''Talisman: The Magical Quest Game'' is a

fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction involving magical elements, typically set in a fictional universe and sometimes inspired by mythology and folklore. Its roots are in oral traditions, which then became fantasy literature and drama ...

-themed

adventure board game An adventure board game is a board game in which a player plays as a unique individual character that improves through gameplay. This improvement is commonly reflected in terms of increasing character attributes, but also in receiving new abilitie ...

for two to six players, originally designed and produced by

Games Workshop Games Workshop Group (often abbreviated as GW) is a British manufacturer of miniature wargames, based in Nottingham, England. Its best-known products are '' Warhammer Age of Sigmar'' and '' Warhammer 40,000''. Founded in 1975 by John Peake, ...

. The game was first released in 1983 and has gone through three revisions. As of 2021, the fourth edition (2008) is the latest version. The board game sold over 800,000 units by 2000. From 2008 to 2017

Fantasy Flight Games Fantasy Flight Games (FFG) is a game company based in Roseville, Minnesota, United States, that creates and publishes role-playing, board, card, and dice games. As of 2014, it is a subsidiary of Asmodée Éditions. History Fantasy Flight Publi ...

produced ''Talisman'' under license from Games Workshop. Beginning in 2019 Pegasus Spiele took over production of ''Talisman'' and all of the game expansions.

History

The game was created by Robert Harris for the amusement of himself and his friends. The game's original objective was to become

prefect Prefect (from the Latin ''praefectus'', substantive adjectival form of ''praeficere'': "put in front", meaning in charge) is a magisterial title of varying definition, but essentially refers to the leader of an administrative area. A prefect's ...

of a boys' school. Changing the theme to fantasy, and naming the game "Talisman", Harris signed a royalty publishing contract with Games Workshop, and the game was shown at

Games Day Games Day is a yearly run gaming convention sponsored by Games Workshop. It was started in 1975, after another games convention scheduled for August that year cancelled. Games Workshop decided to fill the resulting gap by running a gaming day of ...

1983. After releasing the third edition, Games Workshop bought out his remaining interest. The primary object of the game is to reach the Crown of Command at the centre of the board. The game contains three regions: Outer, Middle, and Inner. Players start in the Outer Region and try to progress to the Inner Region, through the Valley of Fire, and claim the Crown of Command. The game's name, "Talisman", refers to the rule that only characters possessing a Talisman card may enter the Valley of Fire.

First and second edition

Gameplay begins by selecting a character, or "hero", at the beginning of the game. All characters have the attributes of Life, Strength, and Craft; all characters start with four

lives Lives may refer to: * The plural form of a ''life'' * Lives, Iran, a village in Khuzestan Province, Iran * The number of lives in a video game * ''Parallel Lives'', aka ''Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans'', a series of biographies of famous m ...

and one

bag of gold A money bag (or money sack) is a bag normally used to hold and transport coins and banknotes, often closed with a drawstring.Gary Chalk, were colourized, and the game board was changed from a single folded unit to four interlocking pieces. The box art also used a painting by Chris Achilleos instead of a pen-and-ink drawing.

Expansions

Games Workshop released several expansions for the game. Each expansion added new locations, characters, and Adventure cards to the game, while some added new spells and 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. The first, ''Talisman Expansion Set'', was released in 1986, followed by ''

Talisman The Adventure Talisman The Adventure is a 1986 expansion to the '' Talisman'' board game, both produced by Games Workshop. ''The Adventure'', which requires the original Second Edition board game, is incompatible with and has no counterpart for the Third E ...

'' which gave rules clarifications, alternate endings, character sheets, and additional slotted bases for up to 12 players. The third expansion set, '' Talisman Dungeon'', was released in 1987 and added a second "dungeon" board to be placed alongside the main ''Talisman'' game board. The dungeon is laid out in a spiral pattern, leading to the Treasure Chamber in the centre. Some spells and character abilities are nullified or altered within the dungeon. Players encounter dungeon entrances on the main ''Talisman'' board, and, having entered the dungeon, navigate its traps and creatures to reach the fabulous treasure at its centre. On their next turn after reaching the Treasure Chamber, players are transported back to a location on the main board determined by a die roll. ''Dungeon'' can be played without the main game board by starting at the entrance to the dungeon and racing to the centre, with the first to arrive declared the winner. ''Talisman Timescape'', loosely based on the ''

Warhammer 40,000 ''Warhammer 40,000'' is a miniature wargame produced by Games Workshop. It is the most popular miniature wargame in the world, and is particularly popular in the United Kingdom. The first edition of the rulebook was published in September 1987 ...

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imagination, imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, Paral ...

setting, was released in 1988. The Timescape added a new board, representing a linked chain of different dimensions, as well as new heroes and objects with a science-fiction theme. Characters may enter the Timescape by encountering a Warp Gate, stumbling upon the Horrible Black Void, or by visiting special people such as the Enchantress or the Warlock. Characters cannot encounter each other while in the Timescape—they have been teleported to an entirely different reality. To move, players roll a die and consult a table to see where they are drawn to next. The next expansion, '' Talisman City'', was released in 1989, and replaces the single "city" space (in the Outer Region on the ''Talisman'' board) with an entire "city" board. Within the new city region there are more places to visit and additional items to purchase. Characters can have arrest warrant served on them in the City, either for having no gold or for fighting. If a character with a warrant encounters the City Patrol or Watch, they will be arrested and taken prisoner. The final expansion, ''Talisman Dragons'', was released in 1993 and added dragon-related cards and heroes.

Reception

Andy Blakeman reviewed ''Talisman'' for '' Imagine'' magazine, and stated that "Obviously, this is a luck game, and the amount of luck required is sometimes very frustrating. However, quite an epic fantasy atmosphere builds up around the game, and it plays efficiently and cleanly. If you like fantasy boardgames, then this is quite a good example." In the April 1984 edition of ''

White Dwarf A white dwarf is a stellar core remnant composed mostly of electron-degenerate matter. A white dwarf is very dense: its mass is comparable to the Sun's, while its volume is comparable to the Earth's. A white dwarf's faint luminosity comes ...

'' (Issue 52), Alan Paull liked the high quality of the game components, but thought that games went on for far too long, and winning seemed to be a matter of luck. Paull gave the game a below-average rating of 6 out of 10, concluding, "''Talisman'' is not a bad game. If it was shorter, it would make an enjoyable family game." In the March–April 1985 edition of ''

The Space Gamer ''The Space Gamer'' was a magazine dedicated to the subject of science fiction and fantasy board games and tabletop role-playing games. It quickly grew in importance and was an important and influential magazine in its subject matter from the la ...

'' (Issue No. 73), Matthew Costello commented that "This is an ideal fantasy game for your non-gaming friends or relatives. There's enough familiar 'boardgame' here so that they'll be comfortable, but ''Talisman'' adds subtle and challenging elements from the FRP world." In the December 1993 edition of ''Dragon'' (Issue 200),

Allen Varney Allen Varney (born 1958) is an American writer and game designer. Varney has produced numerous books, role-playing game supplements, technical manuals, articles, reviews, columns, and stories, as well as the fantasy novel ''Cast of Fate'' ( TSR, ...

considered ''Talisman'' a classic, calling it "a nutty romp that calls for lots of luck, a laid-back attitude, and tolerance for getting turned into a toad. You won’t believe how often this game toadifies you." ''Talisman'' was chosen for inclusion in the 2007 book '' Hobby Games: The 100 Best''.

Shane Lacy Hensley Shane Lacy Hensley is an author, game designer, and CEO of Pinnacle Entertainment Group and is a resident of Gilbert, Arizona. Career Shane Lacy Hensley was from Clintwood, Virginia, and began playing '' Dungeons & Dragons'' after he discovere ...

commented that the very name of ''Talisman'' "conjures a smile – if not a nerdish giggle – from most thirty-something gamers as they recall countless high school and college days playing this simple and addictive game."

Reviews

*''

Different Worlds ''Different Worlds'' was an American role-playing games magazine published from 1979 to 1987. Scope ''Different Worlds'' published support articles, scenarios, and variants for various role-playing games including ''Dungeons & Dragons'', '' Ru ...

'' #44 * ''

Casus Belli A (; ) is an act or an event that either provokes or is used to justify a war. A ''casus belli'' involves direct offenses or threats against the nation declaring the war, whereas a ' involves offenses or threats against its ally—usually one ...

'' #34 (Aug 1986) *''

Asimov's Science Fiction ''Asimov's Science Fiction'' is an American science fiction magazine which publishes science fiction and fantasy named after science fiction author Isaac Asimov. It is currently published by Penny Publications. From January 2017, the publicatio ...

'' v9 n5 (1985 05) *''

Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine ''Asimov's Science Fiction'' is an American science fiction magazine which publishes science fiction and fantasy named after science fiction author Isaac Asimov. It is currently published by Penny Publications. From January 2017, the publication ...

'' *''

Jeux & Stratégie ''Jeux'' (''Games'') is a ballet written by Claude Debussy. Described as a "poème dansé" (literally a "danced poem"), it was written for Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes with choreography by Vaslav Nijinsky. Debussy initially objected to the ...

'' #41

Third Edition

The third edition made numerous changes to the artistic design and mechanics of the game. 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 first and second editions, but had a new art treatment. The Inner Region became ''The Wizard's Tower''. In the Tower, the heroes encounter a couple of traps and tests, through a set of Tower cards, before combat with the Dragon King, who must be defeated to win the game. The first and second editions 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 metal 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 which tied the world of ''Talisman'' more closely to the ''Warhammer Fantasy'' settings games. The Third edition also added an additional character attribute, Experience, not unlike a

role-playing game A role-playing game (sometimes spelled roleplaying game, RPG) is a game in which players assume the roles of player character, characters in a fictional Setting (narrative), setting. Players take responsibility for acting out these roles within ...

to help the character develop their powers. By defeating enemies (hostile monsters, but not other player characters), the characters accrue experience points. The experience they gain is equal to the defeated enemies' craft or strength. These experience points can then be redeemed for gold, strength, craft or life at the cost of seven experience points for one. The earlier editions used a similar, but more limited feature which applied to strength.

Expansions

Three expansions were released and some extra characters were printed through ''White Dwarf'' magazine. Each of the expansions used "realm dice" (a die marked from 1-4) which made movement slower in the realms. The realms were normally accessible from only one square on the main board. The first expansion, ''City of Adventure'', was released in 1994 added two boards: the City board (based on, but more compact than, the 2nd Edition ''Talisman City'' expansion) and a Forest realm. ''Dungeon of Doom'' was released later in 1994 and added 2 additional game boards: a "Dungeon realm" and a "Mountain realm" which fit around the 2 corners of the original board not used by the ''City of Adventure'' expansion. It was based loosely on the expansion ''Talisman Dungeon'' for the Second Edition. At the end of the Mountain realm and Dungeon realms there were valuable treasures; reaching and defeating the Eagle King of the Mountain realm entitled the player to move to any square on the board, including the causeway that connected the Wizard's Tower to the middle board. The 1995 expansion pack, ''Dragon's Tower'' added a playing board, a card tower surmounted by a dragon model, extra rules, a realm die and four additional characters. Two extra characters were printed in ''White Dwarf'' to coincide with its release. The Dragon's Tower replaced the normal endgame of entering the centre square. Movement through the tower is slower (a die marked only 1-4 is used) and used its own deck of adventure cards.

Reviews

*''Rollespilsmagasinet Fønix'' (Danish) (Issue 4 - September/October 1994)

Fourth Edition

On January 8, 2007, Black Industries (an imprint of Games Workshop's publishing division,

BL Publishing BL Publishing was a division of Games Workshop, and was split into three sections: * The Black Library publishes novels, art books, background books and graphic novels set in the Warhammer Fantasy world and the Warhammer 40,000 universe. Black Li ...

) announced the launch of a new edition of ''Talisman'', which was released on the confirmed release date of October 5, 2007. This new edition is based around the second edition, incorporating some rule revisions from the Third, as well as a larger six-piece board. The game board is about 30% larger than the second edition board and has an art treatment in-line with contemporary fantasy role-playing games from Games Workshop. The game comes with 14 playable characters: Priest, Monk, Prophetess, Minstrel, Elf, Wizard, Sorceress, Assassin, Ghoul, Warrior, Thief, Druid, Dwarf, and Troll. At the GAMA Trade Show, it was announced that there would be expansions, but no details were provided at that time. A few copies of the fourth edition were sold at the Games Day 2007 on September 23, 2007. Numerous images of the pre-production version of the game were posted on

Board Game Geek BoardGameGeek (BGG) is an online forum for board gaming hobbyists and a game database that holds reviews, images and videos for over 125,600 different tabletop games, including European-style board game A Eurogame, also called a German-sty ...

before its general release on October 5, 2007.

Revised Fourth Edition

On 28 January 2008 Black Industries announced that they would no longer be publishing board games, including ''Talisman''. On 22 February 2008,

announced that they would be taking over the license for ''Talisman'', continuing to produce the 4th edition and its expansions. Fantasy Flight Games published the ''Talisman Revised 4th Edition'' on 17 December 2008, as well as an upgrade pack with updated cards and miniatures for people who bought the original 4th edition.

Expansions

Through 2016, Fantasy Flight produced numerous expansions to Talisman. Most came with new characters and one or more new endings for the game.

Video game versions

A version of the game for the

ZX Spectrum The ZX Spectrum () is an 8-bit home computer that was developed by Sinclair Research. It was released in the United Kingdom on 23 April 1982, and became Britain's best-selling microcomputer. Referred to during development as the ''ZX81 Colou ...

computer was released in 1985. In 2007,

Capcom is a Japanese video game developer and publisher. It has created a number of multi-million-selling game franchises, with its most commercially successful being '' Resident Evil'', '' Monster Hunter'', '' Street Fighter'', '' Mega Man'', '' ...

announced plans to release a version of ''Talisman'' for the

PlayStation Network PlayStation Network (PSN) is a digital media entertainment service provided by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Launched in November 2006, PSN was originally conceived for the PlayStation video game consoles, but soon extended to encompass smar ...

Xbox Live Arcade Xbox Live Arcade (XBLA) is a digital video game download service available through the Xbox Games Store, Microsoft's digital distribution network for the Xbox 360. It focuses on smaller downloadable games from both major publishers and independen ...

, and Microsoft Windows platforms. This product was originally to coincide with the release of the Fourth Edition of the board game (Q4 2007), but on October 12, 2008, Capcom's Senior Director of Strategic Planning announced the cessation of development, due to a "misfire" and the costs of transferring the project to new developers. He stated that the rights to ''Talisman'' had reverted to Games Workshop. On November 15, 2012, Nomad Games Ltd released ''Talisman Prologue'', a single-player video game version of ''Talisman''. On February 12, 2014 a multiplayer version of the game called ''Talisman: Digital Edition'' was released on

Steam Steam is a substance containing water in the gas phase, and sometimes also an aerosol of liquid water droplets, or air. This may occur due to evaporation or due to boiling, where heat is applied until water reaches the enthalpy of vaporizat ...

by Nomad Games and later ported to the

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and

Nintendo Switch The is a hybrid video game console developed by Nintendo and released worldwide in most regions on March 3, 2017. The console itself is a tablet that can either be docked for use as a home console or used as a portable device, making it a ...

, along with Android and iOS mobile devices.

Legacy

There are several active communities for the game on the Internet and many individuals have produced their own versions of the game, featuring custom expansions complete with custom Adventure cards, characters and objects.

Random Games In common usage, randomness is the apparent or actual lack of pattern or predictability in events. A random sequence of events, symbols or steps often has no order and does not follow an intelligible pattern or combination. Individual rand ...

attempted to convert ''Talisman'' into a Microsoft Windows

video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device to gener ...

. However, they lost support from their

publisher Publishing is the activity of making information, literature, music, software and other content available to the public for sale or for free. Traditionally, the term refers to the creation and distribution of printed works, such as books, newsp ...

and could not find another before they went out of business. An unofficial Talisman video game was released in July 2008 but has since been taken down after Games Workshop asserted its intellectual property rights. In 2012, Fantasy Flight Games announced

Relic In religion, a relic is an object or article of religious significance from the past. It usually consists of the physical remains of a saint or the personal effects of the saint or venerated person preserved for purposes of veneration as a tang ...

, a board game using the ''Talisman'' rules system and set in Games Workshop's Warhammer 40,000 universe, available in early 2013. ''Talisman: Batman'' was released in 2019, allowing players to play as several members of Batman's rogues gallery attempting to escape from

Arkham Asylum The Elizabeth Arkham Asylum for the Criminally Insane (), commonly referred to as Arkham Asylum, is a fictional psychiatric hospital/prison, named after the city of Arkham which appeared first in the stories of H. P. Lovecraft, and later appear ...

International editions

''Talisman'' was translated into several languages: Finnish (2nd Edition), French (1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th revised Edition),

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

(2nd, 3rd and 4th revised Edition), Italian (2nd and 4th revised Edition), Czech (2nd Edition and 4th revised Edition), Slovak (2nd Edition),

Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

(1st, 2nd and 4th Edition), Swedish (1st and 2nd Edition),

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Poles, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken *Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin screenwr ...

(2nd and 4th Edition), and Hungarian (4th Edition). All save the Polish were only translations of the original game.

Hebrew Edition

The

edition was published by Meytzuv in

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

. It was published in both 1st and 2nd edition. Years after Meytzuv went bankrupt, the game was republished by Lemada and is still played by many fans in Israel. During the Champions' Hall 2nd convention – ChampsCon 2006. In 2015, Monkey Time, the distributor of Fantasy Flight Games in Israel, translated the 4th revised edition of the game and will publish it instead of the 2nd edition still in the stores in Israel.

Polish Edition

The Polish edition, published in 1989 by BPiRF Sfera (Biuro Promocji i Reklamy Fantastyki Sfera) company as ''Magia i Miecz'' (''Magic and Sword'') was based on 1st edition rules, and was the only edition with new artwork for all cards. 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. 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", a 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 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). Revised 4th Edition was translated and published in Poland under a name: ''Talisman. Magia i Miecz'', owing to popularity of the ''Magia i Miecz'' in 1990s.

Popular culture

In several episodes of the television show ''

The Big Bang Theory ''The Big Bang Theory'' is an American television sitcom created by Chuck Lorre and Bill Prady, both of whom served as executive producers on the series, along with Steven Molaro, all of whom also served as head writers. It premiered on CBS ...

'', some of the main characters can be seen playing ''Talisman'' (4th Edition) in Sheldon and Leonard's living room.

History

First and second edition

Expansions

Reception

Reviews

Third Edition

Expansions

Reviews

Fourth Edition

Revised Fourth Edition

Expansions

Video game versions

Legacy

International editions

Hebrew Edition

Polish Edition

Popular culture

See also

References

External links