I wanted to share our Sudden Death rules with the community:

Lately, we've been running into a lot of issues with games where they end up in ties and/or forfeits because they are just going on too long and people's lives and commitments get in the way.

Last weekend we tried something new and implemented Sudden Death, which seemed to actually give a little pep to the game.

Here are the rules we came up with:

1. We can announce Sudden Death if we have an hour or less of game time to play.
2. All players must agree to it
3. At the beginning of each player's turn, their character may gain either +1 Strength or Craft or "heal" 1 Life.
4. Once Sudden Death is announced, all character deaths are final. No new characters may be drawn.

I have yet to play with this more, but it certainly gave late game life and worked out well for us.

As a side note, we play tested +1 Strength or Craft, but we did not add in the "heal" one life until after the game. I'm still on the fence about this one.

Nice idea, but I feel the "heal 1 life" option should be absolutely avoided. It makes characters impossible to kill with the standard Talisman endgame.

Nice idea, but I feel the "heal 1 life" option should be absolutely avoided. It makes characters impossible to kill with the standard Talisman endgame.

Good point. If used, we'd have to put a rule in that a character may no longer heal once a player reaches the crown (or alternative ending).