I just played Talisman for the first time in 10 years or so. I couldn't remember any of the rules so I started reading through the rulebook. Back when I was a kid we would just pick whoever we wanted to be and any disputed characters would be determined at a diceroll. I was taught how to play by someone who had been playing since the game came out basically, and I never knew about the random character selection, never having to look in the rulebook. That strikes me as kind of lame. Why can't I be the character that I want? Anyhow I was wondering of the Talisman players here do you guys actually adhere to the random character rule?

Random selection is better, otherwise we would just pick our fav.'s all the time, and some character will never get picked.

There are very many differnt ways of randomly picking characters. Well, we have come up with many anyway,.

Random, always! We just say a number, shuffle and deal out (as game owner, perma-dibs on #13 ).

Of course, with 4th currently having 14 characters, it's not as exciting as back when I was playing my cousins' 2nd ed (the Finnish version included the Expansion set) + Adventure expansions, 36 chars IIRC. With the miniature-freaks having their way (or maybe it was FFG's plan in the first place, then again, they did Arkham Horror without miniatures, thank goodness), Reaper is going have only 4 new chars. Yeah, I'm pissed about it !

I definatly find playing random the most fun. As said by previous posters if people get to choose, you'll often find that you play with the same characters every time and that can get rather boring quickly. For example we have played a game before with no psychic or natural spell users, which made for a very interesting and fun game.

We only have one rule in regards to random, and that is if you draw the same character two games in a row you may CHOOSE to discard it and randomly select another.

SubElement said:

Oh, yeah, I use this too (for Talisman and Arkham Horror). Although less of a choice, more of a game owner's (aka me) mandate !

Wow seems that I'm the odd man out! i do understand that if you were that type of player you would always pick the same character. I however get bored using the same tactics over and over again and usually try a different character every now and again in most character class based games.

Always random. It's quite fun struggling with a "useless" character. Sometimes I let the girflriend draw again if it's a character which we used too recently

Geoff

Random for me or, depending on the amount of players at the time, you can deal a few cards each and give them the choice of those.

I find it makes it more interesting and encourages people to try different strategies because of the varied Special Abilities and Craft & Strength (and now Fate) values etc...

The massively huge amount of Characters for 2nd edition made a semi-random process quite easy. Draw three, pick one. Not sure how it's going to work for 4th edition above four players though

We do random as well, just shuffle them and deal one to each. But we also have a rule that if you've previously won the game with that character, you get delt a new one. Sometimes we've dealt more and given a choice, but that was mostly the first couple of games.

Dam said:

We do this exact thing. Also, when somebody dies we leave the dead character out of the deck and the player can choose a new character from the remaining characters...

duck said:

Wow, I thought our group was the only one to do that. Hurray for for internet interaction and game forums!

Vespers said:

HA! Exactly.

Like it's already been mentioned, the random element keeps the game fresh... Like, who is ever going to pick the Minstrel in their right mind? Nobody, but it's fun when you friend gets him and has to deal with that lame character. Also, enters a new element of killing yourself off to get a new character...

Vespers said:

When a character dies in the revised 4th edition it is removed from the game (obviously, it returns on the next game)!

Give me random.

I think part of the challenge is learning to use your character to the fullest to win. It also evens the field a little with the different characters not being exactly the same power level..

Random is the way of the game, but played fourth edition so much that picking characters you havent been in a while seem to happen a lot. Oh and Prophetess was banned!

Me and my friends always play random. We shuffle and then everybody takes turn drawing 2-3 characters and then choose in which order to play them (in case they die)

The last couple of games we started eliminating the toptier and lowtier-characters (as we judge them) so that we got to play some of the less chosen ones.

top: prophetess, troll, wizard, warrior
low: ghoul, priest

Ghoul is so underated, fighting in psyhcic combat is such a powerful ability.

How about you pick two characters and make a choice.If not you take a chance and pick a third one but must play that character.I use this rule since my 2nd edition days.

Toad_monk said:

The last time I played a ghoul I didn't get enough Craft experience to warrant Psychic Combat. I just ended up using a lot of dead enemies for strength boosts.

When I played 2nd Ed. with my kids years ago, we always picked our characters. Like you, we'd get bored with the same one after a couple of games, so we'd choose a different one that we hadn't played before. But, of course, a few folks wanted to play the same "winner" every time...

Recently, I picked up a neat mechanic from another fantasy game from Another Company...!!! Depending on the number of players, we deal a few characters to each players. Let's say each player gets three random characters. You pick ONE you want to keep and pass the other two to the player to your left. Then repeat the process as many times as the number of players you have. You may decide to keep that very first character you chose, or you can pass that one in favor of another one that someone passed to you!

We've found this to be a fun compromise between a one-shot random draw (no fun) and simply choosing a character (too much control). You might want to give this method a shot!

Random produces fairness of play, but can be handled correctly to still allow some choice. Our typical method back in 2nd edition was something of a mix of what's been mentioned herein:

1. Shuffle all characters cards together.
2. Deal out character cards face down to each player, usually to a max. of three or whatever number is agreed upon by all players. If there are additional cards left, set them aside without revealing them.
3. Pick one character from your hand, keep it to yourself, and discard all others without displaying them.
4. Once ready, all player show the character they've chosen at the same time. This keeps others from chosing a character for the purpose of exploiting another character (yes, it is possible).
5. All discarded characters are gather and shuffle and the deck set aside for later possibly use.
6. If a player's character dies before game's end, that player may continue by drawing one new character from the top of the character deck. No additional cards are drawn to choose from. This limits the attractiveness of suicides those who can't find at least one to play in the initial character deal (a truly lame claim).

• If more than one player is present from the previous game, none may play the same characer they did in the last game. If they draw such a character they must discard it without drawing a replacement. They must choose from the remaining character cards in their hand.
• Before choosing a character, any player may publicly claim dissatisfaction with what was dealt. If ALL other players agree, character cards are collected and a new deal is made. If even one player does not agree, the deal stands as is.

With my group we have always done character selection very similar to the way the Prophetess does adventure card selection (or at least how she does now).

You pick one character card and look it over. If you do not like the character you have chosen you can return him/her to the deck but you must take the next character that you draw.

We handle characters in Talisman the same way we handle race cards in Cosmic Encounter. If we haven't been playing frequently, we mix them all up and deal them randomly off the top of the pile around the table (under the table, so that we can't see if it's a home-printed card or a "factory" card beforehand.)

If we've been playing frequently, we change our procedure though. We set aside the cards we play in each game, and only draw from the remaining cards until we run out and need to "reshuffle" the pile. This way we make sure all the characters (or races) get an airing.

Every so often someone gets a draw they can't live with. Without revealing it, they offer it around the table (usually offering it like it's a card from the game Pit, saying "One! One! I've got One!") If someone else wants to take a chance on a swap, they swap. I'll play anything, so there's almost never a time we end up with someone who is unhappy with what they end up playing.

In 2nd Edition, we dumped all the characters into the top of the box mixed them up and held it over the head of the person picking. Yes colors on the back of some character were brighter and duller depending on the expansion. We picked one passed it around the table until everyone had three. Then you chose the best out of the three you picked, Prophetess was banned since she was almost an automatic win for whoever got her, you just picked over if you did get her. If you died and wanted to come back in the game you got one random pick from the box and that was character you came back into the game as. We also banned the Arch Mage in the City Expansion due to the fact once that class was acquired it was almost always an automatic win. Seems kinda specific I know...but it made for some fun and memorable games.