some tips for noobs?

[skin2yard]

i never played the board game, but the time i spent with this edition, i didnt get quite the point, maybe its because im new and i miss to see some deeper thought behind the game....
but my impression from the time i spent with it is that there isnt any choice, all you do is hit the dice, and the little choices that you can make seem more af an ilusion of a choice than a real choice since evrything is random and isnt really up to you. am i missing something important or is this really just a dgital dice game without any strategy/skill involved?

i dont mean to bash the game but it seems like a slot machine and nothing more.....which is a shame since i really enjoy the presentation and its really well made. i would like to hear from some people who invested alot of time into this, an honest opinion.... will i get some kind of satisfaction from it if i invest more hours into it?

im guessing its faithfull to the boardgame, and if so, i just made a bad purchase, since im not a fan of purley luck based games. in any case, no hate here, just curiouse if i should invest more time in it to discover something deeper than visible on the surface.....anything, like for example in poker, where it is luck based, but you still can fool people , something like that or similar strategies?

i would understand if you rolled 2 dices than you could influence the game through probability, because certain numbers have more combinations than others, but with one dice, i just dont understand where the strategy comes from and why it would matter if you move forward or backwards since all the cards are random and you cant make a decision because you dont have any info at all to what could happen

[danskmacabre]

There IS a strong random element to it, just like it's boardgame counterpart.

Really people should do the research before buying a game. There's loads of information about this PC gamer and the boardgame.
Any research would show it has a strong random element.
After saying that there Is a sort of strategy to it as well. the sort of areas you want to go for etc.
The spells reduce the random element a bit too as you can target specific characters and stuff, but then spells are random of course.

Still, I would take this as an object lesson, next time do your research before buying as seeing as you don\t like games with a strong random element, you definitely won't like this game.

[Fulgur14]

Well, basic strategic choices of Talisman are on a bit higher level. While each turn is very random, a strategy emerges eventually.

1. Your region. You have Outer, Middle and Inner regions (plus there are more in expansions). Once your character is strong or lucky enough to get to the Middle Region, it's an important decision whether to explore it with all extra risks and rewards or to stay in Outer Region. Your character also heavily figures in this -- for example the Sorceress is very nasty when it comes to exploiting other characters, as it's easy for her to steal their hard-won possessions, so she should generally stay in the region with most victims, while Elf's teleportation ability means that he should stay in Outer Region as long as possible to take full advantage of it.

2. Choice between two spaces you can end on is not entirely trivial -- it only looks like that in the beginning when the board is empty and your chocie is quite often Draw 1 card space vs. another Draw 1 card space. Even without special spaces (and there's a lot of them), the empty spaces tend to get filled later, either with Enemies that bested first character to encounter them or with permanent Stranger and Place cards.

3. The fate mechanic, new to 4th edition, allows you to change result of your rolls. Depending on what character you play and how easy it is to refill the missing fate (for example, any evil character can refill it for free in Graveyard), you can treat your fate either as a last-ditch chance to avoid a catastrophic result (like turning into a Toad or being instantly killed by Reaper) or as a more long-term resource that allows you to replace uninteresting movement rolls or take more risk on spaces like Crags or Temple.

Basically, Talisman is something like Random Encounters: The Board Game. You usually don't know what awaits you at your next step, but there are ways to manage it once it comes.

[skin2yard]

Originally posted by danskmacabre:

There IS a strong random element to it, just like it's boardgame counterpart.

Really people should do the research before buying a game. There's loads of information about this PC gamer and the boardgame.
Any research would show it has a strong random element.
After saying that there Is a sort of strategy to it as well. the sort of areas you want to go for etc.
The spells reduce the random element a bit too as you can target specific characters and stuff, but then spells are random of course.

Still, I would take this as an object lesson, next time do your research before buying as seeing as you don\t like games with a strong random element, you definitely won't like this game.

yea, i know, well, like i said, its my fault, i usually do research, but this looked really good, its just to casual for my taste....but guess ill give it a try anyway since i did spend my money on it and i find the visuals and music soothing.....

[danskmacabre]

yes you can sort of push the game is a sort of direction by hanging around certain areas and goals.
With later expansions that add new boards (only available in the physical boardgame atm), it reduces the random element more as you can target specific things more.

[skin2yard]

Originally posted by Fulgur14:

Well, basic strategic choices of Talisman are on a bit higher level. While each turn is very random, a strategy emerges eventually.

1. Your region. You have Outer, Middle and Inner regions (plus there are more in expansions). Once your character is strong or lucky enough to get to the Middle Region, it's an important decision whether to explore it with all extra risks and rewards or to stay in Outer Region. Your character also heavily figures in this -- for example the Sorceress is very nasty when it comes to exploiting other characters, as it's easy for her to steal their hard-won possessions, so she should generally stay in the region with most victims, while Elf's teleportation ability means that he should stay in Outer Region as long as possible to take full advantage of it.

2. Choice between two spaces you can end on is not entirely trivial -- it only looks like that in the beginning when the board is empty and your chocie is quite often Draw 1 card space vs. another Draw 1 card space. Even without special spaces (and there's a lot of them), the empty spaces tend to get filled later, either with Enemies that bested first character to encounter them or with permanent Stranger and Place cards.

3. The fate mechanic, new to 4th edition, allows you to change result of your rolls. Depending on what character you play and how easy it is to refill the missing fate (for example, any evil character can refill it for free in Graveyard), you can treat your fate either as a last-ditch chance to avoid a catastrophic result (like turning into a Toad or being instantly killed by Reaper) or as a more long-term resource that allows you to replace uninteresting movement rolls or take more risk on spaces like Crags or Temple.

Basically, Talisman is something like Random Encounters: The Board Game. You usually don't know what awaits you at your next step, but there are ways to manage it once it comes.

thx, that helped, sounds more like an old school game, where it isnt really about grand strategy or skill, or even gameplay, but more about a random adventure and what you come up with in your imagination....

[danskmacabre]

Originally posted by skin2yard:

Originally posted by danskmacabre:

There IS yea, i know, well, like i said, its my fault, i usually do research, but this looked really good, its just to casual for my taste....but guess ill give it a try anyway since i did spend my money on it and i find the visuals and music soothing.....

It does grow on you as a game though. It has a cetain charm with the encounters and stuff.
When the game first came out in the early 80s there was nothing like it.
It's been reprinted many times over the years and it's become a sort of a classic game.
I expect most of the sales are from old fans of this game, rather than new people to it.

[skin2yard]

Originally posted by danskmacabre:

Originally posted by skin2yard:

It does grow on you as a game though. It has a cetain charm with the encounters and stuff.
When the game first came out in the early 80s there was nothing like it.
It's been reprinted many times over the years and it's become a sort of a classic game.
I expect most of the sales are from old fans of this game, rather than new people to it.

yea i noticed, usually im not interested in games like this at all, but this game is just so well made, i was trying to find that there is more to it, guess ill just have to accept it for what it is...and i probably should just play more to get the details which i missed.

[danskmacabre]

FWIW , I play this game on my PC in standalone multiplayer with my kids and they love playingt the PC game, even though we have the physical baordgame with various expansions. So it's a real hit here.

It's a shame the online multiplayer is so terribly bugged. it makes the multiplayer online virtually unuseable.

[Artaterxes]

The game has a combination of choice and randomness.
-You can't control exactly when you'll land on a space, but you can "hover" around spaces you like until you land there. This becomes part of the strategy: nearby spaces might be risky.
- You can't control what cards you'll draw, but you can choose between (usually) draw spaces or a space with fixed instructions or faceup card.
- You can't control what spells you draw, but you can control when to cast them.
- You can't control when exactly you will acquire means to cross the river, but once you have those assets (eg spells, axe) you can decide when to enter.
- You can't control when you may use your character abilities, but you'll know how to use them when it happens.

Trust me, there IS a difference between an experienced Talisman player and an inexperienced one. A good thief will hover around the village and markets, a good ghoul will know how to use his raised followers, etc.

Yeah, the decisions are not complex and are often offset by luck, but that's personal taste. If you like choices that don't break your grey matter, then this game is good. But luck won't get you everywhere. If an experienced player goes against a new player, the experienced player will often win. Ultimately the game requires good choices amidst the luck, but the choices are just not terribly complex.

[Umplebee]

One word for me makes this game compete with new games, Replayability!

Every game you play is different, yes they all play out similar, the goal is always the same but your not always the same character, the board changes, cards are always different order etc.

Also with every expansion the game becomes something new again, Reaper expansion and Frostmarch (next one out) are both small expansions adding cards, spells, characters and with Frostmarch new ways to end the game. The bigger expansions, Dungeon being the next one of those, add actual new board pieces making the play area bigger and add even more randomness.

Just think as it stand with only 4 players and 2 full decks of adventure cards you almost never make it through the entire deck, add a few more expansions and it possible you wont see some cards for games at a time because all the cards are in the same deck making for a very unpredictable game.

If you just have the original game only I can see you getting tired of it quickly enough, I found that after a while it got boring with only so many spells and the one deck of adventure cards were becoming predictable. However when Reaper came out it completely made the game better more characters, spells and cards. Added enough new stuff that you couldn't predict cards or spells as much anymore and it will just get better as more expansions come out.

If you don't like the core of the game that is one thing, there is no way to convince someone who doesn't like the style of play. But as I said, Replayability, take a look at all other games out there, new or old, how many of those would you play over and over again for a span of so many years. And I bet the ones that you do play over and over don't have nearly the content or expansions this game has :)

[eliotno3]

Talisman involves about as much luck as Texas Hold 'em

[Melissa Garrett]

What Artaterxes said. It begins as a very random game but the more experienced you become, the more you learn the "strategy" peculiar to each character. For instance, the Merchant does well buying cheap items early on and then "trading" them for more powerful ones, thus making himself more powerful. The Ghoul will defeat a weak Wolf or Goblin, keep it as a Follower, then add its strength to his own to defeat a Serpent or Bandit, keep the Serpent/Bandit to use in a battle against a Dragon, then trade in the Dragon for a strength point. It's like that with every character - play each in turn and learn all their different nuances and how to make their advantages work for you, and before long you can win with very little risk and far less randomness. Not *no* randomness, lol, but you learn to control the board more and more with time.