Some of you will have tried out the Early Access version of Talisman: Digital Edition from the guys at Nomad Games, and will be familiar with a few of the new additions to the game on the digital platform.

Experience, levels and achievements have been added, along with a new card-type in the form of Runestones.

Runestones are awarded when you gain a level in the game and can be equipped by your character to get the benefit of bonuses at the start of the game and some which help you during your quest for the Crown of Command.

I have made these available for the physical game as I think they are a bit of fun and seeing as a lot of the ideas are taken from the "Alternative Rules for Faster Play" section of the rule book, they should help bring playing times down a bit.

You can download the file from Talisman Island here -

http://www.talismanisland.com/tde_runestones.zip

Fantastic Jon, many thanks for making these available to us!

Ell.

Great!

Brilliant - love these and can't wait to add them to our game next week.

It's just pouring presents for us Talisman folk!

I love looking at the home brews! These rune stones are very cool. But I 'm not going to to create for my game since my wife-partner won't consider using home brews. Just the official facts, for this ma'am (if you get the old school pun/paraphrased)

Strange wife lol Stand alone card decks shouldn't be an issue for her, especially if they come directly from Talisman DE. This makes them official, not home brew!

Variation and/or suggestion -

After some thought, I wasn't into having a separate Runestones deck to pick from at the beginning of the game and since when you play the board game you don't have different levels to be rewarded for, we opted for the following:

We made these Magic Objects/Trinkets with a encounter number of 6 (to make it a little more difficult to acquire them since they are quite powerful) and made only 6 to add to the Adventure Deck rather than having 3 different levels for each one:

Resistance - When you have this Runestone, you cannot be turned into a toad.

Power - When you have this Runestone, you may gain one strength counter for every five points of strength marked on the trophies that you exchange instead of seven points.

Luck - When you have this Runestone, your Fate value is increased by 2.

Health - When you have this Runestone, your life value is increased by 2.

Intellect - When you have this Runestone, you may gain one Craft counter for every five points of Craft marked on the trophies that you exchange instead of seven points.

Alertness - When you have this Runestone, you are never drunk at the Tavern, you are never enslaved at the Temple and you are never lost in the Crags or the Forest.

We passed on the brawn, command, wealth, thought and protection.

I think Resistance is going to turn into the most sought after card now

Well, the point of having them all available is so that you can try out different combinations with your 5 points and see how they work with each character.

That's the whole draw of Talisman though, house ruling has been a staple of the game since 1983 and I can't see it changing any time soon. I'll probably be adding these to the Strange Eons tool at some point, so people can make changes and even new Runestones!

Strange wife lol Stand alone card decks shouldn't be an issue for her, especially if they come directly from Talisman DE. This makes them official, not home brew!

I probably didn't understand how it is official and I could download. Having said that, I am the most uncraftsman-like person you'll ever meet. I have not artistic finesse.

Simple pasting and cutting physical things defies my attempts to make look nice.

I would have to wait until the items can be purchased from FFG, and I actually don't mind that.

They are not "official" for the Revised 4th Edition of the game as such, but they do appear in the digital iteration of Talisman.

Thanks, Jon,

Clarification is good! So, not technically official, but able to be used, like a good home brew.

(the strange wife would not have them in her game, until "really official")

The Runestones are a great idea - especially as a mechanism to speed up the game, and increase how much the players can affect their progress.

But there is one very important thing that should be explained on the rules sheet, and is the first thing that comes to my mind: Players select the runestones at the beginning of the game - after or before selecting the characters?

Well, as I think I hint at in the rules, and have mentioned above. The idea is to experiment with different combinations of Runestones for different characters, so you would need to know what you were starting with. For instance, picking a low Craft value would not be great if you were the Wizard etc.