These are the houserules I came up with and are playing with my friends. While I can't guarantee balance, I made my best to keep them balanced and they seem to work fine thus far.

My house rules encompass Fantasy Flight's Nether Realms Expansion, the Frostmarch Expansion, the Reaper Expansion.

I'm also using the Runestones from Talisman Digital Edition.

While I wrote these with all these expansions in mind, not all of them are needed and of course you can modify them as much as you want to suite your needs. Heck, this is the main reason I'm posting this here; to share my ideas.

I'll keep this list updated when I come up with new rules and changes and when I'll acquire new expansions.

This first post contains all the rules. The next post contains my thoughts on them and why I came up with them.

--------------------------------------------------------

Nether Realms Expansion

Whenever you can draw an adventure card, you can choose to draw a card from the Nether Deck and encounter it.

If you successfully encounter the card, you can chose from one of these options:

• Force any other player of your choice to draw a card from the Nether Deck and encounter it immediately. (This player did not voluntarily draw a card from the Nether Realms deck and therefor does not get the benefits of defeating it)
• Upgrade one of your Runestone (from Bronze to Silver to Gold) or pick a new one (to a maximum of three Runestones)
• Move the Reaper to any space (and player) you want.

Enemies are never kept as trophies.

Enemies from this deck are never kept as trophies and put on the Nether Deck's discard pile.

--------------------------------------------------------

Runestones

Each level of Runestone has been given a cost value - Gold: 3 points, Silver: 2 points and Bronze: 1 point.

At the beginning of the game, players have 3 points to spend on Runestones and must decide on the best way to spend these. For example, you might wish to start with one Silver and one Bronze Runestone, or with one Gold or three Bronze.

Runestones are kept even if a character dies.

Runestones can be found/downloaded here (they are originally from the Talisman Digital Edition game):

http://community.fantasyflightgames.com/index.php?/topic/95431-runestones-for-talisman/

--------------------------------------------------------

The Reaper Expansion

If a character is killed, the Reaper is immediately moved to his space. Unless that space is in the inner region, in which case the Reaper goes to the Portal of Power.

The killed character and the Reaper play a game of dice. Roll 2d6 for you and the Reaper (Fate can be used).

If the Reaper wins, then the character is dead for good and the player has to roll up a new character.

At a tie, both roll again.

If the player wins, the Reaper gives him a second chance. He is being resurrected at (moved to) the graveyard. All his belonging (followers, objects, gold etc.) stay where he got killed. His trophies are discarded. He loses one Strength, one Craft and starts with only two lives and one Fate.

When there is another Character on the space the Reaper is moved due to another character's death, after the dying player has been resolved, the character standing in the space has an encounter with the Reaper as if he was moved onto that space by another player.

Any space the Reaper is on can not be used for healing in any way (spell, location card, city doctor, castle or otherwise). You can still gain life.

A battle with a creature on the same space the Reaper is on gains the same bonus gained from Runes (and can be negated with the correct Runestone). A psychic combat on the same space as the Reaper get's another 1d6 (this also counts if someone is forced to draw a card from the Nether Deck [see Nether Deck rules above])

--------------------------------------------------------

Objects

Talisman

Talismans don't count towards the carry limit.

You can only carry one Talisman at a time.

A talisman can be discarded to the talisman stockpile in exchange for a random reward based on the result of 1d6:

(Based on the Character Sheet starting at Strength going counter-clockwise)

1. Gain 1 strengt h
2. Gain 1 craft
3. Gain 1 life
4. Move the Reaper to any other character or move to any in the region (Without the Expansion: Move to any space)
5. Gain 2 fate
6. Chose any one of the above.

--------------------------------------------------------

Player Interactions

You can at any point, trade with the active player (the player whose turn it is)., There are only two limitations: No trade during combat or if either character is in the Inner Region.

You can trade objects, gold and followers (except 'negative' followers you were forced to pick up, e.g. the hag or the poltergeist).

Verbal agreements are also encouraged, but there is no direct enforcement. There is only one exception (following the example below):

For example, a player could land on the same space as another player. The other player can offer an item or follower to the active player in exchange that he does not attack him. The trade happens, yet the active player decides to still attack the other player. Although dickish, this is allowed for characters of neutral or evil alignment.

Good characters are the only ones not allowed to this move. Good Characters can still betray others, just not directly harm them at the same time.

If a character is engaging in either battle or psychic combat, at the same location can chose to assist the first player. The assisting player's Strength or Craft is added to the first player.

If victorious, the active player receives the trophy by default, yet can chose to give it to the assisting player (there can also be some trade or agreement). If defeated, both players suffer the consequences of defeat (rolling for armour, losing a life etc.). If the enemy creature has any special abilities, they only affect the active player.

If a character is standing on the sentinel space (aka the field in front of the bridge ) or the hills space behind the bridge, he can assist a player that is fighting the sentinel. If the sentinel is defeated, the assisting player can chose to cross into the middle region on his turn without having to fight the sentinel.

(This is not really a rule per-se)

Monster attack rolls (and the Reaper and the like) are always rolled by the player to your left.

Movement

You can always choose to move one space. You have to decide this before rolling a dice.

If you have a Riding Horse, you can always choose to move two or one space. You have to decide this before rolling a dice.

Characters

The Reaper

• Merchant - The trade special ability is a 'forced' trade. The other character has no say in this trade and is forced to part with his object while having to accept the other object (ergo trading a Sword for a Orb of Destiny is legit)

--------------------------------------------------------

Outer Region

At the tavern, the village, the city you can trade in trophies for gold. Every multiple of 3 give you one gold. This has to be done before visiting someone (e.g. Mystic or Doctor).

--------------------------------------------------------

Middle Region

Warlocks cave

(With Frostmarch Expansion and/or Reaper, but without The Sacred Pool Expansion)

Every player starts with one quest.

Players are never teleported to Warlock's cave.

The first completed quest gives a random reward for the character based on the result of 1d6:

(Based on the Character Sheet starting at Strength going counter-clockwise)

1. Gain 2 strength
2. Gain 2 craft
3. Gain 2 life
4. Gain 2 gold
5. Gain 2 fate
6. Chose any one of the above or a Talisman.

After a player has completed two quest, instead of taking the die-roll reward, he can take a Talisman reward for subsequent completed quests.

Black Knight

Any payments of gold are placed in this location.

You can choose to fight him.

Strength 12 + [1 for every Gold]

If he's defeated, you get all his gold (and don't have to lose a life or gold)

If you are defeated, you lose a life and you are brought to the Temple and are enslaved. You also lose/discard one random object or follower (shuffle them all together and let another player pick a card, possibly with eyes closed).

--------------------------------------------------------

Inner Region

Dropped cards in the Inner Region are purged (discarded) after one round (e.g. if someone dies, the dropped objects and followers stay there for one round and are removed on his next turn)

Valley of Fire and Plains of Peril

(with Nether Realms Expansion)

At the start of the game, place two cards from the Nether Deck facedown on each Valley of Fire and the Plains of Peril.

If he fails to successfully encounter a card, his turn ends immediately and he must encounter the card again on his next turn unless he decides to turn back.

A character that has turned back ignores any Nether Cards on his return to the Plain of Peril, and does need to encounter the ones in the Plain of Peril. However, if he decides to advance into the inner region again, he immediately encounters them.

Once a card has been encountered successfully, draw a replacement card from the Nether Deck and place it facedown on the space to be encountered by the next character to land on that space.

These are not voluntarily drawn and therefor do not give you either benefit.

These are not removed by the "cleaning" that happens in the inner region every round.

No other character can assist.

The Pit

Pit fiends roll 2 dice when attacking and use the better dice to determine their combat score

Crown of Command

Depending on the available expansion, one of the 'Bosses' resides on the Crown of Command. They are shuffled together and a random one is placed face-down on the Crown of Command.

Possible bosses:

• Ice Queen (Frostmarch Expansion)
• Demon Lord (Sacred Pool Expansion)
• Eagle King (The Highland Expansion)

A character can only attack a Boss once per turn.

If two characters are on the Crown of Command space, they first have to fight each other before they fight the boss.

Edited August 9, 2014 by Zekayzer

Thoughts/explanations/behind-the-scenes

Nether Realms Expansion

When I went through this expansion, I saw all these extremely strong and deadly cards. And I thought it would be great to use them. Sadly, the Nether Realm cards are only used in the three alternative ending cards. And while I find Pandora's Box and the Gauntlet interesting, I would like to use the Nether Realm cards during the normal game, too. And in those two alternative endings, the Nether Realm cards only come into effect at the late end-game.

Therefor I chose to give players the choice to pick a Nether Realm card when they feel ready for it whenever they want. They basically can choose to encounter a much stronger enemy.

Of course, at the end of facing such a deadly card should be some kind of reward. Two rewards are basically to give other players of your choosing a hard time (but possibly a small boost; rolling "I have plans for you" on the Reaper or one of the few Nether Realm cards that, if defeated, give a +1 strength/craft bonus.)

The third reward is a direct and rather powerful and permanent boost to your own character.

Btw. I let the players not only put the Reaper on other Characters because of the small changes that I'm doing to the Reaper down below and a person might think of some interesting place to move him.

Using the Nether Realm cards is also a neat little way for players on the outside to harass someone that is making their way to the Crown of Command or is already on the CoC.

Runestones

I just thought that the Runestones are a neat little idea and gives players a little bit of customization and choice at the start. It also ties in with the Nether Realms house-rules.

The Reaper Expansion

Move the Reaper 1d6 when you roll a 1, the player he lands on rolls a die.

That's all?

The Reaper seemed so very underused. We're talking about Death impersonate here!

He's interacting with the living and playing dice, but is not even showing up to your funeral?

So I added this little chance of resurrection to the game. So when you die, you still lose most of your stuff, but there is a chance you at least keep some of your power and don't have to start at rock-bottom.

Also, I found it a bit awkward and boring that landing on the Reaper has no effect whatsoever. Or in other words, the location of the Reaper had no effect whatsoever. So I added this little effect. It also creates an interesting symbiosis with the Nether Deck.

Voluntarily draw a card from the Nether Deck, beat it, force someone to draw a Nether Deck card while standing next to the Reaper...death most likely ensues.

Objects

The bloody game is called Talisman, yet the Talisman itself does not serve a very important role to be honest. So I added this little bonus. Especially if you pick up a Talisman very early, you have no real use for it at all. And I often found some players even carry around two Talismans.

Player Interactions

There is clearly not enough interaction in the base game. I really don't understand why the base game dislikes player interaction so much. Yeah sure, some characters can interact with others when they encounter them...but still.

Movement

Even the Frog can move 1. And sometimes, you just want to reach something that is two or one space away from you. But instead your character just runs past it a couple of times...because for some reason he can't slow down.

Being able to chose to just move 1 space also gives character a bit more strategic options. While I always found the movement system in Talisman interesting, I found it adds another layer of absolute randomness that is not necessary. There is already so much randomness in the game.

Characters

The tweak of the Merchant is so he still has a trading related special ability, since everyone can now (and should always have been able to) trade.

Outer Region

Some sort of bounty for killing monsters. Gold is not worth as much as strength or craft gains. On the other hand, you can still buy a sword or similar with gold which is an indirect increase. But you have to get to a merchant and then the gold and the sword can be stolen and so on…

It just gives the game another strategic option, useful especially in the early game.

Middle Region

This makes the Warlock quests a bit more interesting and relevant, especially if you already have a Talisman.

Black Knight

You are fighting dragons, daemons, giants, monsters from hell and undead spirits...but a black knight is so far beyond our adventurers that you can't even try to fight him...what?

Therefor I changed this. Because of the potential gain, I made him quite strong and a possible defeat very annoying. Defeating him on the other hand gives you "free" passage and possibly what previous victims dropped. The more there is in the jackpot, the harder it is to beat him.

Inner Region

Again, another instance of Nether Realm cards coming into action and making the center region a bit more difficult.

The pit fiends were simply too easy. A strength of 4 is rather easy to defeat at the beginning of the game already, but no challenge whatsoever at the end. A very high strength is already a given when you arrive at the Pit because you have to go through the mines. The two-die-and-chose-the-better-one-rule gives them a bit more of a fighting chance.

Edited August 9, 2014 by Zekayzer