If anyone is interested in the "Portals" expansion I created here is a small preview. I updated into a Strange Eons 3 file, and could send if you wish.

Pretty small and bland expansion that I brought over from a 3rd edition HomeBrew I created a long time ago.

Adventure Card - Hidden Portal

Adventure Card - Portents of Change

Spell Card - Teleport

Character - Teleporter

Portal Token Front

Portal Token 1

Portal Token 2

Portal Token 3

Portal Token 4

Portal Token 5

Portal Token 6

Portals Rule Card - Rules

Like I said pretty simple. We do have a couple extra cards that refer to the Timescape expansion but I did not put those in my dropbox yet.

Cheers

Actually it is pretty nifty.

Interesting, I like it .

It solves a minor problem that we occasionally encounter; board growth!

One minor suggested change to the Rules card. Instead of distributing them at the begining of the game; perhaps once the first TALISMAN is discovered then the portals open! Other wise maybe a spell?

Have a look at the FRACTURE Spell. < https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=F898A8DF1BFB1D7E%21105>

Thoughts?

Interesting, I like it .

It solves a minor problem that we occasionally encounter; board growth!

One minor suggested change to the Rules card. Instead of distributing them at the begining of the game; perhaps once the first TALISMAN is discovered then the portals open! Other wise maybe a spell?

Have a look at the FRACTURE Spell. < https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=F898A8DF1BFB1D7E%21105>

Thoughts?

For the purpose of simplicity and generating a strategy, I prefer setting it up at the beginning of the game. With the randomness of Talisman this expansion adds a bit of strategy however remains true to the randomness and adventure of Talisman. It also allows characters up poop creek some chance to get away. However, the variant you suggest may be great especially if not using the Teleporter character.

The Fracture spell is very cool and fits nicely into this theme :-)

When I get a chance I will upload the alternative ending and other cards for this set. There is a card for each region dealing with portals, an additional spell like I said, a bunch linking to the Timescape. Since most people do not use the Timescape though, we designed it so it was not predicated on the Timescape being used......

In 4th edition we have used this in the last 10 games and we seem to go through spurts of using portals a lot, or hardly using them at all. Overall we really like the option except when it throws a monkey wrench in your plans.

My friend, wife and I sat down the last few weeks and did some more extensive playtesting of the portals expansion. We left out all the cards in reference to the Timescape and tweaked a few things from reading on here and added some cards for the nether deck. Previously we were always using a D10 to draw nether cards but found we were quickly cycling through the deck in this manner so have switched to cards triggering them. This seems to work very well and we looped it into this expansion.

Keep in mind, we use all expansions, even the dragon tower with alternate endings(you must defeat the dragon king and then the random ending.)

We played 12 games, using different characters each time and the Teleporter did win twice, once in a 3 player game and once in a 4 player game. When 2 of us played(8 times) we would each use 2 characters and when 3 of us played(4 times) we kept it to 1 each.

Anyone who is interested here is the sheets to print.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/7g9nexo2s14b3a9/Card-Deck-1.png?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/b6tdnf4o623dhbw/Card-Deck-2.png?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/9d3u71iwbutxcax/Card-Deck-3.png?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/r7oyoqev5iadlyn/Card-Deck-4.png?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/t8kb4vdxauscj52/Card-Deck-5.png?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/haevuktbsc82pxz/Card-Deck-6.png?dl=0

I just wanted to post an update since it has been a while. SInce posting this I have played 12 games with the portals expansion(all of them using the harbinger as well which is proving to be a bear) and we have had some really positive results. Over the holidays I played 3 games with friends back home that have been playing Talisman since 1st and 2nd edition and they really liked this small edition when using all the expansions. The games can get along quicker and you are always on guard since someone can always sneak up to get you. Also, the Teleporter has since not won a game. Everyone targets him and he usually is dead before long.

We did have one thing come up; when using the werewolf and reaper. We decided the use of portals was allowed, decided by the controlling player and they could use the portals freely without rolling additional dice. Being supernatural characters this was easier to implement to speed up the game.

Overall the portals being on the huge map speeds up the game and takes away some of the spatial barrier in 3-4 player games that exists when using all the expansions. We tried using the portals in a 6 player game only using the main board and all the small expansions because my friends table was too small to fit the corner boards. This proved to be really wild considering there were 3 of us that were experienced and we had 3 rookies......When using only the main board I would opt not to use this expansion or at least cut the portals down to 3 (numbered;1-2,3-4. 5-6 ) since it just gets crazy! :-)