[Concept]
Mana Maker: Homebrew Wizardry is a competitive card + board game for 2 to 8 players. Each player takes on the role of a Wizard, and draws cards to cast powerful spells, summoning dreadful monsters or raining down fire upon their enemies. Attack your opponent's Wizard character to defeat them, but watch out! Your enemies are aiming to do the same to you!
Team Play and alternative game modes are available as well! After all, this is
Homebrew Wizardry, a game made by the players, made for the players! Play a round or two and see what you and your friends can come up with. Having fun is the number one priority!
[Required Materials]
Each player should have:
- A deck of Mana Maker cards, having around 40 to 80 cards. See page (#Y) for rules & guidelines on deck construction.
- A game board, or two (Standard play may involve two worlds to navigate)
- Several ID Tokens - matching unique pairs. These keep track of where your characters are on the board. Probably want at least 10 per player.
- Dice, glass beads, plastic chips, pen and paper, a laptop, an abacus, or any means of keeping track of information, such as Wizard's Damage, Mana levels, and so on.
- The will and sportmanship to have fun and interesting Wizardly battles!
[Game Setup]
Assign seating for all players.
Place the game board(s) a comfortable distance where all players can see and reach.
Assign board starting positions to players - something symmetrical is recommended. Standard boards may have recommended starting positions marked.
Players place an ID token on their starting position, and keep the matching token in front of them on the table. These tokens represent their Wizards - the player's characters! If present, players may also place a Wizard card for their convenience. This card should normally never be part of someone's deck, it's just a helpful reminder.
All wizards start with the following stats:
20 vitality
1 Power
0 Toughness
1 Speed
3 Green Mana
3 Green Mana Capacity
1 Green Mana Production
1 Silver Mana
1 Silver Mana Capacity
0 Silver Mana Production
All players shuffle their decks, then place them near by on the table.
All players draw 7 cards from their decks.
Players may cycle cards during this stage. To cycle, a player discards 2 cards from their inventory (hand), and then draws 1 card from their deck. Players may repeat this as many times as they wish at this stage of the set up.
(NOTE: The first cycle costs discarding 1 instead of 2 cards)
Decide who goes first. Turn order is clockwise around the table.
With that, players are ready to begin the first turn of the game!
[Gameplay Loop]
The "Main Gameplay Loop" is a set of steps that players follow to progress their turn.
1. The "Active Player" (the player whose turn it is) draws 1 card from their deck.
2. All Mana Fountains controlled by the Active Player produce Mana, and add it to their controller's Mana Levels. Any Mana Production that exceeds their Mana Capacity is simply lost.
3. All Status Effects on Entities controlled by the Active Player are triggered now, in any order the Active Player chooses - one Entity at a time.
4. All Abilities on Entities controlled by the Active Player that trigger "At the beginning of your turn" are triggered now, in any order the Active Player chooses, one Entity at a time.
5. All entities controlled by the Active Player have their Action Points replenished. The number of Action Points an Entity has is simply its Speed level. Note that Action Points do not accumulate additively; if an Entity has 1 Action Point, and their Speed is 2, they do not have 3 Action Points at this stage, instead they have 2 Action Points.
6. After these steps are finished, the Active Player may perform any of the following Actions:
A) Play a card.
This is done by selecting a card from their inventory (Hand) and paying its costs in order to use it. When this happens, the card is said to be "Played", and any effects that trigger "When a card is played" trigger now.
B) Moving an Entity
Many Entities can move on their own, at a cost of one Tile per Action Point. The Entity must have a "clear path" from where it starts, to where you want it to reach. That is, it must be able to move one Tile at a time from start to end position, without ever occupying a tile that is already occupied by another entity. A special type of Entity, called a Structure, usually has the attribute "Immobile", and cannot move.
C) Use an Ability
Many Entities have Abilities you can find printed on their cards. If you can meet the requirements, such as paying the Ability's cost, then the chosen Entity performs the Ability.
By default, all Critters (a type of Entity) have an ability called Basic Attack. Read more about using Abilities and Attacking on page (#X)
D) Pass the Turn
When the Active Player has no other options, or whenever they choose, they may pass the turn to the next player, proceed to step 7; they are still the Active Player until all the following steps are completed.
If the Active Player does not choose to Pass the Turn, then they repeat step 6 and choose another available option.
7. Abilities on Entities controlled by the Active Player which trigger "At the end of your turn" are triggered now, in any order the Active Player chooses, one card at a time.
8. Status Effects on Entities controlled by the Active Player which trigger "At the end of your turn" are triggered now, in any order the Active Player chooses, one entity at a time.
9. If the Active Player has more than ten cards in their Inventory (hand), they must Discard cards until they have ten cards.
10. The Active Player's turn is fully ended. They are no longer the Active Player, and the next player clockwise around the game table is the Active Player, and their turn begins; proceed to step 1.
Extra Rules:
If at any time a player's Wizard is defeated - that is, their Damage Points is equal to or greater than their Vitality - then that player loses the game. They are unable to take any further actions in the game, they do not draw cards, play cards, or issue any commands.
If at any time a single player is the last player whose Wizard is not defeated, that player is the winner of the game! (Alternatively: If a single team is the last team Standing, that team is declared the winner!)
(#X)
[Using Abilities and Attacking]
Abilities often work with some kind of "information", such as a target Entity or a variable Mana Cost. Before an Ability begins to take effect, the player taking this action must specify all of this information. For example, they must specify exactly which Entity another Entity is targetting for an attack. As an other example, consider the ability "Summon Fairie" on the card Fairie Spawner, which says:
Spawn a Fairie on an adjacent empty tile. ...
This Ability needs an adjacent empty tile to create a new Fairie upon, therefore the player must specify exactly which tile that is before the Ability even begins to happen. Any time any amount of information cannot be specified, for example there are no adjacent empty tiles available for an Ability that requires one, or the player cannot pay the cost for the Ability, then the Ability never begins to happen; no costs are paid, and nothing happens.
Attacks are a special type of Ability, and by default unless otherwise stated on the card, all Critters have the Ability called "Basic Attack". An attack is any Ability where one Entity targets another Entity (or multiple Entities). In all cases, the Entity which is performing the Ability is called the "Actor", and any target Entities are called "Subjects", though you might just as well see them referred to as the "Targets". In the case of Attacks, you might instead see the Actor and Subject refered to as the "Attacker" and "Defender". All of these terms are essentially interchangeable.
The Attack Process: Calulcating Damage & Blocks and Retaliations:
We'll consider the Basic Attack in this example.
When Attacking, the Active Player selects which Entity will perform the Attack, then they choose which other Entity is the target of the Attack. If all costs & conditions can be met, then it is at this point that the Attack begins.
If the Defender has any Abilities with the "Block" or "Counter" Attribute, then the Defender's Controller may choose to use them now, given of course they can meet that Ability's costs & conditions. These are special types of Abilities that happen
before the Attacker fully attacks and any damage is dealt, and they have the Attacker as their target. The effects of the Block or Counter happen first, before the Attacker's attack.
Regardless of Blocks or Counters, if the Attacker is still undefeated and able to Attack, now the Attack happens. Damage is calculated in two steps: the "Damage Dealt", and the "Damage Received",
Damage Dealt = (Attacker's Power + Attacker's Additive Bonuses) × Attacker's Multiplicative Bonuses
Damage Received = (Damage Dealt ÷ Defender's Multiplicative Bonuses) - Defender's Additive Bonuses
Alright, let's take a moment and not get too far ahead of ourselves... you're probably wondering about these "Additive Bonuses" and "Multiplicative Bonuses", right? Don't worry, it's not complicated! For the Attacker, Additive Bonuses are just things that
add to the Damage Dealt, they are things like weapons or enchantments that might say something like "Adds +2 Damage to Attacks". As for Multiplicative Bonuses, they are from things that
multiply the Damage Dealt, they too could be from weapons or enchantments, and might say something like "Multiplies Damage Dealt by 2". These also come in the form of elemental type match-ups, for example a water attack vs a fire defender might multiply the Damage Dealt by 2. More information is available in the Glossary.
As for the Defender, it's fairly similar. We take the Damage Dealt, divide by the Defender's Multiplicative Bonuses, then subtract Additive Bonuses. These bonuses of course come from things like armor or enchantments on the Defender.
At the end of all this, we have the Damage Received. This is the final answer in our Damage Calculation, it is the number of Damage Points that the Defender receives. If the Defender's Damage Points are equal to or greater than their Vitality level, that Defender is considered Defeated, and as such, they are unable to perform any further actions.
After Damage Points have been allocated, if the Defender is still Standing ("Not Defeated"), then they can use any Abilities with the Retaliation Attribute. These are similar to the Blocks and Counters discussed above, but they simply happen
after the attack happens and all Damage is dealt. The target of a Retaliation is the Attacker.
(#Y)
[Deck Construction Guidelines]
A Deck should have between 40 and 80 cards. As well, the sum of all Values of cards in the deck should not exceed 55,
with only two exceptions: Green Mana Fountains and Silver Mana Fountains are not counted towards this total.
(#Z)
[Terms and Game Mechanics]
Please refer to the Glossary at https://www.ManaMaker.Wiki for an exhaustive glossary.