Talisman Adventures RPG

Initial disclaimer: the content in this blog is in no way official content from Pegasus Games, Games Workshop, or any other publisher. Everything herein represents my opinion and views unless expressly stated otherwise – all errors (and there will be plenty) whether about game rules, publishing schedule, or basic grammar, are mine and mine alone. 

Talisman Adventures is the new tabletop RPG from designer Ian Lemke, set in the world of Games Workshop’s adventure board game Talisman (created by Robert Harris). It's a fast-moving game system, with some neat innovations in the mechanisms designed to keep the focus on the players, and encourage their creativity and active participation in how adventures unfold.

The world of Talisman leans more into Jack Vance and the Brothers Grimm than Tolkien, and works in very dark elements with a balancing measure of humour and whimsy. The RPG carries a lot of the flavour of the board game (and builds on it) : with players typically taking the role of a  Troll Warrior, Ghoul Assassin or Pixie Druid, each leading a mixed assortment of terminally accident-prone Followers, seeking fabulous treasures at the humiliating peril of being turned into a Toad... 

Over the past year I have had the pleasure of running demo sessions of the game on behalf of the publisher, Pegasus Spiele, to introduce Talisman Adventures to new players. (For some reason 2020 has seen a lot of people interested in trying out playing tabletop RPGs online...)

I’ve had a lot of fun running these sessions, and met some fine folk from the UK, Europe and the USA.  In the works are a couple of short one-off adventures for the game, supplemented by an ongoing campaign which the players keep things moving in all kinds of unanticipated directions. Expect future posts to contain some thoughts and ideas from these experiences. 

There are more demo sessions planned to give new players a taste of the game at a number of online RPG conventions in 2021*, and there may even be some face-to-face games in the real world if things like the UK Games Expo manage to go ahead. Links will be posted here!

Next Post: The Test (Examining what it is about Talisman Adventures' central Test mechanism that makes the game so player-focussed and how it contributes to creating novel and surprising gaming experiences)

*There should be online sessions available at the GAMA Expo (Tuesday 23rd March, 12.30 & 16:00 GMT), and Pegasus's CONspiracy convention (Friday 26th, Saturday 27th and Sunday 28th March 20.00 GMT). The games will be hosted on Discord - check back here for links to sign up (if not found on the convention sites).