Played Talisman the Other Night

I picked up the 4th Edition of Talisman about a month or so ago and finally got a chance to play it. The beginning part of the game was pretty fun (I was playing the Prophetess) except I was getting encounters that mostly involved getting stuff and not killing stuff, so I wasn't raising my strength or craft. The end game wasn't quite so good though as it was just waiting to get killed. I had plenty of life because I got the runesword early on but I didn't have enough of the other stats.

I like that you can pick your direction and I like the randomness in the game but I think the quick end game might work better.

If everybody's played at least one time, the game improves since people know what to expect and have a feel for what they need to try to do to stay with the power curve...but of course, the game can totally screw you and leave you penniless, Talismanless, and hopeless in the first ring while the others are duking it out for the Crown. But that's part of the fun, and because the game is so fickle, it's not impossible to make a HUGE comeback and wind up winning the game. Believe it.

How did you lose as the Prophetess? That's not supposed to happen!

Also, ingest a beer before you play. That should be in the rulebook.

I just couldn't get my strength up high enough to move on to the next level. I kept choosing followers or objects instead of fighting....

Ah...see, you've got to fight...the items and followers are great and all, but building up those stats is critical...there's no way you can survive the middle without high stats. In fact, you're pretty much doomed if you make it up there with low numbers.

The better Prophetess strategy is to get stuff, then kill a lot of weak stuff until you become a threat. Then take down the harder monsters. There's a huge advantage to the Prophetess.

Yeah, I know there's an advantage to her. I probably wasn't playing her right.

You mean you have a choice?
I thought you just had to 'encounter' what you were dealt.

Mr Skeletor wrote:

You mean you have a choice?
I thought you just had to 'encounter' what you were dealt.

The prophetess gets to draw one extra card. She can keep the first or dump and play the second.

ubarose wrote:

Avoiding fighting enemies is a typical mistake made by Talisman newbies. The level ups you get from defeating monsters are much more important in the long run than the benefits you get from most of the items and followers.

As long as you don't have to roll a 6 and the monster a 1 to win, it's pretty much a given to try to fight a monster. The exception to that are monsters with high craft, which get you diddly/squat.

--Mike L.

I realize that I should have fought more stuff. But it's been so long since I've played that I might as well have said I never played before. The last time I played was with someone who could re-read the rules to suit his needs. but now that I ahve a game under my belt, I'd like to play again.

You may want to use the FAQ's updated rules for the Prophetess (it makes her a little less broken-good, and actually makes playing her more fun because its adds some uncertainty back into the card draw). Instead of drawing an extra card and picking one, you draw one card and you can choose to discard it and draw another instead, but if you do you must keep the second card.

Getting items is great an all, even necessary to win, but the game is really a race to get 10 strength or 10 craft so you can survive the inner region. Followers, for the most part, are just food for the vampire.

I don't think the Prophetess is that broken, but I do like the idea of drawing a card and deciding to either keep it or draw the next.

Like any other game, there's that balance to your actions. You spend alot of time looking for items, you aren't getting your stats up.

Ahh....Talisman.

I remember playing this when I was at small little liberal arts college in Walla Walla, WA, before I left before they flunked me out. One reason for my distraction was this game.

Gavin and I would get some friends over, and get SERIOUSLY drunk. I owned all the expansions that were out at the time- Adventure, Expansion, Dungeon, and *Angel Chorus* the Timescape. (Which actually really sucked, btw. But all the 40k dorks loved it.)

We came up with a house rule that made the game more interesting, for us. You start out with only ONE life. If you want more life, you have to GAIN life. Not heal. GAIN. You could increase your 'max life' up to Four, and you could always heal back up to your max life. First place went to the guy who won, as normal. Second Place to the player who had lost the most characters. That person was closer to Samsara (Nirvana) and escaping the cycle of Pain....(Ok, we were a bunch of liberal arts majors- sue me!).

Made the game a LOT more violent. The Runesword became one of the biggest items to have. Finger of Death, one of the nastiest spells. And, if you got screwed cuz you got one of the wussiest characters early on, you could just get yourself killed quick and get a new character.

Now, of course, this did make the game longer.....but we were drunks, so life was good.

Ended up selling off my SERIOUSLY used collection at an auction in 1999, before I moved to Texas. By that time, I had ALL the expansions. It was all dog eared- hell, most of the boxes had completely been destroyed in fits of druken rage. It was all in little baggies in a grocery bag when I sold it. Made close to $500 for the complete collection at an auction- some FREAKS went insane when they found out that the Timescape was in there.

I now have no major desire to own Talisman again. But I'd play again if someone asked.

Darilian

We played it again the other night. I did much better this time, as I was able to get to the Crown of Command, but the person running aorund the outside managed to have enough stuff and life that he was able to win out of frustrating the hell out of me. I hate the end game in that game. I think if we play again, we'll do the end game where the first one to the crown wins.