Talisman The City Expansion

By Velhart, in Talisman

I thought there only was 4 talismans (the special talisman-cards), and all rewards and cards with talisman was just a way to get one of the four (exchanging found talisman-adventur card to a "real" talisman card). But if the all was taken (as with gold and equipment) you can't get one.

Is this wrong, and the real deal is that these four are just for all text-based (gain a talisman if aviable) but talismans that can be found and has it's own card are also a talisman?

Draii said:

Is this wrong, and the real deal is that these four are just for all text-based (gain a talisman if aviable) but talismans that can be found and has it's own card are also a talisman?

There, you answered your own question ;)

If the timker gets all the talismans, it is not game over unless he wins… otherwise he may still be toaded or killed which would return the talismans to the deck.

I am curious as to what the Thieves' Guild alternative ending is about. Anyone with the game caring to post the card or write it down?

The Thieves Guild is basically a race for the most objects gold. When you reach the Crown, the command spell takes a gold, a object or two objects instead of life. If a character has no objects or gold, they are killed! The game ends when all players are dead or when all player are on the crown space. At that point, the player with most objects and gold wins… (Players don’t fight on the crown)

Looks like game over when you get to the crown first because you have a good chance of being able to take away players talismans’.

Hi All,

We had our first game with the city last night. Three player game, The Bounty Hunter, the Ogre Chieftain, and the Leprechaun. The Bounty Hunter went straight to the City, he went around that board about 6 or 7 time before he came out, he acquired a stiletto, 2 pets, Lucky & Luna, a free wanted poster, the scales and the purse and he got a talisman by killing the Clockwork Dragon. The Ogre had it hard in the game, he could not get anything going. The ogre only was able to muster 3 strength kills the whole game, every time he gained a gold he had to use it to heal. The Leprechaun was the winner of the game because of his ability to get 3 gold in the woods, in the time it took the Bounty Hunter to do his rounds in the City the Leprechaun had 15 gold and was heading to the city, which he bought 1 pet, Stompy, and got the Full Suite of armor and a Fail. The ending of the game was the Thief Guild so it was a race to the CoC between the Bounty hunter and The Leprechaun. The Leprechaun went up be craft (10) and the Bounty Hunter by strength (12). The Leprechaun beat the Bounty Hunter to the CoC by 3 turns, he rolled a 6 for his first roll, took the Bounty Hunters Talisman and his purse away, clinching the victory by forcing the Bounty Hunter to retreat out of the inner region. It was 8 more turns and the game was over.

One thing I noticed about this game was having Lucky and Luna as pets. Not only do I get to replenish a fate at the start of my turn, I get to choose what number when using a fate, a very powerful combination. Also having the fail and Full Suite of armor only being strength 2 (The Leprechaun) killing the miser dragon Strength 8 by rolling double 3’s

Where you picking pets? Or did you just get lucky enough to draw lucky and luna?

i was per the rules

I would be sooo grumpy if any player other than me had both those followers! LOL

I played last night too. We played city+highlands with only the new PCs. We had all but the tinker. Bar Maid won by coming to the crown third to finish off the Bounty hunter (who had just killed the ellementalist). It was cool to watch the cat burgler basically walk through the city mall stealing somthing from evry shop she could. The ellementalist actually looked pretty good, and with highlands you get the elementals…. Look forward to more games. 5 potions could be pretty powerful…some of the potions are quite good. The weapons seemed balanced for what it takes to get them. Look forward to playing more.

The Assassin card by the way is just wrong!

Bolithio said:

The Assassin card by the way is just wrong!

The Assassin is a Stranger card where:

You may pay up to 3 gold; then choose a character to lose 1 life for each gold you paid. Once a character has chosen to do so, discard this card.

This is one of those game changing cards I mension earlier.

Ordered my copy today and eagerly awaiting delivery!!!

In the meantime I have read the ruebook and am curious about something which hopefully one o you lucky dudes who have it already can answer.

If you land on the city space then you encounter the space as normal (i.e visit Doctor, Alchemist or Enchantress), so I am assuming that there is no shop location on the city board for the Doc, Alchemist or Enchantress. Is that correct?

Thernand said:

We had our first game with the city last night. Three player game, The Bounty Hunter, the Ogre Chieftain, and the Leprechaun. The Bounty Hunter went straight to the City, he went around that board about 6 or 7 time before he came out, he acquired a stiletto, 2 pets, Lucky & Luna, a free wanted poster, the scales and the purse and he got a talisman by killing the Clockwork Dragon. The Ogre had it hard in the game, he could not get anything going. The ogre only was able to muster 3 strength kills the whole game, every time he gained a gold he had to use it to heal. The Leprechaun was the winner of the game because of his ability to get 3 gold in the woods, in the time it took the Bounty Hunter to do his rounds in the City the Leprechaun had 15 gold and was heading to the city, which he bought 1 pet, Stompy, and got the Full Suite of armor and a Fail. The ending of the game was the Thief Guild so it was a race to the CoC between the Bounty hunter and The Leprechaun. The Leprechaun went up be craft (10) and the Bounty Hunter by strength (12). The Leprechaun beat the Bounty Hunter to the CoC by 3 turns, he rolled a 6 for his first roll, took the Bounty Hunters Talisman and his purse away, clinching the victory by forcing the Bounty Hunter to retreat out of the inner region. It was 8 more turns and the game was over.

One thing I noticed about this game was having Lucky and Luna as pets. Not only do I get to replenish a fate at the start of my turn, I get to choose what number when using a fate, a very powerful combination. Also having the fail and Full Suite of armor only being strength 2 (The Leprechaun) killing the miser dragon Strength 8 by rolling double 3’s

I applaud your use of fail in your strategy.

GrimGuvna said:

Ordered my copy today and eagerly awaiting delivery!!!

In the meantime I have read the ruebook and am curious about something which hopefully one o you lucky dudes who have it already can answer.

If you land on the city space then you encounter the space as normal (i.e visit Doctor, Alchemist or Enchantress), so I am assuming that there is no shop location on the city board for the Doc, Alchemist or Enchantress. Is that correct?

In one of the previews it gave a pretty good description of the shops and there are no spaces that reflect those 3, Doctor, Alchemist, Enchantress.

In the previous, 2nd edition, the City board did have new spaces for the 3.

Thernand said:

The Assassin is a Stranger card where:

You may pay up to 3 gold; then choose a character to lose 1 life for each gold you paid. Once a character has chosen to do so, discard this card.

This is one of those game changing cards I mension earlier.

Since my country will be getting City at the end of the year, I wonder if someone could post most interesting or dangerous cards in City. Cards that were not already spoiled. Also what are your opinions about the expansion so far?

I have played the City expansion for the first time today and overall I love it. It adds great flavour and variety to the game.

However I do also feel that both the deck and the addon board are almost all carrot and no stick.

The enemies/negative adventure cards you can draw there are for the most part very tame while the rewards are amazing.

One card from the city deck in particular comes to mind as a game breaker/ender:

There is a follower called "The Scribe" which lets a character cast a spell without discarding it, as long as you can discard another spell in its place.

This means that if you play some spell-cyclers or have a spellbook you can forever recast the same spell once every round.

It started with an endless "Temporal Warp" spam, whereby that character would take 3 turns for every round,at the cost of just any one other spell, and had his spell cards replenished every turn by a "Spellbook" from the Magic Emporium.

It then continued with an endless "Life Tap" spam, draining health from another player every round untl they are killed.

There is of course a vast amount of other unpleasant combinations such ass constant "Random" until all stats are lost and you are toaded, "Vindicatation" until a character is killed, "Time Steal" to ensure another player NEVER gets a turn, the list goes on.

Alhtough I realise this game is not meant to be "fair and balanced", a card this overpowered has never been so easy to get considering that the city is a pretty safe place to traverse from the start and the number of cards in its deck is low. Hence we decided to remove "The Scribe" from future games, at least for now.

DId anyone else have a problem with this card or find the number of "You get an item from any shop for free" cards to be really high?

Razum.

Razum said:

Alhtough I realise this game is not meant to be "fair and balanced", a card this overpowered has never been so easy to get considering that the city is a pretty safe place to traverse from the start and the number of cards in its deck is low. Hence we decided to remove "The Scribe" from future games, at least for now.

DId anyone else have a problem with this card or find the number of "You get an item from any shop for free" cards to be really high?

I got a quick glance to the cards yesterday and I'm going to play it in a few days.

I've seen the Scribe and noticed there are lots of Followers in a deck with so little Enemies and dangers. I cannot check the Scribe right now but if I remember correctly the only limitation is that you can do that only once per turn (or Round). Being able to draw a Spell at the beginning of your turn, if your Craft allows, allows infinite cycling of the same Spell. Life Tap every turn? Temporal Warp every turn? That's crazy.

I've had the same impression: too many cards where you can get free shop items if you discard something or roll well. Getting a free Potion or Stable Card is nothing compared to Armoury Cards, Magic Emporium Cards or Pet Cards. I think it's easy enough to come into the City and buy powerful items: characters should be forced to spend AT LEAST a lot of time and a lot of Gold if they want. Within the City walls you can improve your character as well as in the Highland or Dungeon, possibly at a higher pace What's the purpose of going into other Regions, then? In the City there's no Hag, Horse Thief, Talismonger, Deranged Alchemist, Highland Raiders, Hidden Chasm, Green Mist or Dungeon Keeper. There are some ludicrous "bad" encounters like the Cutpurse: if you roll higher than your Craft you lose 1 Gold, if you roll less you gain Gold equal to the difference between Craft and die roll. Why?

I'm relieved that unspoiled Pets are not so good like preview Pets. I noticed a panda named Lucky that grants a fate every turn, if you have no fate left (IIRC) and a turtle that allows you to move 1 space instead of your normal move, highly recommended for standard endgame stalemates. The remaining are average or less.

Sounds disappointing I hope not as my copy just arrived today, I was hoping it would be a good place to pick up goodies but if you stay there to long you A) run out of money and B) stunt your development……

i haven't got to play yet (picking my copy up today) but if the city is that powerful, you could house rule a cost of entering the city, similar to the sentinal, or the portal of power, or just a flat fee (gold, str, or craft). I don't know if this will work at all though. I will want to play 3-4 games before i make any desicions about that for sure.

The Scribe/warp thing happened to us too, although its not infinate because you can only scribe once per round, its still crazy and we will ban or nurf him so that he is discarded after 1 use.

Tonight we had our first game with the City Expansion. We played with no new Characters (miniatures under work) and with no other corner Regions.

The Gypsy started well and gained a small Gold fortune (about 5 Gold) and went first into the City. The Priest drew good Objects around (Wand, Flying Carpet, Orb of Destiny) but no Gold and no Enemies at all. Fate was the Priest's best friend throughout the game and 80% of Str/Cft was gained with die rolls.

Gypsy shopped around well, gaining some good things in the Streets (Everfull Purse, Crooked Scales) and finally buying Flail, lots of Potions and a Spellbook. The funniest part was when she tried to fight the City Watch and lost despite a total Str of 7. Then, she encountered the Watch again on the Town Square, tried again and was sent in Jail again. Everfull Purse helped a lot getting out of Jail.

The Priest gave up and tried to enter City without Gold. No problem. He was able to find lots of freebies from the generous City deck, collecting a total of three Pets (Glitter, Singe and Luna; Singe was wrongly discarded after a defeat by the Clockwork Dragon, but that's a Construct not a Dragon), a Spellbook, a Crystal Sceptre and the Full Plate. This required about 3 circles around the Street Area. Most notably, he acquired the Scribe.

Gypsy was drawing cards in the Middle Region when Priest landed on the Hidden Valley from the Wharf. A nice combo emerged: Witch and Talismonger on the Hidden Valley and the Priest repeatedly landing there with the Flying Carpet, using Luna to re-roll any bad result and replenish Fate by the Witch when needed. Luna is exceedingly good if a character has a high Fate value. Gypsy stopped the combo with the Goblin Sapper.

Priest got the Blessed Spell and used the Scribe to keep the Spell in hand and continue replenishing Fate and gaining stats thanks to Luna. Then he got Life Tap but he decided to cast it only once (this was "fair play"). Then the Priest ran for the Crown with the Gypsy following shortly after, but 3 turns of disadvantage meant 3 Life losses with the Command Spell (that's Luna…). The final fight was terribly one-sided, no matter if the Gypsy was stronger in battle with the Flail. She had 2 Lives left and died with a Soul Shatter Reflection (Priest initiated psychic combat).

It was a good game, but I'm still convinced of my first impression. With the City there's no need to travel around to find Gold or Objects. Inside the walls you'll find everything you need, at least in a two player game. Perhaps with 4-5-6 the City resources will be scarcely distributed and nobody will get too powerful just because he visited the City.

There are no big dangers in the City and lots of opportunities. It's advisable to go there as soon as possible; after you've grabbed enough powerful Objects and Followers, the dangers in Talisman world will be a breeze. Ther's only PvP left and the most powerful cards are going to make the difference (Flail, Luna, Scribe).

Doesn't the rule that says "you can't cast more spells in a turn than you started the turn with" preclude endless cycling of any spell, scribe or no scribe? Particularly since you have to discard a spell every time you use the scribe's power.

It only limits it. You can't play Life Tap 10 times in a same turn, but you can play it "only" once per turn. Which is still lethal.

guciomir said:

It only limits it. You can't play Life Tap 10 times in a same turn, but you can play it "only" once per turn. Which is still lethal.