play some more as soon as she gets home from work.

I was wondering if any other Dopers are into this game. If so, do you have this 2003 reprint that I have, or the good ol’ 2nd edition that I used to have? If I was lucky enough to score one of the old expansions, do you think it would be somewhat compatible with this edition (I know the artwork is different, but it seems like the gameplay would be supportable)?

If you’re not a Talisman fan, is there an old game that you have rediscovered, or would like to find again?

2

I’ve got a somewhat battered copy of 2nd edition, complete with the Expansion set, Adventure, Dungeon, Timescape, and City. It’s a great game, though it can be overwhelming if you use all the features. I usually leave out the City and sometimes the Dungeon as well. The former has rules that are way too complex, and the latter just isn’t very interesting.

There are a few house rules that make things more enjoyable. For instance, if you play that nobody can ever get more than a +4 advantage in combat it prevents powerful characters from dominating too much toward the end.

It’s also more fun if you incorporate a little roleplaying. You don’t have to make it too involved, but it’s nice if people at least stay true to their alignments. A Good character shouldn’t attack Good or Neutral characters unless provoked.

So, anyone want to come by and play?

3

I have the 2nd edition and most of the expansions – acquired on Ebay for something like $200 total, or a bit above the original prices, about two years ago… which was about a year before the reprint came out. :smack:

I’ve been tempted to get the 3rd edition, as it has the little figures (IIRC) which are pretty cool. With small kids (4 and 5) at home and **Dangerosa ** not much of a boardgame player, I haven’t been able to play it, but it sits there tempting me.

4

I’ve got the 2nd edition boxed set, and the second expansion set, the one with the alternate endings.

Irritates me to no end that you can’t get the expansions any more. Damn you, Games Workshop!!!

5

I used to play Talisman fairly often with fellow gaming geeks, and sessions could last as long as 8 hours. Towards the end, we’d all be hang-dog, and moan “SOMEBODY WIN! PLEASE!!!”

I remember one game where one guy who played the Witch got killed by a strength 1 boar. He screamed at the top of his lungs like a girl, and ran out of the apartment and slammed the door. We heard his tires screeching as he tore out of the parking lot. Then we started with comments like, “Think he got boared?”

6

I’ve got the whole shebang; the game, all the expansions, even the miniatures. I was part of a game playing group about ten years back and Talisman was one of our favorite games. In fact, we ended up creating our own version. We didn’t use the boards; in our game we used a set of tiles to build random boards as the game was played.

is there an old game that you have rediscovered, or would like to find again?
A decade before that, back when I was in college, we played Cosmic Encounters (this was the old Eon version). Another cool game.

7

Oh my! I thought me and my brother were the only people to enjoy this game. Ah, I fondly remember the game where I tried to get rid of the stupid ogre I was allotted, attacking everything that moved and looked vaguely dragon-y. Survived, of course, when usually, just looking at a boar would kill my character. Lots of fun, that game. Anyway…there’s extensions, you say? slinks off to probably spend a fortune on ebay

8

A great game, especially to introduce people toward fantasy role playing. I used to play the first version of the game and never any expansions (other than expansion characters and cards from White Dwarf magazine). The game does benifit from not being played too often, otherwise people get wise to its nuances and games will take many hours to finish.

9

Does anyone else have the house rule that no one can play the Prophetess? I mean, is that special ability broken or what? Hmm, a Dragon or a Bag of Gold, which would I rather encounter in this adventure space. I wonder…

Enjoy,
Steven

10

Yeah, I usually let people play the Prophetess if it’s their very first game, but not after that. Her abilities are totally unbalanced.

It’s also bad form for experienced players to pick powerful characters like the Dwarf, Astronaut, or Monk. Once someone is familiar with the game they should choose something more challenging…though a truly awful one like the Martial Artist might be going too far.

11

Can’t tell from your post if you know this… but…

You lucky devil! Cosmic Encounter (no “s”) is back in print, and also available online.

Cosmicencounter.com

Cosmic Encounter boardgame

Cosmic is one of my alltime favorite games. Richard Garfield, designer of Magic: the Gathering, cites Cosmic as one of his primary influences (and favorite games). I played a lot of Cosmic in college (1984-88).

12

The guy who introduced me to Talisman had a convenient habit of only remembering the rules when he would benefit, until the rest of us managed to get the rulebook out of his hands and prove that some of the things he was doing were just plain cheating, including:

[ul]
[li]Putting the Warhorse in his magic bag (I forget the actual name) so that no one could take it from him, or make him lose it[/li][li]Always choosing the Prophetess and when no one was paying close attention looking a few more cards into the deck… “I’m going to see tham anyway, so what’s the big deal?”[/li][li]He would become the High Mage, take out loans from the bank until he had more gold than he needed, then skip town- avoiding the penalty of becoming a frog by the loophole of being immune as the High Mage[/li][li]Not really cheating, but he was famous for “helping” a new player until they gathered what he wanted, then he would kill them and take all the goodies, usually pissing off the player in question.[/li][/ul]

I lived for seeing him get the Horrible Black Void as his reward.

13

I was going to mention the Monk, but you beat me to it.

I’m straining my brain as hard as I can, but I just can’t remember…what’s so unbalancing about the dwarf? I remember him being a fairly basic character.

-Joe

14

Ouch! The Infamous Horrible Black Void. How could I have forgotten about that damn thing? It was the bane of my existence on more than one occassion <shudder>.

Have not encountered it, yet, in the version I just got. But I have a funny feeling it will pop up at a most inopportune time. I did encounter the Raiders while playing last night, and got to see all my groovy items go to the Oasis, where Mrs. Consigliori scooped them up, laughing all the while.

Bastards.

15

Not us, but we had the house rule that we drew our characters randomly out of the deck at the start of the game. We didn’t see the Prophetess too often.

The ability that caused us to bang our head on the table was the “Always has one spell” or, in the case of the Sprite, 2 spells. Depending on how you ruled that it could be ridiculously powerful and was on something like 2 characters in 10.

16

Channel Bob Marley and sing:
I fought the farmer,
but I did not fight successfully.
Oh no, woooohhhhh

Common refrain at any Talisman table:
Get a Life!

I love this game, and wish I had more expansions for it-- although there are plenty of expansions online, including Dragons. My pal Hammock has every single expansion ever made. The only version worth playing is second edition, IMHO.

But the Horrible black void isn’t a big problem-- it just sends you into the Timescape, after all…

17

He has all the same abilities as the Gnome follower. He only rolls one die on the Portal of Power and two in the Mines. He’s not a particularly strong character in the beginning, but he can get to the endgame a lot faster than others.

18

It’s been years, but I used to play Talisman with a whole bunch of my friends. I think it was first edition, but am not sure. I do remember that my friend had the expansion which introduced Space Marines.

One of my other friends bought the 3rd addition a few years later. It wasn’t quite as good as the older one, but wasn’t quite as crazy either.

19

The only expansion I’m missing is Talisman Dragon. I found a couple of cards posted online ages ago, and it looks great, but I haven’t been able to track down a copy yet.

We had a whole book of house rules for Talisman 2nd edition. Randomly choosing characters, limiting spell use, maximum number of Magic Objects, all kinds of things. If you play with all the expansions, characters can go a long time without encountering each other, and can amass a lot of powerful junk.

We always found that the most unbalanced character was the High Mage, one of the four characters you could ‘become’ in the city. His near-invulnerability to magic was a huge bonus. And IIRC, he could never become a toad.

Ah, Toads. We always took great delight in looking at our unfortunate fellow players and intoning “You are now a slimy little toad!”

But the weirdest little house rule we ever had was this: All games of Talisman are played for a trophy, the Peanut Butter Cup.

You see, we played a game not long after hallowe’en one year, and everybody brought leftover hallowe’en candy to share. Well, we had tonnes of chocolate, more than we could eat. After hours of play, none of us wanted to touch the stuff anymore, and there was this last little peanut butter cup sitting there. My buddy Rob placed it in the centre of the board and declared that the winner had to eat the cup.

When the game was over, Rob had actually won, but instead of eating the treat, he ‘donated’ it back to the game. I gathered it up with the rest of the pieces and stuck it in the box. The next time we payed, we updated the rule: either you ate the cup, or you gave it back.

I still have that Peanut Butter Cup (fortunately, still sealed in it’s wrapper) nearly 15 years later. We played a couple of games just last year, and the rule remained unchanged. You don’t have to give the cup back, but if you keep it, you must eat it.

thwartme