Talisman! Talisman! Talisman!

Ok so I have been playing Talisman with my friends - mainly because out DM has been busy with a job, too busy to run stuff- but also because I love it.
We played 4th edition (good, but not as clear and crisp).
Then Relic (tons of cool new ideas- like creatures adding up, dials instead of cones, relics grating abilities, interesting characters, 3 stats, different EXP, ETC).
but.....
There's issues with all those.
I prefer third edition 
But I have some ideas of things to do, and we tried it this Thursday.

I went through and fixed the deck, to be devoid of expansion cards - 

and...

Changed how movement works!
Which has been extremely rewarding, and has set my brain on fire - the design space is expansive, interesting, and very fun to tool around with.

I added these characters - with accompanying miniatures:

Movement cards for Adventurer: 1D6 (3), 1 or 2 or 3, 2.

Movement cards for Anglerman: 1, 2, 3, 3, 2 or 5, 6.

Movement cards for Beastman: 2, 4, 4, 7, 1D6, Gain 1 Gold.

Movement cards for "Halfling": 1,2,3,3.

Movement cards for Wizard: 1, 2, 3, 3, 5, Gain 1 Spell.

Movement cards for Gnomish Druid: 2, 3, 3, 4, Craft, Strength.

Movement cards for Oni: 3, 1+N, where N is amount of used movement cards (5), Pick back up 1D6 movement cards.

Movement cards for Rhino Ogre: 1 left, 2 right, 3 left, 4 right, 5 left, 6 right.

These all operate as if the Rhino Ogre is facing the inner ring of the board.

Pictures from here!
Adventurer - Thanks Rick!
Anglerman - Thanks Pingo!
Beastman - Thanks Maledrakh!
"Halfling"- Thanks Skiesclear!
Dwarf Wizard - Thanks Pochi!
Gnomish Druid - Thanks Geoff Davis!
Oni - Thanks! Unsure of artist name!
Rhino Ogre - Thanks Humansquish!

Movement cards work like this: You get a card with all those things written on them - and each turn you choose one, and move that many. Then it is used up - and you gain all your used movement cards when you have used all of them.
This replaces rolling the dice for movement.

So
Rhino Ogre moves back and forth, pacing - to limit his ability to crash into/past players - and also makes him a little raging tornado that one should avoid being in the proximity of.
His high strength and 5 life are mitigated by his start location - along with his difficulty moving - but he is very good at beating up players and encounters - except spirits.

Oni has an unusual start - and her move cards are extremely variable, requiring movement loops and planning - along with increasing movement then slowing down, unless the player is canny.
She also is able to yoink lots from beating up players - and her ability can make her very strong off the bat, with only a couple turns - but - she is at high risk of dying if she continually uses her ability.
She is also immune to events - which has some benefits - though there are only a couple in the base game of Talisman 3rd Edition. 

Gnomish Druid should prioritize getting as much exp as possible then travelling to woods to spend it - and her ability to reroll odds means she can often try twice during combat.
The animals are few, but even one or two are a great help, especially early game.
Her movement cards can get very long compared to everyone else, moving upwards of 9 or 10 in the late parts of the game.

Dwarf Wizard can carry six items instead of four - so getting gold and buying stuff is good - and his starting spell is a great boon.
In addition to this, his movement cards are easy to use - and his spell movement card allows him to get quite powerful, with new spells coming in quite regularly - though gaining enough craft to hold onto them should be a priority, and new spells do use up a turn.

"Halfing" has by far the best movement cards - scuttling in good areas back and forth, and has fewer cards than the rest, but may have trouble going long distances.
It's abilities are useful, with gold basically becoming temporary strength and craft - normal items being worth lives - and magical items being worth a level.
However, it's starting stats are weak.

Beastman's movement cards are somewhat challenging to use - though by skipping his first turn, he starts with two gold, with his gain one gold movement card - and can move fairly far distances. With some planning, and occasional luck with the 1D6 card, the beastman can calculate good paths with some cunning,
His ability necessitates low starting strength, but after just a few levels, can quickly become a recruiting leader, with a army - till he loses.
In addition, losses net Exp, helping cement his strength to levels that allow for actually just steamrolling, but a careful start may be required - or buying the right items at the city gates, and healing is extra useful.

Anglerman places 5 well tokens on the board, only on the outer ring. Any given well token way be their starting space. When they start their turn on a space with a well, they may travel to any other well. Anybody else trying to use a well token must roll 1D6, and travel clockwise, with the crags being oriented at the bottom, with the next well closest to current being 1, then 2, ETC - if a six is rolled, they choose which well to arrive at.
The anglerman's movement cards are also very useful, allowing the anglerman to tractor beam players, locations, items, strangers, and creatures - towards the anglerman.
This means that they only pull one card on the board, or player - in the same region - towards the anglerman the amount on the movement card. Creatures moved in this way encounter players they land on, and players landing on the anglerman or creatures encounter or may be battled. items can be given to players, locations visited - etc

Adventurer gets a strong start - with three pieces of equipment right off the bat - I should probably not allow armor, but....
whatever!
His ability to call rolls is also fun - he can get other players to pay him to call the roll, and potentially increase their roll - and on his own turn, calling rolls can lead to great benefits on spaces and locations - and combat becomes more exciting - and his stats are a good baseline, so a good start is likely.

Potions + Optional Death Rule

Ok so: I also added the following cards to the purchase deck.

Just make a 2D6 table for the yellow potions.
I suggest the yellow potentially heal or grant random amounts of craft or strength until end of turn - and also potentially deal damage or cause strength or craft loss.
For additional fun - make 2D6 tables for each 2 part combination of the three potions, so an orange, purple, and green table.
Green should be healing or damage, like unstable potions in DungeonQuest.
Orange should grant spells, extra turns, movement cards back - and also do the inverse probably.
Purple should be permanent increases and decreases in strength or craft.

All three of the primary color potions cost 1 gold each at the city gates.
I suggest 5 of each to be available alongside regular equipment.

Other new rule (maybe) worked ok in play - two people died but this kept them from leaving the game
If a player dies, send them to their starting location, and they gain 1 life a turn, until they are back to 4
then they can continue playing.
so....
They lose 4 turns.

Or

Each turn of recovery they gain 1d6 life back up to their max of 4, and if at the start of their turn they are back to 4, they are back
This is more forgiving.

Ok, thank you!
I will likely make another post soon, as I am having lots of fun thinking of stuff for this - and it is trivially easy to make more new characters - as most of the miniatures are 4-6 dollars.
I have a gorilla chasing a halfling, a dragon guy, and a cyclops that a friend bought, but there is also a Mi-Go at the comic shop, along with a Troll, and tons of other cool miniatures. 

My eventual goal is to re-do all of the character miniatures and character cards for third edition I have, with movement cards, better abilities - and across the board balanced stats.
It is trivially easy to accomplish this with my scanner and the template I created, even if it is a little rough.
That would be: Dwarf Warrior, Wizard, Ranger, Knight Templar, Warrior, Goblin Fanatic, Skaven, Minotaur, Swashbuckler, Barbarian, and Wood Elf.

Other goals: 
Make A Red and Pleasant Land Talisman, Vornheim version of Candyland, Frostbitten and Mutilated Talisman, and Maze of the Blue Medusa Dungeon!

Oh!
And the potion art is by Zak Sabbath - it is from A Red and Pleasant Land.