why dont they just release another expansion? strike while the iron is hot. it doesnt make sense to me to wait around to release new material for talisman if people are playing it right now. the longer it takes for new material to appear the quicker players lose interest in spending money on something they dont play anymore. i have seen a difference in the frequency my group gets together and it is directly related to the lack of new material. something as simple as an "expansion" that consisted of 4 new characters for $20-$25 would be purchased immediately and instead of having sessions once a week we would find the time to play 2-3 times every week. my point is that i cant understand the reasoning behind not releasing new material as quickly as possible. please help.

There's already something of a schedule started. They go back and forth between a small box and large box/board expansion, one of each per year. As to striking when the iron is hot, that is not the way to sustain sales. You space out product adds to encourage back sales of what its all based on. The longevity of a game is always linked to encouraging purchase of the core game, not the expansions. New customers are encouraged when they seen sustained, long term, development of a product through addons... not a dump of addons for the sake of those who want more as fast as possible. FFG is handling it the right way for the sustained lifespan of Talisman 4ER.

JC is correct. Also, if the current cycle of releases is anything to go by, there will be a large box expansion due out within the next few months. If that still isn't enough to keep you interested, you can still always take a look and some community designed custom expansions.

There is also the matter of FFG having a rather large (and growing!) stable of games to support. There are new games and expansions being announced and released all of the time. We just have to be patient.

I would like to chime in on one other aspect.

ART. If they only use a few artists they have a massive workload to produce 70-120 cards. Each must go through various stages of proofing.

Note that they most probably make large paintings, not tiny 8x10's. Though they may use computer software, but most good artists don't.

One other important factor is play testing. I am sure they don't just go, lets add this, it sounds cool.

I don't get worked up. Look at what happens with video games they rush. They have to keep updating them. Pretty hard to update an add-on expansion for a board game.

danjr said:

Don't be so sure about that. There have been some pretty astounding gaffs in some of these games that beg the question of whether or not they were playtested. =P

I'm not arguing that it's an important step, it certainly is.

I agree that taking the time to produce a quality product is important. It's also unreasonable to expect 6-8 expansions to be made in the space of a year with any degree of quality. Even if FFG were dedicating all of their designers, playtesters and other resources to Talisman alone I don't think they could have published all the Talisman material that currently exists "at once." Not to mention that doing so, even if they could, would require a substantial investment of time and money with little in the way of evidence for how well it would sell once it was out there. That's a great way to go bankrupt, and then there'd be nothing new coming out. By publishing expansions on a regular schedule, they not only provide the necessary time to create a quality product, but they also get to observe sales data on what's been put out before, so they can more reasonably estimate what will sell well. (And they get to read us spitballing ideas on the forums to give them inspiration for new material.)

Also, having had my adventures with games that never stop expanding, I have to say there's most certainly a percentage of potential customers who would see a game with 15 expansions out in 3 months and say "screw that, if I buy the base game I'll want the expansions, and since I don't want to spend that much money I'll just skip the whole thing." I know it's a big part of the reason why I ultimately stopped buying into collectible miniatures and collectible card games - they put out three or four expansions a year, I just can't keep up to the degree I'd like to, so I cash out entirely.