I was looking through some of the alternate rules for speeding up the game the other day. I've notice the last few I've played have clocked in around 4 hours...with only 3 or 4 players. I'd like to get them down to 2 hours.

Has anyone tried of these? I'm thinking of letting everyone add 1 Str or Craft atthe beginning of the game, AND dropping the trophy threshold from 7 to 6.

Any other good "speed-up" tips....other than me yelling "Focus!" and "Your turn man!" all the time?

If you drop the trophy's to five, that will speed up the game.

el67che said:

Weird, my 3-player games have yet to even hit 2 hours. As soon as Str or Craft hits around 9 or higher, people start heading to the Inner Region around here. Weakest winner so far has been Str 5, Craft 6 Priest. Toughest SOB (or most development/improvement for a char) was probably 17/2 Troll, but even that game barely made it past the 1h mark.

It could be the people I play with. Quirky bunch. One guy has a habit of reading his adventure cards to himself silently a few times over before revealing what they are to the rest of us.

Another guy has all these phantom memories or "Precidents" or House rules which no one else remembers, but it takes a while to convince him otherwise....

Then there's the beers...........

Dam,

Not everyone is so fast as you

The fastest time i have on my clock after completing talisman 4th edition is 4 hours And that's for 2 players

we play with trophy's 5 and 3 gold to begin the game.whith 4-5 players time game 2h30 2h45

Exchanging trophies at 5 instead of 7 makes for a surprisingly speedy game.

We exchange trophies at 5 instead of 7, and usually a 3-4 player game lasts for 2 / 2,30 hours.

We played a 5 players match with also a BONUS strenght or craft at the beginning, and the game was over in 2,30 hours.

Ya, that worked...

We made trophies trade in 6, and got 1 extra point at the beginning. Took 2 hours

Thanks all

redsoxs said:

It looks like that 4-5 players with a 5 trophy limit will also finish the game in 2 1/2 hours

I finished a 2-player game in under 2 hours by starting with one free Strength or Craft, and with 6 trophy points to level up.

If you really want to speed up the game though, I recommend two other fixes. It occurred to me that once players start to cross the river, the game is almost over. Talismans are easy to come by in the middle-region, and within a 1/2 hour of entering the middle-region, someone usually crosses the Portal of Power. Most of the game time is spent wandering the Outer region, trying to level up your strength enough to beat the Sentinel. I propose that you can speed up the game by allowing players to pay the boatman to cross them over to the middle-region, and/or reduce the Sentinel's strength (7 or 8 should do).

The other factor that slows down a game is player v player combat. If you play nice, the game tends to conclude much faster.

Lars Gnomish said:

That's fast

Sorry Lars Gnomish but playing nice is out of the question

This game is Talisman and not a race to the crown kinda game. I find it hard to imagine a nice assassin and it would feel awkward to meet one,

anyway might as well be a toad if you are using only nice ability or you only want to play against the game in a cooperative manner

The players I play with anyway expect this from me as I expect this from them!

After decades of playing I still have to meet a nice lord of darkness in a game, even good character do some evil things without being one

I hope you agree with this.

Maybe in future expansion they will introduce a new mechnics or points if you are being nice but I wouldn't hold my breath for it to happen

Cheer

No more mister nice guy

Lars Gnomish said:

No PvP = no fun.

Old Master said:

You're joking, right? Everyone is talking about the same endgame played for twenty years and how to make it go faster... and you think its not a race game? That's over 50% of it when you strip it down to the basics and ignore all the pretty graphics. It's a race and king-of-the-hill at its core (and mostly the first, since the second is counter to making it goe faster). If it weren't, no one would talk about how to make it go faster.

I think that the Old master means, that you must take your time to play Talisman,

You must enjoy all the regions, etc instead of focusing only on the Crown.

Many people are trying to play the game as quick as possible but actually you must take your time for it.

And that's the reason i think why he is saying that talisman is not a race game..

Velhart said:

Thanks Velhart, very well said.

None in our group is interested in breaking records for the longest or shortest game victory

But I understand that this might the case for other players,one thing for sure is this is not the opinion of the majority

BTW I might remind you that 2nd edition had 6 different endgame!! One of them was the very talked about black void

Cheer

For the record, I do not endorse playing nice. I was simply saying that the more pvp, the longer the game takes. So, if players wanted to play a short game, they might be advised against whacking each other over the head.

PvP is a huge and essential part of the game. If you want to play nice, buy Runebound.

Old Master said:

Hi Old Master,

I know that 2th edition has different endings But i am not really familiar with it, because ( before revised edition came out) i am a third edition player

With the Crown ( as you know) must you cast spells against other players. So.. players will do his best to kill they opponent as fast as possible.

I must say that i like the Dragon Tower from third edition ten more times than the crown ending.

In Third edition, i have the feeling that everyone must care for themselves. If you beat the Dragon King , then you have won. You do not have to defeat a player at the end to claim your victory !

But the ending cards are better than the normal Crown ending, if i take a look at them on websites.

As long as we don´t have the Dragon Tower yet, i will be more than happy if FFG will include the ending cards in the coming expansions !

Once we tried trading in at 5 instead of 7, we never went back. It's a great rule.

Besides that, ridicule for the slow pokes seems to work pretty well.

Hi there,

I've played the 2nd edition of Talisman, but that was ages ago. I'm thinking now of buying the 4th edition (revised) so my friends and I can play short games during week days after work.

So if I understand correctly, you can shorten the game's length to about 2 hours by tweaking the rules a little bit? What if you play "normally"? 3 hours for 3 players more or less?

Last question: if I have played 2nd edition only, will I be disappointed by the 4th edition or pleased?

Thanks!

Ezhaeu said:

I came into the 4th (BI 4th first, then FFG 4th) from 10-15 years of 2nd ed (sadly, wasn't my game). Most of my games are 3-player, rarely taking more than 1.5h. As a veteran of the 2nd ed, the board and the cards are pretty much familiar, so I don't need to "think" about things, pushes the game along nicely. Of course, YMMV depending on the style of play your group uses. Around here, getting the main stat to 9 is enough for people to start heading for the Inner Region (less if you are Dwarf/got Gnome).

Coming from the 2nd edition, it's good that I once again get to play Talisman. Spell-cycling has been diminished. On the flip side, some of my favourite things are useless: Raiders (only take Gold now RAW), Toad (too rare). The Toad-part is IMO 100% due to the addition of Fate (aka rerolls). Needless to say, not a fan of Fate.

Ezhaeu said:

If we play normally with 2 players, the game takes always between 4 to 5 hours with a 7 trophy limit

If you play with 3 or more players, the game will last between 2 a 3 hours with a 5 trophy limit(

With a exception of 6 players. It is said that if you play with 6 players or higher with a 5 trophy limit, the game can last more than 4 hours

So... it seems that 2 to 5 people are the max for this game, if you don't want to play hours and hours