My buddies and I played The Harbinger for the first time ever tonight. We loved it. But, of course, being the Talismaniacs that we are, we immediately started thinking about how we could make it better. We came up with a new set of Omens. Using it would require pretty much every expansion.

First Omen: Every character places a random terrain card on his space and one space adjacent to his current space.

Second Omen: The City is removed from the game.

Third Omen: The Highlands is removed from the game.

Fourth Omen: The Woodlands is removed from the game.

Fifth Omen: The Dungeon is removed from the game.

Sixth Omen: The main game board is replaced with The Cataclysm game board. Any cards on the main game board are discarded. Remnants are placed accordingly on The Cataclysm game board.

Seventh Omen: A Firelands token is placed on every space in the outer region.

Rolling back omens does not mean bringing back the missing boards. It just rolls back the number of omens until the end of the world.

We're split in our opinion of what should happen to characters in regions that are removed from the game. I think they should be killed. One of my friends thinks there should be a save roll to escape.

In order to appease my friend's desire for mercy while also satisfying my bloodlust, I've come up with this compromise:

1st Omen: Every character places a random terrain card on his space and one space adjacent to his current space.

2nd Omen: The City Gate is Destroyed. No one may enter or exit the City through the City Gate.

3rd Omen: The Highland Entrance is destroyed. No one may enter or exit the Highlands through the Highland Entrance. Any attempt to enter this space (either voluntary or involuntary) results in losing one life. [so if you are defeated by an enemy that would drop you at the Highland entrance, you lose an extra life instead. If you draw a landslide you lose a life instead. This same concept will hold true for all corner regions.] All spaces in the City are treated as though they have a Firelands token on them, and all cards on City spaces are burned.

4th Omen: The Woodland Entrance is destroyed. No one may enter or exit the Woodlands through the Woodland Entrance. All spaces in the Highlands are treated as though they have a Firelands token on them, and all cards on Highlands spaces are burned.

5th Omen: The Dungeon Entrance is destroyed. No one may enter or exit the Dungeon through the Dungeon Entrance. All spaces in the Woodlands are treated as though they have a Firelands token on them, and all cards on Woodlands spaces are burned.

6th Omen: The main game board is replaced with the Cataclysm game board. Any cards on the main game board are discarded. Remnants are placed accordingly on The Cataclysm game board. All spaces in the Dungeon are treated as though they have a Firelands token on them, and all cards on Dungeon spaces are burned.

7th Omen: A Firelands token is placed on every space in the outer region. All cards on spaces in the outer region are burned.

This allows for players in the corner regions to escape, for each of the corner regions provides an alternate means of exit. And, technically speaking, it still permits travel to these regions, provided there's a Rune Gate in play (or perhaps some other way in, depending on which Highlands or Dungeon cards make it to the main Adventure Deck). But at the same time, it encourages players to leave these areas as they will soon enough lose one life per turn if they hang around too long.

The whole point of this is to push people toward the Crown of Command, or at least toward confronting each other. So also, once everyone is (presumably) in the middle region, then the Harbinger will be there, too, and everyone will be drawing Harbinger cards.

I quite like the idea of forbidding entry to the regions, but would allow it via Burrow Worm etc.

Maybe add that all Enemies and Creatures in that Region gain +1 or +2 to attack rolls a la Time card?

At least it does not put them completely off limits.

I quite like the idea of forbidding entry to the regions, but would allow it via Burrow Worm etc.

Maybe add that all Enemies and Creatures in that Region gain +1 or +2 to attack rolls a la Time card?

At least it does not put them completely off limits.

I can work with this.

So how about instead of those entrance spaces being destroyed it looks something like this:

The direct link between the game board and the City/Highlands/Woodlands/Dungeon is irreparably broken. There is no direct entry into the region from the City/Crags/Forest/Ruins. Characters may still enter the Highland/Dungeon by way of enemies (Earth Elemental/Roc/Burrow Worm), events (Landslide/Magic Gateway/Trap Door), places (Mountain Trail/Dungeon Door), or any such Highland or Dungeon cards which would allow entry which are drawn on account of either Eyrie Vanguard or Dark Denizens.

As for the City and the Woodlands, the only reentry fix that I can think of off the top of my head would be to install a permanent one-way Rune Gate at the entrance to those two regions. That is, if you find another Rune Gate you may enter those areas, but you can't use it to get out.

But I would still set those regions on fire on the subsequent omen.

Oh yes, I like the idea of the whole Region burning. Risky

Couldn't the Woodlands have the same entry "issues" as the Highlands and Dungeon?

Oooh...I like this idea. We came up with an idea with the Cataclysm board for certain denizens to act as gatekeepers for the corner regions so we don't start the game with all regions available (and some may never open up, based on which denizens you draw), so I might tweak this a bit so we can play a campaign with both the original boards and Cataclysm board. Instead of the sixth omen replacing the board, the sixth could instead add the Fireland tokens to the outer region of the original board and then the seventh omen replaces the original board with the Cataclysm board if no one has won the game before the seventh omen strikes. At that point, we could reset the playing field based on your idea and then use the denizens to open the corner regions back up.

The gatekeeper denizens we came up with are:

• The City - Captain of the Guard
• The Woodland - Fairie Caravan
• The Dungeon - Monster Hunter
• The Highlands - Master Builder
• Any corner region (wildcard) - Wanderer