I thinking of taking the plunge and buying relic, We all ready play Talisman and I was just wondering if you can play with 6 players? rather then the 4 stated?

Thanks in advance

You can if you buy the Nemesis expansion when it is released!

Or you simply use something other then the convenient player thingies to keep track of stats and whatnot.

A handful of 12 sided dice will substitute another player card

I don't think there were any reasons it couldn't be done before the release of the Nemesis expansion. FFG probably felt that 6 players on the board would be busy, especially in the early turns when everyone is levelling up in the outer tier. Furthermore, players would not have liked the idea of landing on other player's spaces and not being able to interact (pvp).

Second, while Relic is shorter to play than Talisman, Relic is still a long game which gets longer the more players you add. With up to 6 players, I feel (just my opinion) that turns need to happen quickly and that 1 player's action in a turn should affect other players out of turn sequence so as to keep all 6 players engaged in the game at all time. Easier said than done of course, but that is what the Nemesis expansion will add. On the enemy of the empire turn, he/she might land on your space and you may have to battle them. Hence, even if it is not your turn, you are still engaged with the game.

Basic pvp rules such as "if you have successfully defeated (not evaded) an enemy threat card on your space, you may challenge an other character which share a board space with you to a combat using an attribute of your choice. Follow normal combat rules. If you lose, lose 1 life. If you win, you may steal 2 influence or an item worth 1 influence from the character you defeated in combat. You may engage in pvp combat with only 1 character even if there are more characters on your space." This way you are not fighting each others left and right but if you are player number 6 and you just had your turn, you may be called into a combat sooner that you think and this keeps you engaged in the game.

Otherwise with 6 players, and you just had your turn, you might has well go down to the local supermarket and get some more chips and dips because it is going to take a while.