So would 2 hours or less be a reasonable guess for 2 players, core game, and dungeon expansion?

Frog said:

With a trophy limit of 5, you could do it in 2 or 2 1/2 hours

( but there are players who want to play very fast, but if you play normal then you finish it as said above)

Velhart said:

What about without the dungeon expansion? Is the game faster or slower without it?

Frog said:

I have only play 1 x with the dungeon, but the Reaper expansion is more important than the dungeon.

You should first buy the Reaper expansion, and then the Dungeon expansion. The dungeon has a lot of enemies, so you can level up a lot there.

The Reaper adds a lot of cards for the main deck. You really need those to make the main board interesting !

With both expansions, you can play the game faster ! If you have only the base game, than it will take a lot of time when you can go to the inner region and it can be very boring. !

Greetings,

~Velhart~

I think the Dungeon expansion makes the game take less time. It gives more options to the players and provides a nice place to "power level." Weaker characters can play as if it weren't there, but if you get some combat boosts you can get some real goodies from the Dungeon, and possibly go straight to the crown.

Forgive me for these newb questions, but how does the Reaper make the game faster/better?

I have decided I am going to get the core game, but I could also get the Reaper as it does not add to the dimensions of the board. (I am only playing on a standard 34"x34" table so I can't really do the dungeon at this point even though it looks really cool)

I didn't really see any real difference time-wise between just base and base + Reaper. 1.5h max either way (for 3-players, standard 7-point trophy rule). The thing Reaper really does add is Adventure cards (nearly doubles the base game deck), which makes each game that much more varied, instead of getting the exact same stuff in every game. In 40+ games with Reaper, Adventure deck hasn't been exhausted once, with just base game it happened at times.

Dam said:

This is one of the things that really exciteds me about Talisman. It would be easy to make expansions with just new characters, adventure cards, and spells but still keep the core gameplay. I like the idea of the randomness with the game!

I'm personally not that interested in expansions that add game-boards or huge changes to the rules. I read the rules .pdf a few times and it really sounds fun!

I'm just personally against any and all homebrews for games. I'll never use anything that isn't official. Still don't have Dungeon (got 116 games with Innsmouth Horror still scheduled ), new board isn't a huge deal for me, characters are. All of the base + Reaper have been in 8 games now (apart from Thief with 9 games). Talisman hasn't hit the floor (where we play, no need to worry about table size) in a few months, mainly due to the lack of new stuff. Yeah, I see the irony with that statement vs my anti-homebrew stance .

Frog said:

The reason for this is because the base game has not so many different cards. There are also not so much enemies in the base game, so it can be very boring.

The most times you will draw are objects. It has not really a balance deck.

Luckily , the Reaper expansion will change this, and adds a lot of enemies to the deck. But also new events, strangers etc

This means that the reaper expansion is very important to add for the main board. You really need this one.

My advise is: If you want to play talisman, buy the base game+reaper to have more variation with drawing cards. ( You can choose for yourself to use the reaper figure or not

So you can just use Reaper characters, adventure cards, and spells without changing the core rules? I'll definitely buy it if that is the case. I notice it would basically double the number of spells and adventure cards which should add to the randomness (which is what I want...very random games).

Frog said:

Yes,

Nothing will changed for the core game.

The only thing that will be new for the core game are the warlock cards. Instead of rolling a die you must draw a warlock card. There are 12 cards(6 old ones from the board, and 6 new quests) ( but you can choose if you want to use them or not. I like them

The reaper has his own rules for moving around the board etc

You get indeed a lot of adventure cards, spells, and new warlock quests + 4 new characters + a reaper figure ( a must to have for the main board)

Frog said:

Frog,

If you want to know wich cards there are in the reaper expansion..

Check this topic

www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_foros_discusion.asp

Greetings,

~Velhart~