While I've been tinkering in the background with Lost Realms stuff, I thought I'd revisit a little project I had in mind to complete some time ago.

It always bothered me (probably a lot more than it should) that Omen cards were the only ones in Talisman that used full bleed instead of having white borders like the rest of the small cards in the game.

To help my OCD I made up some "classic" card backs to go with them, but never got the chance to tackle the card fronts as I figured they'd be too much trouble!

It turned out they weren't that tricky, and I've played about with a few ideas.

For example, there is no real need to have the name of the Omen set on each card, as they are identified by the card back and the card template background, so I used the space to accentuate the individual Omen name and the card "type" (i.e. The First Omen etc...) by arranging them much like standard Adventure cards.

So...

They aren't perfect, but I'm pretty happy with them

Idk.

That was making them special and unique, because they are not a yet another "draw a card" deck, but a special "tell me a story about..." stack.

For me they look kinda odd, but at the same time fine too.

About the name of the Omen stack I kinda disagree with You. Yeah, the cards can be recognized by their backs, but now they're nameless. We're playing a random NO_NAME Omen stack with a skull at their backs. Because that was the only place where the Omen stack was named, and since it is gone now, we don't know what's the name of the stack we're playng.

The name of the deck is unimportant, as you encounter each Omen as it is discovered. You only play with one lot of Omens in a game, so you know what deck it is after seeing The Prophecy.

Fair enough.

I like them how they are originally. They kinda remind me of reading a book, or playing old style choose you adventure book game.

It's more the template style that I dislike. I've always wanted to redo them, just not bothered until now.

From a designer's point of view, i know what you mean. They are a little oddly out of sync with the rest of the expansions

So are terrain cards.

Terrain cards are like that so they 'blend in' with the spaces they are placed on.

Would you be looking at creating extra omen sets also?

I might consider it, but my graphic design skills aren't really up to scratch for creating the central boss for the back and a suitable design for the front. I can upload the blanks though should anyone fancy the task!

One thing I think omen cards could use, and that's a minor thing is adding small symbols next to the effects to denote which are "one-time upon drawing" and which are ongoing.

Maybe, but as I say, I was more bothered about the look of them. I'll see if it was worth it when they get here

...and here's why I don't think I'll be making more...

Put a pint glass on one set, if no ones won by the 7th omen, you all go down the pub. Person who's character has least gold gets the first round in!

Heh, better still. Play in the pub.

The 7th Omen is Last Orders...

What they need more than anything is some indication saying which effects are one-offs and which are continuous.

I brought this up on an earlier (long) post:

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

----------------------

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

--------------------

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!)

​

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

​

Well, I got my cards in the post today, and I am quite impressed!

The card stock is a good match, although not a linen finish. That's okay though as the cards do not have to slip into another deck.

The card size and corners are a good match too!

I have a couple more little decks on the way, so I may just have found my ideal "home brew" solution.

Where did you get them printed?
Did you have the option for a linen finish?

Can I be any more nosy?

Online ( I'll cover that later, when I get the other decks I have coming.)

No.

Yes. (Though I may not answer!)

Actually, I have just had word that a linen finish will be available reasonably soon.

I will be doing some more tests when that happens!

Our favorite printer can't do rounded corners or a linen finish, so I'm on the hunt for a printer to use for Lost Realms (and other HomeBrew/print yourself expansions we have sitting on the computers).

I've used Printerstudio in the past, and they do both linen finish & rounded corners.

But do they do Mini American sized cards?

Is this what you want: http://www.printerstudio.com/personalized/custom-blank-playing-cards-mini-size.html

Nope. A lot of places do mini (half-sized) playing cards, which were the size used in 3rd and 4th Edition Talisman.

Revised 4th Edition uses Mini American, which is slightly smaller.

I got these cards done at DriveThruCards and to be fair, for a bit of faffing about with files, they are as cheap as chips!