MASTER-LEVEL CHARACTERS

By Paul Cockburn and Andy Warwick

Talisman City - the latest expansion for the ever-popular Talisman game - introduces a new type of Character: Master-Levels. They are additions to your starting Character, and bring new Special Abilities, additional Strength or Craft, and a few interesting side-effects.

Talisman City itself contains four Master-Level Characters; to give you an idea of what they're like, we printed four more, plus the necessary Playing Piece Cards and Adventure Cards.

This seat taken then? No - well you won't mind if I join yer. Took the liberty of gettin' you a sup of ale and all - hope you don't mind.

What did I want? I was just coming to that - let me get me breath back and all; just had a brush with a nasty bit of work.

Now then, what I'm here for. I couldn't help noticing what yer wearing like - the sword and everythin'. I said to meself 'Turmgever,' I said, 'Turmgever, that man there looks as if he's on The Quest.' Well what could I do? Been on it meself I have, so I thought I'd come over and offer some help.

Not having much luck you say? You wanna do what I done - get someone to help you. No, financially I mean; you know - gold.

You could ask one of the toffs if he wants a Herald. Rewards ain't great, but the rules - well them's a lot easier; servants of the aristocracy havin' a certain immunity from the arm of the Law, if yer see what I mean.

Course, many of 'em turn to the church, and that ain't all bad either; there's the Recruiter, see, and what he does is pick people to be Templars. No - Warriors of God, not buildings! Anyhow, a Templar, while he don't have much use for money, is never short of a sword or a mount. Couldn't help noticing your nag as I came in - Templars wouldn't be seen dead on a pile of horsemeat like that, get proper steeds they do!

What! You're not the fighting type? Well, there's other ways - the path of the Mystic and all that mumbo jumbo. Don't understand it meself, but I seen it done - walking in the etheral or summat. Course, gotta have the right magick. Quicker than mule though, all that out of the body stuff.

Trouble wiv Magick though, can't tell what yer dealing with - Chaos and all. Would yer believe that sum even turn to Chaos to get the job done! Well I think that's stupid cos you lose yer Humanity and all. Mind you, closest attempt I saw at gettin' the Crown was a Champion of Chaos, so there's gotta be summat in it.

Anyhow, that's my bit of advice to you if you want to carry on with this fool notion. If I were you though I'd give it all up like I did. Still if you want to go on, you'd best set someone to help yer like what I tried...

We advise that you always have at least one Master-Level Character for each player. Although not all of the Master Level Characters will come into play, it will be a lot fairer if everyone has a chance to take one.

USING THE CHARACTERS

During a game, if you draw a Card which specifically offers you a chance to take a Master-Level Character you may do so. Obviously, only one player can take any one Master-Level Character.

Take the appropriate Playing Piece Card (with the exception of the Mystic, who is given his own stand); put the new Playing Piece Card in the starting location indicated on the relevant Master-Level Character Card.

Take the Master-Level Character Card, and place it next to your original Character Card; he continues to keep Starting Quotas and Special Abilities he already has, adding whatever new bonuses and Abilities the new Character gives him. It's probably easiest to take counters for any increases in Strength, Craft and Lives and store them next to the old Character Card. The only thing about the old Character you may have to change is Alignment; the Master-Level Character's Alignment takes precedence. If this causes a change, check through the Character's Followers, Objects etc to make sure that they can cope with his new Alignment - if not, they must be discarded (left in the space the Character occupies).

Resigning as a Master-Level Character

Most of the Master-Level Characters allow you to resign and go back to your original Character at any time; exceptions to this rule for the Talisman City Master-Level Characters are given in the Talisman City Rulebook. Of the Characters provided in this article, you may not resign as the Champion of Chaos; nor may the Mystic be resigned as such - however, the Spell that allows a player to call the Mystic into play will have been discarded, so rejoining the Mystic and the original Character will effectively end the Mystic's use.

When a Character resigns, all extra Strength, Craft and Lives gained by becoming a Master-Level Character are lost. If, by resigning as a Master-Level Character, another Alignment shift is caused, check through all the other cards the Character holds to make sure they are still compatible.

Finally, all of the other rules concerning Characters are unchanged - unless specifically contradicted by any of the rules given on the Master-Level Character Cards.

SETTING-UP

Before starting the game, all of the Cards should be cut out and mounted onto thin card, making sure that the fronts of the Cards are matched with the correct backs. The Adventure Cards should be shuffled into the appropriate decks, while the Character Cards and Playing Piece Cards should be put on one side until they are needed.