I have kids, 9 and 11 that have played many games including HeroQuest. How does Talisman compare in terms of complexity, playing time and 'spookyness'?

Thanks!!!

the point of heroquest and talisaman is

heroscape is a dungeon crawler(btw the story is more dark then talisman, it is like lotr age battel against morgoth)

talisman is more the open world fariy tale adventure you visit placeces and get tresures find friends and meet monsters in the landscape.

for me was talisman a advance version of heroscape in some point because both were from gw, like claymoresaga( i donot come of the english name that big army game from gw battlecusade or so...)

or like like space hulk was for me an advance space crusade..

but i have very different things about talisman because i know the expansions that have not come yet .

Doc Savage said:

I think Talisman is abit more complex than HeroQuest. I loved HeroQuest when I was younger (late Pirmary school age), and I started playing Talisman a few year later.

I reakon give it a go. I think they should be able to handle it.

I was 10 when I first played Talisman (in fact I had both games), I don't think it is actually as complicated as Hero Quest, but you must face the fact that rules aren't specified as clearly.

But they can interpret the rules as the see fit, Talisman was always about House Rules anyway.

Heroquest was my first boardgame, that has something to do with fantasy.

I have play it many times in my younger days, and i challenge people, who want to try to do a quest.

I was always the gamemaster lol. I like it to be evil;)

But i must say that i like talisman more now.

Hi,

I play Talisman and Descent a lot with my 6, 10 and 12 year old kids (all boys), and the younger kids prefer Descent and the oldest one is a Talisman freak. This has more to do with focus on team work or individual playing (oldest one doesn't quite like being in team with the young ones..., that's why we have now played a game where he was the Overlord).

Anyway, Talisman is a very easy game for the kids rulewise, and if the fantasy theme is something they get into, it is really good fun. I have of course used the tactic of reading them Tolkien and Potter etc for years, and viewing selected fantasy films etc, so now it's paying off... I think Talisman's characters, board, adventure cards and events create a very exciting and tempting atmosphere for adventure enthusiastic kids. And what kid isn't ??? Another nice thing with playing Talisman with kids is, that while experience and skill do help you in a game, a younger kid has also a chance of winning, as character randomizing and luck do play a big role in the game. I think the recent upgrades, especially the Fate-tokens and new cards from Reaper expansion have really made the game an even better, fast-paced and entertaining, exciting experience for whole family !

If You like hero Quest, check out Descent as well.

Talisman, Heroquest and Buffy the Vampire Slayer (U.S. version) are about as complicated as one another, really.

I didn't realise Descent was Heroquesty. That's interesting, because I've been looking at the sheer amount of stuff out for it and wondering whether it is worth investing in.

dth said:

I haven't played HeroQuest, but what I've been told by people having it, and what I've checked from net, there seems to be a familiarity, one comment that I quickly googled :

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I've always seen Descent as a more complex version of Heroquest. I think, for Heroquest to work out in this environment, it'd have to play faster and more streamlined since the longer, more complicated side is pretty much owned by Descent these days.
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Anyway, Descent is a Great Game, well worth the investment. All the expansions to it are also worth having.

My kids are 13 and 7 and they both love Talisman. We also play Heroquest, which we wish FFG would bring back with new quests, Runebound, Descent, World of Warcraft the Adventure Game. Unfortunately we played so many games of Talisman that the kids got bored with it but we still love it. I recommend it highly. My only suggestion is buy the game and play. When it looks like your kids attension begins to wane, then introduce the Reaper expansion. Let us know how it goes.

jimmeray said:

I can also happily recommend it. We change games after each play : Talisman, then Descent, then Tide of Iron, then start all over again. In this way, when the last game is about to end, everybody is wishing to start the next type of game.

I guess the kids (or boys ?) really like to "be" a powerful hero in a game like Talisman or Descent (and most likely HeroQuest and zillion other games...), doing mighty magnificent heroic deeds with their awesome magical strength and equipment... We also select the Talisman characters randomly (we draw two cards each, and select from those), to further avoid getting bored with the same combination of characters. And now we have also banned the Troll, as he seems to always win when being drawn.

I played it a handful of times with an ex and her daughter (who was maybe 10 at the time) and it's just fine for that age. In fact we usually had trouble beating her!