After getting Highlands and having a few games (about a dozen) I was thinking of taking out the huge amount of Bags of Gold out of the adventure deck with the Talismans and armour weapons that can be bought from city.

What do you guys think about this. There still is treasure maps and treasure chests and those dragons that give gold?. Just that the Amount of Gold Zeeech plus its a reason to get to the highlands to get all the stones and gems to convert to gold.

The list of cards I'm thinking of taking out are:

Adventure Cards
2 Armours
2 Swords
1 Axe
1 Helmet
1 Mule
1 Shield
1 Water Bottle
13 Bag of Golds
8 Two Bags of Golds
1 Raft
3 Talismans

Dungeon Cards
1 Talisman
3 Two Bags of Gold
1 Three Bags of Gold
1 Gold Seeker

Also Talismans not in any decks means you have toget them somehow else..

But the thing is will this stuff up game play majorily?

I somewhat agree (though my Highlands doesn't arrive until tomorrow). For Talismans, if you are using such things as Quest cards, I recommend cutting the number of freebie talismans down... but not completely. The number used in any encounter deck should be based on the number of cards in the deck, not the number of Talismans themselves. Cutting them completely or just doing so by count of Talisman's doesn't work.

My group cuts the number of free Talismans in a ratio to the deck's total count (which changes with each expansion). That standard Adventure deck is 104 cards, so we use that as ratio base... though we are considering inceasing that ratio. 1 Talisman in any encounter deck per 104 cards with at least 1 in any deck of less than 104 cards. It is then obviously harder to get a free Talisman, but when it does happen, it is more coveted and attracts character interaction. But be aware that such an approach merely pushes more players to use the "back-doors" into the CoC without needing a Talisman. In other words, this fix further exposes a loophole in the game... my group has its own way of dealing with that (still in process and development).

The abundance of Gold has always been a double-edged problem.

First, getting somewhere to spend it is almost impossible without magical means, which makes no sense. Adventurers (and everyone else) in the Land would know where those special, stable locations are, like the City and Village, and how to get to them by normal means. But there's no movement mechanic for that (well, not in 4ER). Many groups have created a movement mechanic for doing so that doesn't allow exploiting draw spaces, but all of these do have their individual problems, including mine .

Acquiring Gold is the other side of the issue. There is almost no mechanic in the game for actually earning gold. I've heard Highlands has a couple of cards that let you challenge something to gain Gold, but I'll have to see what I think of those. In the end, they don't matter much because there isn't enough of such cards. See here for a remedy that my group uses. Yes we often reduce or cut gold cards because of this, usually removing anything but a 1 Gold cards. But in general the problem stands. Most gold is inexplicably just lying about to be picked up at will... but only by the greedy characters and nothing else in the Land seems to find those coins (or bags!). There is no real fix for this in the standard game.

Messing with gold cards without some counterbalance is just going to make it hard for starting characters to survive on the main board. And until they can survive and pay for at least healing, they are not ready to head to Highlands in order to make (find) money by what you propose.

As to equipment, again do it by ratio. 1 of any kind of card per 104 cards in a deck as a maximum. In they end, they don't really matter much, as they get ditched when all of the magic objects, and treasures (via quests) start sprouting all over the place.

I generally play with all Talismans removed from decks (to encourage the use of Warlock quests). I also remove any items available in the Purchase deck (to encourage use of spaces and cards which allow shopping). I also take out a few duplicates of other cards (eg Guide), as I prefer variety. With Enemies, however, I think some multiple copies of standard creatures such as Goblin and Hobgoblin are fine.

By the way, there are three Talismans in the main deck (two from the base set and one from The Reaper) and two Axes (one each from the base set and The Reaper).

Hmmm... I've heard that with all expansions the Adventure deck is at or over 300 cards??? If so, then the ratio is fine with 3 Talisman's in in it. On base average of draws per turn (discounting certain characters with drawn addition abilities), a Talisman might come up every 85 or so turns on average. By then, many players are already seeking another way to get one... or looking for a shortcut to the CoC.

Thanks for your input guys. I will try it out with what you sudjest.

I don't think the water bottle can even be purchased in the village. taking those away only makes the middle region less desirable, and it's already competing with the Dungeon and the Highlands.

Taking the gold and the swords out of the deck makes it harder to get a sword early - which is when you want them the most. Taking that option away will likely slow the game down.

Getting rid of gold in the main board will draw people into the Highlands early. I think the Highlands is lucrative enough - we don't need any more incentive to go there.

Those are my feelings, but if stacking the deck makes the game more fun for you then have a blast!

That's a good point about the weapons vs. gold. Removing both entirely would make it hard (impossible) for starting characters to arm themselves... aside from there being no way to reach the village except through dumb luck. And on that last point, hmm, having gold picked up randomly doesn't actually make a lot of difference anyway in the early part of the game.