Harbinger omen cards - Continuous or one-off effects?

By Neil 666, in Talisman Rules Questions

Posted at

I finally got round to playing the Harbinger expansion, but a question kept coming up about the Omen cards, which effects are one-offs and which ones are continuous?

I've listed them all here:

ARMAGEDDON
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1.DOOM.
a.Each character in the same Region as the Harbinger must lose 1 fate. - ONE-OFF
b.Whenever a character defeats another character, he may replenish 1 fate. - CONTINUOUS
2.PLAGUE.
a.Each character in the same Region as the Harbinger must lose 1 life. - ONE-OFF
b.Whenever a character defeats another character, he may heal 1 life. - CONTINUOUS
3.WAR.
a.Discard all faceup Adventure cards in the same Region as the Harbinger and draw a Harbinger card to replace each discarded card. - ONE-OFF
b.Whenever a character is defeated by another character, he must lose 1 life. - CONTINUOUS
4.FAMINE.
a.Each character in the same Region as the Harbinger must lose either 1 Strength or 1 Craft. - ONE-OFF
b.Whenever a character defeats another character, he may gain 1 Strength or 1 Craft. - CONTINUOUS
5.DEATH.
a.Each character in the same Region as the Harbinger must kill 1 Follower at random.. - ONE-OFF
b.Whenever a character is defeated by another character, he must kill 1 of his Followers. - CONTINUOUS
6.DESTRUCTION.
a.Each character in the same Region as the Harbinger must discard 1 Object at random.. - ONE-OFF
b.Whenever a character is defeated by another character, he must discard 1 of his Objects. - CONTINUOUS
7. ARMAGEDDON.
a.Whenever a character is instructed to draw Adventure cards, he must draw Harbinger cards instead.- CONTINUOUS
RISE OF THE DEAD
----------------------------
1.RESTLESS DEAD.
a.Spirits and Undead add 1 to their attack rolls. - CONTINUOUS
b.Increase the value of each Spirit and Undead trophy by 1. - CONTINUOUS
2.BURIAL MOUNDS.
a.Spirits and Undead add 1 to their attack rolls. - CONTINUOUS
b.Whenever a character defeats a Spirit or Undead, he may draw the top 5 cards of the Adventure deck and takes 1 Object of his choice. Discard the remaining cards. - CONTINUOUS
3.OPEN GRAVES.
a.Spirits and Undead add 1 to their attack rolls. - CONTINUOUS
b.Discard the top 10 cards of each Adventure deck. Then, starting with the character taking the current turn and moving clockwise, each character may take 1 Follower or Object of his choice from any discard pile. - ONE-OFF
4.SPITEFUL GHOSTS.
a.Spirits and Undead add 1 to their attack rolls. - CONTINUOUS
b.Whenever a character defeats a Spirit or Undead in battle or psychic combat, he must discard it instead of taking it as a trophy. - CONTINUOUS
5.THE DEAD RISE.
a.Spirits and Undead add 1 to their attack rolls. - CONTINUOUS
b.Whenever a character is instructed to draw Adventure cards, he must draw 1 additional card at random from the discard pile. - CONTINUOUS
6.SPREADING DEATH.
a.Spirits and Undead add 2 to their attack rolls. - CONTINUOUS
b.Each character must ditch all of his Followers. - ONE-OFF
c.All text on Strangers and Followers is ignored and they are instead treated as "Enemy-Undead" with an encounter number of 2 and a Strength of 3. - CONTINUOUS
7.UNDEAD HORDES.
a.Treat all Enemies as "Enemy-Undead" and add 2 to their attack rolls. - CONTINUOUS
b.Discard all faceup Strangers and Followers in all Regions. Then take all Enemies in all discard piles, shuffle them, and place them on top of their respective decks. - ONE-OFF
SHATTERED WORLD
------------------------------
1.TEAR IN THE WORLD.
a.Each character must place a random Terrain card on his space. - ONE-OFF
2.CRACKS APPEAR.
a.When a character rolls a 1 for his move, he places 1 random Terrain card on his space. He must then stay on his space and encounter it instead of moving normally. - CONTINUOUS
3.THE EARTH QUAKES.
a.Discard all faceup Adventure cards in all Regions. If a character is on a space with a faceup Adventure card, he loses 1 life for each card in his space discarded in this way. - ONE-OFF
4.BROKEN WORLDS.
a.Whenever a character lands on a space with a Terrain card, he places 1 random Terrain card in the closest space which does not have a Terrain card. If 2 spaces are equally close, that character chooses. - CONTINUOUS
5.CIVILIZATION FALLS.
a.Place 1 random Terrain card on the Tavern, the Village, the Graveyard, the Chapel, the City, the Temple and the Castle. - ONE-OFF
6.GROWING CHAOS.
a.If a character ends his turn on a space with a Terrain card, he loses 1 life. - CONTINUOUS
7.SHARDS OF THE OLD WORLD.
a.Replace the text of each space not in the Inner Region or containing a Terrain card with: "Lose 1 Life Then Draw 1 Card" Do not draw a card if there is already one in this space. - CONTINUOS
STARS ALIGN
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1.THE CONJUCTION.
a.The Spell limit of each character is increased by 1. - CONTINUOUS
b.Each character gains 1 Spell, if his Craft allows. - ONE-OFF
2.MYSTERIOUS KNOWLEDGE.
a.The Spell limit of each character is increased by 1. - CONTINUOUS
b.Each character gains his full complement of Spells. - ONE-OFF
3.POWER OVERWHELMING.
a.The Spell limit of each character is increased by 2. - CONTINUOUS
b.After a character casts a Spell, he immediately gains 1 Spell, if his Craft allows. - CONTINUOUS
4.ARCANE FEEDBACK.
a.The Spell limit of each character is increased by 2. - CONTINUOUS
b.Whenever a character casts a Spell, he must lose either 1 life or 1 fate. - CONTINUOUS
5.BURNT AWAY.
a.The Spell limit of each character is increased by 1. - CONTINUOUS
b.Each character must lose 1 life for each of his Spells and then discard all of his Spells. - ONE-OFF
6.FLEETING MAGIC.
a.The Spell limit of each character is reduced by 1. - CONTINUOUS
b.Each character may only have 1 Magic Object. - CONTINUOUS
7.A WORLD WITHOUT MAGIC.
a.Characters cannot gain Spells or have Magic Objects. Treat all spaces in the Inner Region, except for the Plain of Peril and the Crown of Command, as blank. - CONTINUOUS
b.Each character discards all of his Spells and Magic Objects. - ONE-OFF

The Omen cards don't explain themselves too well, but the rulebook says: Continuous effects of the top Omen card of the Omen stack are always applied until the Omen is discarded or no longer the top card of the Omen stack, but it doesn't say which ones are continuous.

(and the rulebook completely missed out the whole bit about moving the Harbinger before rolling on his chart!)

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Some are quite obvious but some can be used either way or both, I've marked what I think is right, please correct me if I've got any wrong (most probably)

Many thanks, Neil

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Edited by Neil 666
Posted at

Surely using keywords, or locating one-off (immediate) and continuous effects in the same order on different cards would have been helpful. For example, putting the one-off effects first and continuous effects second, like in the Armageddon set, but Rise of the Dead and Stars Align go the opposite way.

However, when you're asking yourself if an effect is immediate or continuous, you have to check if it has sufficient instructions to be a continuous effect or not. Continuous effects are clearly distinguished by sentences like "Whenever a character does XYZ...", with the Rise of the Dead omens being a sort of exception because they don't use that wording. Bonuses to the attack roll cannot be applied outside of combat and have no sense as a one-off effect.

I see you have the most doubts about the Armageddon Omens. You may notice that the first of the two listed effects is missing a triggering condition, so you can't interpret it as a continuous effect. When are you supposed to take the penalty? When you enter the Region with the Harbinger? When you start your turn in there? At any moment, thus taking an infinite penalty? It's clearly a one-time effect triggered by the Omen coming into play, it has not enough information to be a continuous effect.

The Stars Align Omens are very schematic and each of them has one continuous effect (first) and one immediate effect (second). Your interpretation of the other 2 Omen sets seem right.

Edited by The_Warlock
Posted at

Thanks Warlock for your help on the above matter, I've edited the incorrect ones, I think they're all correct now (please correct me if I'm wrong)

It would of been easier if the one-off/continuous effects were in the same order in each set like you said, or even better put a star in front of the continuous ones (like on the ending cards)

Many thanks. Neil

Once I've got them all right I'll mark the continuous effects on my card sleeves (so no more confusion)

Edited by Neil 666