Talisman: Batman – Super-Villains Edition Coming from The OP in June 2019

In early February 2019, USAopoly — which has since redubbed itself The OP — announced that it had signed a deal with Games Workshop for licensed versions of the board game Talisman.

One of those versions was revealed in late February as Talisman: Kingdom Hearts, with players controlling Mickey and other characters as they attempt to acquire the needed strength and magic to seal the Door to Darkness. The other version was accidentally spoiled when the GAMA Trade Show 2019 site book went live (Issuu link) with an advertisement from The OP that contained this image:

.@USAopoly announced two licensed versions of Talisman in Feb. 2018, with Talisman: Kingdom Hearts having been revealed last week. Now in the GTS 2019 site book, we discover the other title is Talisman: Batman, with the subtitle being too fuzzy to read. (HT @therewillbegame) —WEM pic.twitter.com/djSIdffDhV
— BoardGameGeek (@BoardGameGeek) March 2, 2019

(And contrary to what I tweeted, Talisman Island gets the hat tip for spotting this item first — well, first in public. More on that below.)

Here's an overview of the now officially revealed Talisman: Batman – Super-Villains Edition, which is for 2-6 players ages 13 and up with a release date of June 2019:

Quote:

Talisman: Batman – Super-Villains Edition allows players to take on the role of Gotham City's notorious evil-doers, sneaking and fighting their way through Arkham Asylum's two floors and central tower to be the first to subdue Batman and successfully release its dangerous inmates.

The anti-heroic objective in this take on the classic Talisman fantasy tabletop game focuses on building the health, strength, and cunning of the Caped Crusader's enemies. The game can be played co-operatively against an AI Batman or competitively against other foes with one player eventually earning the reputation needed to be King or Queen of the criminal underworld. The game board features artwork from DC's "New 52" era, and the game includes thirteen plastic character figures, more than one hundred encounter cards, six-sided dice, and stat boards to monitor each character.

The press release includes the following teaser — "Expect APBs leading up to the release of Talisman: Batman Super-Villains Edition unlocking the identities of the game's playable characters before they're spotted by citizens" — so I'll keep quiet about what I saw at NY Toy Fair 2019 as the game was under embargo at that time. You can see below that Harley Quinn is one of the playable characters, but I think that choice will come as a surprise to no one.

Board Game: Talisman: Batman – Super-Villains Edition

What I will say is that you can think of Batman in this game as being akin to the Grim Reaper from The Reaper Expansion for Talisman (Revised 4th Edition). No one gets to play Batman in this game; instead Batman will move to confound the villains as they try to make their way out of Arkham Asylum.

BGG will be livestreaming from GAMA Trade Show 2019 from March 12-14, and we're scheduled to show off Talisman: Batman – Super-Villains Edition on Thursday, March 14 at 11:00 (UTC-7), so you can discover more about the game at that time...