magicrealm said:

The Blood Moon is the greatest expansion at this moment.

No need to throw away your talisman game.

On the matter of the next board expansion set and why it should or should not be a City:

Well, before I speculated about the river that seems to run off the main board and whether that meant it served a purpose on the expansion set(s). I told my wife who is my regular coplayer and she said that maybe a river can separate 1 or *more* cities from each other - or sub-divisions of the City; ie; a seamy side, a more upscale side, etc. Each city-sub might have different advantages and disadvantages; you're more likely to encounter thugs, pickpockets, etc in the bad side of town - or even more Evil?

Even if not 'played' for evil, aggressive encounters, there could be reasons for evil aligned characters to quest or journey on that side of town, just as Good characters might find results more to their liking in the other part of town. Churches, temples, monasteries, universities, academies, "brother" or "sister" - hoods could be various spaces or encounters for adding strength, craft,, etc. Graveyards, tombs, covens, nests, laboratories, etc. would be the Dark/Evil version.

Would there need to be an additional "sub" for neutral based characters? Or the design of spaces or encounters of the good/bad sides of town would be neutral / general in nature, with the occasional caveat card that spells out different things for different alignments.

So the Anarchist' guild, I think from the 2nd addition, would go in the seamy side. The High Temple would go on the good side.

There are 29 spaces on the previous Dungeon and Highland boards, If you didn't want to divide a board between Right side/Wrong side of the Tracks (or the River), you could have expanded additional City spaces and then 'surrounding countryside' with the river forming into little lakes or ponds or water falls in some spaces ("Refresh in the Water Fountain - Heal 1 life"). Rolling a dice in a 'lake' space could be something like "1-3 go fishing, lose a turn, 4 fight a serpent/other 3 strength, 5 find X gold, 6 Lady of the Lake gives 1 fate, 1 life, etc.

I would be in favor of a heavily-undead themed expansion board, such as the "necropolis" idea somebody mentioned earlier. I realize the Blood Moon expansion already has a horror theme, but I really think the game would benefit from an increase in traditional undead monsters. The possibility of becoming a non-sparkling vampire through some encounters would be neat (but no more wandering NPCS…the reaper and werewolf are enough!). I also really like the day/night dynamic introduced with Blood Moon and think it could be used more heavily in an undead setting. Bring on the ghosts, ghasts, wights, ghouls, liches, etc. etc!

Also, it would be cool if an official solo variant was included in the next expansion, along with a way to score the results. I already use a homebrewed version (mostly copied from one on boardgamegeek), but it would be nice to be able to compare scores with others that are playing the exact same way. An Ipad app with the ability to play AI opponents and random online opponents would be a nice substitute, though

Well, you mostly just add undead creatures to the Adventure packs. Not sure how much more specific you can 'theme' an Undead expansion, perhaps, you could have an alternate ending with more emphasis on Undead. Well I certainly wouldn't mind more undead myself, and I truly believe that the night/day dynamic has added quite a bit to the game.

I almost wish that future expansions would take advantage of this factor. For example, in the recent discussion on whether or not and/or how to do a 'City' expansion, I think maybe those who say NO are right. Perhaps the expansion that takes up that corner should use other board spaces for effects that the old City expansion provided: And maybe you have a space, an inn or something, that you can't easily leave, when its night. You have to roll for a sneak out or some other strategy.

Instead of the Royal Dungeon, there could be a space called The Stockade, and would be the space that characters are 'rendered' to if we reintroduce Sheriff and Warrants. Characters either have 'escape' options or ways of bribing or serving a sentence.

There could be some other sort of 'City' or 'Compound' that could have a stable and a market for buying things.

The spaces in between these Text/direction spaces could be similar to the board in the outer region; fields, plains, hills, etc. with draw 1 card. For some reason I like the idea of this region being an extension of the outer region, so perhaps it needs no special deck; its not an ocean, its not forest, just regular spaces and a few new ideas.

I would like some sort of (1 space, text/options) Wizard's Citadel, where you can buy or trade magic objects. The set up could involve the other expansion set decks; "Draw the top 3 cards from the Dungeon, Highland, Adventure *and* each of the Dragon Decks, keep all Magic Objects, and reshuffle or discard the rest. Place them on the Citadel" Items are either 2 gold, or a trade of a Magic Object.

How about a monastery space or similar, where you can earn craft? An academy for strength? Perhaps another option for the Wizard Citadel, or similar is a fee and/or loss of turn and you receive a special "Book" of spells that always lets you have 1 or 2 spells, even if you don't have enough Craft? (another idea is that a new class of 'general' spells pertains to these books. For example 2 spells, 1 is a general evasion spell, the other amplifies Craft or Strength)

Since my idea treats this expansion as part of the Outer region in a way that Highlands and Dungeon are not, maybe the board doesn't lead towards an "End/Boss" but can loop you back out to the main board?

But if we're going with End Boss, how about using the extra Fields, plains, etc. spaces and have the Pumpkin King be the end boss? For this I sort of see a maze of corn fields and such leading to the grinning Pumpkin King!

oberon