Daniel (@dungeondive) shares the custom solo/co-op rules he’s designing for Talisman 5th Edition — born from disappointment with the official Alliances expansion.
The setup:
- Uses the doom track from Alliances
- Events removed from adventure deck and kept separate
- Villain cards from Alliances act as threats to manage
- All villains must be cleared before anyone can enter the Portal of Power
The event chart (2d6, rolled after each player’s turn):
- 2: Doom track moves down
- 3: Random outer region corner closes for 3 turns
- 4: Draw event card
- 5: Add villain (can spend trophy to cancel)
- 6: Random middle region corner closes for d3 turns
- 7: All quiet
- 8: Psychic storm (craft 7 attack on all players)
- 9: Add villain
- 10: Draw event card
- 11: Corrupting force (all players lose 1 life)
- 12: Doom track moves up
Villain trophies can be spent as:
- Fate tokens (for movement or rerolls)
- Normal trophies
- 2 cards to teleport to any outer/middle space
- 3 cards to move doom track up one
Design philosophy:
Daniel wanted threat management, more trophy choices, and minimal rule changes. No other house rules layered on top — just enough to make Talisman feel like a proper co-op.
He’s considering integrating the companions and boons from the Call of the Hunt expansion as additional ways to spend villain trophies.
Rules will be available on the Dungeon Dive Patreon as a work in progress.
Have you tried house-ruling Talisman for solo/co-op? What mechanics would you want in a proper co-op variant?