Within its ice-capped summits and steaming jungles, the Hidden Valley has long kept its secrets closely guarded. Now, the Saurian war machine pours out of the valley, driving numerous human tribes and monstrous beasts into the lands beyond.

This is an idea for a fairly simple expansion to add some more Adventure Cards and perhaps some more Spells and other basic items, including two Characters. It'll have a "Lost World" theme. The new Adventure Cards will generally fall into four categories: dinosaurs, lizardfolk, tribes, and Ice Age megafauna. It's still in an early brainstorming phase, and I'd love to get some input and suggestions. I'm especially in need of ideas for thematically appropriate Magical Items. The only one I'm considering at the moment is a Bone Talisman, but I don't think I'd be able to find appropriate art for it.

Here are the first drafts of some of the cards:

Seems like a very straightforward expansion. Just more cards without any new mechanics yes?

War Witch is ok, even if the picture doesn't evoke the idea at all. Hunter is pretty cool.

Dust singers have wrong encounter number.

Enemies have wrong font for strength.

Card names in text must start with capital letter, for example "An enourmous Mokele"...

Thanks for the comments. I'll fix those formatting issues soon.

Currently there are no plans for new mechanics. Maybe inspiration will strike me, but I doubt it. I had briefly considered making these cards there own deck which you could only draw when you visit the Hidden Valley. I didn't think it would be worth having a deck of cards specific to one Space though, even if you do draw three each time you visit it.

As for the War Witch, it was originally just the Saurian, but ended up being more magic-focused than the stereotypical Saurian would be. It was briefly called the Witch Doctor. The emphasis on Spells that target other players evolved out of the old Witch Doctor's ability to Curse players. However, my inner anthropologist hates the term "Witch Doctor" so I dropped that. Still not quite happy with it, so if you or anyone else has recommendations for tweaks, I'd be happy to hear them.

Here's another batch of Cards. This time focusing on some of the more fantastical denizens of the Hidden Valley.

Edit: Just noticed a typo in the Sphinx text. I'll take care of that. If you notice others, let me know.

Rather than post each card individually, here is an imgur album of everything I have so far. It's mostly done, ignoring some errors that managed to slip through. My main concern is that it's very Enemy heavy. If anyone has any suggestions for additional non-Enemy cards, let me know. I also want to add in a few new Spells but haven't got around to those yet.

Ooh! Terrain cards! Nice!

I'm a big fan of Terrain Cards. Visually at least, the Volcano is my favorite. The Glacier changed at the last minute when I remembered that the Highland board had a Glacier space already. Originally it was going to be like the Jungle, but making Animals and Monsters stronger instead of Saurians and Dragons. I might want to add something in that does that again if I can think of an appropriate terrain.

I'm guessing a good chunk of the Saurians will look familiar to you since I noticed after making them that you had used a lot of the same art for your Drakken.

Before I forget, I do have a specific question for everyone that I meant to ask. Check out the Valley Trader. He's the Stranger with three little dinosaurs on a leash. He lets you buy most of the dinosaur Followers. Can you check the prices and the Followers to see how balanced that is? I'm concerned I may be over- and undercharging in some cases.

will you be making this available through Talismanisland?

On 9/14/2017 at 4:12 PM, TavernSkell said:

will you be making this available through Talismanisland?

The original version isn't. Once I'm done with Atlantis, I plan on revising this idea a bit, then sending it off to TalismanIsland. The main change is condensing most things down into a special Hidden Valley Deck that you draw from when you visit the Hidden Valley, or in a few rare situations. There will still be a handful of Adventure Cards though, including one that places a Hidden Valley Terrain somewhere, so you have second place to draw the special cards from.

Now that Atlantis is done, I've started the Hidden Valley revisions in earnest. It's looking like it will be divided into two parts. The first part will have the dinosaurs and Saurians; the second part will have the Tribes and various Ice Age beasts. You can population your Hidden Valley either either flavor of ancient life, or mix them together so your cavemen can fight dinosaurs.

In the meantime, if anyone would like to pitch some extra ideas, both sets currently have some wiggle room in terms of card count right now. I've got plenty of Enemies, so while I don't need anything more on that front, if there's a dinosaur or other prehistoric animal that you'd really like to see included, let me know and I'll see if I can squeeze it in. Of course, I'd be most interested in some more dinosaur-themed Magic Objects if any of you know of some appropriate artwork. That's a niche needing filled at the moment.

I'm excited about anything dinosaur-related (including more enemies, if you want to do a bonus folder like with Atlantis.) MTG did an expansion called Ixalan that has a lot of great Dinosaur art. Also "Dinotopia" had some really elegant art.

I'm a big fan of Dinotopia, and some pieces will be making it in. It's tricky to use though since the Renaissance / Clockpunk aesthetic doesn't mesh well with the stonepunk angle I'm going for. I do need to sit down with my Dinotopia books and flip through them properly to make sure there's nothing useful I've missed. Regardless, I'll probably be using something Dinotopian for the card back. This is the leading option:

After looking at your Atlantis expansion I know you like a good terrain card (who doesn’t). How about having the hidden valley lead you on a short cut to the middle region.

Ive been working on an idea myself, mainly as a way to bring a luck based quick win to a game. Sometimes a game can go on too long with people trying to get stronger. If there was a chance that someone could take their chances through say a hidden valley to win it could push things along. Also it gives a player who has been unlucky at the start Another option.

By "Middle Region" I assume your mean the Inner Region, since the Hidden Valley is already in the Middle Region. Hmm... I might consider it, though it'll be a bit tricky to work out. Regardless, there will be a few Terrains included. Not nearly as many as Atlantis, of course, but Atlantis focused heavily on those. I think most were included with Atlantis anyway.

Great card-back! I see what you mean about Dinotopia.

I seem to recall "Escape From 100 Million B.C. having some great card art also, though it's more a mix of sci-fi and dinosaurs, as below:

1 hour ago, Earl Wynn said:

Great card-back! I see what you mean about Dinotopia.

I seem to recall "Escape From 100 Million B.C. having some great card art also, though it's more a mix of sci-fi and dinosaurs, as below:

I was flipping through my copies of Dinotopia and Dinotopia: The World Beneath earlier today and got quite a few ideas for additional cards. I'll just have to scan the images myself and edited them a bit. Also ordered two of Gurney's later books that I've been meaning to get anyhow, so we'll see what those have to offer when they show up.

And I'll have to check out Escape from 100 Million BC. Looks like an interesting game.

The dinosaur side of things is essentially done. If you want to preview the cards, here's the pdf version. I already noticed at least one major typo (one of the Enemies should be titled Pterosaurs not Ptersoaurs , so I'll be sure to fix that before sending the final version off to Jon. I want to have the caveman side of things finished before I do that anyhow, so i got some time.

Additionally, the Hunter and the Saurian will be reappearing. The Hunter will only be slightly edited. The Saurian, however, will undergo some major revisions and likely won't be a Craft focused character by the end of it. I've got one alternate ending in mind, which leaves one slot left open on that page. Any suggestions for Hidden Valley themed characters or endings?

In the meantime, if anyone needs something to recreate a particular card, let me know.

Nice! These are excellent! I'm really excited to see the Caveman side of things as well, but the dinosaurs are spot on fantastic. I noticed you made the dinosaurs into animal enemies-- any reason for the change?

I've already worked up a Gate Chain to go with these, and I'm thinking I might make a separate one to go with the caveman cards as well. I'm hoping to get all my cards out this weekend. Getting close! Just got to finish two Gate Chains I've already drafted, and then package everything up to send to TI.

Great stuff, again! So much sharper and more interesting than the previous release of dinosaurs.

The old Enemy-Saurian subtype was mainly to distinguish them as "Hidden Valley enemies" which is unnecessary now since you'll only encounter them in the Hidden Valley the majority of the time anyhow.

And feel free to make a separate Caveman Gate Chain. One of the reasons I split things up like this is to make it easier for people to pick an choose the thematic they want. The Caveman set shouldn't take me as long. The dinosaurs got held up because I like to be sure there are equal points of Strength and Craft trophies and getting Craft-oriented dinosaur cards proved to be a tricky. I had to do some image manipulation on several of them to get enough. Though there were a few I had to drop so that the deck wasn't top-heavy with too many Strength and Craft 6+ cards. So, no Zombie Tyrannosaur or Triceratops sadly.

Luckily the Caveman deck has no shortage of Craft enemies thanks to all the Shaman and various Animal Guardians. It is currently lacking in Events. That'll be the biggest hold-up this time around.

Good luck getting your own cards ready this weekend. I'm looking forward to seeing them!

I really like the addition of interesting fantasy-esque dinosaurs as well. You've gotten very creative with this set!

Here's Part 2 of the Hidden Valle y, focused on the cavemen side of things. I still have a few odds and ends to finish up before sending this off to Jon, but shouldn't be much longer. If you happen to see any typos or other errors before then, let me know. Also let me know if you're having issues with the preview. It shows up fine on my phone, but doesn't appear to work on my desktop. If you just get blank pages in the preview, it does seem like you can download it and view it normally from there; so it's a Google Drive problem and not a problem with the file.

Also, for those of you who might want to use this a separate deck from the dinosaur deck, here's an alternative back:

Very Nice!

I whipped up a patch that makes this deck compatible with the Slipgate system: https://imgur.com/a/khso1JE

A lot of great cards here, definitely! I think the Troglodyte Bride is my favorite.

I just sent the full set off to Talisman Island, so hopefully it'll be up soon. Once it is, I'll add a link here.

6 hours ago, Earl Wynn said:

Very Nice!

I whipped up a patch that makes this deck compatible with the Slipgate system: https://imgur.com/a/khso1JE

A lot of great cards here, definitely! I think the Troglodyte Bride is my favorite.

I had a feeling the Tribal War card would morph in to the shutdown event for the chain. I hope your group has fun with the deck. I'll be curious to see which cards you end up using, since you'll be dealing with a smaller selection. If you end up adding any new cards, let me know. I may end up including them in my own deck too.

But now that that's done, it's time to start my next Talisman project, which is either The Hungry Forest (focused on Plants) or the tentatively title "Good & Evil" (focused on adding rarer enemies to the main deck - Demons, Outlaws, Law, possibly new a new Angel Enemy type to balance out the Demons - definitely borrowing some ideas from Bludgeon on this one).

Jon put the Hidden Valley up Thursday and I completely forgot to swing by here and make sure everyone had the direct link . It includes some cards for the main Adventure Deck, three new characters, two new spells, and an new ending - in addition to the cards you've already seen here (with some minor tweaks).

A little late to the party but I've just had the chance to look through your Hidden Valley decks on Talisman Island... very good work! I love the idea of splitting into the 2 distinct decks and am absolutely smitten with all your lizardmen content! 10/10

P.s. I also like that you've used the Skink Starseer as a character, which is easily obtainable as a miniature from GW to complete the experience.