Hi all

A few weeks ago I introduced my niece, nephew and sister-in-law to Talisman. As English is not their forst language, I went a bit easy on the rules and held their hands but all in all it was a pretty fun game, and they all really enjoyed the experience. So much so, that after they had left my wife got a phone call asking for me to order my nephew a copy of the game.

Today he came over to my house by himself, the box tucked tightly under his arm, and asked me in broken English if we could play (this was a big deal for him as he is only 11 years old and has a very basic grasp of English from his elementary school classes - we live in South Korea). He assured my wife that he had read the rules and the cards, although it had taken him a long time because he had to keep using a Korean - English dictionary.

Sure enough - we played four games and I was incredibly impressed with his knowledge of the rules. There were a few instances, though, where he handed me the cards and asked me to help him understand, but his English has improved greatly thanks to Talisman, and I am looking forward to the next time we can play. He still has trouble with the spells - mainly he forgets that he has them, or does not know when they should be cast, but everything else was really good.

We have played five games, and he has only won once, although it was not for lack of trying. He got an unlucky roll on the Reaper, which I introduced in our third game (I have every expansion while he only has the main game), and he almost caught me in a race to the Crown of Command but an unlucky roll in the Vampire's Tower left him with one life and I hit him with the command spell, and in our last game we were both hobbling around the board on a single life and he happened to draw a dragon before I could draw something equally as deadly.

I just wanted to share this with the Talisman community, as this has been my favorite game since I played 2nd edition as a kid and I am really happy to be able to introduce it to a whole new generation, especially since I know he will be teaching his friends how to play very soon.

That's a great story!

It good to see that Talisman can bridge the language gap as it is such a simple game, and great that it is helping with his understanding of English. Better watch out though as he might just end up unbeatable!

Thanks for sharing!

Yes, this is a wonderful story, and we embrace all our players around the world!

Lovely story. Thanks for sharing it.

Hopefully a similar thing will occur with my son. We live in Germany, though we are British, so he is currently learning to read and write in Germany though can speak both English and German well. Something like this might help Kickstart his English reading.

Well I just found out that my nephew has been taking his copy of Talisman to school and challenging all of his friends. It has made him quite popular as many of the students really love it, and his teachers are happy that the game is all in English.

He came over this afternoon and we played two games. In the first game he drew the sorceress and I got the priest. It was really close, down to the wire, but I was killed by the pit fiends and he scooped up the win. The second game was even more tense, but his warrior managed to crush my wizard at every turn, which lead to a a toading and quite a lot of thievery. In the end he actually managed to get three Talismans and make it to the Crown of Command, while I got stuck trying to get past the Sentinal. In the end the command spell made short work of the wizard.

He has really grown as a player, and the games run very smoothly now. Next time we play I am planning to include the Highlands board to give him a taste of the wider world of Talisman.

Now if you will all excuse me, I am going to lick my wounds and sulk in the corner and lament the severe beating I just took at the hands of a twelve year old.

Nice!