WTD- Talisman

Yeah, I will never be an ELITE, internationally renowned Talismanist like you Nate. But I can aspire.

LOL Brewmeister literally got more than he bargained for out of this thread. I just got everything for about $400, half was Amazon GC from Christmas, half ebay sales. So breaking even. Not sure why I got the Dragon again because it sucks.

I -loved- Timescape. It was awful but wonderful.

Yeah, Timescape had issues, but a couple of the characters it added (Cyborg!) made it worth it. What annoyed me was how they essentially put the Horrible Black Void, one of the ending cards of 2nd Ed, on the Timescape board and then neutered it so you could just hop around the various boards. Whatevs. Like Dungeon, it didn't get half the use that City did, but it was fine having it out there as an option.

Michael Barnes wrote: ... LOL Brewmeister literally got more than he bargained for out of this thread. ...

Yeah the day certainly took a turn I was not expecting

My kid loves the Dragon expansion and it makes me grit my teeth every time. It takes a perfect game and makes it a slog.

Uh, but of course I love it! Of course, I love to play this for three hours. I love it. I do.

What does Dragons do that turns Talisman into a slog? Talisman is already a game that we usually play until we get tired of it, rather than until someone actually wins

Adds an upkeep (drawing a token, maybe doing more if there's a new Dragon King), adds more clutter to the board (the tokens), and adds an extra layer of what-to-do because you can encounter the space OR the token on it. It just adds adds adds.

Yeah, Talisman kind of breaks down when you add process. The Dragon is an interesting idea in the sense that it was the first 4e expansion to try to actually do something different, but in my very limited experience (as in, only one solo game) it's not a terrific trade-off. But it's fine, what would Talisman be without a couple poorly-considered expansions?

The Woodlands expansion has some of the same problem in that it adds a couple of steps that are easy to forget to the game. But it works a little better.

That is an excellent point that gets to the heart of -why- I’m into simpler games right now. So much modern design is about process and not play. The Dragon sucks because it adds process and modernity to Talisman. Which basically has NO process other than that goofy flowchart for encounters that I don’t think I’ve ever really looked too hard at.

Just an FYI:

So I'm doing a multi-year project for a client. He commissioned me to paint his entire Talisman collection. I took the opportunity to paint my own collection alongside his. My rationale is simple: it's the only way I'll ever find the time and drive to paint my own set. I paint 1-2 expansions a year for him. After next month's delivery, I'll be 2/3 finished.

I always meet him for a miniatures exchange at a bar, and we talk. Great guy. Smart guy. LOVES Talisman. He's the biggest Talisman nut I've ever encountered. Collects it all. Knows a lot about foreign language expansions / exclusives and owns most of it. Along the way, he's had conversations with the designers.

Now. This is third hand information, so take it with a grain of salt.

Apparently... Had Talisman continued with FFG, plans had been drafted for EVERY EXPANSION to be "re-envisioned" after the events of the Cataclysm.

I thought that was crazy ambitious and pretty cool sounding. Supposedly, the ideas were floated to Pegasus and they said "no thanks."