So, after a couple games of the ol' Talisman, I've been erked a little bit. It always seems that all the first spots we land on make us draw cards like the Demonic Horde, Dragon, Angelic Chorus or whatever.. Anyways, those monsters remain on the board cramping our style for a long time until we're able to kill them. Problem is, once we're able to; now we've landed on most of the good cards and all we pull is Goblins, Lemures, etc. Has anyone else thought about making separate decks for the Inner and Outer Regions? Have the weaker stuff on the outside, and the stronger stuff on the inside, but also more of the better loot on the inside as well. Thoughts? Are there problems with this concept? Anyone already do it? How'd it work out for you?

It's a worthy notion, but I don't think it would work well. Remember that the Middle Region has three Rune spaces which bump up Enemies but you don't get more "trophy" points for the added risk. There's also spaces where you can lose a Life, lose a Gold or a Life, have spells and magic objects made null, etc.

Talisman has always had the problem that you are facing... because it is so utterly random in what comes at you out of the adventure deck. The other side is that more and more the game is pushed to be faster and faster, new spells are more geared to PvP vs CvC yet aren't really more accessible, and more and more players are looking for artificial and freebie boosts to Strength and Craft vs leaning predominantly on gathering trophy points. ... well, the worse it is going to get. It's a very chaotic environment, and the urge to bring some order to it isn't new. But overall, that does bring other problems into the game because I've tried it a number of ways..

That being said, if you were to divide the deck, it would need to be thought about by the median and average of whats in each Region; not by taking the toughest creatures for one region and the weakest for the other. Doing it too simply would make the MR more deadly than it is designed to be. The OR would lean to a mere shooting gallery. Consider looking at the average and range of Enemies you would put into either.

As an Example, in the core deck there are 19 Strength Enemies with a median Strength of 3.5 and an average Strength of 3.79. If you stick the most powerful half in the MR (which would include all 3 Dragons) and the other half in the OR, you end up with...

Middle Region
Total Strength: 49
Total Cards: 9
Median: 5.5
Average: 5.44

Outer Region
Total Strength: 23
Total Cards: 10
Median: 2.5
Average: 2.3

Now consider the MR and that on two spaces, you lose a Life (Desert), one space you lose a life or gold, two spaces you draw three cards and Strength enemies will more often gang up, and one space your magic objects and spells won't help you. The statistical change of losing a Life has gone up in conjunction with a 33.3% chance the draw space will bump the enemy by +2 or eliminate any magical advantages you have. That actual Median of 5.5 Strength above, as measure of difficulty in gaining a trophies and not losing a life comes out statistically for risk at about 6.5+ or greater.

The inverse happens in the OR, where there are more places to heal and some of the only places to pick up needed equipment for purchase... meaning the 2.3 average of risk will actually be a little lower.

This approach, comparatively, makes the MR 3... or maybe 4 times more dangerous than OR where those separate decks are concerned.

If you really want to try this, then consider mixing the strongest and weakest into both decks, and use those in the middle to tilt the MR deck slightly tougher than the OR deck.

Very in-depth reply. Thanks for all the advice, I'll certainly give it all some consideration.

No problem, as it was all part of some studies I was doing for one of my own projects. Hopefully it does help a little.