Hi all,

Fairly new to the game and brand new to this forum. Been lurking a couple of weeks, reading and learning.

I've every expansion pack. My question to you vets is, do you typically keep all the expansion pack adventure cards in play, or do you chose which you're going use and cull out the rest? All the cards make for a pretty tall stack.

Seems to you me, you can play with the werewolf or the reaper, but not both. So if you chose to play with the werewolf, do you pull out The Reaper expansion cards?

Thanks

You play with the base set of cards, and then add in as many expansion packs as you wish.

If you want a different experience, you can remove some of the cards (based on expansion icon) if you like.

You can play with both the Reaper and Werewolf, or each individually, or neither. These are all optional additions.

Mix everything. To me that's the only way to play, especially games like Talisman, Runebound and Arkham Horror (caveat for RB's Adventure Variants and Sands of Al-Kalim).

I don't have Sacred Pool, but all my cards are sleeved. My Adventure stack stands a respectable 9" tall (*rimshot* That's what she said!) and because A) we play on the floor and B) have people with hand-eye coordination, it hasn't tipped over once .

How do you play with both the reaper and werewolf at the same time? Chose which if you roll a 1?

You can choose two move either, or both should you wish. Whatever works for your group.

Both move, Reaper first, WW next, separate move roll for each.

I've wondered about investing in the card sleeves. Takes color code yellow, correct?

The FFG sleeves for Talisman are indeed yellow, but there are a number of other suppliers that you might wish to consider…

http://www.talismanisland.com/storage_cardsleeves.htm

We use the entire deck; all expansions. I have obtained a couple of plastic fishing tackle boxes which have compartments that are a good fit for the cards. I can put all Adventures cards in one 'row', though we hardly ever go through half the cards, more like 1 quarter to 1 third.

Since there are a number of characters and/or abilities or situations that allow pulling more cards than called for, we do get to see and use cards from every set.

We keep 2 extra dice, a red one and a black one, for the WW and Reaper respectively. When I find a similar sized black dice I will replace the white one, since Black should be Mr.Death's color. But when the roll for these guys is called for, we just roll them both at once, and move accordingly.

We probably don't play enough to warrant 'sleeves'; most of my various sets of cards still seem in good shape.

Or is there another reason to sleeve cards? Do they shuffle/mix easier?

-0beron

They do shuffle easier. IMO of course. I sleeved my cards after some 40 plays, currently at 130, very doubtful I would've played so much had I not sleeved, mostly due to easier sleeving. There is another benefit to sleeves, that being the different card size and color mismatches are neutralised and lessened respectively. Adventure cards have a nicely dark background, so spotting the difference isn't that easy, but you can tell the difference between say base/Reaper (which had everything matching, even the character cards which have the worst color tone mismatches out of all the cards in later sets) and Frostmarch Adventure/Spell cards.

I too have been in the sleeve or not camp. I think I mentioned on the page I linked to that I used to like the feel of the cards, but then with a current trend of sleeving I thought I would try it out.

I think the point is that your cards will last longer and accidental spills or greasy fingers won't be such a problem. There is also less friction between the cards, resulting in less wear. The biggest benefit is that the cards will look new, so mixing in cards does not look so obvious. Putting a pristine Blood Moon set in with a well-used base game with show you what I mean.

I have tried most of the makes on the page, and even though I settled for Mayday sleeves the other month, I have yet again changed my mind! (I can sense yet another "What was the last card I sleeved? competition"!!)

I have now de-sleeved my cards and am awaiting a delivery of FFG sleeves. I think the thickness of FFG's sleeves gives them a great feel, and in comparison the Mayday ones are really flimsy (though they do offer a thicker "premium" version). Arcane Tinman sleeves would have been a good second choice as they are 80 microns thick. It's still a balancing act of quality over quantity though as you get twice as many thinner sleeves for your money (more with Swan Panasia sleeves). Just go with whichever you are happiest with.

The only problem you might have it from stacking the newly sleeved deck as it will be somewhat larger than before, but you can easily split it up into manageable chunks.

talismanisland said:

My sets of Talisman are all sleeved using FFG Mini-American Sleeves (yellow) as Jon saw at UK Games Expo. They are indeed nice and thick and protect the cards brilliantly. The character cards are also sleeved. The only downside is the tower of Adventure Cards but easily solved by putting a small pile by the board!

Ell.