Let's talk honestly about Talisman's future...

[Gallifrey - CSSC Gaming Founder]

Talisman has a long history. First published in 1983 with fascinatingly the first computer versions coming in 1985.

In its present format it suffers from Sims 4 ism in that the cost of all the expansions and additional characters exceeds the cost of the base game by many factors depending on how you acquire them.

Pre Cataclysm and Harbinger I'd got into a neat routine vs the AI. Wander the outer region until too many negative cards blocked up spaces using the City, the Village, and if not evil the Chapel to heal lives. Once a little above starting values ideally with some non mule extra carrying capacity, not always possible, and then get into the Highlands and farm the long strips of draw card squares around the waterfall that replenishes health, fate, and spells. Get tough enough to beat Eagle King, do so, get reward, go to alchemist to cash in gems, and then hit the city. Spend gold - usual purchases mule/ horse and cart/ flail, spell book. Go to the Dungeon and kill things until I could beat the Lord of Darkness by 8, straight to Crown of Command, usually win game unless I drew Horrible Black Hole.

Harbinger shook things up. Suddenly I'd be spending time prowling the outer region between the city and the chapel down to the first lane of the Highland so I could flip between the two. Sometimes I'd get caught out of position and have to do a dash through the city which isn't good if you're not loaded with gold. The Woodlands I regard as a death trap and I'd only enter with a permanent ability to swap cards. The fact that that the AI loves the Woodlands and it's a deck heavy with events makes it a Harbinger magnet too.

Cataclysm makes things tougher. There are no longer reliable healing spaces left on the outer region and the Waterfall becomes the only permanent space for free healing left in the game.

Cataclysm I acquired with the remaining expansions - so Clockwork Kingdom, Ancient Beasts, and Realm of the Souls. Relatively few of my 1,350 hours in game have been spent with these expansions active so I'm open to persuasion here but: -

1) Clockwork Kingdom - some decent bonuses available cheaply. Because I've been playing with Ancient Beasts active I've tended to avoid the outer and middle regions due to the very high risk of losing lives, objects, god knows what else these Beasts devour to the Beasts. So I've not supped deeply at this particular table.

2) Realm of the Souls. Early game this appears to be primarily an inconvenience before you can respawn with a new character and full lives. Mid game onwards it's literally a lifeline if you've been one shotted or had a run of bad luck and a chance to return to life with your strength and craft (but unfortunately not your possessions and companions) restored. Interesting.

3) Ancient Beasts. Was this ever play tested ? For how long ? Activating this expansion virtually every game ends because the big killer beast achieves its goal and everyone loses the game. Be honest. Versus the AI alone how often does the game end with a Monster win with this expansion active ? It utterly unbalances the game. Co-ordinating fights against the beasts is awkward with a dice roll system that makes targeting more miss than hit.

And as for the Legendary Decks which I don't have (or even want - even as a 1,000 hour plus veteran Firelands + Dragon + Cataclysm + Harbinger maxes out my desired grief level already) they're not bringing anything I want to the game.

There's literally very little space to add anything much more to the boards. A full expansion set activated board is already is very cluttered and difficult to read and I couldn't recommend a novice to start with many expansions active (maybe Frostlands).

The main adventure decks already have over 1,000 cards which ensures a low degree of repetition. My sole request is for mirror decks for each of the side boards - City, Highlands, Dungeon, and Woodlands but with the toughest negative cards nerfed so we have more of the same and a little more unpredictability in the side decks.

But realistically there's not much else you could do with the game. Anything more draws from an ever diminishing pool of potential buyers. I'd work on promoting the game as a perennial like Monopoly until some future Windows update breaks the game and you can restart over.

So what now ?

New game. New games. There's tons of board games out there that haven't got a good, current adaptation yet.

1) Rogue Trooper. Cluedo with mini nukes. Should be a dream to programme after Talisman but not easy to expand.

2) Block Mania. Different mind set as more tactical war game than simple board game but that would be fun to play again.

I know that both would involve double licences but frankly considering the current market states Thompson DC should be kissing your feet at the prospect of a boost to their revenue and profile.

Anyone else got some good sci-fi/ fantasy etc games that haven't got current PC versions ?

S.x.

Anyone else looking forward to the launch of Paranoia ? PC gamer wasn't overly impressed but with some extra time in development this could be a good game. Or even game series.

[CidDaBird]

Lets not.

[JrB908]

Nice post sir

Personally I play with the four corners and Deep Realms (think that's the one that joins Dungeon and City right ?), in addition to Frost March, Sacred Pool, and Reaper. Now, I do like the Legendary Decks so I have them all enabled with the exception of Woodlands (don't think that there is one for that anyways) and Highlands. Will say that generally don't have the Reaper enabled on the Reaper expansion, but do play solo vs 3x AI.

So, I would forward the suggestion of Buccaneer but with Legendary Decks as a Joke

[potterman28wxcv]

New game. New games. There's tons of board games out there that haven't got a good, current adaptation yet.

They have been doing just that for the past years. Check out Nomad Games news to see the games they have been working on since.

[govegirl]

it depends if you are talking about Talisman's future or Nomad games. Let us stick to the title of the thread.

Wow I think this game has so many different ways to play, why would there need to be any more to it? Personally it became too convoluted after woodlands- I played 1400 hours until that expansion and then most of my friends lost interest in all the different expansions. not much fun without friends to play with.
Talisman is one of the funnest games, but once over complicated I guess it loses some player base.

[Mulletguts]

My suggestion would be to tailor the game to how you like it. I rarely play with all expansions, crafting the type of game i want to play. Some go full tilt MAX difficulty others something lighter. You need to find out what you want.

[Gallifrey - CSSC Gaming Founder]

On an admittedly very small tranche of the community to date other than my request for more Highland, City, Dungeon, and Woodlands cards there doesn't appear to be great appetite for further extension. Bearing in mind the present number of expansions this is hardly a shock.

S.x.

[Robokek]

They could do 5D Talisman like that game 5D Chess.

[Mulletguts]

If they can do chess in Star Wars what are the chances of doing a living VR version of Talisman? Would be Cool.

[Simon]

Catan is releasing later this month...for consoles only. Nomad are obviously all-in on that for now, as they have been for the past couple of years.

I'm actually very impressed with what I saw in the trailer. They look to have done a great job with it. I wish them luck because I feel like this could make or break them as a studio. Catan is enduringly popular, though, so I'm sure it'll do fine. I would definitely buy a PC port if they made one.

I agree with the general vibe that Talisman is done for this edition and doesn't need any more. The Dracula game didn't really appeal to me, unfortunately. I'm always on the lookout for other board and card games, so feel free to share more suggestions whether they have digital editions or not.