Good vs Evil: The Ultimate Showdown

By chemical22, in Talisman

Posted at

Inspired by my last post about team battles - I thought I'd give this scenario a post and see what everyone's thoughts are. Do you like the idea?

Battle of Good vs Evil
Ending: Traditional Crown of Command

Players: 4-6

Object:

It is a classic battle between good and evil. The team that reaches the Crown of Command and eliminates all the enemy characters will win the game.

Setup:

  • Each player draws 1 character at random (multiple draws do not work well in this scenario)
  • Standard game setup

Alignment:

  • Good aligned players are on a team
  • Evil aligned players are on a team
  • Neutral aligned characters randomly roll whether they align with Good or Evil (represent this off to the side with an alignment card). Roll 1 Dice: 1-3 Good, 4-6 Evil.

Teams do not have to be even. As alignments tend to shift and new characters are drawn throughout the game, the tide of alignment will also change. This means that a good character turned evil, will instantly be aligned with his past enemies. If a character is turned Neutral, then he must immediately randomize who they tend towards. This means that there may even be an instance where all players are on the same team - in which case, they simply win by one team member reaching the Crown of Command.

Special Rules:

  • You may not attack your own team mates
  • Any time a light fate is required, another team mate may pay the price instead of the character in question. You may not dark fate your team mates.
  • If a character passes over any team mate during movement, he may immediately end movement on that space and encounter the character.
  • If you encounter a team mate, you may swap items, gold and followers between the two of you (except cursed)

If you land on an enemy card or enemy character then you may fight combat as normal except:

  • If another team mate of either side is in the same square, then all team mates combine stats for the combat.
  • Each player of the losing side is treated as if they lost the combat - in character combat, that means each may lose 1 life, 1 item or 1 gold.
  • The winning team may choose what characters receive the spoils - divided in any way they choose (including trophies). This applies to both enemy or character combat.

Outnumbered:

If your team is out numbered then those with the disadvantage temporarily gain +1 Strength and Craft per character they are outnumbered by. Eg: 3 v 1 = +2 Strength and Craft.

Special note:

Characters with abilities or items that change alignment at will can do so as normal throughout the game. However, treat this as a temporary alignment, keeping track of both it and their starting defined alignment. Any instruction that forces alignment change is applied to the defined alignment. Defined alignment is used when determining teams and if the character is outnumbered, while the temporary alignment is the alignment used when referring to other game decisions (such as items, card or space reactions).

Edited by chemical22
Posted at

This is a great idea but it will be hard to put into a Ending form (If that was your intention) as a game set up rules it works well but I would say it would be a great idea to divide the characters up into good and evil and then draw from there. Take out all the Neutral characters but say when players die they draw from the Neutral pile not the Good Evil pile. So in effect then when a character dies they do not belong to any team.

Or say they change Alignment to the team they where part of, or even swap teams too.

Great Idea.

Posted at

if you can switch teams the balance should not be permanent. Instead set it to +X to strength and craft. And gain/discard 1 spell pr turn if alone on team.

Edited by Rawsugar
Posted at

This is a great idea but it will be hard to put into a Ending form (If that was your intention) as a game set up rules it works well but I would say it would be a great idea to divide the characters up into good and evil and then draw from there. Take out all the Neutral characters but say when players die they draw from the Neutral pile not the Good Evil pile. So in effect then when a character dies they do not belong to any team.

Or say they change Alignment to the team they where part of, or even swap teams too.

Great Idea.

I think that could be a great alternative way to play it as well. It would definitely balance in the beginning of the game and give a little flavour. I think this idea assumes that you have most of the expansions in order to get a good mix of characters.

And no, I wasn't really thinking it would an alternative ending card. Like you, I think it is a bit too complex to fit on a single card.

if you can switch teams the balance should not be permanent. Instead set it to +X to strength and craft. And gain/discard 1 spell pr turn if alone on team.

Are you referring to the Outnumbered rule of the game? A set Strength and Craft bonus could work but i feel that I feel that is hard to balance. Early game, the bonus may be too powerful and late game, not enough. Personally, I like the idea of escalating in power based on turns and time that the odds are against you - but that isn't saying your idea couldn't work. Perhaps +1 Strength and Craft per character you are outnumbered by?

Thanks for both of your feedback!

Edited by chemical22
Posted at

I think +1 pr character is plenty, gain/discard spell if alone.

Personally I like that teams can be outnumbered no need to have equal sides teams when you have a balance rule in place.

Honestly, due to winning battles, a bonus to S/C likely gives even more growth than trading trophies at lower rate, but:

1.S/C makes the outnumbered team more powerful as well, so they are less likely to be easy prey early game.

2. trophy trading risk switching teams just to trade trophies at low rate and then return to team.

3. +S/C is especially important in the beginning and loses importance as you progress, whereas rate of trading is the opposite. Therefore a bonus to S/C makes it more likely teams are balanced in the beginning and will stay balanced, whereas tweaking rate of trade depends alot on the character(s) actually killing enemies.

I like this concept by the way:) would consider adding an option of teleporting next turn to the space of an opponent when landing on allies, to increase player interaction

Edited by Rawsugar
Posted at

I think +1 pr character is plenty, gain/discard spell if alone.

Personally I like that teams can be outnumbered no need to have equal sides teams when you have a balance rule in place.

Honestly, due to winning battles, a bonus to S/C likely gives even more growth than trading trophies at lower rate, but:

1.S/C makes the outnumbered team more powerful as well, so they are less likely to be easy prey early game.

2. trophy trading risk switching teams just to trade trophies at low rate and then return to team.

3. +S/C is especially important in the beginning and loses importance as you progress, whereas rate of trading is the opposite. Therefore a bonus to S/C makes it more likely teams are balanced in the beginning and will stay balanced, whereas tweaking rate of trade depends alot on the character(s) actually killing enemies.

I like this concept by the way:) would consider adding an option of teleporting next turn to the space of an opponent when landing on allies, to increase player interaction

I don't think there is really any danger of "team switching" exploits - I think that is covered in the clause about abilities and items that allow you to switch alignments at will. For game purposes, a character that has choice over alignment is still always considered their defined alignment for the outnumbered advantage.

The Rogue's Guild does pose a problem however - As written, a character could repeatedly visit that space, change their alignment to good or evil and essentially reset their neutral tendency to "team switch". I will add this into the rule to prevent it.

I was previously considering adding in this rule: If a character passes over any team mate during movement, he/she may immediately end movement on that space and encounter the character.

I think it is pretty safe from exploits, because that means neither the space, cards or enemy characters can be encountered on that space - keeping the spirit of the rule to its original intention. It would however, make for some easy repeated healing if I keep the "heal 1 health" rule in place. I sort of like that interaction, but I think it would need to be removed if this rule was put into effect.

Edited by chemical22
Posted at

I think I'll be trying this out next game. Any other suggestions or comments?

Posted at

I am just bumping this post because we played this game scenario last week and it was a really good time! I feel like it all went well. I've edited the original post to reflect our finalized rules. Hope someone else tries this and drops their feedback.

For the record, our game ended with Evil winning. One team member was even a toad when they won!

Edited by chemical22