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Given the amount of excitement it has generated, you’d have to have been living in a cave not to know about the recent release of the Revised 4th Edition of Talisman and six of its expansions by Games Workshop recently!
Thanks to the generous donation from Coiledspring Games, the distributor for the UK and Ireland, I am able to bring you this little competition where you can win a copy of the base game of Talisman!
When thinking about a subject for the competition, I thought it might be fun to concentrate on the fact that the reprints include all of the expansions that have special NPC (Non-Player Character) cards and playing pieces in them.
(Note: Images are actually larger than they appear here. Right click and open image in new tab to see more detail.)
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| 2017 Reprint Overview – Part One | 2017 Reprint Overview – Part Two |
In the last couple of weeks I’ve been able to put up an overview of the releases in two parts. The first covering the base game of Talisman, plus The Blood Moon and The Harbinger expansions, and the other concentrating on The Reaper, The Dragon, The City and The Woodland expansions!
Thanks again go out to Fan Boy Three of Manchester for hooking me up with the second batch of reprints after Coiledspring Games had kindly sorted me out with the first batch!
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| Talisman: Digital Edition at Nomad Games | Talisman: The Horus Heresy at Nomad Games |
You will probably have seen that each of the reprint boxes comes with a FREE bonus code for a copy of Talisman: Digital Edition from Nomad Games for the Steam digital platform for PC or Mac.
As I already have a copy of the game on Steam (and iOS!), I figured it would be a good idea to offer up the seven codes that I have spare to people as runner-up prizes so that more people can get an experience of the game.
The main prize will of course have a code inside, so the winner will actually end up two copies of Talisman for the price of… umm… none!
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The Grim Reaper NPC was originally designed for the 4th Edition of Talisman from Black Industries by Alessio Cavatore, lately of River Horse Games, and was a surprisingly effective foe.
A prowling Werewolf NPC was designed on the watch of John Goodenough, which took advantage of the new Time card and Lycanthrope mechanics brought in with The Blood Moon expansion.
In more recent times, Samuel Bailey developed the Harbinger NPC, with his own unique set of special cards that can bring about the end of the Talisman world! I wonder if you can guess which expansion the Harbinger is from…
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Of course, NPCs attracted the attention of fans of Talisman and a number have been made as homebrew additions to the game. I’ve even come up with a couple myself over the years, along with others like Lasse Brøgger who even sculpted and cast a miniature for his Toad King NPC, and then sculpted an Ice Queen for me!
The Ice Queen was made with The Frostmarch expansion in mind, and triggers whenever a card from that expansion is encountered. It does suffer a bit from deck dilution sadly, so it’s best to play with only a couple of expansions in use.
After the veiled reference to the Lady of the Lake in The Sacred Pool expansion, I came up with an idea for the somewhat non-invasive The Lady NPC, whose mechanic is linked with Warlock Quests and giving special Favours to those that complete them.
The Toad King hops around the board chasing after characters who might cast Spells or acquire Magic Objects. He is vulnerable to big-footed adventurers however, though he can also turn you into a slimy toad if you are unlucky!
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Though the images shown above are technically “creatures”, they could also be the starting point for some interesting NPC interactions.
A Draconic Lord that can move about the board would be a particularly scary prospect, and there are many other encounters in the game, such as the Lord of Darkness from The Dungeon expansion and The Demon Lord Alternative Ending from The Sacred Pool expansion, that would be equally terrifying!
What might you come up with?
So, what do you need to do to be in with a chance of winning a copy of Talisman, either for your tabletop or your computer?
All you need to do is come up with an idea for an interesting NPC for use in Talisman, be it like any of the examples or suggestions above, or something completely new!
Don’t worry, as you do not have to be adept in Photoshop Wizardry to enter! All you need to do is write up some blurb about your NPC, ideally with a little back story or some design notes about why you have chosen that particular theme.
You can of course send in a complete, print-ready expansion, but what matters most is the idea and story behind the NPC that you come up with.
You will need to send your entries, with a limit of two per person, to me via email using the link at the top right of this page, and please use the subject line NPC Design Competition so I can find them easily!
Postage will be covered by me worldwide for the boxed copy of Talisman, and codes for the digital version will be sent via email once winners have been chosen.
The closing date for the competition will be Friday, 29th December at 23:59pm (GMT), which gives me over the weekend to sort through everything and choose the winning entries.
Winners will be announced at some point on Friday, 5th January 2018, hopefully ensuring that the package won’t get caught up in the Christmas post!
Good luck to everybody that enters the competition and I hope that all of you have a very Merry Christmas and a Peaceful New Year!
CoiledSpring Games on Facebook
2017 Reprint Overview – Part One
2017 Reprint Overview – Part Two