PnP Games: Magic Spell Deconstructed

This week I played a game called "Magic Spell." As the player, you are a student of magic trying to beat your friends in a competition of who can finish their homework first. Based of the game's rules, it can seem pretty intimidating until you begin playing the game. After that, the game seems much simpler to play other than an issue or two. I'm am now going to deconstruct this game, Magic Spell.

Goal of the game

 The goal of the game is pretty basic; you just need to be the first one to score 9 points.

Core Mechanic

 The Core Mechanic of the game is that of your actions and how you will use your turns to outwit and beat your opponents.

Space of the game

 The space of the game is continuous, being that the game can be played on any hard surface, there are not specified locations in which to put the components of the game.

Objects, Attributes, States

The objects of the game are: the spells and the ingredients. 

Some of the Attributes include: some ingredients can be substituted; these are called Philosopher’s stones. Each spell also has it’s own attribute, they all have different effects and conditions to use them.

The Spells of the game are in one of two states: they are either complete or partially woven. When a spell is completed, it can they be used on the player’s turn, however if it is only partial, then it does nothing.

Operative Actions

• 1)   Weave 
• 2)   Cast 
• 3)   Scrounge 
• 4)   Research
• 5)   Rest

Resultant Actions

• 1)   Make trades with other players
• 2)   Gaining addition spirit
• 3)   Concealing your ingredients and spells
• 4)   Cleanup
• 5)   And the many other spell effects

Rules

 Though it appears as though all the rules of the game are clearly explained, they lack something. On a variety of spells, there is usually a condition that requires “tokens,” but the rules fail to ever bring this up.

Skills

 This game focuses on Mental and Social skills. When it is your turn, you decide what type of action you would like to do for your turn, as such you need to be able to choose the best strategy that will allow you to achieve nine credits first. Memory also comes into play should an opponent discard an ingredient into the laboratory. When it is not your turn, you are free to converse with the fellow players and make trades with each other.

Chance

 The most chance there is in this game is that of drawing spells, and picking up ingredients. Otherwise, the game is primarily focused on mental skills.  

PnP Games: Witch Hunt

One of the PnP games I played was a game called Witch Hunt. The object of this game was to find out who were the witches while keeping track of each player's points, the first to 5 wins. In each round, the players tried to discover everyone's identities until only one person remains. If you discover a witch during the round, you receive 1 point, but if you are witch and survive the round, you get 2 points (only one if you are a villager). At the beginning of the round, you are supposed to select if you are a withc or villager, however we decided it would be more fun if we randomly selected it, which in turn made the game more enjoyable. (I won the game by getting 4 points in one round!)

The second game I played was a game called Jest. The object of this game was to get the highest value, with receiving the joker being the highest value. It wasn't as enjoyable as Witch Hunt, but was an overall okay game.

Rewards

For what reason do we continue to play games, especially very tedious ones. The rewards, plain and simple. When a game offers an interesting reward, we will continue to play the game until we achieve this goal. Like some RPG games, where a rare enemy will drop a rare piece of loot that could be vital for making an optional weapon or piece of armor. This will cause gamers to repeatedly fight this enemy again and again until the loot is obtained, even going as far as equipping certain accessories that will increase your chances of obtaining it. When you do finally receive the reward, you feel very accomplished and proud that you were able to make such an achievement. Another example would be Xbox achievements, where gamer points can be received by doing the most tedious objectives in video games. Some rewards will entice you more than others, but in the end that's what we're playing for, whether it for tedious gamer points or Oreo cookies, we will keep playing these games to receive these rewards.