Let's talk about house rules. I play the 4th BI edition of Talisman with my family and we have several.

1) We discard dropped items and followers, not allowing 1 player with a lucky die roll to become all powerful. Also, it reduces the clutter on the board.

2) We include magic objects to the Thief's ability, making the thief worth playing.

Has anybody else got upset at the Crown of Command space when 2 characters are there at the same time? If both characters fight in strength the weakest always loses the game. I'm debating 2 house rules.

1) Allowing the player to choose, on the Crown of Command space only, the ability to use strength or craft.

2) Ignoring the "you must encounter each other" and allowing the luck of the command spell to decide the game.

Any other ideas?

Additional / adapted rules (or homemade game additions) are common among long time players. I don't know what the forum rules are concerning posting links to such resources on the web, but it would be nice if we could share enthusiastic projects here. Hopefully one of the moderators is watching and can give us a specific ruling on this.

I have begun a LiveJournal (followed later by an online WebHelp system) in my examination of the game's core elements, what they say about how the game is balanced, and how to create homemade additions that have better chance of not disturbing that balance. My aim is to create a set of guidelines for myself in doing so. It may be that FFG would consider such as stepping on their intellectual property rights, but such pursuits and sites do exist. Obviously adaptation of the game is widespread in small to large increments. We'll have to wait and see what the ruling is before I mention specially where I (or others) have online resources related to this topic.