A long time ago I remember reading about how Talisman was originally meant to be a sort of introductory game to Dungeons and Dragons Roleplay, except it is a board game and not simply pen and paper and a book.

What I am wondering is if anyone has decided to play it like D&D meaning that you start and pick up with the same character you had advancing them etc. I am just throwing this out there for any home brewed variants to play this as would friends who start a D&D campaign where they come back and pick it up advancing a little more at a time?

I for instance would keep it to just the main board, then the next time we meet we add on the Highlands perhaps, then later saying that after the events of the Highlands they uncover the Dungeon etc. Just a way to play this game more like a D&D Campaign. Anyone have thoughts?

Nah never tried anything like that. I do though have games left in session and come back to them when time permits. Some games can't be done in just a few short hours.

During the years my game group(s) have talked about using the cards as a randomizers for the gamemaster as a experiment for a game session, and imporivising the story around that. But I don't remember that we ever tried it out, or talked about keeping the main quest for the Crown of command.

A couple times I thought about how you could expand the game into campaign style game play. I didn't get far with the idea....lol

Just tinkering with the idea....you could theoretically use the characters as your base character in an RPG style game and then flesh them out with a name, back story, etc.... then use some of the locations and plot from the cards to create a "world of Talisman" so to speak using the villains and monsters, weapons and other items to build an RPG plot.

That's about as far as I ever took the idea. The next step would be actually creating this theoretical world and fleshing it out to a real place, then there is the tinkering with game mechanics so as to take on this new dynamic of RPG campaign play instead of board style play...and really that's more work than I'm willing to put into the idea....

This is as far as I ever got with the concept. Hope it's helpful.

Thanks for everyone's thoughts, I am back and forth on the time it takes to play this game versus continuity and investment of that time into a character. I already am making adjustments to trophies for leveling your characters strength or craft. One way I am doing this is a tweak on the trophies rule where you make it 5 instead of 7 to advance. I am making it slightly quicker in that the cap is 5, not 7 but until you reach 5 its lower.

Example: I have the Gypsy and she has Strength 2 and Craft 4. In order for her to get 3 Strength she needs a total trophy of 3, but her craft is already at 4 so in order to get 5 she needs a total of 5 for her trophy cash in and from there on out her total is always 5 as the cap.

I felt this would make it quicker to get everyone up quicker and the cap of 5 based on the rule books variant would just be a cap.

One other problem I have found is that I feel like some players hem and hull over their turn trying to best guess the result of their turnout even though at some level its a luck of the dice to some degree. I was thinking of picking up a few hour glass things from a dollar store and making people abide by that as their turn time marker to make their decision, anyone have thoughts on these?

Just curious what other players think.

Personally, for something more long term, I'd be more inclined to start with a D&D (or FRPG of your choice) and modify it to be the Talisman world. It might take a lot of work to make each different class' set of rules, but that seems easier than starting with a board game and trying to make an RPG out of it. I'd probably go with 3.5 or Pathfinder to start, as they would be the most easily modifiable. 4th is just too rigid to work out nicely.

And when the party has finally managed to fight tooth and nail to the crack of Mount Doom, <ahem> sorry I mean Valley of Fire, will they suddenly turn on each other and fight for control of the Crown of Command (my precious...)?