It was almost ten years ago, back in 1983, that Talisman was released upon an unsuspecting world. At the time nobody at Games Workshop was quite ready for its runaway popularity. Print run after print run sold out, a new edition was released and sold even better than the first, there just seemed to be no end to the demand for the game! The original and most enduring of all fantasy boardgames, Talisman still remains one of Games Workshops best selling games, and is now available worldwide in half a dozen different languages.

The reason for Talisman's enduring and wide ranging success is that it serves as an excellent introduction into the world of fantasy gaming. Talisman is easy to understand and can be played by all the family, combining many fantasy game themes with the luck and tactics of a traditional board game. The game is simple to learn, difficult to master, entertaining, challenging, and always great fun to play.

In the game you become one of a group of brave adventurers on a quest to recover a long lost magical artifact called the Crown of Command. On this quest you will meet powerful enemies, discover friends and magical objects, and meet strange beings. Finally, when you have gained sufficient power, you can cross the last and most dangerous region to secure the Crown of Command. But before you can do this you will first need to find one of the magical Talismans that will allow you to pass through the deadly Valley of Fire unharmed!

The rules of Talisman are deceptively simple. At the start of the game each player is dealt a character card. These range from mighty fighters such as the Warrior or Dwarf, to powerful magicians such as the Wizard and Prophetess. Each character has their own special strengths and weaknesses which, combined with various spells and equipment, makes them unique. The magical land where this quest takes place is represented by the Talisman board. The board is split into three regions (inner, middle and outer) split into different sized spaces. Each character is represented by a piece, and may move a number of spaces equal to the roll of a dice each turn. The closer you get to the centre of the board, the more dangerous the spaces become.

On most of the spaces you will be instructed to draw one or more Adventure cards, and it is these which are at the heart of the game, The various events, adversaries, magical objects, followers and places that the players encounter on their quest are illustrated on the cards. The possible combinations of cards are almost endless, and ensure that no two games of Talisman will ever be the same. Once you start playing the game you will find that the road to success is fraught with peril; fellow players can steal your hard won treasures, leaving you exposed to thieves, monsters and cut-throats. Victory is never easy, and only the cunning and resourceful gain a chance to battle to ultimate victory.

Soon after the release of Talisman we were deluged with letters from players asking for new cards and characters, or suggesting their own ideas for the game. These, along with number of ideas of our own, have resulted in the large number of 'expansion kits' available for the Talisman game. There are six of these now, and each can be added to the Talisman game either on their own or in combination with any of the other expansion kits.

The first expansion kit to be released was the Talisman Expansion Kit, which adds new spells, adventure cards and 14 new characters to the game. It was quickly followed by Talisman The Adventure, which not only includes extra cards and characters, but also has a set of character sheets and six 'alternative ending cards' to make sure that the players never know who may be guarding the Crown of Command. However, it was the third expansion kit, which proved amongst the most innovative. Along with 14 new character cards, The Talisman Dungeon contains a new board that the players may move to with its own set of 36 Dungeon Adventure cards. The dungeon is dangerous compared to the normal board, but it can offer a short cut to the Crown of Command for those lucky enough to survive it! The Dungeon was quickly followed by Talisman Timescape, which included a new board, adventure cards and characters that allowed players to leave the Talisman world to adventure into strange and exotic science fiction settings. Talisman City returned the adventure to the Talisman world, providing a board and cards that recreated an entire fantasy city, filled with plenty of places for the players to spend the gold they had collected on their adventures.

Which brings us neatly to the release of Talisman Dragons, the very latest Talisman expansion kit. Like all the other supplements, Talisman Dragons can be added directly to the basic game. Most players are happy to use one or two expansions just to add a little more variety to their games and some dedicated players like to put all the expansions together to form an epic quest that might take a whole weekend to play!

Talisman Dragons does not include a new board - we felt that there were quite enough of those already! - and only has four new characters. Instead it uses over eighty new adventure cards to provide a brand new quest for the players to undertake. Talisman Dragons is set some time after the original quest. The land has been conquered by the evil Dragon King and it is up to the players to restore order by defeating him and rescuing the Crown of Command. This is considerably more easily said than done, as the land of Talisman Dragons is infested with more powerful and dangerous monsters, making it a much more dangerous place than ever before. During playtesting we found that the mortality rate amongst adventurers was two or three times as high as we would normally expect! On the other hand, if you win using Talisman Dragons you will know that you really have managed to succeed in the ultimate version of the Talisman game. And with that all I can really do is wish the best of luck - because your really going to need it!

Have fun...