Talisman is evolving, and it’s up to one small studio in Great Britain to oversee its metamorphosis.
Nomad Games unveiled its next game last week, Talisman: The Horus Heresy. This team-based board game set in the Warhammer 40,000 universe takes the work the studio has put into Talisman: Digital Edition since 2012 and twists it to, as Donald Whiteford noted in an email, “fit the digital medium better.”
“Some aspects of the board game, like spellcasting work, fine in a room with the physical game. Online, the ‘cast any time’ rule introduces a break in the flow that some players do not quite grasp and so they quit an online game,” he said. “We have aimed to keep the play flowing, fast paced and accessible. In addition, we can do things with presentation that simply would not work on a physical board. A lot of fans have asked us why we have not done this before, so here it is!”
Talisman: Digital Edition is a near-clone of the Fantasy Flight board game, where players choose one of a variety of characters and set out to the Crown of Command to win — or kill the other players for victory. The Horus Heresy has up to four players take one of the two sides in the civil war that the primarch Horus instigated within the Imperium of Mankind. These warlords guide Space Marines, tanks, and spacecraft in battle.
It’s new ground for the Talisman devs at Nomad.
“Horus Heresy is a combative, team-based game rather than solo adventurers. It’s good versus evil basically,” Whiteford said. “In addition, we have taken rules from across the spectrum of Talisman and blended them into one game; an example is the fact that you can reinforce your teammate if needed. It’s galactic war on an epic scale, with the whole of mankind at risk.”
Games Workshop has licensed a number of projects based on its board and role-playing games. Last year, studios released five games based on Warhammer 40,000 alone. Whiteford isn’t concerned about space marine overload.
“Are there too many Star Wars games or versions of Monopoly?” Whiteford shot back to me. “I think this only becomes a problem when quality is questionable. Recently, we have seen some very good licensed properties like Vermintide, Freeblade, and Total Warhammer. … An awareness of digital GWS titles brings the audience to us, so it’s been good. You’ll see an example of this later on in January.”
Nomad has released six expansions along with 13 character packs (the most recent being The City and Goblin Shaman), so fans may worry what this means for continued support for Talisman going forward. But the studio has also released two takes on backgammon and solitaire recently while also working on Talisman and the Horus Hersey. And considering that Fantasy Flight continues to make new expansions for the board game, expect Nomad to continue making their digital counterparts.
“Talisman will continue on its current path, with more expansions to follow,” Whiteford said. “We have just extended the license for several more years. The Horus Heresy version is a playground for us that allows us to try out new rules, modes of play, and presentation without interfering in the classic game.”
And this work could also lead to something new for those questing for the Crown of Command.
“Hopefully, we’ll learn enough to develop a new edition of Talisman itself,” Whiteford said.