Talisman Games?

Jarhead0331 · February 22, 2016, 09:03:46 PM

Any of you guys play any of the Talisman games? I'm not really into card/board games converted onto the PC, but they just released one for WH40K: Horus Heresy and it looks really tempting.

Thoughts?

tgb · February 22, 2016, 10:22:32 PM

They aren't very good games, especially if you weren't a fan of games that rely almost totally on dice rolls. Essentially you roll dice to see how far you move, and then roll dice to see what happens on the square on which you've landed. That's about it.

I'm hoping the Warhammer variation brings a bit more to the table, but I doubt it will.

Jarhead0331 · February 23, 2016, 07:07:00 AM

Yeah...reading about the system definitely doesn't excite me. The new Horus heresy version sure is wrapped in an awesome skin, though. Maybe when it goes on sale...

Cyrano · February 23, 2016, 11:16:51 AM

I played a ton of Talisman on the tabletop a lot of years ago as a good friend collected the system obsessively. He eventually sold it for north of $1,000 when it was a grail game for many.

That aside, I bought the "sooper-ultimate-mega" Talisman pack with all the expansions at the holiday sale for not a lot of money.

It's a very good implementation of the game; easy to get into and easy to play.

TGB's assessment, though, is a fair one. I've rarely seen a game this entirely dice dependent ascend to this level of regard among gamers. With all the content in the pack mentioned above, there's a lot of different character and board choices, but I've described it as a highly-evolved version of Snakes and Ladders.

If someone wanted to start up a game on-line, I'd play for the fun of it. Playing it on the tabletop strikes me as rank madness.

Jarhead0331 · February 23, 2016, 11:20:42 AM

So where exactly, if anywhere, is strategy involved? If it is just a matter of rolling dice to move and then rolling dice to trigger an event, where does the player have any role in critical decision making?

Greybriar · February 23, 2016, 11:26:09 AM

Here's a video for those wondering what it looks like:

tgb · February 23, 2016, 12:08:18 PM

Quote from: Jarhead0331 on February 23, 2016, 11:20:42 AM
So where exactly, if anywhere, is strategy involved? If it is just a matter of rolling dice to move and then rolling dice to trigger an event, where does the player have any role in critical decision making?

After rolling on your turn you can move either forward or backward, so there's a choice of spaces on which to land. Also some spaces give you a choice of characters with which to interact (i.e. a sorceress and a priest), each of which have different results for the dice rolls. You can also choose what to equip (equipment buffs dice rolls), and when to cast spells.

airboy · February 23, 2016, 01:01:53 PM

I played a lot on Tabletop. It was hard to end the game. There was not much (if any) strategy involved. Not familiar with the PC version.

Nefaro · February 23, 2016, 01:11:16 PM

The Roll-To-Move mechanic is pretty annoying. People dislike it, and I am one. Takes forever to get where you want or need to go.

As if the creator(s) intended to keep some of the terrible gameplay from Monopoly. ::) It has a little character building & improvement so, it's not all wet socks.

There are much better tabletop games with similar themes out there. But Talisman is one of those nostalgic old "classics" from 30+ years ago so it sticks around.

Admittedly, I do have the 40K tabletop version named Relic. I'm not sure if it's even related to this new PC game, though. They seem to be different. The system has some welcomed improvements over the original fantasy-themed version, but still retains the roll-to-move junk. I don't play it often, but keep it simply due to the occasional want of a 40k themed game without having to pay GW loads of money.