I've been playing Talisman since v1 (personally i love Gary chalk's original artwork over the later versions).

Anyway, one issue that's been common throughout, we've found, is that play can...drag on.

We like to finish in an evening, that is 2-3 hours play. But Talisman always seems to drag on well over 3 hours, so that we end up 'declaring a winner' (usually the player who looks most likely to win at the time of stopping) rather than completing the game properly.

Does anyone else have this problem? What do you do to 'speed things up' and get a game to a colnclusion?

I notice this happens when we play with new players. because it takes them so much longer to complete a turn (read every card, read the broad, count the sqaures to move etc..). It sometimes tends to happen with there are more then 2 players too.

But, the more they play, the quicker they will get

you can always change the needed exp to level up.

You might try increasing the character's starting strength and craft by one or even two points. I've been playing since 2nd edition came out, and the usual problem is that players don't feel confident about heading toward the middle of the board until their stats are sufficiently high. Of course, some folks think those numbers have to be astronomical before venturing in!

Try bumping those starting stats a bit and see if that speeds things along a bit. Have fun!

You've hit the nail on the head there playdead.

I've been playing since 1st Ed., and one thing that always happens is precisely as you describe.

Thing is, heading to the 'endgame' seems to take so much out of your character that players delay until they're sure they have an overwhelming chance of success.

Bumping the starting stats might help, but even with that the disappointment and frustration of failing in that final run i find tends to prolong the 'preparation' phase of the game.

I'm guessing the new Fate rules might help speed the game up as well. The faster characters progress, the faster they move towards the Crown. Missing a few beat downs along the way will help the advancement speed. Also, not having to roll that EXACT number to land on the Sentinel (or whatever), just within 1 space of him will save loads of time as well.

I see some finding Fate messing with the game's severe reputation, but I think that will be offset by increasing the speed of the game...

I sped up our game (the BI version until I get the upgrade pack) by pulling some of the cards that slow things down. It doesn't take pulling a lot of them, I started with the mass "lose a turn" cards and pulled a few others as well. By taking out fewer than a dozen cards, our game time has dropped considerably, by about an hour, independent of the amount of familiarity the players have with the game.

One way we chose the cards to pull was seeing that a card was just slowing things down when we drew it in play, saying "heck with this" and throwing it into the bag with the other pulled cards.

We haven't pulled any creature cards, and have left most of the targeted 'lose a turn' cards, like the Swamp.

The effect of such a small change to the game has been amazing. I was expecting to make other changes as well, but it hasn't been necessary. Now we get a good game in before our early-risers turn into pumpkins.

I am too looking to speed the game up, and have thought that pulling cards seems to be the way to go.

I am considering pulling cards that allow you to draw mor ethan one card (like the orb), strangers that allow you to teleport or effect movement, and cards that allow consistant gaing of lioves and fate with a high change of doing so.

I am interested in knowing what cards you pulled to make the game quicker?

I don't really see how pulling lose a turn cards would slow anything down, it's just the next person's turn? At one point I pulled dozens of cards, mostly duplicates, but have added them all back as we are playing a dual deck system now.

Our leveling system works pretty good at speeding the game along. I've gone over it in detail in a couple of other threads, but the gist is, you need however many trophies for the level you are about to go up. The beginning of the game is always the slowest for us as there is a lot of false starts and lost battles. This technique dosn't change that, but rewards victories quicker.

Since you spend so much time in the Outer Region, it's good to know die rolls. It's 6 spaces between corners, so in many situations you can find out instantly where you can go. What drags the game on the most is characters like the Amazon or Black Witch who have so many movement options. What we do there is one person counts for the character in one direction, and then the owner counts in the other. Try and do your 'paperwork' when it's not your turn, counting trophies, adding up your stats, any kind of timesink like that, so when it comes time for your turn there is no avoidable delays with figuring that sort of stuff out.

vogless said:

You don't need to roll exact - just enough to pass through. If you win, you continue your move. The same is true for the Portal Of Power, The Craigs, and The Ruins.

There are optional rules for faster play:

• One lets each player chose an extra strength or craft to start.
• Another lets you increase attributes with five or six points of trophy.
• You can also use Bloodbath rules to speed things up.

Best of luck. Eventually they'll notice you winning a lot of games by going for the Co at a bit of a risk. Even talk openly about this strategy; they'll might just catch on!

how long does the game usually last for you guys im gonna play my first game a little l8er on today

loken14 said:

Depends on how many players there are but with 4 players around 2-3h if u draw eagleking always add +1h I hate that freaking birdrider

Depends on wether we use board expansions or not. With more boards players tend to move around the outer region/dungeon/highlands for a while before hitting the middle and inner region.

Yesterday we played 2 sessions, one with all expansion boards that lasted about 4 hours and one with only the original board that only lasted 1,5 hours with 4 players participating.

(on a side-note: In the second game my character the Dwarf landed on the Reaper on his first move where he rolled a 5 and sent the Reaper to the Rogue who also rolled a 5 and sent the Reaper straight back to the poor Dwarf who rolled a 1 followed by fate and a 1 again......)

A strange thing I hear from most players is that the expansion boards slow down the game. I have the opposite feeling, since I noticed that our games have become smoother after the introduction of Dungeon and even faster with Highland. Last week I had an "old style" game with Base Set + Reaper, in order to introduce a new player to the game, and it lasted 4 hours. Ok, the newbie requires some time to understand the mechanics and doesn't know cards or how to deal with them, but 4 hours is twice the time we normally require for a full Talisman game with all expansions (4 player basis). After Highland our games last 1 h 30 with 3 players and about 2 hours with 4.

I think Dungeon and Highland have lots of chances to draw cards and less "dead" spaces (such as Crags, Forest, Chasm, Castle, etc...), making them perfect places to increase the powers of your Character. Highland is more Object-oriented (Trinkets), while Dungeon is pure stat improvement. A proper mix between the two and an average luck can make a good Character in less time than the main board wandering. There you're also pretty safe from other Characters, especially if they cannot safely follow you.

I really don't know how you can get a rush to the Crown in 1,5 hours with the base set, perhaps with a 7-point basis (for Trophy-discarding). I tried it for almost 20 consecutive games to do this and always lost, always got caught, always failed some crucial roll or drew a bad card at the very last moment. And nobody else in my gaming group could do it. Since Dungeon, Frostmarch and Highland came out, I started getting my chances to win at Talisman. To say it plain and simple, I won 6 of the last 10 games, while I lost all the previous 27. Now I can counterbalance the effect of bad luck with choices and don't have to wait until I draw some good cards to get on, or hope to roll well in some daring attempt. Also Alternate Endings helped me a lot, removing the die roll basis on Crown of Command. I simply don't feel good with the dice.

By the way, I always cash trophies at 5 points. Never thought of doing it at 7 or 6. It is also good because it makes "free" points less valuable (I mean points that you get by some random die roll).

arent all points valuable and it seems you just have bad luck as opposed to lack of skill yesterday i rolled a total of 4 at the mines