Talisman, 4th Edition

My incomparable teenhood friend, Joe Tkach, not only introduced me to D&D (Dungeons & Dragons to the uninitiated), he exposed me to dozens of engaging and thought-provoking wargames and board games. One of these was my favorite, Talisman. A light fantasy role-playing game, Talisman had most of the aspects of D&D, but in a board game format, so it was easier and faster to set up and play than even a "light" game of D&D. Plus it had a colorful illustrations and imaginative locales and characters that kept us enraptured for hours.

• Hail! The Second Edition
• And it Expandeth!
• The Turd Third Edition
• My Video Game version
• The Fourth Edition
• Conclusion
• Update

The cover of the Second Edition of Talisman.

Joe had the Second Edition of Talisman , the latest version available in the mid-1980s. I'm not going to go into the details of the game here, but I want to give a brief overview of what makes this game so great.

The characters are provided with their statistics and other information on small cards. Each player selects one at random. Characters like the Troll, the Elf, the Sorceress, the Prophetess and the Dwarf all have different characteristics, strengths and weaknesses. The characters have corresponding playing pieces to be used on the game board. Characters start out with fair attributes (Strength, Craft, Lives and Gold), but they can be augmented over the course of the game.

Joe's four-fold game board quickly wore out due to our heavy use. It's divided into three realms seperated from each other. The largest, the "Outer Region," is the easiest. The "Middle" and "Inner Regions" are harder and only to be attempted by stronger characters. Moving about the board is determined by the roll of one six-sided die and, unlike most board games, with each roll the player can decide which way they wish to travel, clockwise or counter-clockwise. Each space dictates what happens to those who land on it. Sometimes it is something specific ("If you are good, gain one life. If you are evil, lose one life"), something random ("roll a die to see if you are lost"), but most require picking an Adventure card. These cards dictate what actually happens in the game. Sometimes the players encounter monsters, such as dragons or ogres, but sometimes they'll uncover bags of gold, meet healers or find magic shrines. It's all in the pile of Adventure cards, waiting to be found!

The Middle region is similar to the Outer, just with harder spaces. For example, one doesn't allow spells or magic bonuses, another requires drawing more Adventure cards. But its most important aspect is that it has the gateway to the Inner region.

To enter the Inner region requires an eponymous Talisman. The Inner region has specific challenges that are difficult for any character, no matter what their attributes. But at the end of the Inner region lies the Crown of Command. The Crown allows a player to cast the Command Spell at other Adventurers. "Command Spell" is kind of a misnomer. It should really be called the "Kill Spell" since—if successful—it destroys one life from a player (players start with four, but may lose and gain some along the way). Usually, a player reaching the Crown of Command was enough to win the game. But occasionally someone else would reach it soon after the first player, and they'd have to duke it out via hand-to-hand combat over who got the Crown. Fun, fun, fun!

Talisman after a few turns of play. The Minstrel has several objects and a follower.

But it gets even better. Joe also had several expansion boards for Talisman, like The Dungeon, The City and Talisman Timescape. They were all good, but my favorite is probably Timescape, with sci-fi twists and the awesome playable character, the Chainsaw Warrior! Dungeon offered different playing rules and Adventure had alternate endings, such as the Horrible Black Void and Pandora's Box. Each added new playable characters.

Talisman is a hard game, and often players die through no fault of their own, even with four lives to play with. Because of this, Talisman has a rule I haven't seen before or since. If a player's character dies, they can pick another and hop back in the game, as long as no one has already reached the Crown of Command.

By the time I got around to buying my own copy of Talisman (Joe had upped and joined the Army, so I couldn't use his copy anymore), Games Workshop had changed over to a four piece board with interlocking segments, like a large jigsaw puzzle. I guess other players had the same problem we did—the board eventually wore out along the folds. The four jigsaw boards are never perfectly flat, so playing a game on it is like a trying to eat a meal on a wobbly table. Pieces get moved around if one board touches another just right, but crappy Talisman is better than no Talisman. I eventually was able to track down one expansion, The Adventure, and shuffled it into the main game (Joe was an expert at keeping all his expansion separate). Beyond that, however, I couldn't find any of the other expansions. Games Workshop stopped printing the game around 1990 or so and game stores didn't have anymore stock.

Understandably, I was excited when The Third Edition came out. It was bigger and looked awesome from the box. The box was also HUGE, almost twice as big as the Second Edition box. It also cost a lot more, but that was understandable, it was so big! I got it home, opened it up... and was sorely disappointed. The box was so big because they only folded the board over once, instead of four times. They changed most of the characters, apparently trying to align them with their Warhammer franchise. And instead of cheesy die-cut pieces for the players, they had cheesy plastic figures, suitable for painting. But what disappointed me the most was the artwork on the gameboard. It was horrible! The Second Edition artwork was beautifully detailed and lovingly painted. The Third Edition board was dark, stark and cartoonish. I didn't want to play on a board that looked like that!

But I decided to give it a shot. Perhaps the gameplay would make up for the visual suckiness. They had altered the rules as well. Now players gained "Experience" like in a traditional RPG and instead of cheesy cardboard chits, attributes were tracked with colored plastic cones. I don't remember who I played with initially (I think I roped my brother and nephew into playing), but it sucked. It wasn't engaging. It wasn't fun. It was awkward. They totally trashed the game. They came out with a couple of expansions, but I wasn't interested in them. I couldn't bear to play the base game itself.

So, from then on, whenever I played, it was with the Second Edition. Without Joe around, though, finding playing partners was hard. My sexy wife is great company, but doesn't care for fantasy board games. Eventually I had a kid or two and wrangled them into playing. My oldest son, Curtis, loves it, of course, and even my five-year old is mature enough to play (with help).

My concept for Talisman as a video game, dating all the way back to Windows 3.1!

After becoming a rock-star game programmer, I decided to make a computer version of the game. It would take care of most of the mechanics that could make playing the game tedious, like keeping track of attributes with little chits and adding bonuses at just the right time. I had interest from other developers I met through the years (Gary Strawn and Dave Galloway for example), but it never got very far. I had the whole design in my head, but the artwork and lack of time outside of work doomed the various attempts I made. The version I wanted to make would have to have all the bells and whistles, nothing less would do! Players would be able to play by the official rules or their own custom "house rules." They'd have the option of playing the Second Edition or the suckalicious Third Edition. And, over time, I'd release DLL's and additional art packs and features with the expansions. But because of my high standards, I'd have to devote more time to it, and I just liked my family too much to abandon my time with them to work on a hobby game.

But in 2006 I heard rumblings that Games Workshop was thinking about reviving the series. I was surprised since everything I had heard up to that point was that Games Workshop was embarrassed about the game since it wasn't a "hardcore RPG" like their Warhammer and Warhammer 40K games. But with a little research, I found out it was true. An imprint of Games Workshop called Black Industries was working on developing the Fourth Edition. And better yet, it would be based on the Second Edition and not the suckish Third Edition!

The game board for the Fourth Edition is a true work of art.

I watched their website heavily, tracked the release date and downloaded the sample artwork. It looked great! When it was finally released, I eagerly ordered mine (a brand new copy from eBay) and anxiously awaited its arrival. It arrived, still in its virgin plastic wrap. Curtis and I rabidly—but reverently—tore into the new game. It was everything we had hoped, and more. The game board is the popular folding type like Joe had, but is folded six times because it's so big. It must 50% larger than the original game. And the artwork is gorgeous! It looks like the entire board is one, large painting. And once again, it comes with the cheesy cardboard character cut-outs that I came to love originally. Everything is much higher-quality than both previous editions—durable and beautiful.

The rules are almost identical to the Second Edition, with some balancing that that edition sorely lacked. It contains the same characters with new, updated artwork. And—bonus!—I also learned that Games Workshop commissioned a video game version of the game! Its release was supposed to coincide with the board game's release. It's been delayed—no surprise—and is now slated for an April release. It's being developed by a new developer called Big Rooster in Madison, Wisconsin. Video game release delays are nothing new (and believe me, being a rock-star game programmer myself, I know why they happen), but if its delay makes the game super great—as good as I would've made it—it'll be worth the wait! From the screenshots, it looks promising, but with modern video games, it's hard to judge from static images. You really need to see the game in action to make a judgment. I'll review it when it comes out.

In short, the Fourth Edition of Talisman is a worthy descendent of the venerable Second Edition. It shines above all predecessors and is still as engaging and fun as its grandparent. For any fans of the previous versions of Talisman, I know you'll find the Fourth Edition a worthy addition to your game collection. If you haven't played the previous Second Edition, but like fantasy and board games, you'll also find plenty to like in this new installment of this classic game.

A lot has happened since the Fourth Edition was released. First, Games Workshop killed their board game imprint, Black Industries. They sold the Talisman imprint to Fantasy Flight Games. Fantasy Flight apparently wasn't completley satisfied with Talisman's rules, so they made some changes to the new Fourth Edition. Not wanting to abandon's any early buyers of Black Industry's version, they released an Upgrade Pack to convert that old copy of Talisman to their "sanctioned" version.

I got the Upgrade pack after putting it off for a while. I procrastinated getting it so long that it went out of print before I could get it, so I bought a copy off of eBay (just like how I got the game). The Upgrade pack replaces all the Adventure cards, Spell cards and characters. It comes with new, larger, character cards and plastic figures for the characters, instead of the cards and "slotto bases" it originally came with. Some aspects of the character's abilities are changed with the new, bigger cards. It also introduces an aspect called Fate that lets a player re-roll a really crappy roll, which is a welcome introduction (sometimes one crappy roll can ruin your whole game). Fate gets used up when you re-roll for anything and can get replenished in various ways throughout the game. The upgrade pack also changes some rules and the wording on some of the spaces on the board. Of course, the upgrade pack can't replace board spaces, so you just have to remember what spaces were changed, and how. They also slightly tweaked the rules. In all, however, Fantasy Flight's changes were all good. But it would actually be better to buy their print of the game rather than the original Fourth Edition from Games Workshop as I did.

So they didn't ruin the game. Kudos to Fantasy Flight for that.

Fantasy Flight is also moving forward with the promised expansions that Black Industries promised. Kudos again! As of this writing (November 2009), three expansions have been released, none of which I own (I've been busy, okay?). They are:

• The Reaper
• The Dungeon
• The Frostmarch

The Reaper adds a random "Reaper" (the Grim Reaper) NPC to the game. From what I understand, he can—on some ordered schedule—jump out and kill a character. How is that fun? I don't know. I assume it's fun or they wouldn't have added it.

The Dungeon adds the Dungeon that old-school Talisman fans are familiar with. But FFG has changed it significantly. Apparently, someone named "the Lord of Darkness" lives down there now. Booga, booga, booga, booga!

The Frostmarch adds someone called the "Ice Queen" to the realm (isn't she supposed to be in Narnia?). Apparently, she's turning everything into ice and the players have to either stop her, run away from her or get to the Crown of Command before she can. Something like that.

These expansion are in and out and in stock again all the time, so if you can't find it from their website (linked above), you might have to try your luck on eBay. As of this writing, the Upgrade Pack is back in stock, but The Reaper and The Dungeon are out of stock.

The expansions I'm looking forward to are The City and The Timescape (if they ever come out). Both were my favorites as a teen, and were like adding entirely new games within the game. Playing with both expansions, one game could take six hours or more to play—woo-hoo! I may pick up one of the other expansions, if I win the lottery or something, but they aren't high on my priority list. My boys probably want them more than I do. If I pick one up, I'll review it here. In the meantime, you can check out their reviews on BoardGameGeek.com.

Next, the video game version of the game was canned. Apparently Big Rooster did a really poor version of the game—Games Workshop called it a "misfire"—and Games Workshop killed it. This was a disappointment, but I really don't know what Big Rooster was developing. If it was a piece of garbage, killing it was a Good Thing™. But if it was good, it was a loss to the gaming world. But I guess we'll never know. At least this clears the way for me to finish my version of Talisman (yeah, that'll happen).

What I really need is for Joe Tkach to visit us and play some Talisman. Playing with Joe is a very different experience than playing with my boys. The boys get upset if I try to kill them or have the audacity to actually win. Playing with Joe, treachery is part of the fun!