Talisman: 2nd Ed vs FF 4th Ed

One other difference I noted but forgot to mention. 4th Ed has numbered encounter cards, and you must resolve each encounter in numerical order. I don't think 2nd Ed had anything like this - you can choose the order of resolving multiple encounters.

If I'm right - is there much effect on game play with this change?

Vote: . . . oh, wait, this isn't a trashdome...

I own both and play both.

I NEVER play Talisman vanilla out of the box-rules. Talisman is where you add house rules all over. So, I've always played so you can level up Craft as well. I even have my own system for increasing craft and strength, to make it easier in the beginning and harder later on.

And I love Gary Chalk's drawings. I love the fact that the women look like hags every one of them. he expansions are so stupid and weird (I have them all except Dragons), so when I want som hilarious whatever, I smack in the Dungeon, City and Timescape and everything is awesome.

That said, the recent Fantasy Flight version is better. The fate system is great, and the small tweaks to alance craft are good. Also, I like the Reaper Expansion for the whole mass of new adventure cards that I haven't seen a gadzillion times already.

Second edition is crazier, cruder, and more stupid and I love it for that.
Fourth revised is slimmer, more beautful and... newer, and I love it for that.

So both go for me. If I were to choose one to keep, I'd choose fourth revised, simply because it's the version that has the most new stuff (for me). Recommend to others, I'd say fourth revised, not only because it's more accessible, but also because I don't think anyone but a nostalgic can stand the City and Timescape anyway. That said, I doubt 4R can ever copy the "this is so f-cked!" sense that 2e could - I don't think FFG wants to put its name on such a game. And if you ever want to play a troll with a laser gun, or a hobgoblin with a jet pack, there is no choice but 2e.

Does Fate nueter turning into a toad?

I own both and play both.

I NEVER play Talisman vanilla out of the box-rules. Talisman is where you add house rules all over. So, I've always played so you can level up Craft as well. I even have my own system for increasing craft and strength, to make it easier in the beginning and harder later on.

And I love Gary Chalk's drawings. I love the fact that the women look like hags every one of them. he expansions are so stupid and weird (I have them all except Dragons), so when I want som hilarious whatever, I smack in the Dungeon, City and Timescape

Does Fate nueter turning into a toad?

A little. They're pretty rare in 4th ed. (sorry, but rolling a 1 twice in a row at the Enchantress is not that likely, whether people find it a safe bet or not), but they still come up.

The only thing Fate really does for the game is add a little more strategy to the game, and make it somewhat shorter.

ubarose wrote:

mjl1783 wrote:

Does Fate nueter turning into a toad?

A little. They're pretty rare in 4th ed. (sorry, but rolling a 1 twice in a row at the Enchantress is not that likely, whether people find it a safe bet or not), but they still come up.

The only thing Fate really does for the game is add a little more strategy to the game, and make it somewhat shorter.

The chance of getting turned into a toad by rolling a one twice is small, however the chance of getting turned into a toad is zero if you never choose to to visit the Enchanchress. I have just observed that now that people have those tokens, they are now choosing to visit to Enchantress, thus increasing their chances for getting turned into a Toad from zero to small.

Well, yes the chance of rolling a 1 twice is small, but every time you roll that die it's still a 1 in 6 chance.

Zimeon wrote:

I own both and play both.

-snip-

Nice comparison, Zimeon. I agree, the game begs to be house-ruled. Not because it's "broken" or because it NEEDS to be fixed, but because house ruling the game is so easy, painless, and usually won't mess up the game or something. I've taken out the Talismans from the adventure deck, simply because it's lame to find them lying in the fields instead of having to do a quest or something. I also removed the dungeon doors, because they are redundant with the ruins already being an entrance and nobody used them. I also took out the Magician; he sounds interesting when you read his card, but when you draw him he's not interesting; usually people don't use him at all.

Actually, the thing I'd really like to see FFG do with Talisman, even more than the Timescape expansion, is publish some tested adventure deck builds.

Two expansions in, the adventure deck is already a ridiculous mess. If you're playing with smaller groups, you'll be lucky to see half of what comes in every new expansion the first few times you play, and that problem gets exponentially worse each time you add to that deck.

They wouldn't have to be thoroughly tested, but they could put something on the website that basically says "If you want a combat-heavy game, build your deck out of the following cards:", or "If you want a faster game, use these."

mjl1783 wrote:

Actually, the thing I'd really like to see FFG do with Talisman, even more than the Timescape expansion, is publish some tested adventure deck builds.

Two expansions in, the adventure deck is already a ridiculous mess. If you're playing with smaller groups, you'll be lucky to see half of what comes in every new expansion the first few times you play, and that problem gets exponentially worse each time you add to that deck.

They wouldn't have to be thoroughly tested, but they could put something on the website that basically says "If you want a combat-heavy game, build your deck out of the following cards:", or "If you want a faster game, use these."

Interesting idea. If FFG publishes more themed small expansions like Frostmarch, then you could probably just filter out all expansions except the one you want to appear most. The expansion cards have icons to show what expansion; just like Arkham Horror I guess.

You could also have a more brutal deck build that takes out a lot of the nicer cards.

FFG could just post a list online like "Takes these cards from the base game and these cards from Reaper and Dungeon to create the Quick Play deck" etc