Jin TS
Malaysia
Petaling Jaya
Selangor
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Background
I notice that there aren’t many session reports on Frostmarch, so I have decided to post one to share with other players who wish to understand more about this expansion. I got this expansion since early December last year but just hadn’t got a single chance to test it out, until yesterday! And I’m just glad that I did, it was such an enjoyable game session..
Our group comprised of 5 players in normal condition but because one of them is working while the other is out of the country, so we just went ahead with 3 of us this time, we simply can’t wait any longer to try it out!
Game Rules
I have the Talisman revised 4th edition played with all 3 expansions: Reaper, Dungeon and Frostmarch. The Reaper moves every time a player rolls a 1, 2 or 3 as we love a more aggressive Reaper. All 3 of us picked the 4 new characters from Frostmarch as we have only enough time to play one session, so all characters from earlier expansions were left out during the random draw.
Nick randomly drew the Warlock, but since we decided to play the Warlock Quest ending, therefore we swap this character as we expected him to win outright. So he played the Necromancer instead. Warlock Quest ending was chosen as the Crown and Scepter is almost identical to the original ending, just that it is faster. While the Ice Queen ending seemed to be a long ending, and it is not much of a difference as compared to the Lord of Darkness, and we wanted a quick session, so she was put aside too.
Game Session
So the story evolved:
Me: Leprechaun
Philip: Ogre Chieftain
Nick: Necromancer
So the game started where everyone scanned through their Warlock quests and started planning what to do. Philip was even on a relief mood after he had a look at his quests, seemed easy I guess. Ogre Chieftain lead the race from the beginning with the Necromancer not far behind. Leprechaun was really all out capitalizing on his ability to teleport upon rolling a 6 in his movement, thus getting lots of gold..
First unfortunate incident took place when the Necromancer got the Poltergeist, and have to move a space a time, but then he got lucky as he was near the Tavern while the Pathfinder appeared 2 squares from it, the place that players get to draw 2 cards. He kept moving to the Pathfinder to draw one more card and back to the Tavern which also avoided the Reaper.
Ogre Chieftain slowly accumulated some monsters to be used in battle and he was lucky to have gathered some interesting items and followers along the way, happily exploring the Middle region. At that moment, he had a Sword of Light, Riding Horse and Warhorse which allowed him to add his craft to his strength. By now his strength and craft is both at 7! But what was even more terrifying about this character is he managed to defeat a strength 7 Dragon, the strength 7 Cerberus and another powerful monster with strength 6 and use them all as followers!  Not to mention he managed to get a spell under his sleeve too! In a single attack, he could easily spit out a strength 34 attack if he so decide to use them all!!! 
On the other end, the Leprechaun quietly collecting stuff, agonizingly making difficult decisions, as he has lots of gold but not a single Riding Horse to carry extra stuff! He could not buy it from the village and also can’t get them from any merchant or steal from the Ogre Chieftain which is equivalent to invitation to hell (well, I guess I play enough board games to tell when to and when not to upset the strongest character in any point of time, so better lay low)..!  He was holding a Ring, just bought an Armour and got another one from the adventure card, got a Talisman and an Axe, which can be used later to cross the river since he can’t use his gold to buy any Raft.. So Leprechaun decided to keep the Ring, Talisman, Armour and Axe. He then moved on and later explored the Middle region soon after accumulated enough gold (about 8 gold) and visited the Tavern often enough for them to ask the Boatmen to give him a free ride over to the Middle region..! Leprechaun was lucky to get the Orb of Knowledge and it filled up the empty slot after painfully dropping the Axe. By now, the Leprechaun has total strength 4 and craft 8, not enough to do much yet. However, luck finally was on his side, Pedler appeared at the Oasis and with his abundance of gold, he quickly bought a spell using 2 gold (again, another crucial decision), a Water Bottle. The Orb of Knowledge (to my surprise later, what a critical decision to keep this magic item instead of Armour that may save life from battle as his strength is low) also helped in getting the Bag of Carrying which kept his Talisman and Water Bottle, and most importantly, avoided the Magical Vortex and got hold of Familiar, and not to mention adding 1 craft from the Temple along the way. By now, he is quite ready to move up to Inner region.
Necromancer was hilariously poor and short of fate points as he used it too easily. He was having a hard time to complete one of the quest that required him to deliver monster trophy worth 5 craft, really pathetic and how ironic it can be..coming from the Necromancer who is able to enthrall spirits and may use psychic combat!... While another quest required him to deliver 3 gold, and he hardly had enough to pay the Black Knight at the Middle region.. Later, he was lucky to get the Genie which he used to fight the Ogre Chieftain once, and use a spell to double his craft which is already at 8, and took away the Talisman from the Ogre... thus making the Ogre Chieftain extremely frustrated.. At that moment, Necromancer has a Magic Belt, Amulet, Concealed Pouch and the Riding Horse that was driving him nuts.. He kept missing the places that he hoped to visit when he used 2 dices for his movement...
So, the Ogre Chieftain finally made his move toward the CoC after he went to the Warlock’s Cave to complete a quest just to secure a Talisman! He easily passed through the Portal of Power, and breezed through Crypt. Then he got stuck at the Dice with Death. He has 4 life and loss consecutive 3 rounds to Death!! I still remember one of the round the Death rolled a 2 & 1, and Ogre Chieftain rolled a double snake eye! So he used a fate point, and he rolled a 1 again!! How pathetic and this was probably the first time after playing Talisman 4th ed for so long that I actually see a player really got tortured by Death..simply amazing..
While the Ogre Chieftain was cursing and jumping, pumping his fist to the air for his damned luck with Death, Leprechaun moved in through Portal of Power without any problem, but got stuck at the Mines and teleported back to Portal of Power. Second chance for the Leprechaun while the Ogre Chieftain was being toyed by the Death, he smiled with high confidence knowing that the Ogre Chieftain will not win because the spell he had in hand was the Path of Destiny (which forces a player to take up a Warlock Quest if he has none, and by doing so, that player can’t enter CoC until he completes the quest)…!  He planned to cast the spell immediately when the Ogre Chieftain reaches the Werewolf Dent.. Also, Magical Vortex (an event card from adventure deck) was already out, so nothing will stop him except the spell, Counterspell . Leprechaun moved in straight into Vampire’s Tower, rolled a 4, used fate point, rerolled and got a 3 and so, discarded Familiar and lost just 2 life instead of 3, with 2 more to spare. In the Pit, he rolled a 1!! Leprechaun easily defeated the strength 4 Pit Fiend as he has a strength 4 too, and finally entered the CoC to claim the long awaited victory!!
Overall: An absolutely fun game in slightly more than 2 hours!
Leprechaun: to sum up that Leprechaun is lame is probably a misconception. Leprechaun is a powerful character, especially with his teleportation ability, superb ability that surpass the Sage and even Amazon. His gold collecting ability is wonderful to have but players need to be absolutely clear “when” is enough of collecting stuff to move in for the win. Leprechaun with Orb of Knowledge is a powerful combo. To win the game, Leprechaun doesn’t need to be very strong in strength, 4-6 is good enough. But he should have at least craft 10 to have a fairly smooth entry up to the CoC. So to those who still think that Talisman is a game of pure luck with no sensible decision making, this game proved its critics wrong.. There were tons of critical decision to be made and I planned his journey well with the help of some luck of course (this is still a Talisman game, unpredictability is just part of the game..). What strategic decisions I made? When to enter the Middle region; which items to keep and which to drop; when to move up to the CoC; which quickest and safest path to take to complete quest; where to teleport when rolled a 6 in movement; when to attack another character to complete a quest; when to cast a spell; when to spend the money and what to buy, etc, etc...
Necromancer: he is a bit lame to me as he can’t replenish his spells at will, unlike the Wizard or Prophetess and don’t bother to talk about the over-powered Warlock. His spirit follower ability can be useful but then I’m not very sure why, it didn’t seem to be quite useful during our session.
Ogre Chieftain: as expected, fast in building up his power by accumulating more followers. High potential to be considered overpowered characters similar to Assassin, Dark Cultist or Warlock. But in this notion, Warlock probably tops the list..
Alternate Ending: Warlock Quest is nice, it gives all the players a sense of purpose and unlike the normal ending where players tend to spend too much time building up characters and eventually lost track of the purpose of winning the game. Also, this ending really gives all weaker characters, such as Priest, Minstrel or Druid better chances of winning or defeating other stronger characters. Why? This is, IMHO, because now they focus more on finishing the quests in hand while building up enough strength or craft to reach CoC, rather than keep exploring and hording magical items that sometimes serve no purpose (especially when the player got items that they can’t use)...
Dungeon: No one entered this region since everyone was too busy leveling at the Outer region. Perhaps with additional one or two player, someone will decide to explore this region.
Reaper: Death was not that deadly after all, he was full of mercy as he even granted a strength to the Necromancer at one point of time. However, he did give us the chill, especially when our fate point was running low and players really avoided him as much as possible..nice..
Next Game: We will surely try out Crown and Scepter with Warlock character included. Should be fun to see how players react to such ending. As for the Ice Queen ending, we will still play it but we expect the game to drag longer because players will definitely take their time to level up before deciding to face her. If they failed, other players have the chance to make the chase and the game play goes on.
Conclusion: I played many Talisman games but didn’t win very often, and to beat the more powerful and favorite Ogre Chieftain is even sweeter.. I have probably won not more than 5 times including this and I must say, what a great game it was and really looking forward to more exciting Talisman sessions soon!!
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Rauli Kettunen
Finland
Oulu
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jininthenet wrote: So the game started where everyone scanned through their Warlock quests and started planning what to do. Philip was even on a relief mood after he had a look at his quests, seemed easy I guess.
"The card is then placed faceup in the player’s play area." (FM rules, p. 1)
(emphasis added)
Easy enough to houserule face down Quests I suppose.
Quote: At that moment, he had a Sword of Light, Riding Horse and Warhorse which allowed him to add his craft to his strength. By now his strength and craft is both at 7!
Did you yet again overlook Warhorse adding only "Craft value" (+2 for OC)?
Quote: But what was even more terrifying about this character is he managed to defeat a strength 7 Dragon, the strength 7 Cerberus and another powerful monster with strength 6 and use them all as followers!
Dragon is Enemy-Dragon, not Enemy-Monster, so "only" +1 Str for cashing it in for the OC.
Quote: Not to mention he managed to get a spell under his sleeve too! In a single attack, he could easily spit out a strength 34 attack if he so decide to use them all!!!
Yep, like I mentioned in your review, Ogre Chieftain and Necromancer can easily own the Lord of Darkness and even very quickly.
Quote: he smiled with high confidence knowing that the Ogre Chieftain will not win because the spell he had in hand was the Path of Destiny (which forces a player to take up a Warlock Quest if he has none, and by doing so, that player can’t enter CoC until he completes the quest)…!
Actually, having a Warlock's Quest prevents you from passing the Portal of Power, but once you're in the Inner Region, doesn't stop you from entering the CoC. Of course, you can even get a char at the Crown with that Spell (assuming normal ending), cast it on the char, if you get lucky, he completes his Quest and is teleported back to Warlock's Cave, away from the CoC. This can happen since a char MUST complete a Quest if able, so if they get "Discard 1 Magic Object" and they have one, they must discard it and are then teleported to the Cave.
Quote: To win the game, Leprechaun doesn’t need to be very strong in strength, 4-6 is good enough. But he should have at least craft 10 to have a fairly smooth entry up to the CoC.
This IMO applies to any char taking the Craft path.
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Jin TS
Malaysia
Petaling Jaya
Selangor
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Quote: "The card is then placed faceup in the player’s play area." (FM rules, p. 1)
(emphasis added)
Easy enough to houserule face down Quests I suppose.
Ok, i guess we will change the way we play next time. I was trying to see how is it going to be when we don't know other player's quests. But let the quests cards faceup is best i think as trhis will also prevent any player trying to cheat..
Quote: Did you yet again overlook Warhorse adding only "Craft value" (+2 for OC)?
You are so right...boy, need to be more alert next time..
Quote: Dragon is Enemy-Dragon, not Enemy-Monster, so "only" +1 Str for cashing it in for the OC.
Ok, noted.
Quote: Actually, having a Warlock's Quest prevents you from passing the Portal of Power, but once you're in the Inner Region, doesn't stop you from entering the CoC. Of course, you can even get a char at the Crown with that Spell (assuming normal ending), cast it on the char, if you get lucky, he completes his Quest and is teleported back to Warlock's Cave, away from the CoC. This can happen since a char MUST complete a Quest if able, so if they get "Discard 1 Magic Object" and they have one, they must discard it and are then teleported to the Cave.
Brilliant idea!!! 
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Posted Sat Jan 30, 2010 4:30 pm
