by womzilla
The argument for getting the Erlkönig edition is that there is a lot of reading in this game, so if your players aren't all fluent in English, that could be a significant obstacle to playing. You could have a single, English-fluent player do all of the reading from the Book of Tales and translate as necessary, but there's text on pretty much all of the cards as well--statuses, skills, treasures, quests.The argument for getting the Z-man edition is that it's a lot ... MORE. The rules are somewhat streamlined, and there are a few additional features like the quest cards (and all of the variants from the original game are, I believe, now available through the Z-man site). But the heart of the game is the Book of Tales, and the Z-man version is nearly twice the volume of the Erlkönig edition, which itself was a significant expansion of the original West End edition. The new Book of Tales is better written, the encounters are more coherent, it's just plain MORE Tales-y goodness to enjoy.
So it's a tough call. Of course I would recommend that you buy both!