I am an unabashed Talisman lover...with reservations...after many, many years I finally sold off my 1e/2e copy of the game and all the expansions through Dragons. I had the main box for the 3e game, but never felt it captured the game correctly. I've stayed away from the Black Library/FFG version simply because I don't want to be disappointed by changes made to a game I loved in my youth. But, as the expansions continue I keep thinking, maybe the game's good enough now to take a look at it again.

Any input for an ex-fan? What do you like/dislike about this version? Have you played the very old GW version?

I played all through the late eighties. I loved the game then.

I think the game is even better now. With all the expansions now the game is a bit gold laden. There was a gold ending that a bunch of us all gave input on, that can help the situation, as well as pulling bags of gold from the adventure deck.

Alternate endings of the game make it very interesting.

Trinkets are also kinda cool in the overall aspect of the game. I convinced a bunch of my friends to buy it, and they all love it. When we can't all meet up for our regular AD&D session, the back-up plan usually falls to Talisman.

I'd check local game shops and meet-up sites and see if anyone runs a game. Then you can play test it.

I used to play 2ED a lot in the local club and then with my friends over a beer. Newest edition (revised 4th edition) has a feel very close to old 2ED. Adventure cards are almost the same size, the board (although with new art) was made to look like the old one, many, many cards and characters were taken directly from the 2nd edition...

Of course there are new mechanics like Fate or Reaper, the corner boards concept taken from 3ED (and improved, mind you), but the overall feel of the game stayed the same. It's not the 3ED with skulls everywhere

New edition benefits from sheer number of expansions. We're only half way through GUARANTEED expansions (four corner boards are obvious) and there are already 300 Adventure cards. Each new region expansion has well over a hundred cards, comparing with 30 or 40 in the old days. Some will say that quantity is not quality but here those two go mostly hand-in-hand.

There are some things that I don't like in this new edition but those are mostly just my quirks. The Character cards are way too big. Half of the size would be perfect, three quarters - acceptable. Miniatures are dreadfull (I was spoiled by Games Workshop) and I would prefer old style standees. Adventure cards are too small. Yes, you read that right. They are perfect size for playing but all the beautifull artwork is all but lost on them. Just for the artwork's sake they should be playing card size.

In general, though, all the benefits outweight those few flaws and,whats most important, the feel of the classic Talisman is preserved.

Great, thanks!

Hearing from a couple of old version players helps push me toward picking it up. My (later) players were always complaining how long it took to play with all the expansions included. It sounds like that's been cleaned up somewhat, looking forward to giving it a shot!

Well, it still takes some time to set everything up. Although the back of the box advertises 90 minute play it usually takes considerably longer to finish a game with all expansions. There are however two features that can help to shorten that time. Firstly, there is handfull of alternative rules at the end of core rulebook and Dungeon rulebook which ar designed to speed up a game. Secondly, every card has an expansion icon somewhere on it. You can easily sort the cards and play with only few chosen expansions. There was much thought and work put in it's design to accommodate different styles of playing.

I played (and still have) almost all of the Talisman 2E expansions and really only liked the Dungeon expansion board. City was alright, seemed like it could have been better, did like the master characters you could become though.

I give a huge thumbs up for the Highland expansion for the 4th RE version of Talsiman. Dungeon expansion is alright, doesn't get used as much with the crowd I play with. Honestly, I buy everything available for the game, because I'm a fan of it reguardless.

Definately worth buying: The Highland and Ice Queen / Reaper mini expansions...Dungeon - recommend giving the Lord of Darkness a strength of 10 when using this expansion.

Most games I play still take 4-6 hours, even while using some rules to speed the game up.