Hey there

I have been working on the Talisman plug in for Strange Eons recently and fiddling with bits and bats and have a little bit of news about stuff!

Though I like the examples I had in the program, I thought it would be nicer if they were more suited to Talisman, so in a moment of bravery I approached Felicia Cano to see if she minded me using a couple of her creations in the plug in.

Obviously using Talisman imagery was out of the question, but she kindly agreed to me using some of her paintings which I thought was superb!!

I have been musing over the words to go with the pictures over the last week or so, but beyond a broad outline of what I wanted, I have hit a bit of a wall.

I figured it would be a cool thing to offer up the job to people as I have done in the last two competitions (okay, the only two!) on Talisman Island.

There will be three cards to write up, and three prizes of a set of promo cards for Talisman (Doppelganger and Instructor). As well as your effects being used, there will be a credit put in the plug in too...

Note that the final text might be altered slightly so that it is in Talisman-ese, but the spirit of the text will be kept. So you shouldn't be worried if English is not your native language!

The three images are as follows -

Spirit Dancer

Ambush in the Woods

Perun versus Veles

If you fancy a chance at winning a set of promo cards, or if you just want to have a go then email me your entries, preferably as plain text, but you can make cards up if you fancy it. I think it will run until about the 28th November, but it would be good if it could be before that.

I guess I'd better put this on Talisman Island too, but I will wait a couple of days so that FFG forum users can get a head start!

I'll post some of the ideas I had tomorrow so you can see where my twisted mind leads...

Cheers for now

Jon

Cool What a neat opportunity and usage for a contest, really great of Felicia! I missed the last contest, so will keep these on the brain back-burner and try and come up with something.

Done and sent..

Personally I like my Epic Ending..

Had a good brainstorm and came up with some ideas That was fun, looking forward to seeing everyone's interpretations after the contest!

Thanks for the interest so far guys!

I thought I would post a couple of ideas I had before I decided to throw it open to all. Feel free to amend any entries you might have submitted so far should the mood take you!

Spirit Dancer -

I didn't want to get hung up on the "spirit" side of this title, as I think the character/image is more about being an Animal spirit of some sort, or at least a friend to them.

What I figured was to give her only a few abilities, but make them a little more PvP. To that end (as with the Chivalric Knight) I wanted to have her come to the aid of any Animals that were in distress (i.e. being attacked) in the same region and lend her fighting prowess. As a reward she would be able to rescue any Animal Followers (Mule etc) from the defeated character if they had any, instead of the standard reward.

She would not be able to attack Animals of course...

Ambush in the Woods -

I was thinking along the lines of standard Raiders here, but perhaps with a twist. It does not have to be an Event though, and you can make it anything you like.

Perun versus Veles -

Well, this image is superb and suitably epic for an Ending. The title was just a work in progress as the original title of the image would not fit with the game, so you can add your own.

I thought of making some sort of ultimate "final battle" ending with this, but the mechanics escaped me. Further than that I do not know...

Anyway, I hope people have fun with this and I will be putting the news on the site over the weekend, so FFGers still have a head start!

Did you want the submissions to go along those lines, the character to have those sorts of traits? Can we do multiple submissions? I don't actually want to change the one character I submitted too drastically ( I think she's kind of cool ) but would be happy to submit another batch in a bit

That was no-where near my Spirit Dancer I sent in hehehe

Don't worry lads, I wasn't hinting! I was just mentioning what I had come up with, which wasn't a great deal.

I think multiple entries should probably be allowed, but let's limit it to two lots of entries per person/ That should allow you to pursue some different ideas, but you will have to let me know if they are replacing original entries etc.

Hi Jon,

You've got a neat idea here, though I'm going to stay out of it and leave it to some of the newer members. But on a tangent...

I was wondering if this contest anouncement might be overlooked by the forum community in being placed in the homebrew section. Homebrewers are a subset of the fans here, and others might not notice this bit of fun. There used to be a "members announcement topic in the main section. Of course, it slides out of sight once its last entry date grows old. Perhaps if it were pinned to the top of the main forum, like a couple of other topics there. Announcements with linkes could be placed therein pointing to specific topics like this one, whether in the main forum or homebrew or whatnot. That way, people other than the subset of homebrewers might notice more.

I have no idea how or who to contact to make this happen. Just a notion that might serve to stimulate more interactivity and fun on the forum when something like this comes up.

Best, JC

That's a good idea JC! I was going to add a "by the way" post to the main forum when I updated my site with the information, but I will try to find that thread.

There's nothing lost by having a go at the competition yourself either! It will be good to have as many entries as possible to choose from.

There are three cards to fill after all!

Yes, most definitely if you can find the "members announcements" topic then see if the powers that be can have it pinned.

I'll think about some possibilities for the cards, but overall, you've already got the best take on the Spirit dancer; that should become a standard character!!!

I might be tempted to state that she can only come to an Animal's aide when it is "attacked" but not when first draw (hence it is "attacking"). That makes more sense and will keep the ability from being overgunned. Most animals are the weaker enemies (some nonsensically) and don't survive the first encounter. On the downside, the whole attacked/attacking thing is something that common players don't understand, as it is only distinguished by the rules for CvC.

You might also explicitly state that any Enemy-Animal (or Dragon?) taken as a Follower by another character is fair game for the taking if she wins a Battle in coming to the aid of an animal. Also, that aided animal should of course be discarded (set free) if she wins.

Another possibility would be to summon an animal to her aide, though it might be too complicated to explain.

"When you enter Battle, you may call for aid from one Enemy-Animal in your regiond; roll a die and add its Strength. If the result is below your Craft, discard the Enemy-Animal and add its Strength to your Battle result."

Ambush in the Woods -

This is a difficult one, as the motivation for the attack could be a lot of different things. I'm going to just post my notion here as the quick and easy way.

Ambush in the Woods

Event

Move to the nearest Woods in your region.
You are led astray and attacked by bandits (S6).
Discard 1G or Object for each point by which you lose.
Pay double, and you do not lose a Life as well.

A simpler version would this...

Ambush!

Event

You are surprised by bandits (S6) and
may not used Spells or Abilities.
Discard 1G or Object for each point by which you lose.
Pay double, and you do not lose a Life as well.

And that'll be all from me.

Nice! Any and all entries are welcome!

Just to let people know what is coming at the end of this...

Stable cards, Quest Rewards and JC's Mini Ending cards

Icons from The Reaper to The Sacred Pool expansion

Standardised white and gold bordered icons for Ending cards

A fix for the old style "required" icons (that I broke) in most foreign editions of the tool

...and of course, the three new card effects as made by the lucky winners of the competition!!

Nice idea for placement of expansion based icons on the larger cards.

Just a small bump to let people know that there is only a week to go until I need the entries in for this competition.

I have had a good few entries in so far, but there is certainly room for more!

If you are struggling for ideas, then just send an entry in for one or two of the cards. Each entry has a chance of winning a pair of promo cards, so what have you got to lose?

***Ooooh, just another point. If there is anything you would prefer to be different in the above examples, like names, whether the Ending is Hidden or not etc, then just let me know. These are not really set in stone!***

submitted round 2!

The more the merrier! I've had a glut on entries today, so it's all good.

There is still plenty of time to get an entry in though if you haven't yet! What have you got to lose?

Just a quick reminder for you to say that the Strange Eons competition closes tomorrow night at some point!

I've had quite a few entries, and have a couple in mind that I think would make rather cool cards, but it is not too late!! If you have an idea for the text to go with the images, then jot it down and send it on over to me.

Good luck!

Nice idea, submission made by email, it was fun!

Tick Tick Tick Tick.....

...and it's done!

Thanks for the entries guys. I now need to look through them all. I have set myself the deadline of next weekend to anounce a winner and release the new plug in!

Should be interesting to see what comes out of it in the end.

The deed is done, the winners have been chosen and informed. I need to tweak a bit in the plugin before it goes live, but it should be soon...

Thanks for all of the entries, and don't worry if you were not successful, there will be another competition soon enough!

Awesome... should be fun to see what came out of it all.

I've yet to post the news on the front page of Talisman Island, but I have uploaded the latest version of the Talisman plug in for Strange Eons tonight.

http://www.talismanisland.com/strange_eons.htm

It's a bit late in the day, and I have a bit of updating of the page to do, but I figured someone might like to have a play until that is done.

The newest files are the English and Polish versions of the tool plus a little file that will enable you to add your own expansion icons to cards, provided you follow a few simple instructions that will be following soon enough. If you don't get the file though, don't worry as it won't crash the program!

This update includes Stables cards, Quest Rewards and MIni Alternate Ending cards, along with a few tweaks. I've even fixed the other (older) foreign language editions that I "broke" a little during the last update!

Another update is the addition of the winning entries to the competition I was running over the last few weeks! Check out the winners - Robert Day, Julian Pook and Ara Agnerian! Thanks also of course to Felicia Cano for kindly allowing me to use three of her images in the tool!!

Thanks to everyone else that entered and I hope those unlucky entrants might decide to release their own versions of the cards some day!