Just a thought (and being new to this forum, so I'm not sure if this has been discussed before) but has anyone thought it would be good if FFG introduced a Luxury limited edition Mega box containing, all the expansions, larger cards and say pewter figures.

Yes it would be huge, heavy and very expensive but I'm sure there would be a few of us who, not only play but also collect Talsiman, would pay whatever to have the Ultimate Edition.

It could come with an authenticity certificate, extra yummy dice, a poster (a throw back to 2nd edition) and, say, a dice shaker in the shape of the Crown of Command.

Other lesser board games have Luxury editions. Why not Talisman?

Any other ideas for what extra goodies would be included?

The dilema of course would be if they did release such a set , "Do you remove the shrink rap??

Make the characters silver or gold... Ooo "dice shaker in the shape of the Crown of Command"..

I like it!

I like it and would probably be interested in buying a copy but I don't think a whole Mega box would be an economically viable product.

The example you made with other board game is interesting but don't forget that those games have been around for a very long time and are sold at a cheaper price than Talisman also those games have no licensing issue because the company producing those games own them.

Anniversary/Deluxe version of those other board games have retail at 4-6 time the regular version with a price range of $40-$60 so if we apply the $60 MSRP for Talisman X 4-6, we get a MSRP for a Deluxe Talisman base game only at $240-$360!!!

This is a very high price for a game and sure to scare away potential buyers no matter how many other goodies you put in, so if you put all expansion and POD with the same deluxe treatment too then you would maybe get around $750!!! As you did mention "very expensive".

A business model alternative would be to offer deluxe single parts such as:

-Pre-painted minis

-Premium non-foldable game board

-Component and card holder

-Blank adventure/spell card for printing home brew

I can think of more things and many others have been mention/asked/beg for in this forum by fellow fans of Talisman, so I think it would be easier to reach a bigger market with single Deluxe items.

It might be interesting to see if a Deluxe Mega box would get funded on Kickstarter?

There was a thread with the word "wishlist" that really was quite extensive, you might want to have a look at it.

Cheers

I have mentioned a Deluxe Version a few times, but mine would have a SMALLER board that contained the 4 corner boards, the average space would be the size of an Adventure card, and all the Alternate endings have a picture or symbol on them also the size of an Adventure card, without text similar to 2nd edition.

Hi 80sVamp! It is a cool idea and of course there are always people who would want this, but as other posters say or feel probably somewhat niche audience. But in the style of POD, but seriously "collectible" it could find the niche; take orders, etc.

I'm of a different tack and thinking that a "Master's Set" of Talisman would include concepts, characters, etc that would be intended for the completists like myself who want something beyond/but works with all the combined sets, corners, PODs, etc.

It should absolutely include all the characters not re-introduced so far, perhaps some new ones, like in the digital. Perhaps those digital Runestones.

I'm sure someone else would have other more specific ideas too.

While a deluxe edition would be very nice, I think the cost would be astronomical. Other games getting the deluxe treatment typically do not have as many moving parts meaning the conceptual stage is fairly brief, in turn meaning that the cost of the pre-production stage is low. For Talisman, changing one thing will affect a lot of other things. For instance, changing the board size will necessitate changing all the boards, and possibly all the things supposed to take presence on the board. Even if you make it bigger, there is a lot of graphics and/or design that needs to be made from scratch.

With pre-production cost being so high, the production value must be exponentially higher to justify the already inflated cost. With costs running away, you have to add increased risk to the price as well. I wouldn't be surprised if the end-price of a deluxe Talisman would run in the range of $2000-$5000. At that price, the game had better come with a fully functional life-sized horrible black void because that's the only place you will find your economy ever again.

I think a much more viable option would be to get professional help in creating the Talisman you always dreamed of. You can manage the concept/design stage yourself and list all the things you could produce DIY. Get a pro or a skilled amateur for the rest, or better still: parts off the shelf. There are a number of homemade boards floating around on the Internet with a lot of helpful tips attached.

There are companies specialising in providing deluxe items for existing games. I don't know how many products there are suitable for Talisman but there are definitely card holders and player mats available. Like Old Master suggested, taking one item at a time is probably the best bet for a deluxe edition.

Sorry to be such a cynic. A character based on me would be called "Dreamcrusher". Follower - Dreamcrusher correctly informs you how unrealistic it is to attain the crown: lose all other items, followers, spells and gold. Move to the tavern. Your character has 0 movement while Dreamcrusher is your follower.

Borealian, you are no cynic.

I think you make a great point that someone could custom make such a set - in fact we've seen examples of people's custom work from Boards to painted figures.

Might be a nice side-job for some one who is crafty and has resources.

So, question out to the Board

Who might possibly be interested in hiring craftsgamespersons (sic?) to do such a thing?

I myself, would be half way on it. I might like to get my figures painted or new painted ones to buy, and maybe some things to enhance the boards - raising up for HIghlands, or that kind of thing.

I'm probably most interested in having better card holders/display, including discard piles and "burned" cards discard.

Love the "DreamCrusher" follower.

Perhaps the only way to get rid of him is if another follower "Sir Ray of Hope" appears and casts him into the HBV

Perhaps reading all your comments it might all be a bit much. (there is an aweful lot of stuff come to think of it)

Time for more wine and dream gently of velvet lined boxes and jewel encrusted Dragon shaped card dispensers

"sigh"

It would be cool, but a "deluxe" version of anything means you combine all the parts and sell it with a big price tag.

Most businesses these days adopt the exact opposite approach: break a product into chunks and sell each chunk separately, so the consumer doesn't realize how much money he actually spent.

Thankfully FFG makes each chunk (expansion) worthwhile, because their production quality is the best out there. So you get what you pay for (in my opinion). But everyone does it... DLC, microtransactions, "wait-or-pay," etc. Sadly, I think "deluxe editions" aren't going to be too common...

Making a smaller board shouldn't be more expensive. If so, not overly so.

Hello 80sVamp,

I love the idea of a deluxe box with the entire collection, but would have to agree that it would be far too expensive for most people to buy. Perhaps just a deluxe storage box could be an option. Lord knows I would love to get an official storage package for my collection. There are some great homebrew storage that people (including myself) have made... but nothing beats official when it comes to Talisman

Additionally the thoughts on Crown of Command Dice shaker and posters would be a fantastic addition. Perhaps also include the digital only characters as real official characters with figures and you are onto a winner! (plus FFG don't need to actually think up much new content for another talisman release)

Who knows maybe this idea could materialise, I would most certainly purchase myself a copy!

Time for more wine and dream gently of velvet lined boxes and jewel encrusted Dragon shaped card dispensers

Y... you do that too?

Making a smaller board shouldn't be more expensive. If so, not overly so.

Depends. Smaller board means adventure cards won't fit on spaces anymore. Which might mean you need to make new cards small enough to fit. New design for all cards in a strange new size won't come cheap.

Smaller cards are a no-go for me as I will need big glasses or a magnifier handy when I play if the flavor text on cards get any smaller

Cheers

Yes, for many years I had better than 20/20 vision, but after it started heading south in my '40s I just didn't deal with it - until I had no choice in my early '50s. I may need a new prescription; I've had these for over 6 or 7 years and tiny print is still a challenge. When we play I make sure I have good illumination, the brighter the better. I also got cheaters at + 2.00 or whatever (stronger than my prescription) which helps.

Time for more wine and dream gently of velvet lined boxes and jewel encrusted Dragon shaped card dispensers

Y... you do that too?

Making a smaller board shouldn't be more expensive. If so, not overly so.

Depends. Smaller board means adventure cards won't fit on spaces anymore. Which might mean you need to make new cards small enough to fit. New design for all cards in a strange new size won't come cheap.

The average space would be the size of an Adventure card so they can fit. 2nd edition had no problem.

I have a hard time reading small text also, but I know Talisman so well, I don't need to read the board.

A collector's version of War of the Ring will run you about 2000 right now.

Can you imagine Talisman if they did all the expansions??? Wow.

And if they only did the main box, I would be disappointed and unable to implement the expansions because of the different card/board sizes. So that would be a bummer.

If they could do the whole thing in a stream-lined game that was smaller for a reasonable price though, I would probably get it......

So, question out to the Board

Who might possibly be interested in hiring craftsgamespersons (sic?) to do such a thing?

I myself, would be half way on it. I might like to get my figures painted or new painted ones to buy, and maybe some things to enhance the boards - raising up for HIghlands, or that kind of thing.

I'm probably most interested in having better card holders/display, including discard piles and "burned" cards discard.

I'd definitely pay to get my figures painted, or even buy new painted ones (especially if they were metal as opposed to plastic). I'm useless with anything having to do with painting or crafting, and have thus far been unsuccessful trying to find someone local to paint them.

I think you'd have to expect at least one hour to paint each miniature. That makes for quite a few hours of work for the entire set and quite a lot of money if you figure an hourly rate for a professional painter of some $10 or so. I've never painted professionally but for me it takes several hours to get a professional-ish result with shading and highlights for a single miniature.

Then again, the paint job on prepainted minis is usually of a much lower standard. A pro could probably manage that in five to ten minutes. You just know you'd never be perfectly happy about contracting a professional painter to deliver such a poor paintjob.

Painting all the Talisman figures is something that I don't think I will ever get around to. Nor will I ever make enough money to justify hiring someone else to do it, I don't think. Sigh. Where's that wine?

I think you'd have to expect at least one hour to paint each miniature. That makes for quite a few hours of work for the entire set and quite a lot of money if you figure an hourly rate for a professional painter of some $10 or so. I've never painted professionally but for me it takes several hours to get a professional-ish result with shading and highlights for a single miniature.

Then again, the paint job on prepainted minis is usually of a much lower standard. A pro could probably manage that in five to ten minutes. You just know you'd never be perfectly happy about contracting a professional painter to deliver such a poor paintjob.

Painting all the Talisman figures is something that I don't think I will ever get around to. Nor will I ever make enough money to justify hiring someone else to do it, I don't think. Sigh. Where's that wine?

Yeah I've had some of the same thoughts. Makes me wish that FFG just released them pre-painted. Alternatively, maybe they could separately release cards of the characters for use with stands similar to 2nd Edition. Of course painted miniatures are preferable, but I think I would actually prefer the cards to the gray miniatures that can be so difficult to even tell apart during a game.

Figure painting is indeed a strange hobby which when going well is fantastic but if you've just spent 3 hours on a figure and your not happy with the result then very frustrating.

The second edition minis are reletively easy as the colours used by GW on the character cards are similar to their paint range so you can look at a particular colour and think yes thats Liche purple or goblin green.

4th edition are a lot harder as the artwork on the cards is very weird and difficult to copy with paint. Plus the detail of the figures isn't great.

I am currently painting 3rd edition which are fun as everything is so big and easy to do but the characters from Dungeon and City expansions only have head shots so you have to make the rest of it up.

I try and paint the whole figure in colours that match those in the picture to give an overall feel.

I love the early GW minis which seem to be commanding quite a high price these days.

There is something really satisfying playing with nicely painted miniatures which reflect the high quality of the board artwork.

Time consuming but very worthwhile.

The figure seem to come to life when painted and I feel like I am populating my Talisman world with little people.

Must go as the nurse is coming :lol:

I am currently painting 3rd edition which are fun as everything is so big and easy to do but the characters from Dungeon and City expansions only have head shots so you have to make the rest of it up.

I try and paint the whole figure in colours that match those in the picture to give an overall feel.

Well, the jury is actually out on that. After long discussions with the guy that actually painted the original Talisman minis, I researched some real paint schemes for them.

http://www.talismanisland.com/?page_id=4604

Fantastic detective work Jon.

That is a super page for ideas and they look much better with minis on the cards than the artwork.

He is a fantastic painter and puts my humble efforts to shame. Think i'll just go and daub on the walls with crayons :lol:

On the subject of detective works, you (80sVamp) might want to track down the owner of a 3d Talisman board made of very thick Styrofoam fully painted and full of accessories based on the 2nd edition.

I don't know the owner but it is very impressive and well made although very bulky, you can judge by yourself if you type "Talisman 3d" in your search engine and check the images that comes up.

This IMO is the closest thing to "Talisman Ultimate" that I've ever seen with great craftsmanship for a fan-made board.

I think I saw those pictures on Talismanisland or BGG a long time ago.

Now the question is if the owner still have the board and if he will part with it?

Good luck in your quest!

Cheers.

http://www.talismanisland.com/?page_id=3755

Thank you, that's the one I'm talking about.