Talisman: Digital Edition (http://store.steampowered.com/app/247000/Talisman_Digital_Edition)
One game I play from time to time is Talisman. It's not a game that I play on a regular base but now and then I suddenly want to play it and play many rounds until I loose interest again. Most of the time this is, when a new expansion comes out. New expansion, new variations to play the game, let me try it out.
Talisman is the digital adaption of the boardgame with the same name, to be more precise, the fourth edition of the game. Talisman was a very well received game (as you can tell by the fact that it was remade three times). The digital adaption is as close to the original game as it can get.
The rules for Talisman are a little complex and not simple but once you understood them, the game is fun to play. In talisman up to four players fight for the crown of command, a powerful magical artifact, that allows the wearer to enslave all living beings. The crown is located int he center piece of the board and the goal is to reach the center piece before the rest of the other players and use the crown to enslave the other players (and win the game). The game is divided into three regions with their own individual pieces, the outer region is where the players usually start, it's also the most beginner-friendly region with lot of space to travel, many beneficial pieces and less danger. The middle region can only be reached with specific means, the most used way is to defeat the guardian who is located on one field on the board. You don't have to reach his piece with your die if you at least pass it, so you can "travel" into the middle region. If you land directly on his field, nothign will happen to you, only if you try to pass the bridge he guards. The guardian acts as powerful monster and has to be defeated everytime you want to pass from his piece to the middle region but not the other way (you can always leave the middle region). The middle region has less pieces and many pieces have a negative impact on the player in some way, either fighting stronger monsters than usual or simply loosing lifepoints. It is also hiem to the warlock, a powerful sorcerer who gives the player a Talisman if he can finish one of his tasks. The Talisman is needed to reach the final center piece of the board, if you have no Talisman, you cannot pass the final field.
The inner region can only be reached through a magic portal and in order to open it, the player has to roll two dice and compare it to his stats, if he passes the skill check, he can enter the inner region, where he can only move one tile per round. The inner region consists only of different challenges, if you fail achallenge, you loose lifepoints, have to go back or other punishments and you have to repeat the task again. Only if you pass the tests, you can reach the final field and only with a talisman you can move from there to the Crown of Command. Once you reach the crown, you have to roll a die each turn to see if you can enslave the other players, each enslaved player looses a lifepoint, if they run out of life, they die and you win the game. Two players can be on the crown at the same time, if that is the case, they have to fight for it until one of them dies.
The game plays a little like a typical rpg adventure in a small format. Players select first what character they want to play, each oen is a typical role in a rpg, it can be a classical warrior, a mage, a monk or even be a monster liek troll or a ghoul. Characters start with different stats and abilities and have also an aligment which can be good, bad or neutral. The aligment comes into play, when you find specific items, that can only be carried if you have an aligment that fits. Some events and some tiles on the board are also dependant on your alignment but the alignment can also change and is not set in stone.
All characters have stats, that define their character. Lifepoints show your health, if you have none, you die but as long as no one has reached the final centerpiece, you simply can restart but have lost everything you carried at that point, including your experience so far.
Two general stats define your abilities, strength and craft. Strength is for physical characters and mostly used in combat and soem skill checks. It can be used to open the portal to the inner region. Craft is used for magical abilities, it allows you to carry more spells and helps in combat with magical creatures. It also can be used, like strength, to open the portal. Both stats can be increased if you defeat enough creatures in combat. Defeating a creature requires to roll a die and add your stregth or craft to the roll depending on the type of creature, the enemy does the same and the one with the higher sum wins. Defeated enemies can be takes as trophy and trophies are basically your experience in this game, if you have 7 of one stat, you can discard them for an additional point in that category. By defeating powerful enemies, you can level up faster but might loose life if you loose or you can start with weaker ones until you have the power to defeat the stronger versions.
The last stat each character has, is fate. Fate is a source of protection against failes dice rolls, you can discard one fate to reroll any die. this gives you a chance to win a lost round or get the movement roll you wanted. Having no fate does not kill you but it makes things a lot harder because you cannot reroll your dice and have to accept every outcome.
Players start each roudn with rolling the movement die and moving in any direction on the board, they can however only pass to the middle region over the bridge and only if they beat the guardian. This means in most cases you have two direction to choose from or more specifically two tiles. This gives you some control what encounters you want to face and helps in building your character. If you reach an empty tile, you have to draw an adventure card and place it on the field. You have to resolve the effect of the card, if its a monster, you have to fight it, items can be taken, followers are people or creatures that come with you and give you some benefits or it might simply be an event that affects you or any other person in the region. If you cannot defeat a monster or if the card states it does not leave the field, you place it on the tile you stand on where everyone, who travels to it, can encounter it with the same effects that you faced.
The general approach is to level up in the outer region to reach the middle one, take a task of the Warlock and after you finish that, get the Talisman and move to the inner region until you reach the final piece. How exactly you do that, is up to you, some characters have abilities, that help them in one way or another that quickens the process up.
The game has many expansions, that also open up new ways to improve your character and increase the possibilities to reach your goal. Some expansions add simply new adventure cards and characters but some also add brand new gameplay features. They also add new ending cards, that are placed on the center tile on the board and change, how the ending is played out. This changes the requirement to win the game. The players can also shuffle the ending cards and place them on the center piece, so the player, who reaches it, has to reveal the final piece first, that way, no one knows what the first player, who reaches it, awaits.
I will list now the different expansions with their content in spoilers below, people who are not interested in what each one contains can simply skip ahead.
Adds a new figurine on the board, the reaper. The reaper can be moved every time a palyer rolls a 1 on the movement die. Players move the reaper like a normal character (rolling for movement, choosing where to go) but when the reaper reaches a player, he has to roll the die for an event. In the worst scneario (a 1) the player will be killed but in the best scenario (a 6) the player can choose a reward. The game also adds Warlock quest cards which are drawn for new tasks fromt he warlock and a new ending, which plays out the game differentely, where every roll on the reaper is reduced by one (so you never can get the reward and are more likely to get killed) and you move the reaper to other players, if you reach the final piece.
Adds many ice-themed cards to the adventure deck and also adds the first boss ending. A boss is an ending where oyu have to figth a really powerful enemy at the final piece four times and kill it, the first one who kills it wins the game.
Adds a new region, the dungeon, to the board which is located at the upper right corner. Players can enter the dungeon during their movement through the ruins like they would enter the middle region but they don't have to fight a guardian. The dungeon uses its own adventure deck with cavern themed cards and ont he final field you can fight the Lord of Darkness, a strong boss enemy who gives you a treasure of your choice if you defeat him. It also allows for a shortcut to the inner region if you surpass the Lord of Darkness with a strong sum.
Adds a new region to at the bottom left corner of the board. The highlands offer a mountain-like region with its own adventure deck. The deck contains lot of treasure cards that can be sold at the city for a massive gold boost to buy what you need. It adds a new kind of item, trinkets, which don't count to the item limit that each character has. At teh end of the region awaits a new boss enemy who gives you one of his four items at random when defeated and also moves you to a field of your choice int he outer and middle region.
This expansion adds many new adventure cards that make use of the alignment of characters and it is now more important to keep track if you are good or bad.
A new region expands the city tile on the board. The city is a rather harmles region compared to the other ones with very few enemies but many events and thiefs that want your money. The city features many merchants who offer new items for players if they have the money. It also offers a way to reach the middle region through moey instead of combat. A new gameplay addition are wanted posters which can be used to exhcahnge a trophy for gold.
The nether realm offers three new endings that center around a specific adventure deck, the nether deck which onhabits soem of the strongest enemies and hardest challenges int he game. The expansion does not add anything to the base game and affects it only if you choose one of these three endings.
A new figurine, the werewolf, is added on the field. It acts the same as the reaper and moves, when a player rolls a 1 on his movement, liek the reaper it acts when it lands on another players field. The werefol has his own events and can even change other players to werewolves too. Another addition is the flow of time, now the game has day and night, at day every enemy is weaker, at night every enemy is stronger. Werewolves are stronger at night but they have to attack other players if they land on their field.
Sounds like another new region but it isn't, instead the expansion offers a new mechanic that changes the board. New adventure cards can now force the player to lay new tiles on the board that remove the old tile and its effects, this can mean that you could destroy the city or even kill the guardian and create a free passage to the middle region. Additionally there are now burn events that burn other cards and remove them from permanentely from play.
This adds three dragonic lords who fight over the crown of command. Each turn the player has to draw a dragonic scale and place them on one of the draonic lords, if one of them has three, he is the current dragon king and has the power of the crown, the player must then place a scale of the same color on the tile he stands on. If a character lands on a tile with a scale,
he can pick it up, which means he has to draw a card of the adventure deck from the specific dragon lord. If its a creature and he kills it, he can take the scale, which offers him protection against the dragon lord and his minions. The scales from the current dragon king must always be picked up. This expansion adds also new inenr regions to the game, from which the players can choose from at the start of the game. One region does not require a Talisman to reach the final field.
This expansion adds four special decks for the end of the world. Players choose one deck at the start of the game. During special events or when they meet the Harbinger, a new figurine on the field who travels to each event that happens, they have to discard the top card of the deck. The revealed cards affect the game with different effects which get worse over time and if the deck runs out of cards, all players loose the game because the world ended. This forces a new time limit on players. Additionally a new adventure card deck was added, that adds new terrible cards to the game, who wuicken the end of the world, these special cards are added to the game whenever soemthign bad happens to worsen the situation even more.
What i really liek about the game is the amount of varity it offers. The different player characters, the amount of character cards, the spells and all the other things make each round unique. The expansions add even more to that, making the game a very unique experience. However, the game has a lot of RNG issues, which is obvious because everythign depends on it. A lot depends on your luck, if it is on a die roll or because you draw an adventure card, if you are unlucky you get punished and it's mostly out of your control. this might not suit everyone but this is a common theme in board games. The player has to try to minimize the negative RNG moments as much as possible and make good use of his abilities.
Having all expansions might also confuse the game or stretch the RNG chances even further because of the addition of so many new cards to obtain. It is up to the player to decide, what he wants to have enabled and what not.