You are wizards congregating in the Greasy Grimoire, a famous wizard pub. It’s been a long month of research, experimentation, and adventure. You’re here to share your progress with your peers in an attempt to win social standing at Wizard Tower. Of course, sometimes one must stretch the truth in order to make one’s research more impressive…
Begin by choosing a wizard name and specialty school, along with a set of pronouns appropriate to your wizard.
Example names:
Yenifrael, Necromancer, They/Them
Grumm, Conjurer, He/Him
Carilistrox, Evoker, Ve/Ver
The rules from this point on refer to the players as “wizards” because theming is important. Also, it’s fun.
Each wizard has five dice in their cup. Everyone rolls their dice, keeping them hidden from other wizards. The youngest wizard goes first. They make a claim about their exploits, whether truth or not. The numbers on the dice correspond to a creature on the list below. The wizard chooses a number and type of targets for their experiment, such as “I bewitched two goblins last week.”
Wizard Victims:
1. Goblin
2. Human
3. Orc
4. Troll
5. Giant
6. Dragon
The next wizard has two options: one-up the previous boast, or call the previous wizard’s accomplishments into question. If they decide to one-up the boast, they may do so by either increasing the number of victims or the power of the victims, such as “I bewitched seven goblins last week” or “I bewitched two trolls last week.”
In the event of a challenge, all dice are revealed. If there are at least as many dice between all wizards that correspond to the boast, the challenge is met. The challenger loses one die and the game continues. If the previous wizard is caught bluffing, they are the one who loses a die.
In the above example, if the wizard who claimed to have bewitched two goblins were challenged on their accomplishments, they would need there to be at least two dice that rolled a 1 between all the dice at the table or else they would lose that challenge.
If someone challenges you and you win, you gain one point of Adept. This represents your reputation as a worker of wonders. If you are challenged and lose, however, you gain a point of Charlatan. This represents your reputation as a liar and a cheat.
If you call a challenge and are correct, you gain a point of Arcane. This represents your intuition and perception. Losing a challenge you called for gets you a point of Mundane, which represents being less compatible with the nuances of magic.
Play continues until only one wizard has dice in their cup, unless the gathering is otherwise prematurely interrupted by stray magic or wandering dragons.
When the game is over, your Adept and Charlatan points cancel each other out. (Same for Arcane and Mundane). What you are left with determines your final reputation at the end of brunch. If you come away known for your prowess and intuition, congratulations! If you’re known for less favorable behavior, well, better luck next time!
Words From Nora Blake 