Review: Talisman (Board Game)

The game takes place in the familiar environment of a generic fantasy world, with each player taking on the role of a specific archetype with minor powers that we need not get into here. The object of the game is to be the last man or woman standing by travelling across each of the three regions the board is divided into and reaching the Crown of Command- a McGuffin which allows you to wipe out all other players on the board. But reaching the Crown of Command is no easy task, and players must build up their stats, equipment and followers (which bestow certain bonuses) by circling the safer outlying regions, taking on quests and fighting monsters.

Every turn players roll a dice, move that number of spaces in either direction and draw cards from the Adventure Deck that tell them what happens on that square. These can be one-time events like a curse or treasure, or more long term augmentations to the board, like a shop where they can buy gear or a swamp that will cause weak players to miss a turn if they land on it. Players may also attack other players if they land on the same square, but such antisocial behavior would only prolong an already achingly drawn out experience.

As the game progresses, the board will become increasingly personalized to your game with players gradually leveling up enough to tackle the challenges of the more central regions. Whilst the adventure cards you draw are always of the same level, these inner regions come with penalties attached to each square that will whittle down your hard earned upgrades and even teleport you back to an outlying location three moves away from winning the game – much to everyone’s frustration.

The game is supposed to be competitive but with a rule-set as punishing as this – featuring such outdated mechanics as player elimination, random movement, progress destroying events and adventure cards that do not vary in scale from the first move to the last- it ends up being a player’s vs. the board affair with everyone willing someone (anyone!) to build a character that can survive the ordeal of the middle regions.

It’s this shared struggle that makes the game fun, creating a good humored camaraderie that makes the game’s attempts at creating conflict seem all the more out of place. Everybody cheers when someone ventures towards the Crown of Command and boos when their progress is reset back to zero – leaving that player with at least another half an hour before they could even consider going back for another round.

It’s a lazy pantomime of a game, undemanding fun that looks nice enough and requires only as much tactical thought as whether you should move clockwise or anticlockwise around the board- but it’s funny when misfortunes befall your fellow adventurers, and when it happens to you… well, there wasn’t really anything you could have done about it anyway.