My gaming group plays a modified version of Talisman that utilizes both main boards, labeling one as the "Light World" and the other as the "Dark World." This opens the game up for an additional four corner boards. Right now, we have The Dungeon, The Highlands and The Timescape (Homebrew) in the Dark World and The City, The Woodland and Drakkhen Isle (Homebrew) in the Light World. Off and on since Cataclysm came out, I've been brainstorming ideas for two more brand new homebrew corner boards to round out the game, but haven't found anything that really excites me as a theme. Plus, I'm trying to avoid doubling up on themes too much (for example, the modified Timescape we run contains all kinds of Sci-Fi and modern elements, including Cyberpunk, Retrofuturism, Modern Military History, etc.)

So, I'm wondering if anyone has an recommendations.

Ideas I'm currently considering creating:

*Kung Fu / Ninja / Pan Asian / Oriental Adventures (I.E. AD&D style)

*Western / Cowboys / Weird West (Though I'm tempted to just pepper a couple of these elements into Timescape)

*Flux of Worlds / Planes (Anything goes -- though this element is basically present already in the game between Timescape and "rift" cards peppered throughout my decks that cause draws from other encounter decks)

*Ocean / Water realm (I have some notes tinkering on this, though I'm leaning more toward this being an open board instead of a board that has a linear path like a corner board.)

Recommendations based on what? It's not like those types of corner boards exist anywhere.

How about groups of small island on a corner board, there's always been talk in the forums of various island formats. Populate with cannibals, witch doctors, missionaries, thinking pirates of the Caribbean, but some kind of different mechanic for travelling between the islands. Each island would only need to be 3 or 4 spaces...

what are your thoughts

4 minutes ago, Sithassassin said:

How about groups of small island on a corner board, there's always been talk in the forums of various island formats. Populate with cannibals, witch doctors, missionaries, thinking pirates of the Caribbean, but some kind of different mechanic for travelling between the islands. Each island would only need to be 3 or 4 spaces...

what are your thoughts

I think that's definitely a cool idea! Like a Caribbean / Pacific Islander type of board? That could be a great way to do an ocean experience in a corner board. I like that!

The way that I've done this is to use City, Dragonland, Highland & Woodland expansions for the core board (Light Dimension) & Dungeon, Darkland, Nekropolis, & Timescape expansions with the Cataclysm board (Dark Dimension). The Deep Realms connects the 2 Realms. I didn't have the Lost Realms expansion when I've done this so I'd have to think about how I'd want to use it.

Also, when I've done this (or just used the official expansion with the core board), I've required that you have a Talisman to be able to enter the Valley Of Fire space which then leads to the Dragon Tower. Only in the Tower are Dragon scales drawn to determine which "King" you'd face. I might note that I have also used the 5 Alternate Kings expansion from Talisman Island when doing this. Only after reaching the top of the staircase & fighting the "King" there, does a character then land on the Crown Of Command space & sees what alternate ending is being used. I might note that I only use the Hidden Endings.

On 3/11/2017 at 2:48 PM, Earl Wynn said:

*Kung Fu / Ninja / Pan Asian / Oriental Adventures (I.E. AD&D style)

*Ocean / Water realm (I have some notes tinkering on this, though I'm leaning more toward this being an open board instead of a board that has a linear path like a corner board.)

I've been kicking around ideas for a couple expansions. One or two would be Asian-themed, depending on whether I lump or split East and South Asian themes. At the moment, the South Asian portion is probably stronger conceptually because it has a more solid narrative to it. The East Asia lost its narrative to another expansion I have in mind. Another would be a Pre-Columbian Americas mixed with Atlantis. The third would involve an Africa-esque setting based around the idea of a guy whose equal parts Shaka Zulu and Genghis Khan inventing early firearms. The Hidden Valley expansion I'm working on at the moment spun off that African-themed one because it originally included a dinosaur-filled jungle until I realized that the main board's Hidden Valley already had dinosaurs.

With the exception of the Hidden Valley, they're all in early phases, mostly with just some character concepts and the core narrative planned out. I suppose we can add to that list another idea I have kicking around, which is only in its infancy, which would focus on gods and spirits, accepting divine blessings and making deals with the devils. I could see it getting a corner board so players could storm Heaven and Hell. I'd have to double check how things align, but it would be interesting to see it with two entrances, one through the Chapel, leading to a heavenly realm, and another through the Graveyard leading through a hellish realm. Or, since you're using both boards, the Light Realm leads to the heaven and the Dark Realm leads to the hell.

Always wanted an Ocean-themed corner board, but I haven't put much thought into doing that sort of expansion yet.

EDIT: I got a chance to pull out the boards and refresh my memory on where all the official expansions fit. With the Highlands being associated with the Dark realm and the Woodland being associated with the Light realm, that does free up the Chapel corner to lead to a heavenly realm, and potentially frees up the Graveyard to lead to a Hellish realm. Hypothetically there could be a neutral Purgatory realm linking the two like the Lost Realms does now with the Highland and Woodland realms, since they'd occupy the same spot. I'd imagine both Realms would have cards that interact with you differently based on your alignment. Good characters can harrow hell for high risk / high rewards; while evil characters can storm heaven for the same. Going to the realm that matches you alignment should be a low risk / modest reward scenario suitable for the early game. A lot of enemies will simply ignore you if your alignment matches. Alternatively, it could just be one generalized Spiritual Realm, occupied by both gods and devils, who generally interact with you according to your alignment. That's how I'd handle this concept if it weren't being paired with your Light and Dark worlds.

Reedstilt -- I'd love to see any of those ideas if you build them at some point! They sound very cool.

Currently, I'm hard at work on my ocean realm, "The Shimmering Isles" with an eye toward putting it in the Light World (with the City.) It's kind of Al Quadim / pirates / islands / Caribbean / Polynesian in nature. For the Dark World, I'm leaning toward a dark, spirit-infested pan-asian Shinto-esque realm, but that concept is still very embryonic at the moment.

Since Abubu recently released a set of new Strange Eons Templates, I finally got around to changing my island-themed cards to use the same style you did for Shimmering Isles. I also re-did a few of your cards to better suit my own tastes (mainly changing the encounter numbers for consistency). I also included a Shipwrecked! Status card to replace what would have been the Desert Island space on my board. There are a few new items for the purchase deck, mostly vessels that can be purchased at a Shipwright that I'm adding to your rules for Fort Resolute (rules for vessels: you can only use one per turn and they can't leave the Isles unless otherwise indicated). Other rule changes that get alluded to in these cards impact the Pirate's Cove (Roll 1 Die and add 1 for each Piracy Card you have: 1-2: Attacked by a Strength 4 Pirate, 3-4: Nothing, 5-6: Take up to 3 Gold or one Object from this Space), and the Slaver's Hideout (You may sell Followers for 1 Gold each, or buy a Follower here for 2 Gold each).

Here are all the cards . Thanks for inspiring me.

Wow! Check that out! So very cool! I'm going to have to look through these cards and download a bunch of them! Thank you for sharing!

I really like some of the creative and fresh mechanics you've introduced! Like followers changing card encounter numbers! Brilliant!

Glad you liked them, but I can't take full credit for the encounter number mechanic. The Highlands has a Follower that does the same thing for Objects.

I added a few more Isles card for those who are interested in those.

Incidentally, I only recently realized that your Shinkai set was finished months ago. I'm sure it'll spark some inspiration for me and I'll add a few more cards of that sort too. Do you happen to have a .png version of the Lightbound and Darkbound symbol handy? I haven't been able to find a good one to use for my own cards.

Also, on a related note, the Bone Whale was briefly considered for my own Asian-set since it's based on a Japanese yokai, but ultimately it works best with the rest of the sea-themed cards.

I was looking over the Shinkai Techniques just now, and I noticed that Hawk Stance works against Saurian Enemies. I assume that's a reference to my Hidden Valley set, since your Drakken are Enemy-Warrior if I remember correctly. Happy to see some cross-pollination there. Are you using those cards? Personally I'm considering a revision to them that I'll work on once I'm finished my Atlantis set, that separates most of those cards from the main Adventure Deck and creates a new Hidden Valley deck, which you draw from whenever you visit the Hidden Valley. In the process, many of the enemies will get revamped, with the dinosaurs switch to Enemy-Animal and the Saurians probably becoming Enemy-Monster, though they'll likely have Saurian in their titles still (so Babasi Darter becomes Saurian Darter, for example). Not sure if the Tribal Enemies will become remain Enemy-Tribal or switch over to Enemy- Warrior and Enemy-Cultist as appropriate though.

Also, Bow Stance works against Angel Enemies. Don't think I've seen any of those in your card sets. Who has those?

Ooh! I like the new cards!

Ah! Looks like you're right on that one. It's been a while since I finished Shinkai (I let it sit on my computer for too long instead of sharing it, haha. I have a few expansions I'm going to try to find the time to get out to Talisman Island this month that are new,) but if I remember correctly, I did work a couple of Hidden Valley cards into my core (Light World) adventure deck, including a couple of dinosaurs. My goal, if I recall, was to round out a deck of just Saurians (and Saurian-Related Cards) for either a gate-chain mini-area or a ripple event, but I didn't get around to it. I still plan to implement the cards more fully in the future (because I love the idea of dinosaurs in Talisman.) Hawk Stance was sort of a pre-emptive compatibility patch for content still to come, haha.