Wrestlenomicon vs. Epic Spell Wars ! ! !

That's pro-wrestling-style hype for a grudge match that's more likely to be a team-up!

Three of the card games I’ve designed are somewhat similar to Wrestlenomicon’s style, play time, or ambition. Here are notes on fun elements of Three-Dragon Ante, Inn-Fighting, and Epic Spell Wars and how those elements compare to what’s going on in Wrestlenomicon.

Three-Dragon Ante

3DA is a game world artifact, the card game people in D&D worlds entertain themselves with in taverns when they’re not brawling.

Ambition: Like Wrestlenomicon, Three-Dragon Ante features a simple mechanical innovation I was surprised hadn’t been used before. In 3DA’s case, that’s the idea that high cards help you win the stakes but cards lower than what your opponent just played provide micro-rewards that set you up for later success. That makes Three-Dragon Ante the deliberate opposite of poker, that rewards folding out of bad hands instead playing through.

Wrestlenomicon’s ambitious streak, mechanically speaking, is that it models big slow cosmic wrestling attacks by giving them no immediate effect when played, except for moving a previously played attack (or attacks) further down the track towards Ground Zero, where attacks go off. This style of obvious-incoming-attack and uncertain-momentum seems to me to do a pretty good job of modeling a wrestling match, and I was amused to come up with a fun mechanic that apparently hasn’t been used before.

Inn-Fighting

A card and dice game of tavern-brawling.

Play-style: This one is a bit more like Wrestlenomicon in that it’s definitely a fight that rewards offense more than defense. There’s a lot more uncertainty about what you’ll be able to accomplish on your turn—dice are like that. So it’s much less strategic than Wrestlenomicon.

Inn-Fighting is also a game that is meant for multiple players, not a great two-player experience. In that, Wrestlenomicon is different than all three of these games. Wrestlenomicon was designed as a two-player game.

But towards the end of the development cycle, Bebo Boe asked me why Wrestlenomicon couldn’t be played by more than two players. My answer was something like “I tried it and that didn’t work,” which didn’t exactly satisfy her. So I thought about it some more and came up with an easy solution for making it a three or four player game. (More players are possible, but relatively slow.)

Even if we don’t do more decks right away, you’ll be able to play good three or four player games as grand melees or team matches if you have more than one copy of the game. If the Kickstarter does well and we publish more decks soon, even better.

 

Epic Spell Wars

ESW is definitely the closest of my little card games to Wrestlenomicon, if only because it benefits so hugely from co-creators card concepts and sense of humor!

I submitted a game of dueling wizards to Cryptozoic. But by the time ESW was published Cory Jones had changed nearly every name and written an entirely new art order. So the punch-drunk names and wild art by Nick Edwards in ESW, that add so much to the game, well, they weren’t how I’d handled it.

Likewise, in Wrestlenomicon, Shane Ivey and Dennis Detwiller came up with all the card names. They’d handled the art direction and Kurt Komoda handled the art before I joined the team. So instead of the ESW situation, where I actually had no idea what cards were going to accomplish by looking at the final art, since everything had gotten moved around, with Wrestlenomicon I got to design every element of the mechanics to match and live up to the art. I’d say it was inspirational but it went a couple steps past inspiration. I scrapped the first two attempts because I needed to create a game that was enough visceral fun to live up to Cassilda’s Thong and Tentacle Necktie!

I’d say that ESW and Wrestlenomicon end up as similar crazy-fighting fun. ESW is lighter, but as a two-player game, Wrestlenomicon is faster. You can usually play a full two player Wrestlenomicon game in between twenty and thirty-five minutes, sometimes even less. Longer games are possible, but rare.

Even so, the decisions you’ll make each Wrestlenomicon turn, and over the two or three turns you might be trying to look at least half-way ahead, are more decisive. Play skill matters more in Wrestlenomicon, despite the apparent randomness of the dice. It’s possible for one game to pivot mostly on the dice, but if you play two or three games, patterns emerge.

If you’re curious to see more of how Wrestlenomicon plays, click here for a how to play video from Bebo with bonus wrestling violence, and then check out the full rules and initial DIY card set that are available in the first update for Kickstarter backers. Any pledge will get you through the gate to see the DIY kit. If you’ve read this far, chances are that you’ll like it.

Epic Spell Blahs

A funny thing happened on the way to the publication of the second ESW set, Epic Spell Wars: Rumble at Castle Tentakill.

Actually, I wish it was funny, but it’s not, and I’m no longer the target audience.

I handled mechanical design on this set and its Mt. Skullzyfyre predecessor, aided by Matt Hyra’s devteam at Cryptozoic. Cory Jones of Cryptozoic renames the cards and writes the art descriptions and writes the story in the rulebook. What that means is that a large portion of the game’s initial success came from Cory, because I suspect that more people bought the game for its Nick Edwards art and its over-the-top theme than for the mechanics. I’d kinda hoped to shift that equation a little with set 2, because I was really happy with the choices added by the new mechanics, Blood, and creatures.

But I was wrong about thinking that the first set had been pushed to the edge. I didn’t realize that Cryptozoic was going to put an AWESOME MATURE CONTENT AND PROFANITY warning on the box, and I didn’t realize what that would mean.

I saw the cards for the first time last week and I wasn’t amused. There are sexist cards, racist cards, sniggering cards, and just plain ugly cards. It irritated me so much I only got through half the cards the first day.

I’ve discussed the set with Cory and he says he thinks of the ESW property as an Adult Swim cartoon. Huh. I think that’s a category error, and that even if you managed to make an Adult Swim cartoon out of a game, you wouldn’t handle the game as if it were the cartoon.

I’d been thinking of ESW as a game I was happy playing with my female and male friends and at conventions with strangers. But that’s not true anymore, unless I strip out the sexist and racist cards and squint at the rest.

I view this Adult Swim approach as a mistaken rebranding of an already successful game property that had wider appeal. Cory sees it as a minor alteration of an already edgy property.

And maybe he’s right about the minor alteration angle. It looks like I didn’t take the storyline in the first rulebook seriously enough, probably because it ticked me off. Certainly I believed that the game had found its tone the first time out. Turns out I was wrong. If this second set really is only a minor alteration, it turns out that the first set was as far as I was comfortable taking a game meant to be played by people I like. 

So I’m opting out of Epic Spell Wars publicity. I’m not pushing the game or running it at conventions.

Cory has apologized for surprising me with the switch to the NSFW model of the game and has agreed to take my name off the cover of the second printing.

The anthropologist in me is curious to see how this plays out. The rest of me is irritated.

Epic Spell Wars: Creatures of the Game Expansion Duel at Mount Tabletop

No, that's not the actual title of the soon-to-arrive sequel to Epic Spell Wars in the subject line. I don't actually know the title of the expansion yet. That's the kind of detail I'm OK learning as a surprise, and along with most of the card names, it's one of the creative elements Cory Jones adds while he and Cryptozoic are harnessing Nick Edwards' never-risk-an-underdose art.

Nick's art was a big hit on last week's episode of Tabletop. Wil Wheaton and friends (thanks, Boyan!) taunted, cackled, and romped through one Epic Spell Wars battle. It was a hilarious episode and perfectly captured the spirit in which the game is meant to be played.

I don't think we've released much information about Epic Spell Wars II yet, to the extent that this may be the first that some people know it's in the works. In the spirit of the game, here are Eight Fact-Like Factoids about Epic Spell Wars II. Unlike the Fact-Like Facts from Scott Bateman's Disalmanac, more than half of these ESW factoids are true. Five of eight truths, to be precise.

1.      Creatures that roll well for Power will stay around and fight for you again next turn.

2.      Food cards heal you and are even more powerful if you physically spill food or drink on them at the table.

3.      Game mechanics experiments with victory points didn't work out, but those mechanics morphed into a blood point system that add choices by providing a resource that can power up some spells. 

4.      The cardboard Standee included in the box now has gameplay relevance that may change your plans for a turn.

5.      The cardboard Standee in this set flies like a helicopter if you hold it upside-down and spin it real fast.

6.      This is a full stand-alone game, with spell cards and treasures and Dead Wizard cards and all the rest, but it can also be added seamlessly to the existing cards for Epic Epic Spell Wars.

7.      The physical rulebook is supplemented by an audiofile New Rules Summary read by Wil Wheaton in the voice of Krazztar the Blood'o'Mancer.

8.      The game is due out in May!

Richard Garfield on Epic Spell Wars

While revising the cleric for 13th Age on Friday night I got a mightily surprising text message. Richard Garfield texted to say that he had put up a podcast on Epic Spell Wars and that he hoped I liked it. Umm, yes, I do! The link is here.

The podcast is funny and thoughtful. Richard observes that ESWOTBWDAMS is a game where what you see on the cover is exactly what you get from the art, components and gameplay. From a general game design perspective, Richard talks most about the tension between player interaction and intrusive player politicking. I was happy that Richard zeroed in on the way Epic Spell Wars handles politics, a subtle element of the design that doesn't always get noticed.

Richard describes ESW as a party game, which I think is right. I recently asked people preparing press releases for 13th Age to stop referring to the design of Epic Spell Wars as "critically acclaimed." Critically acclaimed felt wrong to me. Acclaimed by people who like to laugh and have fun, that seems accurate. I'm extremely happy that Richard is one of the people in that camp!

Richard's podcast ends with a children's section where he quizzes his son and another kid on their favorite characters and moments in the game. Very sweet. So I thought I'd sign off by sharing this thank you note I got from two kids, Wayan & Nils, who we gifted with a copy of the game early on.

Kill Tokens: short play variant for Epic Spell Wars

Epic Spell Wars awards victory to the first player to win two Last Wizard Standing tokens. But playing with four or five players, it can take five to six games for the magic second win, and that’s too long a game for some people.

   If you want to play a set number of games and come away with a definite winner, or you suspect the game may have to end early, try this variant rule.

   Every time you play a spell (or use a treasure, however you do it) and knock a rival wizard out of the game, you win a Kill token. One spell kills three enemy wizards? That’s three Kill tokens. If the game has to end before someone has won two Last Wizard Standing tokens, break the tie between people with one LSW token apiece by counting Kill tokens. If that’s still a tie, heck, I say let them tie. (Haven’t had a tie yet…)

   The play pattern shifts a bit in a good way. Players recognize that getting a kill may end up helping them win, so there is more point to going out in a blaze of glory.

   You don’t score a Kill token for taking yourself out, but if you can take yourself out you prevent a foe from getting the kill. 

Baby's First Combo

Epic Spell Wars is out and selling extremely well. People who know nothing about the game beforehand buy it for the amazing art by Nick Edwards. The gameplay comes as a pleasant surprise.

It’s a game that can be played with friends who aren’t ordinarily interested in gamer-games. I refer to the appeal of the core mechanic as Baby’s First Combo; people who haven’t experienced card combos before react well to putting cards together for synergistic effect. I think of ESW as a gateway game, it has helped a couple people who usually aren’t comfortable playing with the rest of us happy about joining in.  

The Baby’s First Combo tag got a workout a few days ago when a friend’s 20-month old, sitting on her lap during a game, got hold of the Thundering card and gave it a mouth-over. Lisa said, “When the box says the game is for 15+ it means months, right?”

ESW’s non-gamer appeal put me in the mockery seat when I played the game with a circle of non-gamers and Eurogamers. Whenever I referred to rolling one die I always said “Roll 1d6”and people at the table laughed at me and said, “You’re such a gamer! Roll 1d6! Only gamers talk like that!” It’s been a Loooong time since I got made fun of for being a gamer. Given the context, I could live with it.

Earlier in the day I’d been in a six player game. At some point Jay Schneider, my co-founder at Fire Opal Media, came by the table and said, “Oh my god! Mons IS the last Wizard standing! Look at yourselves!” You win Epic Spell Wars by being the Last Wizard Standing in two games. And our table of six included five former Wizards of the Coast employees and just one still-going-strong WotC employee. We could have handed Mons an LWS token on the spot but we made him work for it and he went down in spatters.

When Bunny Slippers Go Bad

Epic Spell Wars of the Battle Wizards: Duels at Mt. Skullzfyre is out. I haven't seen a copy yet, but people are buying it from stores and I hope to track down a copy later today if my case doesn't arrive from Cryptozoic. If you have been waiting until the game was out to pester your local hobby shop for a copy, now is the time for pesteration.

Delicious? Or Devilicious?

While I’ve been working on new games, Epic Spell Wars has skipped ever-closer to its early/mid-February publication.

Cryptozoic has six ESW wallpapers up now, ranging from Thai-Foon’s Delicious Chicken to Midnight Merlin’s Devilicious Exorcism.

Even better, Cryptozoic put a photo album of the game’s unboxing on its Facebook page. Man, I didn’t even know there was going to be a Mt. Skullzfyre standee. I’m tempted to make a rule for using it in the game, but ESW is a game that does well with a minimum of rules, so I’ll resist temptation for now. 

What Use is a Dead Wizard?

One of the mechanics in Epic Spell Wars (due out in February) may be entirely new.

Generally I shy away from saying that about something I’ve designed. Yeah, I aim to design innovative games, but it’s often the case that people I don’t know about have enjoyed precisely the same thrill of innovation. Given the reach of the Internet, I expect that mentioning the Dead Wizard Deck from ESW as an innovation is going to be like casting Summon Previous Game Mechanic V!

Epic Spell Wars is a multiplayer game that awards ultimate victory to the first player to win two games. You win a game by being the last wizard standing after all other wizards have been knocked to 0 HP. When you are knocked out of a game, you wait around for the battle to be decided so that the next game can start. The games usually go quickly but you’re still likely to have to wait for several rounds.

In earlier designs I’ve kept all players involved in the game until it’s over for everyone, but in ESW I took a different approach. Each player who has been knocked out draws from the Dead Wizard Deck. You get a draw when you’re slain and another draw at the start of each round. Dead Wizard cards provide advantages in the next game. You might get +2 Hit Points next game, or a bonus Wild card in your starting hand, or even a draw from the Treasure deck.

The worse you lose, the stronger you are likely to be for the next game. You’ve already been hit by the stick; here, have a carrot! It’s a fun dynamic and it gives players who’ve been kicked around the usually-correct impression that they’re going to be more dangerous next time.  

I can’t remember playing a tabletop game that uses a mechanic like this. Maybe it is new (Summon PGM V)! If it isn’t new, I’m curious to hear how other games have handled it. If the approach improves a game you’re playing or designing, I’m curious to hear that too. 

Epic Spell Wars

Skullzor Ring of Power is one of the treasure cards from the card game I’ve got coming out from Cryptozoic in February. You can find a PDF of the rules here. The longish post that follows is about how a humorous spellcasting battle game between Vancian wizards transformed into an over-the-top Skullzorian explosion after I submitted the design to Cryptozoic.

I’ve been tinkering around for years with game mechanics that use a source, some type of adjective and a final attack method as three separate elements of what will become a single attack/combination/spell. I started this dueling wizards game as a new riff on the feel of one of my favorite little board games, Tom Jolly’s Wiz-War. Wiz-War sometimes has the problem of going through dry spells when no one wants to engage. Or taking forever to finish as wizards staggered blindly on the wrong side of a thorn wall!  

So I aimed for a consistently fast-playing game that would have the flavor of the wizardry employed by Jack Vance’s wizards in the Dying Earth books. Typical spells included Flibwort the Traitor’s Festive Pustule, or Drusilla’s Scandalous Phantasmagoons. My code name for the game was CANTRIP, kind of the opposite of the game’s expansive feel, but a fair illustration of the Midwestern restraint that suited my notion of Vancian dignity.

And then a funny thing happened on the way to publication by Cryptozoic. While Mike Donais and Matt Hyra worked on developing the system, paring away complications and improving most all the cards, their boss Cory Jones revised the names of all the cards to match splatterwhack new art suggestions. Nick Edwards executed the art suggestions. The game transformed away from Vancian restraint into an Erol Otus Meets Robert Crumb Meets Adventure Time mode. Phantasmagoons was one of the few names I’d originated that survived Cory's re-engineering of the IP. Matching the new ‘this one goes to 11’ mentality, Cory named the game Epic Spell Wars of the Battle Wizards: Duel at Mt. Skullzfyre.

As the art and the names started trickling back to me on the home-garage side of the freelance experience, I had the wonderful experience of watching something I’d designed transform into a better idea. Cory's vision allowed the new art to blossom. Getting better art than you expect for a project is like opening a wonderful birthday present when you had forgotten that it was your birthday. You can’t expect or even wish for these lucky moments, you just have to be grateful. 

[[*I note that the Summer 2012 note at the bottom of this wallpaper image is too pessimistic; the game is still on track for February.]]