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Backporting Talisman 4e Expansions to 3e
So of anyone's still playing 3e and wants to spice it up a little, check out the attachments. The GW Cairn Wraith miniature works great for The Reaper. I use pennies for Fate tokens.
EDIT: The attachments seem to have been thumbnailed. Full size images here and here .
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Dogmatix wrote: Hey there. What kind of changes have to be made to go from 4e to 3e? I've toyed with buying a 3rd ed. set [though it's still kind of big-money] simply because I like the look of it, but I'm not that familiar with it. Now, the ability to integrate it with the 4th ed set I have would be pretty interesting...
As far as acquiring 3e goes, persistence and patience pays off. I was able to track down a complete 3e set (base game + 3 big expansions), with an unassembled dragon, for about the price of the 4e base game and two big-box expansions. Didn't come with any of the original boxes, but came with all the original components. Took me a couple months to track that down, and another 8-10 weeks of patience for the sale to come through. The person who sold it to me (through BGG) didn't have it on their sale or trade lists, but had rated it a 4 or so, so I inquired.
4e to 3e integration isn't very good, depending on what you want. The 4e small box expansions aren't rules heavy and it isn't difficult to incorporate the most fun parts (see my Reaper above). Fate is OK in 4e, but it mitigates some of the "Oh you got screwed!" fun of Talisman. By using my Fate rules from the 4e base game you still get some Fate but no Adventure Cards reference Fate so it's more difficult to replenish. It's a matter of taste though when it comes down to it. There's nothing stopping anyone from making Fate more or less prominent in 3e.
The 4e Dungeon and Highlands expansions are already present in 3e, but the boards have fewer spaces in 3e. I think this is a good thing, because in 4e if someone commits to the Dungeon or the Highlands you aren't going to see that person on the main board again for up to a half-dozen turns. It kills player interaction if nobody else is venturing onto the same side-board as that player unless they draw some special teleport-style card. 3e also has the City and Forest, which can have the same effect when combined with the Dungeon and Highlands, but the smaller boards make them more enticing to adventure into. Again, a matter of taste really.
The 4e Dragon expansion can pretty much be used as-is with 3e. The only real problem is the total artwork clash. I've thought about re-doing the Dragon expansion art for 3e, but it's a lot of work. Haven't done it yet. I'm also a bit lukewarm on the Dragon expansion, because although it adds a really neat dynamic to the game it also increases the overhead in each and every player turn.
For me 3e is a great Talisman version, even without backporting the 4e stuff. I love the art style and the minis, and it feels less serious than 4e. But 4e has some neat stuff added in, which is why I'm interested in backporting certain changes or addons. I'd like to get other people interested in doing quality backports, not necessarily to modernize 3e, but to give it flavour and keep it alive.
EDIT: Kind of missed your original question... The main difference between 4e and 3e is that 4e feels more polished. It feels more evened out, more balanced, in ways I can't really specify in a meaningful way. 3e is a little more rough around the edges; sometimes you really get screwed, sometimes you get just way too damn powerful quicker than the other players. But that's kind of what I expect from the game.
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The person who sold it to me (through BGG) didn't have it on their sale or trade lists, but had rated it a 4 or so, so I inquired.
This is a _great_ way to get games on BGG. Done it a few times myself.
You've done some great work with this. What's the image you used for the Reaper card from?
Like I've said before, I really like how one artist did all of 3rd. Gave the game a unique look and consistent style. 4e art is a hit or miss (what's up with the necromancer card?) and I wish they had only contracted one artist to do the whole thing.
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Jeff White wrote:
You've done some great work with this. What's the image you used for the Reaper card from?
Like I've said before, I really like how one artist did all of 3rd. Gave the game a unique look and consistent style. 4e art is a hit or miss (what's up with the necromancer card?) and I wish they had only contracted one artist to do the whole thing.
Thanks!
The artwork for the Reaper I did is all from 3e; the Reaper pic is from one of the Adventure Cards (spectre or spirit or something) with a little bit of a color shift to differentiate it. The "card" background on the left side of the Reaper card is also the Adventure Card background with the foreground removed. I used the same background for the Fate card. All the foreground and background stuff on the right side of the Reaper card is from the 3e game board except the text. The font is called "Windlass".
And I totally agree about the 3e artwork; I just love the look of it.
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