A Preview of the Upcoming Expansion for Talisman
originally published 27 December 2012
In our last preview of The City , the upcoming expansion for Talisman , we looked at the City Deck and the unique perils and places that the streets of this bustling metropolis offer to the enterprising adventurer.
With all of the dangerous characters and creatures roaming the City’s streets and alleys, the City’s powerful guilds and the local law enforcement are more than happy to take on a little extra help where they can find it. Accordingly, the City is filled with adventurers looking to make their fortune. Where there’s gold, there are guilds, and these organizations are well aware that the lifeblood of the City is based around the flow of commerce. The guilds and the city guard have decided to capitalize on their more mercenary visitors by setting up a Wanted List at the City Gate .
Creating Cash from Combat
When adventurers first enter the City and they take a moment to linger at the City’s entrance, they will find a Wanted List of up to three Wanted Posters, each featuring a type of target. These targets can be either creatures or characters that the guilds and city guards would like eliminated from the area.
Each poster featuring creatures specifies the type of enemy that you can bring in for a bounty. You collect bounties by turning trophies to gain an amount of gold equal to the number of the enemy’s trophy point value. Take care to balance your lust for gold against your ambitions for character growth, though, as you discard the trophies that you use to claim a bounty.
Turning in these trophies as a bounty would give a character seven gold.
Animals that dwell both within and without the City walls sometimes trouble the people of Talisman . When the city watch posts a Wanted Poster featuring an Animal as its target, adventurers gain an opportunity to get some extra coin for squashing creatures like a Giant Fly. Maybe you encountered and bested a Bear or an Ape outside the City; when an Animal is Wanted, you can bring these trophies to the City Gate to gain gold for your efforts.
Animals aren’t the only threats that prowl the land. Enemies both supernatural and technological can rear their ugly heads from time to time, and Wanted Posters for Constructs like a Clockwork Cabinet or Spirits like the Apparition may also grace the City Gate. Every Enemy type has caused trouble for the guards or the guilds at some point, and there are Wanted Posters for all of them.
These bounties are not relegated to creatures, however. Characters can also be made into targets. There are three major guilds in the City: the Merchants’ Guild, the Assassins’ Guild, and the Thieves’ Guild. Each is powerful and very wealthy, and, if provoked, they may place bounties on the heads of adventurers. Each Wanted Poster that features a character as its target focuses on alignment rather than a specific adventurer.
Some people like to cause trouble, and some people just find themselves in the middle of it. The Assassins’ Guild may grow sick of all the do-gooders running around, and place a price on the head of a Good Character. The Merchants’ Guild may try to help clean up the streets by putting out a bounty on Evil Characters. The Thieves’ Guild may simply try to cut down on its competition by taking aim at Neutral Characters. Whether or not your character means to cause a ruckus, he can wind up on the Wanted List just like anyone else caught up in the intrigues of the powerful guilds. However, you’ll really want to watch your back if you’ve gone down a dark path, as Evil Characters draw the ire of the guilds than any other alignment.
Since player characters cannot be taken as trophies, Wanted Posters that target characters function differently than those that feature creatures as targets. If your adventurer defeats another character in combat, then you get to roll one die and receive the result in gold in addition to the standard rewards.
Clearly, if there is a bounty out on your adventurer, he shouldn’t hang around the City Gate, just waiting for one of the other characters to swing by and claim his head for coins. Adventurers can choose to purchase any Wanted Poster currently hanging up at the City Gate for the cost of one gold. If a character owns a given Wanted Poster, then he may collect on the poster’s target at any time during his turn. Wanted Posters featuring both characters and creatures can be purchased at the City Gate. Buy yourself a Wanted Poster that targets Animals, and then take your time rounding up any Giant Rats scuttling about the City. If a Neutral Character has been making things difficult for you, see if you can’t buy a Wanted Poster for that alignment before you go after him.
Claiming bounties is a great way to earn your character some extra coin as he travels the realm and does battle with a wide array of opponents.
The Assassins’ Guild Plays for Keeps
The Assassins’ Guild typically works from the shadows. The highest honor for a truly skilled assassin is to learn that you’ve never heard of them. Though they prefer to be puppet-masters, there are times when a show of strength is vital to maintain the Assassins’ Guild’s frightening reputation.
In the Assassins’ Guild Alternative Ending included in The City , these normally quiet killers have come out in full force. Bounties are the key to winning the game in this scenario. The Assassins’ Guild has planned to make heads roll all across the realm, and only by appeasing their whims can you hope to lay hands on the Crown of Command.
The special effects of this Alternative Ending dictate that no character will ever be without at least one Wanted Poster, making the hunt for trophies a focus for players right from the start. When a player collects gold for the trophies his character has won, he keeps the Wanted Posters from the claim rather than discarding them. These Wanted Posters are kept facedown in the character’s play area, and the first player who makes it to the Crown of Command with four facedown Wanted Posters wins the game!
The bounties offered by the guilds and guards introduced in The City are a great way to earn extra gold as you do battle with the various enemies of Talisman . In our next preview, we’ll take a closer look at the new adventurers that will be going for the gold in this upcoming expansion!