Hello,

I've been playing Talisman with my two boys (six and eight), and we're enjoying it. I played it as a teen in the 80's, but I didn't remember it at all until I saw a recommendation on Amazon. Of course I bought it immediately. It's funny, I don't even remember what happened to all my old games that I loved like Talisman, HeroQuest, Electronic Stratego... the only thing I kept and still have are my AD&D books, but they just sit in a box.

My only problem with Talisman is that the rules are vague in some areas. It's not a huge issue for us since my boys are young, and I'm guiding the gameplay anyway. But I would still like to get clarification on some points. Sorry if this gets a bit long-winded.

Trophies

Do you get trophy points for killing non-card enemies such as the Sentinel, Pit Fiends, farmer, etc? The rules say "Enemy cards thus exchanged...", so we've been only allowing it for card enemies. Non-card enemies are such a common thing that I don't understand why they don't explicitly state it either way.

Assassin

The Assassin's ability is about as clear as mud.

The semantics seem to be around who is considered to be attacking. Which, if any, of the non-card enemies can the Assassin assassinate? The rules state that "The Sentinel attacks a character every time he attempts to cross...", so that one seems pretty clear to me. The instructions are also explicit in stating that the Pit Fiends and Werewolf attack the character. I would also have to assume the Tavern's "fight a farmer" is an attack.

Also, if interpreting the rules literally, the Assassin should not be able to assassinate random card encounters, either. "Other times the encounters are hostile and attack the character...". The only clear time that a character is the attacker is when landing on a space with another character. But that's not a very useful ability, is it?

On the other hand, the Assassin card states that you can assassinate when you attack and character or creature, but you can't assassinate when attacked by another character. So this sort of implies that you can assassinate in all cases except when being attacked by another character (or at the Crown of Command of course).

I'm at a loss here. I've been allowing assassinations on enemy card encounters and the Sentinel, but not the other non-card enemies. Otherwise, the ability would be useless, right?

Prophetess

When landing on a Draw 2 or Draw 3 space, I assume the Prophetess can discard once for each of the 2 or 3 draws. In other words, each draw is considered separately in regards to her ability.

Ghoul

The Ghoul can only raise adventure card enemies, right? I assume you can't make the Sentinel a follower.

Crown of Command

Is the Valley of Fire the last space you have to move into, or is the Crown itself a separate space? It seems to me it's a separate space because the rules state "The last space on the board is the Crown of Command", but I'm not 100% sure that's the correct interpretation.

Once at the Crown, do you have to keep the talisman to stay there? What happens if you lose it? I assume nothing, because the rules state that you need it to enter the Valley of Fire. It says nothing about needing it to stay at the Crown.

For example, if another character enters and attacks, and instead of taking a life they take your talisman, nothing happens. Right?

Alternate Endgame

I don't have any expansions with different endgames (yet), but I've been thinking about putting a miniature at the Crown to be a final boss similar to what the expansions do.... something like 12/12 with 4 life. If I do this, and a character enters the Crown, does the entire battle happen in one turn? I would assume they would exchange attacks until either the boss or character lost all of their life. Or does only one attack happen per turn, and other characters have an opportunity to step in during the fight?

I understand I can do whatever I want, I'm just wondering what the rules are for fighting a non-character enemy with more than one life.

Looking forward to getting some expansions and enoying many happy years with the game.

AdamX said:

You only get trophies for Enemies, which are Adventure cards with that keyword (as per red box on page 10).

AdamX said:

Assassin can Assassinate any Str-based Creature he comes across, whether Adventure card (just drawn or already face-up) or board-based one. Only times he can't assassinate is if another character lands on him and initiates battle or at the Crown of Command. All other times, it's basically the Assassin rolling a die in battle, the other participant doesn't. That's RAW Assassin.

AdamX said:

See first question for Enemy defintion.

AdamX said:

Crown and Valley are separate spaces. At the CoC you don't need your Talisman and nothing happens if you lose it, but Reaper I think adds Transference Spell which lets another char swap places with another character, leaving your Talisman at CoC and getting swapped could mean you have to exit the Inner Region and look for another Talisman, by which time the other character wins.

AdamX said:

Yep, unless there is a stand-off or the character loses, endings with a fight are resolved in one turn. Usually this means there is no endgame of any sorts, game ends the same turn someone reaches the CoC.

The Assassin can assassinate:

1) Any character that he attacks in battle.

2) Any Enemy in battle.

2) Any creature that is not an Enemy in battle, such as the Farmer, Sentinel, Pit Fiend, Dragon in the Cave, etc.

The Assassin cannot assassinate:

1) Any character that attacks him in battle or psychic combat.

2) Any character that he attacks or that attacks him on the Crown of Command.

3) Any Enemy in psychic combat.

4) Any creature in psychic combat, such as the Spirit in the Crags or Demon in the Tomb, etc.

This is the Assassin's only special ability. Some people still think he is overpowered and use house rules to limit him - I do not however as I think he is not overpowered! From mid game onwards, most characters can auto defeat Strength Enemies, so the Assassin only really gets an early game boost which is definitely not overpowered.

Ell.

Thanks for the replies. That helps. I'll pay more attention to the use of the keyword Enemy.

I thought of another question that I forgot to ask:

If someone has multiple pieces of armor, say armor, helmet and shield, do they get to roll separately for each, or does only the best one get used?

Thanks again. I'm sure I'll have more questions as we uncover more scenarios.

AdamX said:

Only one I'm afraid!

Ell.

Thanks. That's how I've been playing.

Today my six year old spilled his lemonade all over the rule book.

talismanamsilat said:

I agree... just because he has a useful ability doesn't mean it's overpowered. It's more that some of the characters are underpowered . Even so, any character can win with the right items. Just today I won with the Wizard after being way behind my opponents. The tides turned when I landed on the Hidden Valley and drew two nice magic objects and a follower that put me over the top.

AdamX said:

That's not so good.

I have ruled that nobody may drink at the table.

You can rule to take a break after 1 hour etc and sit somewhere else to drink something.

Velhart said:

We have ruled that nobody may have drinks ON the table so we bring extra chairs and other things to put our drinks on

as I had the same experience with another game having a glass of water spilled over it, ruining parts of it...

Good rule. I'm also enacting it. Luckily, only the rule book got wet, and it's actually in good shape now.