Monday, January 23, 2012

The Sights And Sounds Of Magic Realm

I should probably add smells and treasure sites to that list, as there are multiple sense-evoking clues regarding monsters inhabiting the Magic Realm, as well as eight treasure sites scattered across the kingdom, just waiting to be looted by enterprising characters.

While the valleys in Magic Realm are relatively safe (except for one valley, haunted by a pair of ghosts), the caves and mountains are both dangerous and rewarding.

There are eight treasure sites in Magic Realm, as well as the lost city and lost castle, hidden in the mountains and caves. When setting up the Magic Realm board, the treasure sites are distributed secretly and randomly, so that none of the players, not even the person setting up the board, knows where the treasure sites are at the start of the game.

The above treasure and location chits include both the name of the treasure site and the clearing it will be located in. For example, the Altar is found in clearing 1. You may recall, from my earlier blog on the Magic Realm map, that each clearing on a map tile is numbered. That allows these treasure sites to be placed in a particular clearing of a map tile.

As the characters travel throughout the Magic Realm, they will discover these treasure sites. Some of them are more rewarding than others. For example, the Dragon Hoard and the Pool Of The Octopus each contain nine treasures. Others, like the Altar, Shrine and Statue (guarded by Demons and Imps) have only 3 or 4 treasures each.

The Lost City and Lost Castle are special locations. They signify large concentrations of monsters and treasures, as a map tile with either contains five monster and treasure chits, rather than the usual one chit.

In addition to treasure sites, you're likely to hear strange sounds as you venture through the mountains and caves of the Magic Realm. Those sounds are clues to the types of monsters you will eventually encounter in that map tile. For example, you may here the slithering of a giant serpent, the pattering of goblin feet, or the howl of the giant bats, long before those monsters appear. These sound chits are accompanied by a number, indicating in which clearing the lair of these monsters is located, so it is relatively easy to avoid them, at first.

In addition to the sound chits, there are the above warning chits. They are perhaps more aptly named the no-warning chits, because these chits represent clues indicating monsters are very near. The above chits all have the letter "C" indicating that these are warning chits found in the caves, attracting such monsters as the goblins, trolls and serpents.
And the above warning chits are placed in the mountains, signified by the capital "M" under the warning description. The mountains are where the spiders, giants, and bats are most likely to be found.
While most of the deadliest monsters are found in the mountains and caves, the woods are home to packs of wolves, poisonous snakes, and a pair of unpleasant ogres. It is often wise to hide before ending your turn in the woods, at least until you have determined who inhabits it.

2 comments:

Matthew Slepin said...

How are they placed without being seen?

Aaron E. Steele said...

The backs of the chits are white. You take the 5 "caves chits", turn them face-down (white-side up), mix them, and place one on each cave tile.

You do the same with each of the 5 mountain chits, 5 woods chits, and so on. So you have the chits, face-down, on the gameboard, and it is only when you end your turn on a map tile that the chits are turned face-up, and you find out what monsters and treasure sites are on that map tile.

Each game day you roll a d6, and the result corresponds to a row of monsters. Only the monsters in that row are "active", so if the chits you flip over do not correspond to monsters in the active row, then no monsters appear on your game tile that game day.

Next game day, you roll again for the active monsters, so the monsters could appear after you have been on a map tile for several game days.