In this blog I'm going to explain how I think the game of Mythomagic works. This is based on what we see in the books. I haven't exactly play tested this or anything.
Evidence from the Books
There are plenty of mentioned from the books, in this chapter I'm going to lay them out. Because this is what I'm using to create the game.
"Yes, Mr. di Angelo, if you please. Though, I prefer
to stay in human form in this wheelchair for, ah, first encounters."
"And, whoa!" He looked at Mr. D. "You're the wine dude? No way!"
Mr. D turned his eyes away from me and gave Nico a look of loathing. "The wine
dude?"
"Dionysus, right? Oh, wow! I've got your figurine."
"My figurine."
"In my game, Mythomagic. And a holofoil card, too! And even though you've only got
like five hundred attack points and everybody thinks you're the lamest god card, I totally think
your powers are sweet!"
[Titan's Curse]
"Come on!" I told Bianca. But she stayed frozen. From her pocket, she brought out a
small metal figurine, a statue of a god. "It… it was for Nico. It was the only statue he didn't
have."
"How can you think of Mythomagic at a time like this?" I said.
[Titan's Curse]
Nico rummaged through his own bag, which the Hunters had apparently packed for
him, though how they'd snuck into Westover Hall unseen, I didn't know. Nico laid out a
bunch of figurines in the snow—little battle replicas of Greek gods and heroes. I recognized
Zeus with a lightning bolt, Ares with a spear, Apollo with his sun chariot.
"Big collection," I said.
Nico grinned. "I've got almost all of them, plus their holographic cards! Well, except for
a few really rare ones."
[Titan's Curse]
"A manticore?" Nico gasped. "He's got three thousand attack power and plus five to saving throws!"
[Titan's Curse]
It was Nico di Angelo. He was throwing pieces of paper into the fire—Mythomagic trading cards, part of the game he’d been obsessed with last winter.
[The Battle of The Labyrinth]
“By the way…” I fished something out of my pocket. “Tyson found this while we were cleaning the cabin. Thought you might want it.” I held out a lead figurine of Hades—the little Mythomagic statue Nico had abandoned when he fled camp last winter.
Nico hesitated. “I don’t play that game anymore. It’s for kids.”
“It’s got four thousand attack power,” I coaxed.
“Five thousand,” Nico corrected. “But only if your opponent attacks first.”
[The Battle of The Labyrinth]
Nico hung his head almost as low as a katobleps. ‘I, uh … used to play this stupid card game when I was younger. Mythomagic. The katobleps was one of the monster cards.’
Frank blinked. ‘I played Mythomagic. I never saw that card.’
‘It was in the Africanus Extreme expansion deck.’
‘Oh.’
Their host cleared his throat. ‘Are you two done, ah, geeking out, as they say?’
‘Right, sorry,’ Nico muttered. ‘Anyway, katoblepones have poison breath and a poison gaze. I thought they only lived in Africa.’
[The House of Hades]
Mythomagic has multiple required items to play.
- cards
- dice (d6),
- figurines (small and large)
- and counters
Box Sets & Expansions
In terms of how they are sold I imagine the base packs are focused on a particular god. And come with all the basics.
Such as: Poseidon Pack.
- Figurine of Poseidon.
- Several terrain tiles (mostly sea terrain).
- Trap cards (such as "Whirlpool" and "Earthquake").
- Item cards (such as "Trident" which restores attack points)
- Character cards (Poseidon himself, Trojan Sea Monster, Cyclops etc.)
- Counters (themed with green)
Expansions would add more terrain, more monsters, more items and allowing for a more flexible set up and play style.
Counters
These keep a track of health, for both monsters and gods ("characters"). And a second set tracks attack points (this is kind of like "mana" in other games. Or spell slots in D&D). Counters are placed on character cards, which are laid out in front of you and are connected to a figurine. Every card has a set amount of health, which can be healed or even added to with certain moves.
Cards
There are five kinds of cards: summon, character, terrain, trap, and item. All but the summon cards are located in your deck, which is shuffled at the start of the game. At the beginning of the game you draw seven cards from your deck. Players should always have seven cards in their hand.
Terrain cards
At the beginning of the game, players roll a dice. The person with the highest roll places the first terrain card. If they don't have a terrain card in their hand, they can draw from their deck until they pick one up. That is then placed down.
In a circle, the other players add a terrain card around the first card until everyone has placed their terrain cards (or chooses to skip). Then they draw from their deck again until they have seven cards.
Each terrain card applies different effects on characters that are placed there. For example:
Mountains: movement costs 2 for all characters, excluding satyrs and those with a flying speed.
Underworld: characters must end their movement on this tile, regardless of their remaining movement. They cannot move again until the next round. This excludes undead.
Certain characters need specific terrain to be placed down. For example:
Trojan Sea Monster: can only be summoned in sea terrain (but may move onto land)
Character cards / Mini Figurines
These are connected to mini figurines and can represent monsters, avatars, and heroes. A player sets down their character card in front of them, before placing the associated figurine on an empty terrain tile.
Character cards have various stats including: health, movement, knowledge, and special attacks.
Here are an example:
Trap cards
These are placed facedown, on an unoccupied terrain card. Each trap card has a knowledge score. If a character or group of characters on the terrain card beside the trap exceed that score, the card is turned over. If a monster walks into the trap, the card is turned over - and its effects are deployed (even if it was previously revealed). A trap card might have an area of effect, hitting characters on surrounding terrain cards. If a character defeats that card it disappears.
To avoid getting hit by the trap, characters must make a saving throw by rolling a dice and adding their "dodge" bonus. In the examples above, you can see that a Katobleps has +2 dodge, while Dionysus has +4 dodge.
Item Cards
These allow you to various actions before discarding the card (it is not placed down):
- remove traps (must have been revealed)
- restore health
- restore attack points
- increase the defense and attack power of gods (discussed later)
Figurines
As hinted at earlier, there are two types of figurines. These are "mini" figurines and "divine" figurines. Each player can only have one divine figurine in play. This is effectively their "king" (like in chess). This figure is larger than the others and can't do a whole lot. They cannot attack anything except other divine figurines. They tend to be made of metal.
Meanwhile, mini figurines are the mainstay of the game. They are the army around the king. They are usually made of plastic - and come pre-painted.
Divine figures have associated cards as well. These have their own counters (see life points at the bottom).
Taking a Turn
Players can do four actions on their turn. Actions include:
- placing a card down (character, trap, terrain)
- moving a character (including any combat)
- moving a figurine
- using a restoration card (to restore health or attack points)
Playing with Gods
Gods come in two forms: mini and divine. Each with their own card, one type stays in your deck.
Drawing a god card from your deck means you can summon a divine figurine of that god.
Usually a specific criteria must be met to summon a figurine - such as having "three connected underworld terrain cards" to summon Hades. Or Apollo/Artemis can only be summoned from the Isle of Delos terrain card.
Once it's been used to summon a divine figurine, the card is removed from play and the figurine is placed on the terrain card.
The figurine is the player's primary piece. The faster it is put on the board the better. The figures don't do much themselves. They can move and attack other figurines (think of them like kings in chess).
There stats look like this:
Hades:
--- Attack Power 4000 (if attacked first, 5000)
Apollo:
--- Defense Power 2000
Athena:
--- Attack Power 3000
Manticore*:
--- Attack Power 3000
* some powerful monsters were also made into figurines and work the same way as gods.
These are big numbers and often gods will cancel each other out. To defeat a god, one must use other characters like monsters to weaken them.
Once a figure is on the board, players can deploy the god's mini figurine in the game (when they get the god's card again). This is effectively the god's avatar. A player can only have one god card in play at any one time.
Examples of what these character stats look like:
Dionysus: attack points 500
--- Attack: bloody vines, +3 to hit, damage 300; cost: 100 attack points
--- Armor: 8
--- Dodge: +4
--- Special: madness, all allied trap cards now do double damage.
Other gods:
Ares: --- special: blood rage, this character has infinite health for 3 rounds [great for players who want to rush in]
Apollo: --- special: all allied characters +30 health [great when you have lots of minion monsters]
Athena: --- special: +100 knowledge to all allied characters [great for revealing traps]
Zeus: --- Attack: lightning bolt, damage 600
Manticore: --- special, all allied characters +5 to saving throws [great for rampaging through traps]
Combat
Characters can perform special attacks, either direct or area of effect.
When a monster moves into a terrain with another monster on the other team, they will fight. Each player announces the attack they are going to make. For example:
"Zeus is going to use Lightning Bolt against your Manticore"
*rolls dice* - "Four plus six... ten to hit"
"Hits"
"Lighting Bolt does 600 damage."
"Yeah, my manticore only had 100 health left, it's dead"
Area of Effect attacks (or traps). In this case characters will need to make a saving throw.
"Whirlpool activates, you need to roll above eight"
*rolls dice* - "Two plus two, and a five bonus from my manticore, total is nine. I take no damage. The Whirlpool is cleared"
"Damnit."
Between Divine Figures
Figurines have five lives. They have attack and defense power. This can be increased with items or with terrain bonuses.
For example, Apollo's base defense is 2000, but he double it if he has two or more allies beside him. And doubles it again, if he's standing on Delos. Giving him a total of 8000 DP.
Let's say Apollo and Hades are facing off. Hades has a base 2000 DP, but he's wearing awesome items and he's in the Underworld. This makes him way stronger. So he's actually at 6000 DP.
Apollo comes in to attack. He can attack from a distance (over one terrain tile). His base attack power is 3500 DP. So he needs his allied monsters to make up another 2500 worth of damage to take one of Hades' life (remember gods have 5 life points).
Now, once that is done, Hades' attack power actually increases to 5000 + bonuses! (his defense power stays the same). So if Apollo's initial attack fails and he escapes back to his strongest position (in this example 8000 DP). Hades is that much closer to defeating Apollo.
Multiple Players
You can do a "free for all". Or team up with each other (such as two vs two). The game works best with 2-4 players, more than that it can get a bit difficult to track. Six players is the absolute max. Usually this will be a three vs three, where players are mostly focused on the person in front of them but they can help their allies if necessary.