Smairn said:

I like the idea of a zombie apocalypse type alternate ending.  Maybe it could come in a undead expansion that adds a type of dark citedel or crypt board that connects onto the graveyard corner of the main board.

 I think it could be interesting something connected with water… maybe connected with the Storm River source. Enemies could be mermaids, tritons, but also octopus, krakens and sharks. 

 I definitely wouldn't go for this 'Timescape' stuff, or any Wild West or Steampunk expansion. If I don't want to play fantasy, I don't play Talisman.

And there are so many possibilities, as you guys say: ocean, crypt, swamp, maybe even some kind of crazy volcano sort of thing… just keep it fantasy! 

What I want the least is an expansion that burdens the game with more mechanics.

I like the Reaper, as it is minimally invasive: Roll a 1? Move the reaper. Done.  I understand the werewolf is similar, but with night/day.  Those are fine.

The dragon expansion stretches my tolerance for mechanics in Talisman.  Somehow remembering to pull a scale token every turn is an extra timesink for me, not to mention the "what now" effect. I'm sure it will become rote and take less time with more plays, but it is just enough. Talisman, to me, should be a simple as roll, draw a card or two, do what they say, pass the dice.

I'm ok with more mechanics that are built into the cards. Please no more expansions that add mechanics to the turn.

As for themes, I liked Timescape, and wouldn't mind it.  I actually like the suggestion of a chaos expansion, rather than timescape.

I agree Wild West would be offputting, as would any non-fantastical theme.  That said, I wouldn't mind a few out-of-place-and-time characters to have fallen into the magical world of Talisman, just for fun.

RE: Dragon Expansion Mechanics

Two options for you to make things simpler:

1) A Dragon token is drawn once per round by a different player. So in a 2 player game, Player 1 draws a token and then takes his turn, player 2 takes his turn, player 1 takes his turn, player 2 draws a token and then takes his turn, and so on.

Therefore, in a 2 player game a token is drawn every 3 turns, 3 player every 4 turns, 4 player every 5 turns, and so on. If you wish to increase how often a scale is placed on a space by using the once per round mechanic, reduce the number of scales needed to crown a Draconic Lord to 2 scales instead of 3.

OR;

2) Whenever a player draws one or more Enemies, he must draw a Dragon token before completing his turn (similar to the Event mechanic in Blood Moon).

Again, if you wish to increase how often a scale is placed on a space, just follow the above alternative rule.

Both of these rule variants have been playtested and work very well depending upon how often you wish Dragon tokens to be drawn. The first variant sees Dragon tokens appear more often than the second variant, although if you are playing with 5 or 6 players they are pretty close to each other.

Regards,

Ell.

Ps. You could also use the alternative rule which allows a scale to be placed immediately on a space rather than being placed on a Draconic Lord. The colour of the scale indicates which Draconic Lord is crowned as the Dragon King. This variant allows scales to be placed on a space much more quickly than normal, leading to a game with a heavier Dragon influence. Although if you use this variant rule, 5 Dragon Cards need slight adjustment to their text as scales are no longer placed on Draconic Lords!

talismanamsilat said:

If you decide to use the drawing of Enemies to initialise drawing a Dragon token, characters DO NOT draw a Dragon token when drawing Dragon Cards. (Each Dragon deck contains at least 50% Enemies; you could draw Dragon tokens but there would be too many scales appearing I think!)

Ell.

What about a Arena theme? We can creat more enemies card and spell but decrease the places and strangers.