As with Bludgeon's topic, I have created a Talisman game board using symbols instead of text. The goal is to print this out on a large mousepad style neoprene mat.

Unfortunately, I had to build this from scratch as I wasn't able to get hold of Bludgeon or have access to his high-res files. So I've had to make do with the assets I was able to get my hands on. I'm going to add the corner expansions in the coming weeks, but that's all work in progress.

This board has been created with my own use in mind, as I don't like playing with the Denizen cards, but do like the artwork on the Cataclysm board. I also like playing with the Dragon Tower, so I've included it.

Finally, I updated the Blacksmith at the Village to have more items (as per his Denizen card) and changed the Tavern space to include a Boatman and a Barmaid - which allows you to do 2 different things at the Tavern now.

Let me know what you all think.

So here are some examples of updated spaces;

I think the Boatman is bit an easy way to get into the Middle Realm. At least the 1G Temple part.

3 hours ago, Cru4n said:

I think the Boatman is bit an easy way to get into the Middle Realm. At least the 1G Temple part.

Thanks for your input Cru4n, much appreciated. Do you have any alternative suggestions?

My thought process was that the Middle Region on the Cataclysm board is a little more dangerous than the base board as it has an additional Desert space.

I felt that having more ways to spend gold and adding a reliable way to travel around the board added a good dynamic to the game.

It's in no way the finished article and I view it as a 'latest version' so to speak. Input from the community is very much appreciated, so thank you!

Could you give me the link where you found the original cataclysm map?

17 hours ago, Pheonom said:

I felt that having more ways to spend gold and adding a reliable way to travel around the board added a good dynamic to the game. 

I'd agree with your on this. Personally, I've always felt that the Sentinel is just an annoying roadblock that doesn't add anything to the game. The Middle Region has its own challenges with the Deserts, Chasm, and Runes - it doesn't need a gatekeeper to block players who want to try their luck there.

23 hours ago, Casuality said:

Could you give me the link where you found the original cataclysm map?

Hi there! There isn't a link unfortunately as I had to go through a lengthy process of converting DDS files from Talisman Digital Edition for each board space and manually 'stitch' everything together.

If you PM me I'm happy to send you a copy of the board though - Did you just want the image without space dividers/scrolls/text? Or did you want a link to the high-res version I've created? Because the one provided in the first post should already do that.

Let me know either way.

11 hours ago, Reedstilt said:

I'd agree with your on this. Personally, I've always felt that the Sentinel is just an annoying roadblock that doesn't add anything to the game. The Middle Region has its own challenges with the Deserts, Chasm, and Runes - it doesn't need a gatekeeper to block players who want to try their luck there.

My thoughts entirely!

It's odd, I've always had ideas for creating new cards or alternate endings, but I'd never really thought about board spaces until this project.

There is a lot of fantastic artwork on the Cataclysm board and I'm almost inspired to create a homebrew corner expansion based off some of the assets - kind of like a post-war Witcher 3 vibe. One thing at a time though right? 😄

If you master making new corner regions, I may have to enlist your help. I've got a corner I've been wanting since pre-Woodland days, but actually making the board is daunting.

On ‎2‎/‎27‎/‎2019 at 1:01 PM, Pheonom said:

Thanks for your input Cru4n, much appreciated. Do you have any alternative suggestions?

My thought process was that the Middle Region on the Cataclysm board is a little more dangerous than the base board as it has an additional Desert space.

I felt that having more ways to spend gold and adding a reliable way to travel around the board added a good dynamic to the game.

It's in no way the finished article and I view it as a 'latest version' so to speak. Input from the community is very much appreciated, so thank you!

I'd leave it at the 3G for any space. You see, it still goes for the same price as the Axe, which allows building the Raft. I don't think the Middle Region is just another Region with perils of its own. It has the Hidden Valley and the Temple, probably the best two spaces outside the Inner Region.

Even though the Cataclysm Middle Region has one more Desert space, it also has one less Black Knight, an Oasis that heals and a nerfed Chasm.

Or at least make it 2G to the Temple so the game doesn't start with everyone aiming for the Tavern to spend their 1G to get to the middle.

And yes, there are characters starting in the Middle Region, but as you probably experienced in your own games, they often need to leave the Middle Region and find themselves in the same position as the other characters. It still is quite a benefit, nonetheless.

It is a subjective thought, though, I just always liked the part when the characters need to get into the Middle Region and it becomes an adventure of its own. Or when someone luckily rolled a 6 in the Tavern and got to the Middle Region ahead of everyone else..

There is a reason why the Wharf space is almost at the end of the City board.

3 hours ago, Cru4n said:

I'd leave it at the 3G for any space. You see, it still goes for the same price as the Axe, which allows building the Raft.

Thank you for the suggestion. I’ll ponder and may make a change as you’ve put forward some very good points.

I’ve added the Black Knight back into my board, so that peril is still there but doubles up as a draw card space to give you a reason to land on it for lack of a better option.

On 3/1/2019 at 7:48 AM, Pheonom said:

I’ve added the Black Knight back into my board, so that peril is still there but doubles up as a draw card space to give you a reason to land on it for lack of a better option.

Have you considered making the Black Knight space more like the Black Knight Denizen? Basically giving the option to pay him to go kill other people for you (assuming he doesn't come after you for failing to pay).

18 hours ago, Reedstilt said:

Have you considered making the Black Knight space more like the Black Knight Denizen? Basically giving the option to pay him to go kill other people for you (assuming he doesn't come after you for failing to pay).

I thought about it but decided against having him work in that way. I'm not a fan of one player 'paying' to force another to lose 1 life, it just didn't feel quite right to me and doesn't suit my group's style of play (we'd prefer to fight each other to force the loss of life like that).

I have thought about changing the text to "Unless you have a Talisman; Either Pay 1 Gold (discard it) or Lose 1 Life" , as it would obviously make the space more worthwhile if you have a Talisman. However, if a player has a Talisman and a Water Bottle, the Middle Region becomes much less challenging... perhaps one to think about.

Hi Everyone! Warning, long reply incoming! 🙂 ( I've also posted this on BGG ).

[links to files below]

Quite a few people have messaged me directly about how I made a start on my high-res board, so I've decided to post my thoughts/process here for everyone to see. I confess that I'm not the best at using Photoshop, so if anyone has any pointers/advice/observations on how my setup could be better, I'd love to hear from you!

Background:
The build process in Photoshop was a long one, as I had to piece together each space and resize so it all fits together - my PSD file is over 100mb and that's without any of the corner boards.

I then had to create all of the board wording with symbols and get all of that lined up as best I could. Unfortunately, I couldn't get the exact same 'scrolls' as the original game board has, so I had to use something that looked similar.

I have Talisman Digital Edition on Steam, which is where I managed to get my Cataclysm assets from. They also have the basic board assets but the artwork seems a little off to me.

Fileshare:
I'm more than happy to collaborate/share files. That also applies to the 200+ (maybe even 300+) homebrew cards and alternate endings that I've created. I don't mind helping with settings etc. to get them printed, the quality I would say is around 90% the same standard as the original game cards ( https://www.makeplayingcards.com/ ) - I've been very happy with my purchases.

In regards to printing a neoprene mat, I was going to use DeepCut Studio's 'Print-O-Mat' service ( https://www.deepcutstudio.com/printomat/ ) - I've used them before for a dice tray and thought their service & product were excellent.

Talisman (incomplete) Project: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/xbhxu2k1nqe4m20/AADetUnbHQ4tHR4Wj...

DDS to PNG:
I had to use Paint.net to convert the DDS files to PNG (I hear that pvrtextool can also do this), as I couldn't get Photoshop to work with it.

Process:
I used using the strategy of getting the individual boards correct, then putting it all together at the end.

If you look in the ui folder there are DDS files for each of the full boards. The downside is that these aren't high-quality images and don't contain the scrolls or text. So my plan of action was as follows;

1. I started off by measuring my physical Cataclysm game board and City expansion board to get the measurements, then simply resized (after saving the DDS as PNG) the low-res game boards from the ui folder.

2. I then got the individual board spaces (DDS files) and converted to PNG.

3. After that, I used the low-res 'full boards' as a background template in Photoshop. This allowed me to import and resize the high-res individual board spaces to get the correct HxW and have things line up correctly. This enabled me to have a high-res image of the game board.

Now I had to create the scrolls and text...

4. I found a scroll DDS file in the ui folder called frame_top_mid02 . I converted to PNG and removed the black to create a little transparency.

5. I found the font files on Taliman Island, they're called Caxton and Windlass .

6. Then I manually created each scroll layer and added the text. It's still not 100% finished as I think I might need to make the scrolls slightly thicker, which would enable me to use 8pt instead of 7pt text (making it more readable).

7. I created the circular icons by taking a 'card back' image from StrangeEons and trimming accordingly to create the circular icon.

8. I manually created the 'white lines' in Photoshop and added a little transparency to create a gradient effect, which I think works quite well.

Summary:
I'm happy to email/share my assets with anyone. I haven't been able to finish this project, but if anyone else wanted to start where I left off or even use my notes to start again (but better) from scratch, I think that would be fantastic! As I said at the start, I'm not the best user of Photoshop and I my workspace was set up all wrong (e.g. 96dpi instead of 300dpi). So if anyone has any feedback or advice it would be very much appreciated! 🙂

Thanks, Paul

P.S. If anyone needs help printing custom cards, let me know as I can tell you the exact settings you need in StrangeEons to get the correct size for MakePlayingCards.com.

Thanks Pheonom for all the files you've shared. I have been accidentally reading this post not knowing that the last reply was less than a day ago. I wanted to add my subjective opinion about the board, but looks like you've completed or paused the project. So I see no point. But I appreciate the work done and the idea of symbols instead of text. For a player who doesn't know the board by hart it's very helpful to be able to see what options she has looking from the opposite side of the table across the regions of Talisman.

In my playing past, I have always tried to add this or that homebrew addition to my Talisman. Even now, as a general rule, I usually don't organize a play if I don't introduce at least one addition. It doesn't have to be a whole expansion. Sometimes it's just a couple of cards or a new painted miniature. But it often happens that we never again play with a particular homebrewed addition or expansion. The reason is, that either they don't give the expected thematical flavor or the cards are generally not very interesting or the new rules contradict the way the game was supposed to be played or I simply fail to make the product of a satisfying quality.

Unexpectedly this was the way I realized and started to appreciate the quality of original product. Last time we played I was still surprised how innovative and thought out some of the original cards are. And we haven't played Talisman so much that we would get bored of those cards. Actually, the only thing I dislike in original cards is the fact that some of them are added in more than one copy. But this can easily be remedied.

One more thing I learned. I never saw an instance where I'd thought that changing the general rule about how the game is supposed to be played would make sense. This is why I am (as a rule of thumb) at least initially reluctant when I see homebrewed changes to some rules or changes to some balances that have a very strong impact in comparison to original component. To make it simple, I don't mind changing or twerking some cards or even some mechanics (for example I tend to change the rule about how ranged weapons work) on cards. But to make even the slightest change on the main board, one would have to have a very supported reason. I believe every feature on the main board (the one or the other) is there for a reason. Somethimes, on their own, like Sentinel for example, they seem dull or reasonless, but in grand agenda they need to be there to support the basic idea of game flow and game balance.

Thanks for all the files again. I haven't had time to go through the cards. If they aren't available on Talismanisland, then I probably have never saw them.

How come you don't like denizens?? I love denizens!

6 hours ago, player1592559 said:

Thanks for all the files again. I haven't had time to go through the cards. If they aren't available on Talismanisland, then I probably have never saw them.

How come you don't like denizens?? I love denizens!

I suppose because everything I created was a combination of various ideas (and not linked to a dedicated 'expansion' idea), I never thought my cards/files would have been valid for Talisman Island.

I don't really have anything against Denizens, I just prefer the typical Adventure card system. Perhaps I should give them another try!