Talisman is back!

It seems like only yesterday... or the day before... I was talking about Talisman in this very blog. Quick overview for those that don't know what Talisman is.

Talisman is a boardgame for two to six players with a fantasy setting created in the early eighties and produced by a company called Games Workshop. The board is divided into three regions - Outer, Middle and Inner. Each player starts with a unique character card and playing piece in the Outer region with the goal of reaching the Crown of Command which lies in the center of the Inner Region. To get to the Crown of Command you must pass through the Valley of Fire for which you need a Talisman - the games namesake. During the game you pick up weapons, magic items, gold and followers to help you defeat the other players.

The thing is, the game has been out of print now for years and Games Workshop has been busy all these years with some other games that only the true super-geeks among us have ever heard of. Really.

But Talisman is approachable. You can get your mum and your sister to play Talisman with you. It's easy. You roll the dice. You move your character. You follow the instructions on the square you land on. Easy.

Well... maybe there's a little more to it than that, but you can get by with that until you learn whats going on, which makes it accessible.

Anyhoo, Black Industries (owned by Games Workshop) are finally re-releasing it. And its a big thing because its got a lot of fans that have previously had to go to a lot of trouble to get a copy. I remember getting my first copy in the early eighties for about $40.00 but if you're looking on eBay you are lucky to find a complete set without any bits missing and if you do you can pay over $200.00 one in good condition.



The new forth edition has new graphics for everything but the game seems to be essentially the same, which it would need to be if they wanted to avoid angry nerd mobs writing strongly worded e-mail to them in bold red all-capped Times New Roman, perhaps 16 or 18 pt.

DEAR GAMES WORKSHOP,

That would be one angry letter...

Anyway, it is being released in October and I can only hope that it will make it to toy stores over here. If you see it, grab it and stick it in the cupboard on top of Monopoly® and Scrabble® and pull it out one weekend. Kill some goblins. Cast some hexes. Slay some dragons.

Of course if you happen to prefer the ease of point and click (and lets face it, more people play Monopoly and Scrabble on computer than on the board nowadays) Capcom have announced a simultaneous release of Xbox, PS3 and Windows versions of the game which will feature multiplayer for up to four people on a 3d board with animated characters - essentially like the real board game. Those that have seen the computer versions of Monopoly® and Scrabble® will already have the idea.

1st October is the release date...