The group of guys I play with love the new 4.5 version & Reaper expansion, however the Crown of Command space alone is too dry for us. I came up with the following variant to enhance our gameplay (kind of like the old version 2 random endings, but a bit different) ... we are loving it. Thought I would share it for fun ...

Upon reaching the Crown of Command roll a single dice for your final challenge.

(This roll may be modified by +1 for every 3 fate counters you spend)

1. Horrible Black Void
2. Talons of Judgment
3. The Face of Death
4. The End of Days
5. The Crown of Command
6. Ascension

Horrible Black Void: You cease to exist!! All items, gold & followers are discarded. You lose the game immediately.

Talons of Judgment: All of your items & followers are stripped from you and sent to the discard pile. Return to your home space. If you persevere enough to make it back to the Crown of Command space you automatically win the game. (no additional roll required)

The Face of Death: “The Reaper” has come to claim you but you will not go quietly. “Dice with Death” 1 time each turn ignoring any loss of life. If you claim 3 winning rolls before The Reaper claims 3 winning rolls, you become "The Reaper" and win the game! Fate counters may not be used to modify these rolls. Before any “Dice with Death” roll, you may sacrifice any number of followers OR magic items to gain a +1 to your overall "Dice with Death" roll result for each item or follower sacrificed.

The End Of Days: Upon reaching the Crown of Command, the lands begin to quake mercilessly, the world is left in ruin, destroying the Crown of Command and Inner Region areas in the process. Before your demise, you are lifted by angels and flown to safety. Move your character to the Temple space for a final blessing from the gods. You may allocate +5 counters distributed any way you choose among your strength, craft, fate or lives.

Continue game play as normal with these few game modifications …

1) The reaper moves on every players movement roll of 1 or 2.
2) No life gain or healing is permitted.
3) All enemies encountered on cards, or board spaces are +2 strength & craft.
4) The only victory condition left in this game is by destroying all other players.

The last player left alive wins the game!!

The Crown of Command: You acquire the Crown of Command and proceed to defeat your opponents through the normal process!!

Ascension: You are judged immortal!! You win the game and your name will forever be remembered!! Record your name, character & date on the back of this sheet. ANYTIME in the future that you play Talisman, if you are recorded (on the back of this sheet) you may start the game with a +1 fate counter to any character you play.

no need for your house rule.

Alternate endings are on the way again, soon.

Not really interested either way. Random draw endings is just another contradiction to FFG's claim of trying to allow more player control in the game. It woul de nice if some REAL alternative endgames (something to be accomplished) were developed rather than re-hash of the same old randomness... there's enough of that as needed for a boardgame already.

So... anyone got any notions on some real endgames and not just random draws? Something extra to be accomplished besides a race to the end and a massacre?

Nah, i want the official ending cards.

Not new custom ending cards..

JCHendee said:

This is something that I've been mulling over for a while. It led me to thinking about QUEST CARDS but I got sidetracked with other stuff. TBH, I don't think I have the time to go back to it. Once I've finished finalising my two expansions, I've got a big personal project lined up, so my time devoted to Talisman stuff will be limited.

For anyone who is interested, the quest cards were roughly like this:

1. There were going to be something like 12 QUEST CARDs which anyone could take when certain conditions were met. Some of these would be something so simple as obtaing the HOLY GRAIL or the HOLY LANCE. You could only have one quest card at a time.

2. A quest card had three tiers to it. The first was an elementary task (kill 3 dragons or take this object to the Temple). Once you completed the first tier quest, you could cash it in for 1 Strength or 1 Craft, as if it were a trophy.

The second tier was a bit more complicated and much more of a challenge. An example might be to take the holy grail to the Cursed Glade and discard a spell there to cleanse it of evil, then go back to the Temple and do something... completing the first and second tier meant you could cash the quest in to gain a Talisman.

Lastly, the third tier was the most troublesome of all. However, completing it would mean you won the game.

3. Obviously the other players knew what quest you were on. So they would know if you were working toward a victory that way. However, since you could cash it in at other times for other effects, it wasn't a total loss if they started to screw you over.

Interesting, Dth... and similar but perhaps simplier (better) than what I had in mind. Gives me something to think about. Another twist might be that other players don't know what the first one into the CoC has drawn as the games Quest. Maybe the Quest card is still left there, and the only way to learn what's up (and take over the quest, if possible) is to get to the CoC and find out?