Hello folks, I just wanted to lay down some ideas for an expansion I'd like to create. I am a fairly creative person, so hopefully I'll be able to do something interesting with the basic premise of it, but please feel free to post ideas and critisms here. This thread will updated slowly, I have a ton of other stuff to do, but i hope to be coming up with a few cards every couple of days or so, we'll see how it goes. Creating a home brew expansion is something I have wanted to do for a while now, ever since discovering the website Talisman Island I think and seeing all the great stuff there. So this will be a slow thoughtful process - I'm in no hurry to come out with something.

Anyway NightFall will bring in some cards into the main adventure deck to indicate that night has fallen and to use the Night Fall sub deck which contains all manner of beastly ghouls, ghosts and other nasty more fearsome creatures and adventures for everybodies next turn. I hope also to include four or five more characters, additional spells and items and an actual sub adventure game - card based rather than board based. This additional adventure will be based around something like a foray into some evil place, or an astral plane or alternate dimension, there is no concrete plan yet. The player will simply draw a pre determined number of cards and each turn will encounter the top card, until all cards are encountered and the player returns to the main game board. I will be utilising the card generator being made at the moment I think to help me out with them and a little bit of photoshop magic to design my cards. Illustrations however will not be included on the cards, although I may track down a skilled volunteer when the cards are made from all the talented artists who may be interested.

Keep yours eyes peeled later tonight for some photos of my first Talisman Character Bust as well. I sculpted the warrior character last night and it is nearly finished so I will post photos tonight. There is still some work to do on him - the base design being the main thing left to do. This will be in the thread I created a while back for this project, not in here of course!

dfb

Nightfall sounds like interesting unique idea! But I'm wondering... within the standard adventure deck are Enemies (and possibly Events and Strangers) that are or might be interpreted to appear at night. "Spirits" (not all) might be an obvious possibility. So will you distinguish those somehow as "night" encounters, or leave the base Adventure deck alone and as is?

I have worked out some rough ideas for about 20 cards today. Just a bit of unrefined text for some basic ideas so I will post them as I tidy them up.

JCH --- The encounters in the main deck may or may not be duplicated into the Night Fall idea, but Night Fall deck will not affect cards in the normal deck in any way. I have one card so far that stays in play once play returns to the main deck - "The Asylum". This card serves as a haven where the player may evade any Night Fall encounters. This is more useful when going from normal play into Night of course as any player passing the Asylum may simply hide here and skip his go which may be useful for a character who can see the top adventure card and knows its a nasty one or if there are some bad ass monsters in the vicinity (You may heal one life at the asylum if you skip your following turn as well). There is also a card "Long Dark Night" which extends Night Fall encounters from 1 round of play into two (or maybe three?) making The Asylum even more useful. So there will be cards that stay in play through normal play as well. The main thrust will be more powerful (including some very undead) monsters, some "boss monsters" which allow you to draw from a treasure deck if you defeat them and of course the additional adventure. For characters I have my entry into Talisman Islands character competition "The Accursed Knight", some kind of witch hunter/ inquisitor type and a Paladin. I need an evil character now to finish the four.

dfb

Got it. All sounds interesting and looking forward to seeing any general rules and examples.

Well, I thought I'd post a link to the first character of the expansion - "The Accursed Knight". This was my entry into Talisman Island Sun Knight competition.

NB - Jon if you are reading this I have linked directly to the image on your site - if this is not cool with you message me at some point and I will try and find/upload my original image. Go here to see all the competition entries - there are some good ideas and entries here!

http://www.talismanisland.com/ti10_competition_02.ht

If you look at the werewolf rules on the card something similiar or the same will apply if the "Werewolf" monster in the expansion defeats you in combat. Low powered characters may find they turn into a werewolf here as he is a toughie to beat! This mechanic is obviously similiar to the toad mechanic except of course it is a litle cooler being a werewolf. The actual game mechanic will be slightly different as well. When the "Night Falls" card is drawn from the adventure deck any player with the curse of the werewolf must first do the rolls for the followers as per the card. They must leave their possessions where they are with the exception of any remaining followers who can carry items and continue the turn. The player retains his spells but cannot utilise them in wolf form. So not as bad as being a toad for sure, but this adds a little flavour nevertherless. Craft using characters may be at a slight disadvantage as well as their will be alot of damage from the "horror and fear" of Night Fall expansion cards. But the flipside will be alot of powerful craft based enemies to defeat and gain trophies for.

Another thing I was considering today was also some pack based enemies - "Zombie Horde", "Company of Wolves" and "Children of the HIlls" so far. Fairly weak to mid powered enemies but each combat will tire you and reduce your strength (but not below your basic level) for the duration of the combat. Of course you only have to be defeated once for the encounter to end. The Children of the Hills are a freaky bunch and if you lose the combat you also lose 1 craft due to the horrific experience of battling buck toothed, two headed cannibal families! Winning the combat with these cards counts as an instant trophy of course as the reward.

More thoughts later!

dfb

Interesting ideas!

May I suggest that you use a series of Event cards called "Dawn", "Day", "Dusk" and "Night", each such card would have the same subcategory (Daytime/Time of day or something like that).

You would insert these cards (say, 3 copies of each?) in to the Adventure Deck so they would come up at random points. These Event cards remain in play until replaced by a new such event card (e.g. You draw "Dawn" and this would stay in play until another such card, either Day, Dusk or Night is drawn).

When "Day" is in play, the game is as normal. Night Fall creatures in play are shuffled back in to the Night Fall deck (so killed Night Fall critters would still remain discarded).

Dawn and Dusk would allow players to CHOOSE whether to draw cards from the Adventure Deck or the Night Fall deck.

Night would mean players HAD to draw from the Night Fall deck. So you want to try and stay in doors while it is night time!

You would also have to put these "Time" cards in the Night Fall deck too.

That sounds like it will add too much complication!!! I think the best way to create stuff for Taliman is to hit that perfect balance of simplicity whilst the card or rule adds a seemingly complex/interesting mechanic or twist. However, I do like the idea of the "Dusk" card which allows you to choose to use either the adventure deck or the Night Fall deck, so I think I will definately include that. This will act as a kind of avoidance card for the player in the Night Fall deck. Score yourself a dusk card and you may choose to draw again from either deck. So if you are weak you can take the easy way out. Obviously that card only applies to the player who draws it, everyone else is not so lucky! Nice one - thanks very much for that idea. I will try and insert notes in my text files of the card details so I can keep track of who contributed what to it (I will use usernames on here for simplicities sake).

cheers,

dfb

No worries Chris about posting the image, but thanks for checking.

I just thought I'd post a little something to show what can be done with the Revised 4th Edition extension for Strange Eons - I think it's shaping up to be a most useful tool! Nothing fancy, just an image and an idea...

...and playing with time travel...

Overall, it's a very interesting character, except for one thing... I don't at all see why a Werewolf would have a higher Craft. If anything, it makes more sense as...

• optionally, Craft -1 and possibly loss of any Spells thereby
• a +1 Strength in general, or a +2 for surprise and ferocity if you land on an Enemy (or Adventurer) already on a space.

The problem with relating "Cunning" to Craft is that in Talisman, Craft (the catchall attribute) has heavy associations to magic, intelligence, wisdom, learning, none of which one finds in the cunning of beasts, let alone a were-("man")-wolf.

Hmmm... and even so, if he's more cunning, how can Animals just run away from him? Doesn't make sense, now that I think about it. EVEN SO... ALL of the Animals in the standard deck are below 7 (don't know about expansions). I think the highest is a 4 or 5? You might be better off lowering that a little to about 4 or 5.

Well regarding the craft issue, like you said I just I drew on the traditional stereotype of the cunning wolf to validate the bonus craft. The curse of the werewolf is meant not to be a complete burden as such and I wanted to try and illustrate a character who is plagued by his afflication but has also learned to utilise it a bit as well.Thus it becomes a little bit more fun to be a werewolf. There is a little back story for this guy on Talisman Island - on the competition page so that explains the spells. The research he has done in the arcane arts to learn to control and cure his afflication has resulted in increased aptitude for magic and knowledge of the arcane. No animal in their right mind would bother to attack some crazy man wolf hence the causing of fear, they know to avoid him if they want to live. The player will lose the ability to score some easy wins and trophies if in wolf form. The creature strength is there as a catch all for future animals who may be more powerful than the base deck animals. I'll stand by on that point.

Perhaps an adjusted compromise of +1 craft and I must admit I like the surprise +2 strength bonus for ambushing anyone you land on, so maybe +1 craft to represent the cunning wolf angle (I like my fairy tales, especially company of wolves/little red riding hood heheh!) and a +1 Strength bonus when landing on any enemy or character, representing the wolfs predator instincts. I will mull it over.

The Paladin and Inquisitor type characters I have not really thought about to be honest. I quite like the idea of the Paladin having a special equipment card "Holy Armour" rather than have three seperate pieces helmet, shield and armour the suit of armour card contains all three in one item.Obviously some kind of spell ability and healing bonus, but there are some nice ideas on other characters in the Sun Knight competition. If any take my fancy I may beg borrow and steal some ideas from there....

dfb

QUOTE efidm=135727]Perhaps an adjusted compromise of +1 craft and I must admit I like the surprise +2 strength bonus for ambushing anyone you land on, so maybe +1 craft to represent the cunning wolf angle (I like my fairy tales, especially company of wolves/little red riding hood heheh!) and a +1 Strength bonus when landing on any enemy or character, representing the wolfs predator instincts. I will mull it over.

Sounds like a good adjustment. It feels a little closer to the stereotype you're building on. But maybe that should be a +1 in Battle rather than Strength (my original wording wasn't accurate for the issue of surprise and ferocity in attacking).

Yes I think I'll implement that little change, I like it better and it is a bit of extra variety. There certainly is alot of thinking to do and playing about with stuff when designing an expansion, suddenly seems a little bit more of a monumental task completing a really good expansion pack! The artwork is what i worry about most. Im not too bad at drawing and i think i could manage to equal the really old editions. Hmmmm....

Check out this picture to see an example, its an old drawing and i could probably do better now, i just can't see myself having time to do them lol...

www.elfwood.com/~chrismay/The_Tattered_Wizard.2626813.html

Okay, I'm just gonna present a few rough descriptions to get started here, no organised presentation with exact rule and final flavour text or anything - just some laid down ideas in the rough, up for discussion.

Multiple Enemies

Well, I definately wanted a night of the living dead type encounter in this expansion as it is horror inspired deck. Obviously the reward for such a card would have to substantial without giving an easy win for the more powerful cards. The multiple enemies give a strength or craft bonus instant trophy really. To prevent the more powerful characters from having such an easy time, I introduced the tiredness factor, reducing their strength per combat and the combat ends upon the characters first defeat and the enemy monster remains fully in play for the next person - their numbers are not whittled down or anything! I could also be nasty and add additional conditions that restrict spell use or bonus use here. The encounter is a sudden, frightening and panic inducing experience for the character and this could justify such restrictions. I will use the terrified mechanic in various cards to impose potential attribute loss.

The Living Dead (Spirit - Undead) Strength 4. A horde of Zombies are lumbering towards you, fight 6 zombies until you lose a combat. As each combat is won, reduce any strength bonuses by 1 point.If you defeat them all you may exchange this card for a strength point. You may not use spells in this encounter.

A Company of Wolves (Enemy - Monster) Strength 6. The company is out on the hunt, led by its dominant males half men and half wolf you must use an enchanted weapon to harm them. Fight 3 enemies until you lose a combat. As each combat is won reduce any strength bonuses by 1 point. If you defeat them all you may exchange this card for a strength point. You may evade this encounter by rolling a 5 or 6.

The Children of the Hills (Enemy-Monster) Stength 4. These demented and insane knife wielding inbreds are upon you! Fight 6 children until you lose a combat. As each combat is won reduce any strength bonuses by 1 point. If you win roll 2 dice. If you roll 6 or less lose 1 craft as the encounter has terrified you. You may exchange this card for a strength point.

Followers

I like followers a lot so the Night Fall expansion will be adding several more of these!!

Holy Knight (follower) Strength 5 The holy Knight fights evil wherever he finds it. You cannot evade any enemy with the Holy knight as your follower. He will always fight first. If you pass a enemy monster on your turn you must end your turn on that space and fight the monster. You do not gain trophies for any creature he defeats.

---- This guy is a real potential pain in the ass! Weaker characters could use him if gained in the early rounds to help survive nasty encounters.

Tinker (follower) You offer to escort a tinker to the city. Whilst the tinker is with you, you may buy items from the purchase deck whenever you wish. If you land on the city the tinker must go to the discard pile.

Retainer (follower) this skivvy servant may carry an additional 4 items for you.

The Lost Child. (follower) You stumble upon a feral child wandering the woods. If you are good or neutral she will become your follower. Her knowledge of secret paths allows you to move one additional space or 1 space less on your turn.


Events

There will be lots of events also. The main thrust of Night Fall is some added nastiness, so most will be bad ones!

Lepers (Event) A procession of the unclean pass you by. Roll a die for each follower, on a roll of 1 discard that follower after your next turn as they fall ill.

The Hunt (Event) The ghostly hunt is upon you and must flee four spaces anti clockwise in order to escape its deathly clutches.

Places

The Asylum (Place) Anyone drawing this card may stay here safely until Night Fall has passed and need not draw any cards.Anyone passing by may take refuge there.You may choose to miss your following turn and heal 1 life at the Asylum.


I hope these few example cards illustrate a few of the possibilities I am exploring with this expansion.

dfb

I have already mentioned about the possibility within Night Fall of becoming a werewolf and of course one of the characters starts with this affliction. But I am now considering also adding the possibility of becoming a Vampire if defeated in battle by one. I want to add some kind of maladies and afflictions angle to this expansion and so far have the following:-

1) Lycanthropy must be actively cured by the player - yet to design mechanics for this

2) Vampirism ? Unsure whether or not to include as well as Lycanthropy but will if included require the player to be cured with relevant mechanics

3) Plague - this is intergrated into adventure cards

4) Leprosy - this is intergrated into adventure cards

5) Injuries - these can be from Power of Fate cards, played by opponents which are from failed rolls on encountered spaces or other game events

6) Terror! - this is caused by many of the encountered monsters and events and will normally result in loss of craft. Fighting the denizens of the night was not meant to be easy, even winning battles may not be enough to save you from being terrorised! This is intergrated onto the cards.

I think these possibilities are enough to add plenty of game interest and some real cause for concern for players to endure in their games!

dfb