Relic is Talisman in the Warhammer 40,000 universe. That pretty much sums it up, though this lavish-looking beer-and-pretzels game features a few new mechanics to shake up the basic roll-and-move formula a bit. But it’s still long on playing time and long and luck, and you’ll love it or hate it depending on how attached you are to the original Talisman.
I enjoyed Talisman when it first came out because it was unlike anything else around at the time, but time has not been kind to the basic mechanics of the game. Still, it’s fun from a nostalgiac, turn-your-brain-off perspective, even though a session outstays any reasonable welcome past the two hour mark. I haven’t yet played Relic, but I appreciate the extra touches they’ve added to the basic system to make it a bit more interesting: dice rolls explode on a 6 for example, allowing you to add another roll, and you can collect Corruption cards that may give you benefits but also take you closer to becoming completely corrupted and removed from the game. You can also use certain cards to substitute for die rolls, mitigating a bit of the luck. But the game is still a long way from today’s strategy game standards. As long as you know that when you go in, and everyone is in the right frame of mind, I’m sure it can be a lot of fun. I’ll probably pick up a copy because of the theme and the excellent artwork alone.
Thank you so much for doing this game. Is there any chance you could incorporate a board summary? Sometimes its hard to read them from across the table or perhaps you could do a mini map?
If I end up buying the game I may look into that if I think it will make the game flow better.
Just played my first game with your player aid and it was a life saver as always. I do have another request. Could you include the level reward icons that are on the back of the rule book? That’s the only thing that’s missing that would allow me to keep the rule book in the box.
I now have a copy of the game in the mail so I’ll update the sheet when I get hold of it. 🙂
For some reason PDF is corrupted. Can you fix this please?
Sorry, I must update these old direct links to link to instead link to the relevant game page. This summary is now at v1.1, which is why the download didn’t work. Fixed now.