Many of you may have heard of the "Taks of Tantalon" game book. A hardbook kind of puzzle book which had you work through numerical problems to solve the game. I dont think I finished it but I still have that book somewhere and it inspired me to lay down another idea for an expansion "The Tasks of Thantalos" which I will probably work on soon, after Night Fall has been completed but here's the premise.

The warlocks cave offers a talisman for completing quests, well by completing some significantly more demanding tasks for the wizard Thantalos you can earn new special abilities, possibly linked to the task performed or possibly not. Possibly also some nice magic objects or something as a reward. This mechanic will provide those players with a character they dont like to possibly make their game more interesting and obviously adds additional strategy of not necessarily being able to predict a players game plan for those people who analyse all that kind of stuff. A simple expansion, that just adds a place "The Tower of Thantalos" which is randomly placed by a dice roll. Roll 1 die 1-3 Move Clockwise 4-6 Move Anti Clockwise from the City 2d6 spaces. Then obviously the quest cards. Possibly in a large character card format, this will depend on the detail required to explain the quest. And of course the rewards - skill cards and Treasure cards. Should be able to come up with some interesting ideas for this, throw them in this thread if you hvae any of your own. One of the ideas I have had is for a quest to involve a certain amount of travelling through the game board, outer, middle region and dungeon if in play as some kind of exploration quest. The player traverses the lands of talisman making a map for Thantalos, the special ability rewards would of course be some kind of movement bonus when the task is done. Perhaps one additional idea could be having the treasure cards issued for completing multiple tasks.I'll be thinking about this idea alongside Night Fall but I just wanted to see what people thought of it or whether anyone has already done this?

dfb

I think the concept is sound with two exceptions. Treasures for quests (1) leans too much toward the pop-culture misunderstanding of a quest, and (2) there are already now standard ways players acquire treasures that take less time (in theory) and may be seen to offer more benefits along the way. Questing has nothing to do with acquiring treasures, and what you're really proposing are "tasks," so stick with that term.

The concept of "Abilities" acquired is a good one for Talismans very simple implementation of such. This is more unique than throwing in more magical toys... but perhaps a small percentage of the tasks might include the finding of a hidden "treasure" so to speak that would include an item that might fall into the adventurer's hands in the end... this could be a certainty, or a chance of it happening, and might be in addition to an ability gained in the end.

Hmmm.... you also sparked a notion for me... see the topic called "Pure Adventuring"

I will have a read of the thread in a moment, sounds interesting. Thanks for the feedback on my expansion idea, I'm having a bit of burst of Talisman ideas of late and is quite good to help me focus and gain some inspiration for the Talisman character busts I am sculpting.

Point taken onboard about the treasures, it did seem like I was possibly breaking away from the concept to much with that. I might make one of the tasks to find some great treasures instead, from the dungeon if in play or from the adventure deck/another character whatever.

JCHendee said:

The quest for the holy grail is one of the oldest quests in lore and it sure sounds like a quest for treasure to me. What are real quests supposed to be like in your opinion?

The holy grail itself was a symbol. In fact, what it actually was varies so widely that historians inside and outside of the Catholic Church can't even agree or prove any conflicting notions. In fact whatever tale you aren't quoting (since there are many that disagree in their components) were all originally symbology... and the key purpose of a quest is the internal transformation of the questor, not the acquisition of a treasure... or something that can be had without any factors that qualify as a true quest.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holy_Grail

A quest in a more mundane perspective, outside of spiritual transformation, is also about something beyond what might be sought for personal gain. It is about the journey and what it leads to in the life of the questor... yet another dimension of transformation.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quest

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monomyth

Much as I disdain Wikipedia as not an authoritative source for anything, you might have looked there for starters. I do know what a quest really is (being a fantasy author with education in English and Literature) vs. its now shallow common usage via video games.

It's not a matter of opinion (unsupported) but viewpoint (supported) and fact. In Talisman's simple structure and endgame, or any game for that matter, it is difficult to construct even the smallest aspects of a true quest. But the hunt for treasure (or rather just the luck of drawing it), is something that is already widespread in Talisman. It's been done to death, even admittedly in my own contributions. So perhaps I'm just challenging myself and others to try to find something richer to add to the game... if possible.

And by the by, the Holy Grail is not one of the oldest treasure hunts or quests in recorded lore. It only dates back to the 12th century. You'd have to go back to at least the 5th century BCE to find the oldest ones... or even further than that in the mythology of ancient Chaldeans, Babylonians, and Acadians/Akkads. China has legends of heroics and quests that go back that far as well.