So I've owned Talisman itself for a couple years now, and the more I play the more I love the game. A couple friends of mine got me The Reaper last year for Christmas, and in general we've enjoyed it, though as we're the only three people who regularly play the game, Death doesn't really seem to affect us all that much. This year however, I've gotten my hands on Firelands, Harbinger, Cataclysm, and The Dungeon, and now suddenly realize I have way more expansions to juggle.

With The Reaper, I just left the Adventure cards shuffled all in together because there was no reason to not play with them. Now with these new ones, I'm worried that I won't be able to get away with that nearly as much. I've read that Firelands can be pretty tough, and Harbinger isn't exactly cakewalk, so I'm not sure if there's a good way to handle mixing the two. And Cataclysm seems like it's much more of its own game, just using the Adventure Cards and Spells of the first game as a base. The only one I'm not as worried about is The Dungeon, since it seems like that one was designed more to just splash into the game without worry.

So first, since we've not played with any of the expansions except The Reaper yet, what would be the best way to start? I've got a gaming group this Wednesday that I want to pull out Talisman and an expansion for, but we've only got 2-1/2 to 3 hours at most to get a game in. I also don't actually have The Dungeon yet, I just ordered it off Amazon a couple days ago and am having to wait for it to get back in stock.

And what would people say is the best way to handle sorting out the cards from game to game? Is it worth the time to separate the Adventure and Spell cards out after every game, and just find a way to shuffle exceedingly well when I want to add an expansion in? Or can most Adventure and Spell cards be kept in the deck, even if I don't play with the expansion that they came with? I rather hope it's the latter, as I'm worried that having to separate adds a lot of time to the teardown of the game, as well as making it difficult to ensure good randomness due to having to shuffle things back together each time. The characters seem like they can be played outside of their expansion readily enough, though if there are any that aren't terribly balanced outside their expansion then that might be good to know.

Thanks for any help as well. I seriously love this game and wish I had the time and people to play it more often, so I try to get the most fun out of playing it when I can.

So, first of all, if an expansion has "base" adventure cards and/or spells or some other cards that you mix with existing cards, that is not really any problem at all.

Unless you dislike some kind of mechanic that comes with some of them and is present on a fair number of the cards. (not true in every expansion)

Don't use Firelands and Harbinger at the same time, unless you really like dying a lot (more than usual).

Also don't use Harbinger if you don't have much time. Unless death means player elimination.

Otherwise you won't get much done during the game.

You are right that the Dungeon can pretty much be there (or not) without much thought.

On top of my head, I don't think there are any characters in these expansions that do poorly without the other content.

(Heck, I don't even think there are any at all, even though I know some people here will disagree. )

If you only use the base game adventure cards, the cards from Reaper and Firelands, it might end up being a pretty deadly game already.

When using the Cataclysm Expansion, you should use the adventure cards and the board it provides,

otherwise some cards from it might end being useless or rather very weak.

And even though you (of course) would like to see the new cards, I would recommend using the Reaper cards, too.

What we do in such a case: We take a stack of about 30-50 adventure cards we already had and shuffle them with

all the new ones to be on top of our adventure deck for the game.

As a way to get to know different expansions and also to keep the game fresh and running for a long time,

I'd suggest adding only one new expansion at a time. That way it is also less stuff to worry about all at once

for players who are not regular talisman "jugglers".

Concerning your upcoming game, if you get the Dungeon before you play, I would start by adding this expansion to the game.

If you don't, I'd either consider Firelands or Cataclysm.

[should you not be playing with the Cataclysm expansion and its board,

for example, you can still use the characters and other stuff, you might only have to do a bit more setup depending on who plays who.]

Harbinger can wait until people are more experienced with the other stuff.

If you do add Firelands, you should warn people about the (possible) increase in difficulty / deaths, though.

So that they know who to be grateful for whatever harm befalls them.

Should you have any more questions and/or need more input, please fire away.

We talisman lovers / players are here for you.

Awesome, that's about what I expected. I know I won't have The Dungeon beforehand, so I'm likely going to do Cataclysm, since that's the biggest change and provides lots of things for a slightly faster early game.

Though I do need to figure out how to treat cards with effects that are expansion-specific. A lot of the Ifrit cards have rules on Burning cards and some have rules that affect Fireland Tokens. If I choose to leave them in the Adventure deck, am I okay to just treating them like basic monster cards and ignoring their special text? I know they're few and far between, especially when I get more expansions that keep adding to the Adventure deck, but I still figure I'd better ask, especially if playing Firelands and Harbinger together causes lots and lots of death.

And seeing as how I only play with two other people even semi-regularly, are there any expansions that work better or worse with those numbers? We've already noticed that Death encounters and PVP encounters happen far less frequently, but is there anything else that comes up due to having fewer players?

We've already noticed that Death encounters and PVP encounters happen far less frequently, but is there anything else that comes up due to having fewer players?

One "fix" to this issue that I implemented in my games is that you must encounter the NPCs (Reaper, Werewolf, Harbinger) if you land on them. This adds a new level of strategy to the game as it makes you think twice before moving onto a space where one of them is waiting.

Sorry for being a bit late, got caught up in my work.

Though I do need to figure out how to treat cards with effects that are expansion-specific. A lot of the Ifrit cards have rules on Burning cards and some have rules that affect Fireland Tokens. If I choose to leave them in the Adventure deck, am I okay to just treating them like basic monster cards and ignoring their special text?

Comment: Well, to be honest, that would make at least half of them much easier to defeat and/or less interesting.

But like you said, you can always "add" more complexity later (after some games have been played).

And seeing as how I only play with two other people even semi-regularly, are there any expansions that work better or worse with those numbers? We've already noticed that Death encounters and PVP encounters happen far less frequently, but is there anything else that comes up due to having fewer players?

Comment: Depending on how many corner expansions, like the Dungeon, that you add, the board becomes more widespread than ever before.

So unless players are really playing for more PVP / using character abilities that concern encountering other characters, you might find yourself pretty alone in one corner of the bord, depending on the game state.

Of course there are players that like this / are not concerned by this notion.

Also, having more corner expansions tends to draw people away from the main board. (Even though they have to return there to win eventually of course.)

Playing the with Harbinger might also drive people away from the main board if they don't want to draw his cards (or away from another region he could be in).

Whatever else comes up more frequently or less should depend more on the randomness of the draw and/or how your group plays, I believe.

Also, if it's not too much to ask, i think it would be nice to hear how your game played out and how you did it in the end.

At least I myself would love to hear about it. [Though I'm probably not the only one here.^^]

Well I mostly asked about the Ifrit cards because of leaving them in the Adventure deck while playing with an expansion that doesn't work with Firelands so well (i.e. Harbinger). So say I've played with the Firelands cards shuffled into my Adventure deck a few times, and now my group wants to play with Harbinger instead. I've received numerous warnings here that mixing the expansions is a bad plan unless people want to die a lot, so I have two options Option one is to simply scour through my Adventure deck and remove all of the Firelands cards, both taking up time and leaving me to have to shuffle them in next time around, but guarantees nothing will interact. Option two is to leave the Firelands cards all shuffled into the deck, but if I draw one, ignore any feature like burning or placing Firelands tokens, allowing me to keep my Adventure deck intact and well shuffled, but diluting it with cards that are nothing but additional non-effect monsters and having to constantly check whether the card even does anything, and deciding what to do if it doesn't. For example, I know there's a card that only affects Firelands Tokens, and provides absolutely no other effect whatsoever, and therefore is either a dud draw for that player, or allow them to draw again for another card with a useful effect.

I'm really only asking for input from other players so I have something of a basis of comparison. Basically what's more valuable, the time I save not having to remove cards from my Adventure deck all the time as well as keeping things well shuffled, or not having to keep an eye out for offending cards? And I do understand this varies from group to group, so mine will likely have to come up with what we like.

And unfortunately the game didn't go through. We had our full group of seven last night, and our GM is really excited about the D&D 5E game he's running. I can't blame him, and I had fun with it, I just wish I didn't have to wait until Sunday with my two roommates to finally get to try the expansions I've had for a couple weeks now. Once I do play though, I'll post updates.

"Burn" is not that bad for players actually. It just means that "burned" cards are removed from the game.
There are also cards that are "fireproof" which means they can not be burned.

In case you want to remove the Fireland Token Cards:

Spells:

- Crack the Earth (x2)

- Curse of Flame

- Extinguish (x2)

- Restore the World (x2) -> Although with this card, you could just ignore the part with the Token/-s.

Adventure Cards:

- City in Flames -> Although with this card, you could just ignore the part with the Token/-s.

- Dousing Rod

- Emerging Volcano -> Although with this card, you could just ignore the part with the Token/-s.

- Eruption

- Flame Rift (x5) -> Although with this card, you could just ignore the part with the Token/-s.

- Ifrit Cloak

- Ifrit Hoard (x2)

- Ifrit Invader (x4) -> Although with this card, you could just ignore the part with the Token/-s.

- Ifrit Invasion (x3) -> Although with this card, you could just ignore the part with the Token/-s.

- Ifrit Raider (x3)

- Ifrit Sheikh -> Although with this card, you could just ignore the part with the Token/-s.

- Ifrit Sultan

- Marid Sultana

- Temple in Flames -> Although with this card, you could just ignore the part with the Token/-s.

There are a few other cards that mention Fireland Tokens that I didn't list,
because the Token effect can easily be ignored.

So there are a total of 5 Spells and 10 Adventure cards that you definitely have to remove
if you are not playing with the Fireland Token Mechanic.

Of course, having to go through the decks every time you play is more time consuming,
so you could also just take a list of the cards that "don't do anything" and place it
next to the game board so that everyone knows, should they draw one of these cards,
to just put that card away and draw a new card as a replacement.

And unfortunately the game didn't go through. We had our full group of seven last night, and our GM is really excited about the D&D 5E game he's running. I can't blame him, and I had fun with it, I just wish I didn't have to wait until Sunday with my two roommates to finally get to try the expansions I've had for a couple weeks now. Once I do play though, I'll post updates.

That's a shame. Though as a GM for "The Dark Eye" myself, I think I can understand him pretty well.

Still feeling with you for having to wait even longer. - We still need to get our group together for a first game with Cataclysm.

Just didn't work out up until now. Hopefully someday soon.

Looking forward to your updates. Hope you'll have a great game when it's finally time to venture into the Realm of Talisman once more.

So as requested, here's how our first game with a new expansion went. We just went with The Dungeon this time around, as my roommates weren't up for the death and destruction of the Firelands quite yet. I started with the Merchant, roommate A with the Gypsy, and roommate B with the Philosopher.

Gypsy managed to do okay, but her player went into the Dungeon early to experience it and grabbed a Blood Stone that...was not terribly kind to her. A few other bad rolls, and she eventually died and became a Priest. Said Priest immediately dived deep into the dungeon in a suicide attempt, managed to get a lot of good stuff on some lucky draws, and subsequently died right when he made his way out. Reincarnating as a Prophetess, she managed to get about five turns in before the game ended.

The Merchant didn't do worse, but didn't exactly do better. He spent almost the entire game wandering the Outer Region running into either nothing helpful or incredibly violent. I don't think I traded in a single trophy until over halfway through the game, with my only stat points coming from Place cards or monsters that immediately trade in for a stat point (so kind of trophies, but only I only saw two of them anyway). I did manage to trade some nice items from my fellow adventurers, but it ultimately didn't matter in the end. I spent the last third of the game trying to get through the dungeon and running into dropped items, avoiding Torturers, or getting only somewhat useful items.

The Philosopher got an amazing start, getting several good items and running into just the right monsters with just the right rolls. It faced a few setbacks when both myself and my roommate traded/discarded some of her items and stat points, but that really didn't slow her down. Somehow that wimpy little Philosopher managed to only gain three craft in the entire game (losing two to the Rod of Ruin), and instead beefed herself up to 12 strength and made a run for the Crown of Command, which she got to without even breaking a sweat. I think she visited the dungeon three times, once on purpose to hit the Library, and twice because of Trap Doors.

So while I think I like The Dungeon thematically, I'm honestly not sure what value it adds to the game. Once you're strong enough to tackle the dungeon, you're strong enough to make a run for the Crown. If I'm reading things right, you need a minimum of 15 Strength/Craft in order to beat the Lord of Darkness in order to go directly to the Crown, and that requires him rolling a 1 and you rolling a 6. Unless you're already in the dungeon, why bother? Most of the treasures don't seem to give all that much of a benefit either, since if you're strong enough to nab one, you're strong enough to just get to the end. Maybe it works better with alternate endings or other expansions, I dunno. I can certainly see it being useful with Harbinger, giving another region to skedaddle to, but that's about it. It's very risky early on, when you can safely power up in the Outer Region just fine.

Maybe we're just playing oddly, but most games we spend 90% of our time in the Outer Region. Most times we don't even bother going to the Middle Region, as the risks of losing life are too great, while the only really substantial reward is a Talisman, and I think in all the games I've played I've seen someone do a Warlock Quest...twice? Most of the games are only with three people total, so that means there are enough talismans to go around for sure, but it just gives the Inner Region even less of a reason to exist.

I'm personally looking forward to Firelands and Cataclysm the most. I'd love to get Highland, as an alternative to the Outer Region, and another safe zone from the Harbinger, but that's too expensive for me at the moment. And The City and Woodlands only mildly intrigue me, as do the last three small box expansions. I definitely like the theme of the Dungeon, and what it adds flavor-wise to the realm, but for actual gameplay, I'm not sure I see it making much of a difference overall.

Thanks for the report. Hope it was still enjoyable enough.

Risk versus Reward.
I now realize that I did not take into account that you had not played
with the Dungeon yet, sorry about that.

(Though I do like to give people authentic learning experiences with expansions.)

Yes, it's certainly not a place where most characters would just venture
in at the start of the game, but once you are a bit buffed up,
it is the best place to level up for the crown the game has to offer.

You of course have to be careful with those "Draw 2 / 3 cards"-spaces,
but it is possible to avoid them to some extent.

While the Dungeon is dangerous, once you are more used to what kind of cards
you encounter there, you can minimize the risk somewhat.

The Lord of Darkness: While it is possible to beat him and get to the crown,
that's not the main reason he is there. [At least not for my gaming group. XD]

He's there for the treasures. And while I would say that some are okay-ish,
others are just great to have.

[We have removed the Talisman from his deck, because it did not seem like
a good reward to get here.]

Also, it does get a lot easier to beat him with more and more expansions in play,
yes, that's true.

Concerning Warlock Quests, yes, those were underused for a very long time,
unless you played with a certain alternative ending.

The "Sacred Pool"-Expansion gives you "Quest Rewards" to take for finishing them
instead of just a Talisman.

While the Inner Region is somewhat dangerous, being the only character adventuring there
can have its benefits.

There are some characters that even get to start the game there.

One strategy people like to try (especially after they have a water bottle) is landing
on the Temple as much as possible and be lucky to get stat increases there or at least
spells / fate or something else that is useful.

In contrast to the Dungeon, the Highlands are a place where you can go early, actually.
That does not mean there isn't any danger there, but not nearly as much as inside the Dungeon.

It also can give you a lot of gold, though not too much to spend it on.

I definitely noticed that the dungeon varies in difficulty a lot. Several monsters are easy to kill, even early on, while on occasion you run into a whole bunch with the same encounter number, or one of the rarer, really big baddies. Most of the reason I think the Priest survived as long as he did was he kept running into Spirits, and kept getting rather useful spells as a result, so there's that too. And now that I'm thinking more on it, I'm realizing just how little of a buff up you really need to be able to survive in there, and will probably venture in much sooner, assuming I don't get screwed with getting stats and equipment like my Merchant did.

At this point what I'm most looking forward to is Cataclysm. The new board just looks like a hell of a lot of fun. I love the idea of the Remnant cards speeding up the early game, and looking at the new set of Talismans it definitely looks like it gives the Warlock Quests a reason to exist (at least until I nab Sacred Pool). About the only downside seems to be, like Firelands, a lot of its Adventure Cards seem to be very specific to Cataclysm, and won't mesh as well if I go back to the standard board. The Denizens especially don't seem to jive too well with original Talisman, unless we just treat them as another possible encounter for the space they're on. Could work, but I dunno.

I am finding that our group tends to want to spend a bit too much time in the Outer Region, and hopefully with a bit more play the dungeon will solve that. Mostly it's because we're a bit scared of the Runes and Desert in the Middle Region, when the rewards there don't seem worth it. I do agree that the Temple seems like a nice place to go, because the Philosopher got a good chunk of his stat boosts from the Idol card that got slapped on a random space and never once got hit with anything bad. But even avoiding the Middle Region, the three of us can wrap up a game in a couple of hours, with at least two people able to head for the Crown about half the time.

Talisman is a race, playing the game at higher speed makes you more likely to win. Deaths are relatively rare, but if you go below 3 lives it's a good idea to play it safe unless you're hopelessly behind. For this reason middle region is a great place to adventure. Most of the time you can land on oasis, temple, hidden valley or a draw 1 card space. If a few of those spaces become occupied by a card you dont want to encounter leave and find new hunting grounds.

Dungeon is a very dangerous place, I wouldnt go there unless you have at least 7 strength, preferably more. Dungeon has a much higher % of enemies. If you can't beat the majority of them there's no point in going there. Highland is similar although enemies have lower strength, so you can go there early, even at the start of the game.

One way to play expansion, that makes the game faster and allows for more pvp, is to play them without mainboard, possibly 2 expansions linked together.

Simply add 1 life, Strength and craft for highland, 2 for dungeon and houserule 1 or two spaces that are worse than draw 1 card to a tavern+graveyard+chapel+rogue's guild+healer