Can I have more than one mule?

In 2nd Edition there was a limit because a mule was an object. But in 4th Edition it's a follower.

No limit. Best I've seen so far was Thief with 3 of 4 from the Purchase deck (he visited the Village quite often). Sorceress has also had at least one game where she had multiple Horse & Cart + Mules.

Thank you again

For the basic Talisman game I impose a limit of mule to 1 only. This keeps things interesting and when you do lose it, it's a real pain, much to the chagrin of other players.

With the Reaper Expansion, the Horse and Cart allows an extra 8 items and I reckon I'll impose the limit of 1 Horse and Cart only as well.

Limiting the number of mules and Horse and Cart also means management of items for all involved - you can't everything always.

Cailus said:

This nerfs both Thief and Sorceress. If Thief has 1 Mule, can't steal more from Village/Market Day/Market, possibly preventing any other char from having a Mule. Same for Sorceress and her Follower-stealing. As for the limit of 1, games here are over so fast (barely half the Upgrade + Reaper Adventure deck in majority of the games), that it's rare to have more than 8 Objects anyway.

Sorry, I didn't quite understand what you meant by "If Thief has 1 Mule, can't steal more from Village/Market Day/Market, possibly preventing any other char from having a Mule."

Are you saying that you would want the Thief to have the chance to steal all Mule cards so that no other character could have one? IMO this seems like a obscure strategy and lacks the spirit of the game.

I don't think this was the intention for the Thief's rule!

As for the sorceress - it isn't just the Mule that she can "seduce" from another player so in no way is she nerfed by limiting Mules to 1.

Where your games are quick, mine are not (we usually go through the basic talisman set neatly twice) and by the end you need to pick carefully which items to keep.

Cailus said:

So Thief isn't intended to steal ??? If I'm playing Thief, I'll hang around the Village area (unless there is better pickings elsewhere), in case I manage to land there and steal a Mule. If I can prevent anybody else from getting a Mule via buying one, it benefits me. As to the spirit of the game, it's to win, by any means necessary. For the Thief, that means Steal Mules, the more the better , worse for the others, Steal Objects, kill other characters, anything that gets the job done. Heck, 4x Mule on Thief and Mesmerism in hand, I'd just pray another char drew Mule from the Adventure deck or Horse and Cart, so I could just cast the spell and take that Follower as well. If they are limited to 4 Objects and I can have 20+, it's advantage me.

I never saw that the number of physical cards you get in the box was something I or any other people I play with would exploit.

In my opinion the chief ability of the Thief is to steal another item from a Character without going to combat. Again, in my opinion the Thief's ability to steal from the Market is more of a bonus.

My arguement was that overall, limiting the number of total objects makes for more of a "strategic" game than just picking up everything willy nilly because you have a herd of pack mules following you.

If that means in my games that the poor old thief can't win because he can't steal all of the Mule cards (because apparently that's the only way the Thief can win, eh?), so be it.

In the end, it's Rule As Written and you can be the Mule Master Thief (though that won't change me from still limiting the Mules in my own games).

Cailus said:

If you want Mules, you have to steal them from Village/Market/Market Day, as they are listed as Followers, so no stealing once a char has them (apart from with Mesmerism). Never said Thief can't with without Mules, stated that Thief having all the Mules is beneficial. If all others have a 4 Object maximum, that means they'll be dropping items that you can then grab, because you're packing Mule(s). Similarly, you can use his ability to steal Objects from others without worrying about carrying limits.

As to more strategic, you might have a point. Thematically it makes no sense at all, but whatever. Then again, I'm using Upgrade + Reaper (so what 194? card) Adventure deck, most games barely get half-way through it. Last game barely got 1/4 through the Adventure deck as characters all had around 9 Str and similar (or higher Craft), so everybody was gunning for the Crown by then.

That happened to me one time. My friend was the Thief and yeah he got so many mules that when I found my way to buy one there was not one there. LOL.... Just went Darn!!! I feel it is just one of those things a Thief character must look to exploit if they can if opportunity presents.

Maybe make it a 2 limit if you want to limit.. """ Two Mules for Brother Monk """ Ok maybe was not that funny.....

Dam said:

I have never thought about this trick, but i have also never played with the thief

The thief is not so strong in battle, but i like your trick very much Dam;)

Stealing mules, is a doorway to get a lot of goodies ( including magic objects that a other player must ditch because he has more than 4 objects

But i wonder how far this trick work.

I am reading the ability's of the thief again and i am wondering now if the thief can meet the mystic and steal a object at the village, or buy some items and steal a object etc.

I am not sure about this.