Cult of the Old - Talisman

Welcome to the latest episode of Cult of the Old!

 

Each episode your hosts Iain McAllister, Matt Thrower, and Nate Owens are going to turn back the clock to look at games that are at least 10 years old. They’ll give their own critical impressions, tell you about the history of the game and its impact, and what relevance these games still have in the modern hobby landscape. 

 

This Episode….

 

The idea of adventure draws many to different hobbies. Some go scaling mountains, while others hurtle down them. Camping outdoors brings many to the wonders of forests and lakes across the world. Even dry and inhospitable deserts hold wonders to be explored. Much as I don’t mind a bit of outdoors living, a lot of my adventures have been found round the gaming table, exploring strange places and encountering odd folk. 

 

Roleplaying games excel at this kind of adventure but sometimes we don’t want the faff of creating a character or lumbering a friend with the responsibilities of the GM. Sometimes we want something to give us that feeling without all the work needed to run a good RPG. The next game we are talking about attempted to do just that. It’s a game that has been around for a long time and still keeps getting reprinted. We will look at why, discuss its influences and legacy, as we climb the wizards tower to the top of Talisman.

 

The game was designed by Robert Harris and published by Games Workshop and Fantasy Flight Games.  It has art from Christos Achilleos, Ryszard Anotnoiszczak, Gary Chalk, and Peter Andrew Jones. 

 

Show Links

 

Below are links to the games and anything else that the team mention during the course of the cast.  We will be linking to BGG for games, designers, artists, and publishers as that is a good place to start for raw information about the game in question.

 

Games Mentioned

 

Dungeons and Dragons

Bugs Bunny Adventure Game

Magic Realm

Dungeon

Mystic Wood

Dungeon Quest

Dungeon Crawl Classics

Agon

Deathmatch Island

Swords & Wizardry

Mork Borg 

Mage Knight

Catan

Episode Link

Runebound

Expeditions

Vindication

Heroquest

Star Wars: Outer Rim

Eldritch Horror

 

Other Mentions

 

Talisman Island

Bob Harris site

Team Links

 

Websites you can find the cast on

There Will Be Games

 

Iain

The Giant Brain

Bluesky

Matt

Bluesky

 

Nate

Bluesky

Threads

 

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Email us at cultoftheolduk@gmail.com