I received the Talisman upgrade pack last week and this is what I think. Although the character and adventure cards are better and necessary, I chose to use the old talisman and alignment cards because they are easier to read. It also did not come with a complete set of the new rules, so I had to get back on line to print them from this site. Break out the post-it notes to change the board spaces. I would almost recommend buying the whole version of their Talisman game instead of the upgrade. I wish I had, but after $20 plus $10 shipping I will stick with what I have.

I just ordered the new Reaper expansion and although I cant wait for its arrival, I am almost dreading it.

Very interesting (as I'm looking at getting the Upgrade myself).

On the rules front though, are there major differences between BI and FFG versions? I've done a brief read through them and nothing big caught my eye. Maybe I'll go through them more thoroughly.

As I've posted before, you've got to ask yourself whether the new board, strength and craft tokens, and (I guess) a new shiny rulebook are worth the extra $40 you'll spend on the full version versus the upgrade. Personally, I find the complaints about the board changes to be a bit shallow. I know, some will say that FFG could have just included some nice stickers or some such to overlay on the board. But FFG is also saving you 40 bucks! I beileve the board changes are outlined in the manual that comes with the upgrade. Is it such a pain to just refer to that when you need to? How long will it be before you can actually memorize the few changes made to the board?

I do hope that FFG DOES make a decent print-out available of the board changes so that those so inclined can print it out on sticker paper. But in the mean time, go spend the $40 you saved on another game...like that Reaper expansion!

I sold my Black Industries version on Ebay for $10 less than I bought it the moment I heard about the FFG version as I had major problems with the quality of the BI production whereas I knew with FFG I was in pretty good hands.

I'm just springing for the whole new game + the Reaper. I really dislike the idea of having to consult a piece of paper as opposed to just looking at the board. The Upgrade Pack is a good idea. I'm just too much of a fussbudget about the game to enjoy that "fix" to the BL version.

I heard from my FLGS today and both Talisman AND the Reaper are waiting for me! SWEEEEEEEEEEET!!!

I note that decent size art for the changed board positions is available but only as PNG . If they were done as PDF they could be printed at fixed scale and glued to the board. Easy thing for FFG to do at basically no cost.

I don't need a " shiny new rule book" but 1 more piece of paper with the new rules would have been nice. And yes, had I known exactly what I was getting with the upgrade kit, I would have spent the extra 40 for the new game.

garglebutt said:

The PNGs are of suitable size and dimension to print directly to any printer a 300 dpi. Check your printer driver's settings and make sure it prints at 300dpi or handles an extrapolated print at higher resolutions (almost all home printers can now do this). You do not need a PDF... and straight graphics are usable by a wider range of people.

JCHendee said:

Aha thanks for the tip. Not sure PNG is more usable than PDF but if I can get them printed and pasted I'm a happy camper.

jimmeray said:

I actually ordered the full game...I'm too much of a completionist. I think I will like my shiny new rulebook the most.

I felt that there was plenty of info out there as to what was and was not in the upgrade kit well in advance (I ordered it about a month ago). People had posted images of the box back and listed the components on this site as well as on other sites (BGG). What I didn't know when I made my preorder was the extent of the board changes, but I knew that whatever they were, they wouldn't be in the upgrade kit.

JCHendee said:

So I don't have to resize them? That would be awesome!

RiCHiE said:

Not as far as I can see. Just give 'em a try and see how it turns out. Print in pure B&W first as test if you want to save colored ink.

I'm pretty happy with it. I bought it at a local shop, and since we have learned the game pretty well; the lack of a brand new rulebook isn't a big thing. I really like the minis and started painting them up yesterday. Overall a nice improvement from the last edition.

I don't know, I was delighted to see FF released an upgrade pack. And it was for an incredibly reasonable price. You're getting a lot of stuff in that little box. I guess I'm just pleased because I got the BI edition for Christmas last year, only to see BI was going under a few months later. So not only has FF re-released the game, provided a cheaper alternative for those of us with the BI edition, PLUS there's already an expansion. Sure, I didn't get replacement strength craft counters, but it's no big deal. I say good show FF!

Now, just release another expansion in the near future

Got to go, time to play my first run-through with the upgrade pack and the expansion. This post is so timely

Hi All,

I have to admit that I do not know how to print off the new map squares in the proper size. I download them as either .jpg or native .png. I open them up, and it always opens in the Windows Picture Viewer. It always asks what freakin size I want to print them in. I know there has to be an easier way to print these new map squares, but I have no idea how to print them.

heychadwick said:

First, de-install WPV. Second, if you can't afford a graphics editing package, search out a copy of GIMP for Windows. It's pretty good if you do any kind of basic graphics editing. And you will want to consider editing these graphics because...

The graphics of the squares if printed at 300dpi don't exactly match the board space dimensions (at least not on my printer and using Photoshop CS4). All you really need is the textual part of the space (and in some cases, not even all of that). Cropping and printing the text only is much easier to fudge size on label or sticker (with trimming) than matching up a print of the whole space to overlay the board.

Thanks for the advice, although I myself didn't make the request! I just got a used copy of the Black Industries edition and am looking forward to upgrading the board.

Fezzwick