We're going to be playing a game of Talisman this evening, and one player will be unavoidably late. I'm wondering how we should handle this. Starting him from scratch seems a little harsh as it would make it difficult for him to catch up and really get into the game,. Would it work to start him at the average or lowest end of the other characters Strength and Craft? How do other groups handle this?

Thanks,

Bruce

We let late players start at the lowest end of other players stats. So if the lowest strengt is 5 for any character, and lowest craft is 2, then (s)he will start with strength 5 and craft 2 (unless his characters starting stats are higher).

When a character dies we let the player pick a new character. Keep all quests, rewards, scales and thophies. (discarding spells and all items, gold and followers are dropped on the board) but (s)he may also keep strength and craft bonuses, but have to remove one from each.

Wow. When we start a player late, they get nothing. When they die, and re-enter, they get nothing either.

In this case, I would advise playing their character, taking it in turns to take their character's turns (so no one is unfairly advantaged).

Draii said:

I think that this idea is not so bad.

He can at least join the game with some good status.

If the game hasn't been going on for long we have the new player start with nothing, but if we've been playing awhile and everyone has lots of stuff, we take an average of strength/craft points and let them add that.

player one has gained 3 str

player two has gained 5 str

player three has gained 6 str

3+5+6=14, 14/3= 4 (rounded down) then do the same for craft

also remember a late player is not like a dead player as someone who dies keeps their objects and followers.

Froman said:

I was under the impression that they are dropped on the space when you die (or if killed by another character they can loot your corpse). Then a new character for that player also starts with nothing?

There is the "Inherited Items" variant in the rules, but at least for me, is just bollocks. I killed you, why wouldn't I get the goodies ?

dropping items when killed was a rule in previous versions, i find in this edition, if you have lots of stuff and you die, because you get to keep it, you still have a chance at winning. If you die and some one takes your objects/followers, there is generally no point in playing anymore. Although I also play that if a character takes your last life, they take one object/follower and you get to keep the rest with your new character. but it all comes down to personal preferance

My view is that if you get yourself killed, be it through bad luck, poor planning or plain stupidity (hey, I'll move the Reaper to my character and hope I roll a 6, I have fate left…), it's primarily your fault. Certainly should not get any crutches like keeping all (or all but one) of your previous possessions. You died, suck it up.

Bad luck, say drawing a Basilisk might not be avoided, but those are the breaks in Talisman. Yes, dying quite often means not being able to win, but not always. With Reaper and now the Horrible Black Void, the character who took your stuff could die as well. There was a recent game where the first character to the Crown drew HBV, then the next one in like to move to the Inner Region drew the Village Mob and being Lycantrophy, was also killed, leaving the Str 4, Craft 3 Dwarf (who starts with 3/3 stats!) as the winner despite being absolutely out of the running at that point. Yes, it'll happen once in a blue moon, but the possibilty of it suffices for me.