OK, my fellow gamers are insisting that I'm wrong, but I insist that I'm right about this scenario:

Let's say it's a character versus a character, and the winner wanted to take an item instead of a life. Now, my fellow gamers say the Helmet/Shield/Armor can prevent this theft, but I say the items only work against loss of life. It clearly said if a life is lost to use those items.

So am I wrong? Am I misinterpreting it?

They are mistaken.

You choose to force your beaten opponent to either lose a life or you may take an Object (including Magical ones) or Gold.

Page 12 of the rules states: "The winner may either force the loser to lose one life (which may be saved by use of an Object or Spell), or may take one Object or one gold from the loser to add to his own."

Items of " armour " (i.e. Armour, Shield and Helmet) only prevent the loss of life, but only if you roll the required number!

talismanisland said:

That's what I tried to tell them! Why don't they listen to reason?!

You don't want to know the debate about stuff like Stream of Life...

Graveyard Greg said:

Let me guess. They say that you can't take a life after you have draw the lifestream card?

Talisman tends to be a pretty simple game, so when in doubt I tend to try to figure out what the simpliest solution is when looking at the intent... so stream of life you get a life, armor shield helmet protects you from loosing a life thats it... just go by what it says and dont let people talk you into reading other things into the rules!

SG99 has definitely got the gist! If it ain't in the card, it ain't happening... unless its in the official FAQs.

May I please add another question related to Armour/Shield/Helmet, that is, can these three items be used in conjunction?

E.g. I have all three and I'm hit for a life. I attempt to draw the blow with my armour and roll 3. Realising I'm going to get cut up, I raise my shield rolling a 2! I attempt to twist out of it and roll a 6 - my helmet takes a glancing blow.

Would my interpretation be correct, or can only one of these items be used at a time?

Augustisimus said:

Armour is an improved Shield and Shield is an improved Helmet. AFAIK you may roll for only one of these items in 2nd and 4th edition.

Many things changed in revised 4th edition and might have changed this rule as well.

Page 12 of the rules states: " Some Objects that prevent the loss of life when a character is defeated have the keyword Armour next to the text for the card’s ability. A character may only use one Armour during an attack. "

I'm waiting for my copy of the revised rules to come in the mail - in relation to the Stream of Life and such cards, is it correct that the Character who played this Adventure Card automatically gains one of the 4 available Life tokens?

Cailus said:

Yes. If you land on a space and you draw a card or there is already a card there, you encounter the card, unless it is otherwise specified.

This also aplies for marsh, fairy, enchanter etc

Landing=encounter