City of Adventure is the second of three expansion kits that Games Workshop will be publishing for Talisman. It adds new board sections, decks of cards, player characters and miniatures to the game.

Surrounding the land of Talisman are four great Kingdoms which are known as realms. City of Adventure allows players to enter two of these realms: The City realm of the Emperor, and the Forest realm of the deathly Wraith Lord. The remaining two realms are available in the First Talisman expansion set, Dungeon of Doom.

Each of the realms included in City of Adventure offer great opportunities as well as terrible dangers for those adventurers bold enough to enter them. Amongst the crowded markets and sops of the City of the Emperor can be found almost anything an adventurer might desire, from a sturdy warhorse to a magic sword. But the adventurer must keep his wits about him, for the city can be a dangerous place for the unwary. Meanwhile, far away from the hurly burly of the city lies the forest realm of the Wraith Lord. The winding pathways and the hidden groves of this sinister land are guarded by a host of evil spirits, but great knowledge can be gained by those brave enough venture into the Wraith Lord's hidden realm.

City of Adventure contains a pair of 'L' shaped board sections that attach to opposite corners of the main Talisman board. The two boards depict the two new realms which the players can explore. Two new sets of adventure cards (one for each realm) detail the events, enemies and followers that can be encountered, and the treasures that can be found in the new realms. In addition to the new boards and decks of cards, City of Adventure contains six new characters: the frenzied Witch Elf, dour Choas Dwarf, grim Dragon slayer, back-stabbing Assassin, plucky Halfling, and the mighty Black Orc. Each new character is provided with a full-colour character sheet detailing the character's strength, craft and special abilities, and is represented by a superbly detailed plastic Citadel miniature hand crafted by the Citadel design team.

The basic Talisman rules are left pretty much unchanged, and the game is still won by defeating the Dragon King. However, if City of Adventure is being used then players may move their character's into the new realms by the side of the main Talisman board. Each realm is connected to the main Talisman board at a specific space; the City realm connects at the City Gates space, and the Forrest Realm connect at the Forrest space. You may enter a realm simply by moving from the main board to the realm from the appropriate connecting space. To exit a realm, simply reverse the procedure, moving from the entry/exit space in the realm back to the connecting space on the board.

When in a realm a player must draw cards from the realm card deck, rather than the normal Talisman Adventure card deck. In addition, if a player's character starts a turn in a realm he must roll the special realm dice to see how many spaces the character may move. The realm dice is included with the City of Adventure expansion set and is different to a normal six sided dice. It bears the numbers 1,1,2,2,3,4 instead of the normal 1-6 pips. You will notice that this means you move more slowly in the realms, which is as it should be because each realm is, in its own way, more difficult to move through than the normal board. The realm dice is only used for movement; a normal six sided dice is used for battles, psychic combat, or anything else that calls for a dice roll.

Unfortunately we couldn't fit all of the characters we had play-tested in City of Adventure, so we've included two of the characters we had to miss out here in White Dwarf. To use them simply cut out or photocopy the character sheets and glue them to a piece of thin card, and then shuffle them in with the rest of the character sheets the next time you play a game of Talisman. The new characters can be represented by an appropriate Citadel miniature from your collection, or see the Mail Order advertisement elsewhere in this issue for a specially selected set if Citadel miniatures you can use. The two new characters are:

The Ogre stands almost twice as tall as a man and is far more strongly built. He has a massive, well muscled frame, huge limbs, a jutting jaw and a thick bony forehead. Although slow of mind and not especially quick or agile in his movements, once the Ogre decides to act he is as unstoppable as a vast boulder rolling down a mountain chasm.

The Dark Elf warrior is a cruel and fierce fighter. He is lithe and sinuous, with strong muscles and reactions every bit as quick and agile as his mind. Despite his deathly pallor and cruel face he is savagely handsome. He treats all other creatures with contempt and places no value on the lives of lesser races.

NEW TALISMAN CHARACTERS

The Dark Elf warrior is a cruel and fierce fighter. He is lithe and sinuous, with strong muscles and reactions every bit as quick and agile as his mind. Despite his deathly pallor and cruel face he is savagely handsome. He treats all other creatures with contempt and places no value on the lives of lesser races.

The Ogre stands almost twice as tall as a man and is far more strongly built. He has a massive, well muscled frame, huge limbs, a jutting jaw and a thick bony forehead. Although slow of mind and not especially quick or agile in his movements, once the Ogre decides to act he is as unstoppable as a vast boulder rolling down a mountain chasm.