In my Talisman games we experience a serious problem with the ending. Characters go on and on forever by healing. For example, if you have the poltergeist you can simply step one move at a time backwards and forwards on any space that allows lives to be healed for free and stalemate the game ad infinitum. I was surprised to find nothing in the rules relating this situation. Is there any advice on how this might be resolved?

Leave the Crown and go kill him (wouldn't really work, because you would have the same problem), but what you could do is go down and try to get the spell the will wipe the healer off the broad, if it is the Chapel, then you might be in trouble.

Tell your friend (or whoever it is) to stop being an idoit and let the game end so you can start again, or finish up for the night.

Unless he's moving between TWO spaces that both heal him for free, then you should be more than capable of killing him.

Or you could use the house rule for the politgiest where you can only move in one direction causing the poltigiest to be a hinderence rather then a blessing!

The rule should be, in the event of a "stalemate situation," the winner is the player at the Crown of Command. So the only way the "Poltergeist" character could win is to get to the Inner Region and encounter the other character at the Crown of Command and kill him.

Gawain said:

How do you figure? Take Poltergeist + Good char. Start at Chapel, then Hills, back to Chapel, rinse repeat. Each time at Chapel you get Health back to starting value, but Command Spell in all likelyhood doesn't even work everytime.

Gentlegamer said:

Good advice!  I've seen more than one game where the final round of killing off all other characters (ludicrous idea) took almost half as long as the rest of the game... and without the mentioned stalemate conditions.

Me and my friends do it that the command spell works on a 3 upwards. Lot speedier, more incentive to chase players as soon as they get into in the inner region.

The alternant rule of the polterguiest allowing movement in only 1 direction works well.  We used it several times, and this deffinently stops it from being a "good" card.

-<HOUSE RULE#24>- When you first get the polterguiest, you must decide which direction of travel you will go 1 space per turn. Clockwise or counter clockwise.  You may only deviate from this if it is to cross storm river.

You can also have the "Crown of destruction"  Works on a 4+ like the original crown, but if successful you may take a life, or cause the destruction of any adventure cards in play. Followers, objects, strangers,places, etc.  That would start to rid the board of healing, and of course remove that nasty polterguiest. (wich is usualy the linch pin in stalemates)

Tao Bailong said:

There's some great advice already in the thread here... but I'd suggest not inviting the douche-bag over, seriously.  We've got a kid that plays with us that does the same thing and it drives us nuts... so we dropped him from the invite list.  The game is already long enough.

Also, in the rules there's a contradiction about leaving the Crown of Command.  It says that you can't and then it says that you can.  Previously you could... so play how you will. 

I noticed this hadn't really been fixed since the 4th revision.

What you can do is spell cycle until you get memerism and steal the poltergeist, but thats just bloody boring, and not always possible.

The way we play is the poltergeist is destroyed when someone reaches the crown.  It also allows the infected player to catch up and go for the kill.

Maybe it's just me, but having the Orb and a Poltergeist when a healer (or chapel, etc.) is available, seems like a tough to achieve, but viable endgame strategy.  Eventually, thanks to the 50% success of the command spell and adventure cards like Pool of Life and Book of Spells (which you can cycle until you have 2 healing spells), you will eventually get enough life and healing to be able to go to the crown and wrest it from the opponent.

If you don't have the Orb, eventually you'll draw something that will probably kill you, or just something that occuppies the space, preventing you from winning.  Or if you're using the Chapel, you could be converted to Evil, etc.

Either way, eventually there's a winner, unless the Orb owner never decides to leave and rectify the situation.  Even then, achieving a hard-fought stalemate is a pretty impressive accomplishment for someone who is not at the Crown.

librarycharlie said:

You don't need the orb, just be next to the chapel/healer with the poltergeist.  Eventually a stranger, place or even a meanie will be drawn.  As you heal up to your quota next to chapel, you still gain enough lives to cause a stalemate. Granted, things do have to go the players way for it to work.