I recently created a mini-expansion for Talisman. It's basically only a board with no cards, rules, etc. What I did is I took the original inner region and then expanded it. In the new inner region there are still 2 ways to reach the Crown, but now you can take either quick and hard road, or the long and not-so-hard one. The board I made is in polish, but I'm still showing it to you so you can have an idea of what it's supposed to look like.

If there is interest, I will translate the whole thing to english so you can play and enjoy it

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Some quick summary of the changes:

1. The road through Mines is the long one. It has 6 spaces, not counting Valley of Fire.

2. The road through the Crypt is unchanged space-wise, but the 3 original spaces that make it are all altered.

3. Mines road goes like this: Plain of Peril -> Sulphurous Lakes -> Mines -> Trail of Illusion -> Vampire's Tower -> Pits -> Lava River -> Valley of Fire

4. The Crypt road goes: Plain of Peril -> Crypt -> Dice with Death -> Werewolf Den -> Valley of Fire

5. The crypt, dice with death, and werewold den are all beefed up, den especially. Mines and vampire tower are slightly weaker, but pits are more dangerous now.

I need a english version

Excellent job. And very nice idea to use existing artwork to create additional spaces. It comes a little apart in places where original board is cut and folded but it's a minor flaw. The work on the scrolls on the bottom of the spaces however is superb. I couldn't tell which folds between spaces were there originally and which were added.

To help non-polish speakers get into a discussion just a quick-and-dirty translation (I don't want to steal Bludgeon's thunder )

Jeziora Siarki = Sulphurous Lakes - Lose 1 life

Kopalnia = Mines - Roll 2 dice (instead of 3). Results are the same except 4+ lands you in Ruins. In addition for every roll of 1 you lose a turn.

Szlak Iluzji = Trail of Illusion - Roll a die for every Object and Follower - on a roll of 1 you lose it (discard)

Wieza Wampira = Vampires Tower - (slightly nerfed) Discard one Follower or roll a die: 1-3) Lose 1 life, 4-5) Lose 2, 6) Lose 3 lives

Otchlan = Pits - You fight 3 Pitfiends (not 1-6) with strength 8 each (not 4).

Rzeka Lawy = Lava River - Roll a die: 1) Lose 2 lives, 2) Lose 1 life, 3) Lose 1 turn, 4-5) nothing, 6) You found Talisman (not "Talizam" )

Krypta = Crypt - (completly altered and made Craft oriented like the Mines) Fight with a (Spirit?) with Craft of 10 or equal to yours (whichever is higher). If you lose, you lose 1 life, 1 Craft and you go back to Plain of Peril.

Gra ze Smiercia = Dice with Death - Unchanged except Death rolls 3 dice against your 2.

Jama Wilkolaka = Werewolf Den - Fight werewolf with strength 12. If you win, roll a die 1-3) Werewolf regenerates - fight him in next turn, 4-6) go to the Valley of Fire. If you lose OR have a stand-off, lose 1 life and a random Follower and fight werewolf next turn again.

Quite vicious, some of those. It will definitely change the balance of the end-game. I wonder what JCHendee thinks about it.

Like I said before "English version please"

Overall, I'm all for beefing up the Inner Region. In the current edition, it SEEMS like characters are beefing up a little more than in past editions and they need a stiffer challenge. However, there's a problem when it comes to balancing this Inner Region against the commercial components that are expanding the Land.

A tougher Inner Region is just going to push "speed" players more and more towards using the "back doors" created by the Realms (Highlands, Dungeon, etc.) To commercial "speed" players, Increasing the inner region's difficulty will SEEM to them like slowing that part of the game down. In that, most such players won't use it... or they will ignore the Inner region even more for the commercial Realm expansions.

I like the overall concept for the board, but that being said, I see a number of problems throughout in the area of game balance, appeal to players at large, and some confusion in concepts.

NOTE: I do understand that you intend the short path to be the more dangerous one, but I know some players I associate with (who are lurking here) had some complaints. So take everything here with a spoonful of salt, and ignore what doesn't match up with your concept of the short and long paths.

Sulferous Lake - might be shifted to a Strength check. The Vampire's Tower is already an auto loss of life. The Lake might be too redundant on top of that.

It might be shifted to a roll of 2D6 against Natural Strength (Starting value + tokens/cones), and then a roll for each Follower (lose on a 1) with the option of the character sacrificing a Life to save it.

Mines - roll destinations are fine, but losing a turn based on a die number on top total result is a prime example for my first argument. The average player will again see it as slowing the game down... for that player. A roll result that causes a missed turn already exists in the table; your destination of Mines accomplishes the same thing, forcing you to roll again on your next turn. There are no missed turns in the Realms' back doors.

Trail of Illusion - seems okay, though frankly I don't see how such a concept would involve loss of Objects. Doesn't work thematically. Be aware that as much as some spaces are rigged to whittle down hoarders and gauders, you might rethink the distribution of spaces that affect Followers, Objects, Both, and maybe even Spells. Spread the loss risks out as much as possible. Don't got for over kill on all of them.

Vampire's Tower - don't like the new change. Don't like encouraging sacrifice of followers without considering what it means. Alignment is a joke in Talisman, even for the goal of keeping the game simple and not to be taken seriously. As it is, all characters should turn Evil the minute they start using the Crown for wholesale slaughter.

I've had some young players give a funny look when a GOOD character in the game uses a follower like cannonfodder to save its own ass. So, it's just a personal thing... I don't support such mechanics without some serious consideration. In most commercial components, there isn't any consideration in this are. That laziness goes all the way back to the 1st edition.

Pit Fiends - seems right on the mark. That was a lame space even in the 2E days.

Lava River - I don't get it. Too much like the Vampire's tower; no chance of losing an item or Follower that's traveling with you. Losing an Object here makes a bit more sense than in the "Trail" space, but not a lot. And in general I don't see a Talisman being found in the Inner Region. I know what that last roll is supposed to be about - a last hope (with possible use of a Fate) to get a Talisman in a mad dash for the CoC.

Thematically, and by probabilities, it doesn't work. That roll is a 16.7% chance of getting a Talisman (discounting Fate or character ability re-rolls making the chance potentially higher). That's too much. Putting aside Warlock Quests, Talismans are hard to come by through luck of the draw... less than a 1% chance. Talismans also (used to be) something characters fought over (the back doors have altered that as well).

This space is a good notion, but it's not for me as it sits. Also, though I'm not sure about where it is on the board, it should be the space right before the Valley of Fire... thematically.

Crypt - seems just fine to me, but most commercial players will cry "foul" for shifting it to Craft. It may mess with some standard cards sought that have modifiers for getting through the Crypt or Mines.

Werewolf's Den - I'd like to see the werewolf beef up, but a 12 is too much for 1 humanoid size opponent. Maybe like the Pit Fiends it could be a roll for multiple opponents at Strength 6 each.

1-3 one werewolf
4-5 two werewolves
6 three werewolves.

Also, where's the risk of a Follower used in Battle turning into another werewolf... and it turns against the player in a following second fight.? () Just a thought.

"If you are defeated, roll a die for each follower that contributed Strength or Battle bonuses. On a 1, that Follower joins the Werewolves on the next fight. Only 1 Follower can turn into a werewolf after any 1 fight."

I know... that's too much text for most players. We can't force them to read too much, right?

Valley of Fire - just a final additional notion. Over all editions it has been nothing but a trampoline, which bounces you back if you don't have a Talisman. That should be changed, as well as following the space's innate instructions, which contradict then notion of Realm backdoors when it is read, literally. Here's what I did with a Space Expander card, and you're welcome to use any part of it for a space if you like.

The second card is how we changed the Lord of Darkness to nerf its backdoor to match our version of the VoF. It makes it impossible to get to the CoC without a Talisman... which should remain the center of the game, since that's what the game is called.

That's that, and like I said, I like the whole concept in general, and my nitpicking is just some suggestions and that's all. I'd likely still play it as it is. By the by, my group and a couple of people from my test groups have lurked here and taken an interest in this new Inner Region.

Fixed the LoD backdoor in my playing group with my random LoD draw cards.

Would be great to have a english version of this even if some of it is "not so good" can be editted with players remarks. Is anyone thinking of doing a english version?

Uvatha said:

A small number of tweaks:

- mines no longer steal turns on rolling 1s

- there was indeed some redundancy in the form of spaces that take lifes. Vampire's tower now saps strength and/or craft. And you sacrifice followers after the roll.

- trail of illusion renamed to trail of madness. This was done eariler but I didn't want to produce a "news" based on this minor change alone.

- valley of fire altered so you need talisman to move from it to CoC, not to enter it. This allows a player to move between VoF and lava river in hopes of getting a talisman.

JChendee, thanks for the input. Frankly, most of what you propose would not fit the board, so only few quick comments:

- sulphurous lakes take 1 life because A) there isn't room for more text there and B) I did consider there to be a roll to see if the life is lost, but then the space would be weaker than Desert, and that was not okay to me.

- werewolf's strength - this is probably not an ordinary werewolf, given where it lives. I gave it S12 with clear conscience because even the art suggests it could be some kind of daemon or other supernatural beast.

oh, and 16% chance of getting talisman is fine by me. It's a last ditch effort for some, so lets make the chance passable at least.

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Ah, sorry Bludgeon just did not know you were thinking of doing a enlish version.

Uvatha said:

Bludgeon said:

For you yes, for anyone else its photoshop time

Bludgeon said:

Sure, and as said, it was all just notions, and I wasn't really sure which space was where. It'll still get played, just the same.