I love talisman. Really. I love the way it plays, the chance, the RPG elements, the followers, etc etc. Everything. Nearly... Exept the characters...

Let's be clear, I am NOT talking bout special abilities at all. I know that for some, it's all that matters, being strong and all. I couldn't care less. In fact, I think that in that regard, every single character is interesting. I am ONLY talking about Look. Coolness. That's it. I know they tried to be as close as the original characters as possible, but come on, they feel just too generic, too childish, too... beurk!

The other day I found this link www.talismanisland.com where you can browse all of the official characters from every edition of talisman. It's clear that 1st and 2cd edition were laking of character coolness, but they were ok for their time. When 3rd came though. Just wow. There is so many cool character concept it's hard to beleive.

So, fantasy flight, come on now, for future expansions forget the 2 ed copy paste characters and let's get cooler here please!

malefacus said:

3rd that's the childish look. The illustrations were terrible! 2nd by far are more cool lol

'Cool' is highly subjective concept. I would not like to see the return of 3rd edition-style characters. They were aimed at a specific market (ie teenage boys), and very much reflect Games Workshop's Warhammer vibe of spikes, chaos and extreme violence. Those things certainly have a place in Talisman, but 3rd edition lost a lot of the distinctive and highly varied feel of the 1st and 2nd edition characters.

Thankfully, 4th edition has returned to a more varied feel. Some of the character artwork is a bit lacking (The Reaper crew especially), but otherwise, the heroes of Talisman once again are a motley crew, who would not feel out of place in a fantasy version of The Canterbury Tales. Also, 3rd Edition had far too few female characters.

I've never posted in the same thread of Archdruid, but I'm another Character: The Warlock Still, you owe me respect for my important role in the Talisman world.

You may question the coolness of the base set Characters but from the Reaper Expansion FFG had the chance to develop things as they wished and gave 4ER a classic fantasy look without making it childish, outdated or boring.

Of course we won't see any 3rd edition Character related to GW's Warhammer franchise; FFG made the decision also not to link Talisman with their Terrinoth universe, which I appreciate a lot even though it might have been caused by Black Industries inheritance. However, I don't need any Chaos Warrior, Thug or skull-splitting badass here. I'm satisfied with a standard Warrior as much as I am with a Vampiress. I like classic fantasy characters a lot and I feel comfortable with them in an adventure game like Talisman. The more classic they feel, the more I like them. I miss Ranger, Halfling, Black Elf (or Drow), Orc and some multi-class Characters like Warrior-Mage under different names (Witch Hunter maybe). Still many espansions to come, I hope the Forest will give us many of these.

I loved the characters from second ed. Lots of eclectic charm fourth ed. is getting there; certainly the powers are a lot more balanced. In fact, if I had a gripe about the 4th ed characters, it's that they're almost TOO balanced...I liked in the second edition how a power could be (or at least seem) ridiculously heavy or useful; but then you'd spend all game trying to find ways to use it and not be able to. It seems like there's more of an element of the random chance principle in a lopsided character: yeah, they're powerful, but only if certain cards are drawn, etc. What I love about Talisman are the out-of-left-field crazy events that happen when you least expect/want them. I'd like to see the Satyr, maybe more non-human characters, too. As an aside, if the Forest IS the next expansion, I hope it's not just another Highlands. Don't get me wrong; I like the Highlands, but it's a little generic. Just a bunch of mountain-based spaces with no significant differences from spaces on the main board. It would have been cool if the board itself had different rules: maybe movement should be more difficult in the mountains, or something. I'd love to house-rule that, actually! I'd love to see the City as the next corner-board expansion; the rules are just totally different there, and you can play almost a kind of sub-game by entering its walls.

We use the realm dice from 3rd edition for movement in the Dungeon and Highlands. The dice are standard 6 sided but with 2 x 1, 2 x 2, 1 x 3, & 1 x 4 on them.

Ell.

talismanamsilat said:

Heh.. that was actually a great idea! Makes the advance, or retreat for that matter, a bit harder.

Hmm, now I just need to get my hands on the 3rd edition.. Fingers crossed an idea like that would be considered for 4th edition in the future!

SC

The Fire Wizard from 3rd ed was an extremely cool character. So was the Vampire.

StormCaller said:

Just make some of those dice for yourself. All you need do is some sticker paper or labels and then use a graphics program to print out 1, 1, 2, 2, 3, 4 and cut them out to apply to any cheap ol' D6. You can even use plain printer paper and glue stick... just don't wet, eh.

I'm glad Ell., reminded me of this. Talisman's kinda the intermission game in our game diet around here, so it's not played as often anymore. But I like this notion to make the "realms" a bit more challenging. But a question, Ell....

Character abilities that affect movement dice wouldn't be a problem, but how do you handle some of the more ridiculous stuff like the 4ER Horse in the Dungeon? Does it roll two realm dice, or do you force the use of only 1 die, realm or otherwise?

Yeah, horses in the Dungeon.....we play that you can't use the horse at all, though you can bring him with you (walking him by the reins, I guess...) I kinda like the idea of leaving them outside (including the mule/horse and cart), but then there'd be a lot less incentive to enter the Dungeon. Not sure how to handle that...

I've always found it amazing that veteran players stick to no horse in dungeon rule because of the realism ( and at the same time they do not find any problems with Ice Elementals in the Desert...). New players (at least those that I know) have no such problems.

Old habits die hard?

deserts are cold at night so maybe its nighttime when u encounter them in the deserts

@JVHendee

Thanks, that would easily be doable!

Cheers,

SC

JC Hendee

We do allow teleporting in the Dungeon and using the Flying Carpet; a Mule can also be used in the Dungeon, but we do not allow a character to use the Riding Horse or Warhorse in the Dungeon.

There are no restrictions on taking Objects or Followers into the Dungeon!

Ell.

I hope that the next expansion will give us more important retro characters from the past.

I like to see the:

Barbarian,

Dark Elf & Witch Elf ( With a new name perhaps..)

Halfling

Pirate

Ranger

Please, no Barbarian yet!

For some odd reason I always wanted to see 2nd ed. Knight and Soldier, and Ninja.

Nemomon said:

But we have already a knight.... and a Chivalric knight, and fortune Knight too!

Yes, please, give us the Barbarian

Barbarian yes, but not yet! Maybe in the very last expansion.

Yes, we have a lot of Knighs indeed, but not the classic 2nd ed one. Only "Shield of Defiance" somehow reminds us of real Knight's effect.

Nemomon said:

Who is the classic knight? The Quest Knight maybe??

Classic Knight has a little modified effect of Shield of Defiance , can ignore first praying, and pray once again, and finally each killed Spirit grants 1 Craft.

Nemomon said:

Is this a offical character from second edition?

If it is the normal knight from second edition, then i don't think we will see one, because we have already a knight in talisman 4th edition

I just forgot the Dread Knight to add to that list

That's 4 knight's already..

I like that character. It's evil and a sorcerer, and ride on a horse. It's a good replacement for the Chaos Sorcerer..

Just found a cool picture of him

Yes, that was official Knight from 2nd Edition. Maybe it will come someday renamed

Dread Knight has uber great artwork from Felicia Cano, but its abilities...

Cruan said:

I don't have anything more to add

Nemomon said:

Mmm, i don;t see his problem actually..

Having a warhorse in the first parts of the game is very good.

If you lose it, then you get it back at the graveyard.

And with spells, every character can stuck with it, but getting a spell for every enemy he kills is pretty good

If he has a craft value of 4, then he could be too strong, so i think he is pretty balanced..

The only problem i see is the healing part. If he want to change to good, then he lose a life if he want to pick up the warhorse at the graveyard.

Velhart said:

Having Warhorse at the beginning of the game not always is very good. Warhorse is good only for magical Characters. Fighting Characters don't get much from it. The biggest problem of Dread Knight is, that he very quickly may lose his Warhorse and then he has very weak stats. Sure, he may resurrect it at Graveyard, but firstly he must access that space (and we from experience know that quests: "Travel to XXX" are one of the hardest quests). In other words, he must waste a lot of turns going all around Graveyard with his small parameters. And once he will get Warhorse back (if he already isn't dead yet), he may lose it in the next turn, so he isn't gaining experience at all. Comparing him to other 85% fighting Characters, who have Strength equal to strong 4 without any conditions, sometimes even 5 (with Purchase cards), Dread Knight is weak, and weak.

Nemomon said:

But the Dread Knight IS a magical character

And most magical characters, except the monk, don't have a boost in strength, like the druid, warlock, wizard, sorceress etc

On top of that, the Dread Knight can also hold a weapon together with his horse that makes him as strong as a troll

He is pretty balanced in my eyes, but i must first see him on the battlefield off course..