My girlfriend and I LOVE Talisman and have played it a lot beginning years ago with the second edition version and most of its expansions. We picked up Runebound, which is good but not as good as Talisman.

The girlfriend is probably more picky when it comes to games she is willing to play and doesn't like games that are too rule heavy or involve too much deep strategy. Growing up as a avid chess player, I don't mind deep strategy to my games, but when we play together the randomness of Talsiman always keeps things competitive between us.

So yeah- which other FF games (or any other board games for that matter) do you think fall close to the Talisman category?

Well, other than my Talisman, my girlfriend enjoys the Carcassonne games and Roborally. Both are fairly rules lite can be mind boggling in other wasys. Dungeonquest is quite fun as well but way out of print. Would be nice if FFG did a version.

Geoff

Bonesaw said:

My recommendation is World of Warcraft: The Adventure Game. I assume you don't dig in the World of Azeroth and its bunch of races (all connected to the original computer game), but this might be a very close parent to Talisman.

Here you have few Characters (in fact expansion packs are single new Characters so far), but each Character has a deck of Special Ability Cards that you can draw during the game. You can level up and gradually tackle the tough encounters. Yes, it's not that random as in Talisman; you have to build up your Character gradually, going in the safer spaces of the board with a little more strategy than risk. But there's also a random element, cause the combat system is very close to Talisman's and so are Events and the small tokens you draw and place on the board without knowing the effect they have. To win the game you have to gain Valor points by completing some Quests around the board, which you draw at the beginning and later in the game.

Moreover, a defeated Challenge gives you Items you can use, provided you can equip them. Basically it's Talisman with more realism, which makes it perhaps less funny to play but a little more strategical. Still you can have battles between Characters, but the presence of quests makes everything different. You don't fight only for objects or to kill a Character that's becoming too powerful (an ugly thing to do IMO), you try to stop the opponents while they complete their Quests. This can be very tricky sometimes.

Dungeonquest is Talisman even further simplified (though its combat system needs an overhall, with dice rather than token cards to flip over... which after a while everyone knows which one's which from wear). It's faster than Talisman, and its the essential dungeon-stomping greed-gaggin he with the most gold wins. The board is based tiles drawn and is different every time. Nice change of pace and perfectly suitable for something to play when the evening is more about socializing. And yes... it needs to be put back into print.

Citadels would be a fine choice - but you definitely need more than 2 players for this. And Carcassonne, as Cidervampire mentioned above, would be my No. 1 choice. Especially for only 2 players. You can't go wrong with this one!

What do you think of the Descent, as one of frineds recommended it to me, as it is similar to Heroquest and maybe a bit to the Space Hulk, of which I have only played the Space Hulk ages ago and I remember it was hell of a fun?

Would it be worth to buy the Descent, well it is very expensive therefore I am not to eger to buy it without asking first, or maybe you can recommend an alternative game to it?

Cheers.

I think you can still buy it so the Hobbit is a fun game. We have played it a few times with our daughter and had lots of fun.....

Crow T Robot said:

The Hobbit? lol

I have the game, but i like the game in the Ban of the Ring from Reiner Knizia more than the Hobbit boardgame.

I have played the Hobbit once, and after that, i have never play it again...( Maybe it's not for adults

But as a Lord of the Rings freak, i wanted the game in my collection....

I'd say Arkham Horror, actually. While it is a game where the players work together, mostly, it isn't that different from Talisman IMO.

Runebound looked attractive to me, but after asking around, I heard it is really pretty much "multi-player solitare."

My vote is just to play more Talisman lol! There are a ton of other FFG games I love, but none of them feel the same as Talisman or are similar in many ways. Part of this is because Talisman is a child of the 80's when most games had some form or randomness with die rolls. Most newer games have ditched that. If the feel of Talisman is what you love and are looking for more of that, then just play more of it imo. Or get the Reaper expansion and soon to be Dungeon expansion to keep it fresh and new.

I seem to do the same thing as you, in that, once I play an awesome game I start looking for other similar games, and then after I've spent money on them and played them a few times I'm like "hmm, why did I waste my money on this? I could've put that money and time into more Talisman, or BSG, etc".