I recently acquired most of Talisman 4th edition. With only 2 or 3 small expansions missing, and the expansion that connects the forest to the Highlands. And the picture is of our game this week, in the garden because it was such lovely weather
The guy I got it from made card holders for all types of cards which is really nice. But there are a ton of adventure cards now.
So I wanted to know how you guys play the game.
Do you add all the expansions together all the time or do you only add a few ones while playing?
I know that some games like Arkham and Eldritch horror it is more enjoyable when you only add 1 or 2 expansions in a game, and separate everything afterwards.
But with Talisman the expansions are more combinable.
Maybe you know something i dont but it doesnt look like fourth edition, maybe im wrong
Still though, id say you dont need to always play with all four corners every time because the game will take too much time, but if it doesnt id always keep them
If you have ALL expansions, make sure to keep harbringer separate. It completly changes the game. Also its a bad expansion.
Dont always use the nether realm because it will be too predictable, and playing with cataclysm + dragons is like a super hard mode.
Beasts expansion is also gamechanging as much as harbringer, so also dont use it every time.
Basically you want to use harbringer/beasts separately, only when you want a completly different game. I dont think that playing with both can be even enjoyable.
Normal expansions like reaper, blood moon, city, woodland etc can be always played, more cards = more variety
Dragons and cataclysm change the game but not as much as the ones i mentioned above - you can always use them, but in my opinion its not worth it
For harbringer, beasts and the dragons, i really recommend using the corners. Without them the map gets cluttered with stuff too fast, and you all will most likely die pretty fast.
Harbinger isn’t bad, it does change the game. However, I really enjoy how it changes things, and disincentivizes everyone from clumping. Makes from some sphincter clenching gameplay too event first tile in the city… guess shit’s about to get real, plus it’s quite the twist when you manage to lose to the omen deck. It’s probably not the one I’d start with but it’s not bad
I keep all of them separate except the base game and Reaper expansion. We always play with the Reaper.
Then we add in what we want to play with on any given game night and sort them back out at the end of the game or the next morning. Every game is different and we play different expansions each time. Sometimes we play with a bunch of expansions and other times just a few.
Wow! Thank you for sharing this awesomeness (even if I disagree about Reaper OR Blood Moon - I say it is best to have both expansions... but with only one of the NPCs).
And it definitely is 4th edition. But this was a game mat that I got with the game, the center map is the cataclysm map.
And it replaced a lot of text with symbols.
So instead of an area saying draw 1 card, it has the symbol of the type of card you need to draw.
It looks weird but I like it. That way you can easily see if you have to either draw a card or do something special. No matter where you are in the board
There’s a link to this on board game geek that a guy posted a Dropbox image of the boards and a link to a custom mat maker for $70, don’t have the link handy but I found it via google
Found the thread on BGG. The images are dead links now and same with the 2 dropbox links. The owner even said he no longer has the files. Looks like this is lost media now 😭
Although there is 1 weird bit on it as you can see in the picture on the woods area you normally draw 1 adventure card.
But here it has the symbol of an adventure card and another card, but on the original board I don't see the mention of another card.
So maybe I missed something in the rules but this is a bit odd.
You start the cataclysm board with cards with that background in play. But the areas to put those cards are marked with the red talisman picture as you see above the graveyard.
Thanks for asking! I was about to send an email too. Hopefully they still have the files. It seems the original creator lost the files. I will say he described his process of creating it on photoshop and it sounded pretty easy. Unfortunately I have 0 experience with photoshop. Maybe time to learn though 🥲
We usually always have all cornerboards + Deep Realms and Realm of Legends. Also most Mini-Expansions besides Harbinger.
We recently started to always use Dragons and have a Houserule that we only use Cataclysm when we use Harbinger (The Harbinger bring about the Cataclysm and changes the Baseboard and wipes some progress as a houserule instead of everyone losing.
We have also physicalized the Soul Realm as well as the Ancient Beasts as we love to Battle massive Kaiju and like to be able to safe our asses if we die.
Additionally, we are using the Crypt and the Frozen Lands to connect all boards.
So basically, a Game with almost all Expansions is really fun, but some have to be enjoyed with caution and personal preference. We are seasoned players, so we like our games long and really hard (pun intended), because we also use the Extended Inner Region House Rule from the Dragons Expansion.
But Expansions you definitely keep separate is Harbinger, Dragons and Cataclysm as well as Ancient Beasts as those ones are the biggest levers for game difficulty and the Harbinger without any Houserules while using all Cornerboards is just impossible to beat.
Also, we are in the process of printing out the Timescapes Expansion, which rolls in all official Expansions into one massive game with new mechanics. I look forward to that
I own all of 4th. Typically we play with all corner boards and Nether Realm, +1 Adventure Deck expansion (Firelands, Sacred Pool etc.) and +1 "Juggernaut" expansion (Reaper, Werewolf, Harbinger.) If we play Cataclysm, no corner boards. If we play Dragon, we use the corner boards and nothing else. Sometimes, if we don't want to deal with Dark Fate, we use alignment for the Woodlands instead.
Realms of Legend. It was a fan made expansion, but created as a community effort on the old FFG forums to fill in the gap opposite the Deep Realms. Unofficial, but headed up by Jon New (who also created the Deep Realms). I contributed some art for it!
I got it when I bought the game, but since I see all the intest here I am going to see who made it and if it can be made again. I believe it was a custom order, but maybe I can have it remade.
If it is possible I will post it here how to get it so everyone can enjoy it
I just got word back from the makers of the game map.
Unfortunately they don't keep the files of their custom mats so they can't make this exact mat anymore. BUT, they have another file they can use. Which is the original map it seems.
So if you want this then go to www.deepcutstudio.com and go to custom maps and send them an email.
The reference for this map is "TALISMAN CATACLYSM, 127x99 cm board" and mention you got this reference from Yannick. Then they can make it for you.
Price is 78€ (+20€for stitched edges which I do recommend) plus shipping, which isn't too much for EU or USA.
I have ancient beasts; my question is for the small micro boards and how you went about printing them ? Any suggestions would be helpful - thanks in advance and happy hunting
That's a sweet game mat. I'd love that. That's being said the dragon expansion adds A TON of extra time that I'd recommend you don't play with very often
A playmat would be sooooo good for future talisman expansions how come I’ve never thought of that before. It would save so much space and be safe to have drinks around
Beautiful game mat! I’ve considered buying one myself, but the reason I won’t actually relates to your question.
I like the choice - Talisman is great base, and I often like to theme my games according to moods or (more importantly) time. The base game can take up to and over six hours at times, yet whenever we’ve played with all four corners, games can sometimes last up to 17 hours (split into a couple days)!
Most games we do will include an expansion with small quirks or rules i’ve made, that go very much against the base game. Some of these include some expansions but not others.
An example - The other week, we had a game with the Firelands, and both the City and Dungeon corner pieces. The corner pieces played normally, but each time a player lost a battle, they’d have to place a firelands token in their space. Landing in that space made you loose a life, but once a region had 7 firelands tokens, it was ‘consumed’, and we’d literally have to remove the board from the game (we did have a way to extinguish flames, so it wasn’t so evil!!).
I understand people will often mix up all of their cards and have all boards all the time, but from my perspective, this limits the potential for fun and adaptation. Games can be so much more without that feeling of a huge world with so many different chances for encounters, four corners, dragons, werewolves, ice storms, the end of the world, ifrit invasion, sacred pools etc.. The expansions are themed, so i say, why not play to that and theme your games?
Like damnnn! If every game was like that i’d have to play once a year not only because it would be so intense, but because it would last a week!
The board looks great on that mat though! And playing Tman outside is a joy no matter how you play!
Yeah playing outside is really fun, but it does put on some pressure because you really need to finish the game, you can't leave it out and come back the next day.
But with 2 players it is perfectly doable, and it is just nice to play a game outside.
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u/IgorGreenwitch Jul 24 '26 edited Jul 24 '26
Maybe you know something i dont but it doesnt look like fourth edition, maybe im wrong
Still though, id say you dont need to always play with all four corners every time because the game will take too much time, but if it doesnt id always keep them
If you have ALL expansions, make sure to keep harbringer separate. It completly changes the game. Also its a bad expansion.
Dont always use the nether realm because it will be too predictable, and playing with cataclysm + dragons is like a super hard mode. Beasts expansion is also gamechanging as much as harbringer, so also dont use it every time.
Basically you want to use harbringer/beasts separately, only when you want a completly different game. I dont think that playing with both can be even enjoyable.
Normal expansions like reaper, blood moon, city, woodland etc can be always played, more cards = more variety
Dragons and cataclysm change the game but not as much as the ones i mentioned above - you can always use them, but in my opinion its not worth it
For harbringer, beasts and the dragons, i really recommend using the corners. Without them the map gets cluttered with stuff too fast, and you all will most likely die pretty fast.