nhy's Altered Talisman Rules

These changes are built on top of the 2nd edition rules, so it helps to be familiar with them first. The reasons for the changes will be given. Some of the changes are made for realism. Despite being a fantasy setting, we must still try to adhere to the law of physics and common sense where possible.

No new cards are needed, although more markers and tokens may be necessary for book keeping.

Definitions

"You" refers to the player. Players and characters are used interchangably by assuming one player controls one character.

Be sure to distinguish between the character's own strength, his total non-combat strength and his total combat strength.

Characters

• Character attributes (strength and craft) and lives are limited to maximum of 8 unless otherwise stated. This is to avoid super-human attributes without the aid of artifacts. If you exceed the limit through the use of artifact, you retain your attribute even after the artifact is lost/stolen.
• A character's special ability to draw an extra card to choose from is restricted to the main board's outer region. The middle region and the expansion boards are not walkovers like the outer region.
• A character's special abilities that are automatic are now craft dependent: roll under their craft, under the other player's craft or something. The specific rule is given in the character's special abilities. For example, a character who is always safe in particular places now need to roll one die roll under his craft to be so. This should give you incentive to improve your craft.
• A character who chooses to outrun his followers by whatever means may not return to them implicitly in the next turn.
• Toad is dumbed down to a less severe toad curse. You have no special abilities, are limited to 4 golds and objects and may not have animal transporters. However, you keep your attributes, spells and followers. You move one square per turn for 3 turns. You may cast spells but may not replenish them until the end of your curse. The toad is a very serious penalty; it is almost impossible to recover from it in later rounds.

Objects

• Objects now have weight. I have not gone through the objects in detail, but their weight corresponds mostly to their shape and size. As a guide, light objects weigh 1 to 2, medium objects 3 to 5 and heavy objects 6 to 8. Very light objects weigh 0 to 1, but they can be ignored unless there are many of them. It is possible for magic objects to be weightless.
• You can carry objects as heavy as your total non-combat strength, with minimum of 3. It is logical that the stronger you are, the more objects you can carry. Being able to carry 4 arbitrary objects is not realistic. If your total strength is reduced, you must reduce your objects until the weight is lower or equal to your strength.
• The mule, horse and horse-n-cart allows you to carry additional objects. They are neither objects nor followers, but are classified as objects for the purpose of stealing. They do not weigh anything. The mule carries a maximum weight of 8 and has a -1 speed penalty. The horse carries a weight of 6 without any speed penalty. The horse-n-cart carries a weight of 12 with -1 speed penalty. You add the speed penalty to your movement die roll. The speed penalty is cumulative and is to prevent you from owning many such animal transporters.
• The concealed pouch can only store a maximum of weight 4. The objects must be placed with it specifically and they may not be used.
• The magic pouch may carry 3 objects of any weight. The objects must be placed with it specifically and they may not be used.
• Objects must be placed in the animal transporter/pouch specifically. The packing order may not be changed during an encounter. For example, your last chance to change the packing order is before the Thief does a stealing die-roll.
• If the animal transporter or pouch is stolen/lost, all the objects on/in it are stolen/lost as well.
• There are several objects, especially magic objects, to be toned down, but I haven't gone through them in detail.

Followers

• You can have as many followers as your craft. Craft is used here as a proxy for charm. However, you are always allowed a minimum of 3 followers. If you already have the maximum number of followers and you draw a follower card, you must leave one behind. You do not have to discard followers if you lose your craft in the future.
• The porter can carry a maximum of weight 6. The objects he is carrying must be placed with him.
• If you win in combat against another player, you may bribe one of his followers to follow you instead. Roll one die and pay the number of golds. You may decide not to get the follower after the die-roll, but you may not choose to get another type of compensation. Characters who are already able to get followers this way via their special abilities need not roll.

Spells

• You may only replenish your spells at the start of your turn. This limits you to casting spells on hand per turn. This limits spell misuse.
• Spells may be stolen or lost in combat.
• Fireball: add half your craft (round down) to the card's strength. This is to make it a stronger spell, especially towards the end.
• There are several spells to be toned down, but I haven't gone through them in detail.

Gameplay

• All talismans are removed from the adventure deck. The only way to get them is the Warlock's Cave. This forces players to go on the quest once.
• All teleportation to the Crown Of Command go to the Plain of Peril instead. This is to prevent using the Dungeon board as a shortcut.
• You may trade with other players on the same square. If you just move into a square, you must encounter all face-up cards before trading. Trading does not count as an encounter. This is a relaxation of the original rule, where you can trade with just one other player.

Movement

The random movement is a source of frustration when you try to land on key squares.

• You have a choice to move exactly the movement die-roll or to move up to the die roll. You may choose after the die roll. If you move exactly the die roll, you only encounter the final square. If you move up to the die roll, you must encounter every square along the way. You may choose to stop halfway, but you may not change direction. You must move at least one square.
• This makes it too easy to go to specific places. Places will be modified so that positive free actions will now require a die roll under the lower of the character's strength or craft attribute. Positive free actions are like healing or getting an attribute. Negative actions are like losing life or gold. This does not apply if it is an exact move.
• You are allowed to attack, steal from, trade or use your special abilities on another character only if you move exactly the die roll. This is to avoid one player from following and interfering with another player.

Combat

• You must be carrying the weapons and armour in person in combat. They do not have an effect if they are on an animal transporter. It's too late to swap after an encounter starts.
• You may use up to two one-hand weapons at the same time. You need to take the shield into account; you only have two hands.
• Warhorse: adds two strength to first round of offensive combat only. You have the option to keep the warhorse by losing one life.
• Strength from followers are not added for ranged combat.
• After you defeat an enemy, you get experience points (XP) based on the enemy attribute. The enemy card goes to the discard pile straightaway. You get one XP/strength and one XP/craft. (I wanted to make it 2 XP/craft, but it is too high. 1.25 or 1.5 XP would be good.)
• You get half the experience points (round down) for ranged attacks if you win.
• You get half the experience points (round down) for defensive combat with board characters if you win, excluding the inner region. You don't get XP for offensive combat. Defensive combat is when you are attacked. Offensive combat is when you choose to attack. For example, there's no XP for fighting the Sentinel.
• It takes 6 XP to exchange for one strength attribute up to strength 5. Subsequently, it takes 8 XP.
• It takes 8 XP to exchange for one craft attribute up to craft 5. Subsequently, it takes 10 XP. This makes it possible for you to advance your craft. It is very difficult to do so in the original game as there are very few craft enemies.
• Combat becomes less challenging as you increase in strength. To solve this, enemies also increase their strength with time. We cut the adventure deck into five roughly even decks, placed left to right. We always draw from the left first. When one deck is totally drawn, the enemies level up.

  Level-up for the outer region and expansion boards:

  1. Add 1 to the enemy's strength
  2. Add 1.5 to the enemy's strength
  3. Add 2 to the enemy's strength
  4. Double the enemy's strength
  5. Double the enemy's strength and add 1

  Level-up for the middle region:

  1. Add 1.5 to the enemy's strength
  2. Add 2 to the enemy's strength
  3. Double the enemy's strength and add 1
  4. Double the enemy's strength and add 1.5
  5. Double the enemy's strength and add 2

  The level-up is based on the enemy's base strength. It is not cumulative. The strength increase applies to all enemies, including board enemies. XP is still counted based on the face value of the card. Same goes for captured enemies.

  Since the character's strength attribute is capped at 8, the enemy's strength is capped at 12. Otherwise it's almost impossible to fight a dragon of strength 14!

  Level-up applies to the craft attribute too.

• Defense is revamped. You assign the defensive points from the defensive objects from 2 to 12. Roll two die once. If the sum is a number you have selected, you are missed. Otherwise, you are hit.
• A shield contributes 2 points, an armour 3 and a helmet 1. You may use two shields (subject to hand availability), two armours (upper body and lower body) and one helmet for defense at the same time.

Places

Some places require tweaking to make them less safe.

• If you want to build a raft in the Woods or Forest, you have to roll a die. 1-4 = encounter square, 5-6 = safe. This prevents you from bypassing the squares easily with an axe. You will have your raft on your next turn if you are still at the same place, even if you miss a turn.
• In the Mines and Crypt, the second and third die are restricted to a count of 5. This is because character attributes are now limited to 8. This applies to all 3 die-rolls that test against character attributes. To avoid confusion, throw the first die separately.

Cards

• The raiders card is modified to leave you with 2 golds, 2 objects and 2 followers. This is a very severe penalty, especially near the end of the game.

City Expansion

The city has grown bigger and more crowded. It is now slower to navigate the streets and the Watch only strictly keeps the law-and-order.

• Everyone is allowed into the city.
• Use these movement rules: 1-4: move as normal, 5-6: roll again.
• Mules, horses and horse-n-carts are not allowed into the city. Pay one gold per animal to check them into the stable automatically. If not, they are left at the city gates.

  When you leave the city, you'll get back your golds less one. If you leave by the Wharf lawfully, your animals will be transported to you after you leave the city. Otherwise you need to go back to the City to retrieve them.

• The watch is too busy to enforce all the laws! The law is simplified to simply no combat of any sort. The initiator gets a warrant card straightaway. You can have more than one warrant card; there are four warrant cards in all.
• If you draw a watch card and you have a warrant, you encounter it. Multiply the number of warrants you have by two and add it to one die-roll to determine the watch's strength. This combat does not give XP, or it's too easy for moderately powerful characters to level-up. If you lose, you go to the Donjon.
• The warrants are taken away as soon as you leave the city or are imprisoned in the Donjon.
• To become the High Mage, after discarding a magic object, add your craft to two die roll. 1-10: nothing, 11-13: get magic object back, 14+: you got the job!

Dungeon Expansion

• Use these movement rules: 1-4: move as normal, 5-6: roll again. If you have a torch, you only need to re-roll on 6.
• The dungeon has an entrance right from the start.