SubElement said:

Thas a welcome change... This stops stalemates, which was rare but annoying end to the game. 

Wow, some big changes there. Definitely nice to see more Craft opponents, and things that can boos anyone's Fate. IMO the Raiders needed to be toned down, but I do hope it won't become a general tendency...

I thank you for your time

Lord Gorthuar de Veris

Cult of Nagash

The Raiders change does concern me a bit, but perhaps only for nostalgia reasons as it was a good card to bring the leader back to the pack sometimes.

What are some of the new powers the characters have compared to the 4th edition? I noticed in a preview that the troll can now regenerate, for example. 

Gentlegamer said:

First Toads, now another staple of Talisman get sissified? Raiders and Cursed by Hag were one the few cards that could peg down a character loaded with stuff/followers. Now all you lose is gold? Sigh  .

About the new Raiders card....

I have mixed feelings on this one. Many game changes I've heard of or seen... including Warlock Quest cards coming in the Reaper expansion... are geared to speed up the game. I understand this, as many pure boardgamers don't want to take the hours that some enjoy in playing the game the old hard way.  Talisman has always been about putting the boardgaming before the RPG origins that inspired it. But perhaps it goes too far when the dangers aren't really dangers anymore.

FFG is trying (in small ways) to address flexibility of play rules. The recent article on the Quest cards offers different ways to use them (or not at all). Then again, the Warlock's Cave once reach has always been (1) the only way to take action to get a talisman and (2) some very paltry costs and ways to do so.

Let's hope this small tendency towards optional play continues. But when cards are rewritten, there's nothing to be done about it. Everyone I've played with has had a love/hate relationship with the Raiders card. But it was always kept in.  Some rousing play occurred when some hoarding character drew it. Then the race and brawl was on to get to that lost hoard.  Such a shame to lose that when any group of players that disliked it could just remove that one card from the deck. No one is going to race and brawl to get to a few gold.

As with ALL the versions past, you can always house rule the Raiders back up to snuff......

Mine's in the mail. MIGHT play it tommorrow night if it gets here in time.....

After reading the rules the other day, I'm finding I like the new rules. The game really could use an upshift in speed.

I trust John's changes. His other stuff like Tide of Iron is solid.

The only thing I'm mourning is the disconnect from the GW flavor.

Maybe an expansion will have an alternate Raiders card that has them steal all your Objects, but not Gold.

Has anyone had the same issue with the storage tray (six of the slots have "ledges" that keep the cards from going all the way down)?

I remember the first time i draw the raider, I thought I had read wrong. How could this be? They stole all your items and you could do nothing about it, It felt so unfair. And every one laughtet att me becouse got so sad about losing the runesword i just gained an boosted of how much I where going to kill everyone else:P

The fun thing whit the raiders is that they start a mini game, a rase for the their loot. Why couldent they just be convertet to enemies whit strenght 16^^ then ona had at least a fighting chance:P. Now they are stupied raiders that only taces gold when they could have stripped you naked and spanked you in the middle of the night:P

I will miss the ninja kick ass raiders.

How annoying that amazon are posting it so late, only a few days to go I guess! With the raiders that is a kick in the nuts! House rules it will have to be, but now it is not a must so it will be more grudging to follow the rules of the raiders.

JCHendee said:

Thats what I always loved about raiders!

If you didn't like it you could take it out, better than mangling it.

And I'm waiting for upg. pack in my country...mayby in Frebruary...so unlucky...;/

The only thing I'm mourning is the disconnect from the GW flavor.

What is the disconnect? I've only played the 3rd edition, but am vary familiar with GW flavour (Dungeonquest, AHQ, WFRP, etc). From looking at the previews of Talisman 4th I was hoping this held that baroque 80's style like early GW games and not have the cartoony flavour we see in Descent, Runebound, WoW, etc.

Jack Hooligan said:

Jack is absolutely right.  The revised 4th edition sure does capture the old 80's "baroque" style from GW...no disconnect there.  It does not, however, capture the more recent cartoon and WoW style of art like we saw on the 3rd edition.  This is a VERY good thing IMO. 

I'd bet that most folks excited about the revised 4th ed were quite familiar with the 1st/2nd edition of Talisman.  That early art style was a key part of the old Talisman experience and I feel FFG has captured it nicely and brought it into the modern age as well.

I picked mine up last night.  I haven't played it yet, but I organized everything in the box and skimmed through the cards and board.  I'm super impressed so far.  We are decorating our Christmas tree tonight, so we have family over.  I'll be setting the game up to play with some Talisman virgins this afternoon.  I can't wait!