Let's face it, it's been a long time since we've seen hide or hair of Talisman in the pages of White Dwarf, and I'll wager there are more than a few of you out there who don't know what you're missing. I think it's also probably fair to say that those of you who own a Talisman set have it gathering dust on a shelf somewhere. Therefore, we decided it was high time to reintroduce you to this timeless classic.

As you may or may not know, before being drafted to the White Dwarf bunker I worked in one of your stores. Whilst there an oft asked question by the younger gamers was, "why do you still sell Talisman?" My stock answer to this was a simple one: "because I think it's an excellent game." The problem was that many of the people who asked this question hadn't even played the game. So what had Talisman done to receive all of this bad press?

I think the answer lies primarily in the fact that Talisman is not a game which follows the format of our other systems - it's a board game and not a tabletop wargame. I've seen Warhammer Quest suffer from the same prejudices, and witnessed those prejudices overturned on games nights in the stores when the doubting Thomases actually had a go. After all, the proof of the pudding is in the eating, and all that sort of guff.

Something else I have noticed is that many of the people who still play Talisman are using the old set and don't know a great deal about our other game systems. This is a shame because the version of Talisman which is currently available knocks spots off the old set, with its plastic Citadel miniatures as opposed to cardboard pieces, and the vast range of Wayne England's illustrations on many of the components. The gameplay is also is also better and makes considerably more sense than its predecessor, which suffered from a gross excess of supplements that did not quite gel with one another. Confused? You certainly were.

Talisman is a game which can be played pretty much any time you have a spare couple of hours. You don't need any preparation and it takes about five minutes to set up the board. Up to six players is a functional maximum for the game (you can have more players if you really want to, but six is plenty), and because of the simplicity of the rules Talisman is an ideal springboard for new gamers into the rest of the hobby. In fact, this is a game that is so accessible that I regularly play it with friends who have no interest in wargaming whatsoever and steadfastly refuse to play things like Warhammer (amazing as you may find it), and they find Talisman hugely entertaining. And when you've played though enough games to be thoroughly familiar with the rules and all of the cards, there are three different expansion kits to choose from, one of which contains a spectacular Citadel Dragon - a worthy addition to any Warhammer army, I'm sure you'd agree.

The basic premise of Talisman is that a number of heroes and antiheroes of the realm take on the task of slaying the immensely powerful Dragon King, a wicked creature who has stolen the fabled Crown of Command, thus enabling him to rule. In order to do this they must first find one of the legendary Talismans hidden around the land. This will provide them with the means to cross the magically protected threshold of the Dragon's Tower where the great beast roosts. These characters are all playing against each other, vying for the honour and the glory of being the one to destroy the Dragon King, and become king in his stead by taking the Crown of Command for themselves. Whilst it is possible to cooperate in the game through trade, agreements and many other ways too numerous to list, more often than not you will be making sure the other players have a hard a time of it as you can wangle. Because, after all, you want to be the one to slay the beast, don't you?

The way this all works is as follows: at the beginning of the game each player is dealt a character from the set of card character sheets in the box. When your characters have been appropriately armed to the teeth from the purchase and spell decks, you all place your models on their starting squares on the board and take it in turns to move. The board is split into three regions beginning with the Outer Region, then the Inner Region and finally the Dragon's Tower. Players move their characters by rolling a D6 and moving that number of squares on the board, in a direction of their choice. Each of the squares will contain instructions which in most cases will be to draw a card. The cards either have encounters with enemies who will invariably thrash you senseless (if you roll dice anything like I do), helpful followers who will join you, useful objects to collect, different places to visit, strangers to meet, or special events which may affect you. As the game progresses, your character will become more powerful, stronger, wilier, and wealthier through the accumulation of followers and objects, and by experience gained from vanquishing your foes. But watch out, never get complacent when you're on top of the heap because the next card drawn could knock you right back to the bottom. You can probably glean from all of this that despite its apparent simplicity, there exists plenty of scope within Talisman for intriguing gameplay and cunning strategies to cope with whatever eventualities are thrown your way.

As I mentioned above, there are three expansion sets available for Talisman with which you can spice up your games. Inside each of these boxes you will find new characters to play, new board sections to adjoin the main lands (the Realms), new cards and decks, and special Realm dice with which to move around these new boards. Dungeon of Doom is the first of these sets, which contains the underground Realm of the foul Lord of Darkness, the ruler of the Talisman underworld of catacombs and labyrinths. Also covered is the mountain Realm of the Eagle King, a fierce and noble adversary who will offer to transport you anywhere in the lands if you can beat him in single combat.

The second of these expansions is the City of Adventure set. In this box there is the forest Realm of the dreaded Wraith Lord, and the city Realm presided over by the Royal Palace. In addition to the normal encounter squares, the city offers a range of buildings for you to visit where you can make purchases and in some cases gain titles and offices to make your character more powerful. But keep an eye open for the watch who will sling you in gaol as soon as look at you.

The final Realm is the Dragon's Tower itself. This set contains the two most spectacular pieces in the game. The first of these is the aforementioned Dragon, and the other is a three dimensional gameboard of the Dragon's Tower which sits in the space occupied by the original region on the main game board. It contains a new, and much expanded card deck for this final region full of fiendish traps and dreadful foes to make the final ascent to the Dragon King's eyrie all the more hazardous.

To sum up, the beauty of Talisman is its accessibility. Anyone can play Talisman, and it doesn't require you to gather up any specialist terrain or equipment before playing a game, nor do you need to prepare any roster sheets or anything else for that matter. Easy.

A further interesting option is to play with only one Talisman available in the game, which is brilliant for sparking off a total blood bath as the characters vie for its ownership. At the end of the day you can do whatever you like really. Go on, try it out, it's grand!