After playing few first games what I do not like is the fact that characters level very fast what means they become powerfull very fast, so I implemented some house rules to slow down leveling (after all there is only 12 levels) and make game more challenging.

Cost of leveling should increase with time, its obvious that getting from first to second level should be much easier than from tenth to eleventh, so:

level: cost:

0 --> 1 6

1 --> 2 6

2 --> 3 6

3 --> 4 7

4 --> 5 7

5 --> 6 7

6 --> 7 8

7 --> 8 8

8 --> 9 9

9 --> 10 9

10 --> 11 10

11 --> 12 10

This is how I am plying it. In my opinion is a bit more fun when we level characters longer rather than just walking around with maxed levels already and one shot any enemy . People can test other variations of this idea like example even more slowing down leveling process:

level: cost:

0 --> 1 6

1 --> 2 7

2 --> 3 8

3 --> 4 10

4 --> 5 11

5 --> 6 12

6 --> 7 14

7 --> 8 15

8 --> 9 16

9 --> 10 18

10 --> 11 19

11 --> 12 20

(with barely 6th level I finished sucessfuly a game with this system)

enjoy .

Many, many people find the problem with Talisman and Relic that is takes too long. This variant would only add significant time to the game. Plus with exploding dice, unlike Talisman, no combat in Relic is a guaranteed victory, even Str 12 vs Str 1 battles have been lost due to a string of explosions.

Not to mention, by the time you're max level, you shouldn't be going around one-shotting enemies, you should be on the Inner Tier already. It always weirds me out that people just don't focus on the goal and instead waste needless time levelling up some more, when they could've hit the Inner Tier several levels ago.

It s a shame that Relic havent been designed more for exploration rather than rushing to inner tier and ending the fun. My rule is effect of old habits from old edition of Talisman I played during my chiildhood around 20 years ago where with friends we used to spent 4-5 hrs exploring fantasy world. For me increasing time of leveling makes game longer challenging before you will go into inner tier which is a bit dissapointing since you cant lose there (except certain scenario rules) you cant be stopped.

Rising this thread like a Necron...

Only yesterday we actually got our first three player game of this, with me being the Nemesis. The good guys won, but barely. AFTER SIX HOURS.

Heroes started out with the Ultramarine and Rogue Trader, me with the Khorne Berserker. The Rogue Trader bit the corruption after a bit over an hour to the game and was replaced with the Comissar. And boy did the Commissar level up quickly. In about 20 minutes he was higher than the Rogue Trader ever was.

The Nemesis works as a great doomtrack mechanic. They halved my Infamy once, so that basically saved them. But the Inner Tier was hard on them. Comissar was vanquished after few rounds against Corruptis and the player didn't pick a new character anymore. In the end I would've won in a few rounds, but the Ultramarine beat Corruptis with the Webgun.

The Nemesis just keeps on getting better, because they don't loose any assets or levels. I actually hurt myself because the nemesis deck gave me couple of Berseker Rages, and I lost turn for not being able to charge players in the Inner tier. And the Imperial deck gave me way too many events when nearing the bottom of it, instead of enemies. So I couldn't gain Infamy via leveling when already maxed out. So if the players don't hurry to the end, the Nemesis will wear them out. They vanguish beat the Nemesis a few times to lower the Infamy, but they will succumb to the corruption at some point and be weak before the Nemesis.

Still, SIX HOURS.

Talisman usually takes around eight...