PDF game files

Theses PDF files are required to play the game on court or as a table top dice rolling simulation. You are invited to download them. The bonus spells have not been included in this packet.

Avalancheverlost; End of Spells

 The final bonus spell unlocked and added to the bench  also ends the game when cast. Avalancheverlost closes both gates and immediately ends the game; the victory number can never be reached and because of this the win is awarded to the mage.

Should a mage pour all resources into reaching spell 16? Perhaps, though the quest is a bit of a lure; rather than concentrate on adding marker cones to the court and hardening  defense the mage's focus turns to casting Librarian's Bench and Time's Blessing in a alternating fashion. It is a win of style over substance.

It's possible to cast Avalancheverlost on the first turn. It would stand as a spectacular achievement and thus far, a singular one yet to be executed in testing. 

Elves or Giants; Capture or Delay

What is the more effective Mage strategy; capture by arrow damage or using blockers to run out the clock? 

I want the game to strike a balance with no clear strategy more effective than the other. I am not sure if we are there yet. Some spells focus on placing giants on the board and facilitating their movement. Other spells arm elves with arrows or place the spy in a position where it is more vulnerable to arrow damage.

I will argue spell # 1 (Elvis Marcus Conus) is both a capture spell and a run out the clock spell as elves without arrows are nothing but simple blockers. As such, the first 5 spells in a starting line-up provide us with more blocking (1,2,4) spells than capture (1,3) spells. 

The delay game does see more spells cast, perhaps more bench spells added and bonus spells introduced; as a designer you kinda want that. And I do enjoy a good giant battle, stacking marker cones on top of marker cones in response to a spy's missed free throw and working to run out the turn. 

Perhaps the bias favours delay.

Turtles all the way down

On the court, giants are identified as inverted stacks of marker cones. They can exist as a single marker cone, a double, or many, many more. 

Giants occupy the middle of spans connecting two locations. For a spy to travel along a span blocked by a giant they must make free throws equal to the number of marker cones in the stack. Defeating a single marker cone giant requires a single free throw to be made by the spy. If successful, the marker is removed from the court and the spy continues along the span to the destination. 

If the spy misses a free throw attempt the mage can  call for the ball in an effort to build up the blocking giant. In order to do this the mage removes a leap counter,  makes a successful free throw and moves a marker cone giant to to the disputed span, stacking the newly arrived giant atop the existing to form a single titan.

Following a spy missed free throw the mage can also withdraw the giant to a different span at a cost of a leap counter and made free throw. Why do this? Perhaps you want the spy to advance to a town and attempt a capture by arrow. 

In the illustration below, the spy has missed its free throw attempt and the mage has stepped up and made two consecutive free throws, moving  marker cone giants from W2 - W5 and P - E5, stacking them atop the blocking giant at W5 - B. The spy will now need to make 3 baskets from the free throw line in order to advance to W5. If the spy's turn ends before defeating the giant it will be forced to retreat to B. 

Using leap counters to stack multiple giants into one super giant boosts their usage and increases the value of a number of giant centered spells: Bildebig, Collosaleapea, Atlas Stacked, Fortify fo fum, and Thudika. 

It also provides an alternate spy fighting strategy; one of delay rather than capture by arrow. I think it is important to have decision points players can agonize over and while I think it would be a mistake to focus solely on creating the game's largest giant I applaud the mage who travels this path at least once. Let me know how it works out.

G.Walker

Rules update

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                                         Spells and Arrows, Heroes and Spies

© Garry Walker 2019. All rights Reserved

Spells & Arrows, Heroes & Spies is a game of makes and misses for two basketball players that combines static shooting with a fantasy RPG.  One player acts as Mage, defender of the realm, and an opponent plays as Spy, tasked with escaping a kingdom of court lines and marker cone stacks. 

Using the map board as guide, place a single marker cone on the court for each orange and yellow circle. These cones make up the 8 towns, 2 border gates, and other points of interest within the kingdom. A court side table is required for the map/score boards and 17 spell cards.

A game begins with one player announcing a Victory Number. The opponent considers the number and chooses to play as spy or mage. The spy wins the game if total points earned from escapes equals or exceeds the Victory Number; the Mage wins if the spy fails to reach the Victory Number.

The spy starts the game at B with the goal of exiting with escape points through a pair of border gates (WG or EG). The spy moves along court lines - both real and dotted imaginary - traveling from marker cone to adjacent marker cone usually by paying an exit toll to move off and away. The toll is paid in the form of made baskets equal to the total number of marker cones stacked at the location.

A six sided dice serves as shot clock, counting down from 6 with each basket attempt. After the clock expires, the spy continues to make basket attempts but “miss” counters are now placed on the score board for each failed attempt. Three miss counters or an escape through a gate end the spy’s turn. 

The spy enters a game with a health rating of 4. Health and the spy’s location is tracked using a six sided dice placed on the map board. The spy’s health is increased by 3 whenever exiting the pharmacy (P) but can never exceed 6. 

The spy enters the game with no armour counters. The spy earns 1 armour counter whenever exiting the armoury (A). The spy is limited to no more than 2 armour counters.

Four Goto marker cones allow the spy direct travel to specific locations. Baskets are not required to exit a Goto portal.

Place a Travel counter on the score board when a spy exits one of eight towns: E2, E3, E4, E5, W2, W3, W4, & W5. These counters determine the value of an escape ( 2 or 3 points apiece). 

Remove all miss counters and reset the shot clock to 6 prior to the start of the next turn.  

Following an escape, remove all travel counters and record the escape’s value. The spy begins the next turn at B, carrying forward the health rating and armour counters.

The mage begins the bottom half of each turn with the half court also serving as a workshop where spells are cast in an effort to hinder the spy’s escape. 

A starting line-up of court spells 1 thru 5 are placed face up on the court side table. Place cards 6 and 7- bench spells - under Librarian’s Bench. For now, bonus spells 8 through 16 are considered out of play.

Spells and the patterns of baskets required to cast them are listed on individual spell cards. Starting from the green star, a single basket must be made at each point in the pattern on the card. Grace, in the form of permissible missed attempts, is tracked by counters placed on the spell card. Grace counters can alter a spell’s potency. A spell fails when missed shots exceed measures of grace extended. 

A failed spell results in a spell fail counter placed on the score board. Two spell fail counters on the board end the mage’s turn. Should the mage abandon a spell cast attempt, add a spell fail counter.

The mage is limited to 5 spell casting attempts per turn unless modified by specific spell cards. Use a six sided die as a spell clock to countdown casting attempts from 5.

The mage cannot have more than 5 court spells in play. To be eligible for casting, bench spells must first become court spells by casting Librarian’s Bench. More than 5 court spells in play requires a spell card to be cut from the court and placed under Librarian’s Bench.

Bonus spells are introduced to the bench in numeric order whenever Librarian’s Bench is cast without a miss.

Court spells cannot be cast consecutively during the same turn; Librarian’s Bench is not a court spell.

The mage can cast elf marker cones to guard towns and gates. These additional marker cones increase exit tolls. A single elf marker cone can be stacked atop towns and gates along the 3pt line and up to 2 elf marker cones added to towns inside the line. These cone stacks are maximum limits and cannot be exceeded. In addition to the 2 gates (WG,EG), 8 towns can be guarded. Point (B), the armoury (A), and pharmacy (P) are not considered towns, cannot be guarded with elf marker cones, and require an exit toll of a single basket.

Exit tolls reset each turn. If, for example, the spy ends a turn having made 1 of 2 required baskets, 2 baskets are required next turn before moving off and away.

In response to a missed spy basket attempt, the mage can deliver elf arrow damage to the spy in guarded towns or guarded gates at a cost of one arrow counter and basket executed from the guarded location. If successful, the mage may continue making successive shots until missing a basket or running out of elf arrow counters. The mage is limited to no more than 5 arrow counters at any time.

An elf arrow reduces the spy’s health by an amount equal to the value of the successful basket (2 health points inside the 3 pt shooting arc or 3 health points along it). Spy armour reduces arrow damage by 1 per armour counter. If health is reduced to zero (or less) the spy is captured and the game ends. 

The mage can also spell cast marker cone giants along any unoccupied road span connecting adjacent location marker cones. A road span may never be occupied by more than one giant. On court, we distinguish giants from fixed locations by inverting the cones.

Giants may leap from one span to another following a spy’s missed basket attempt at a cost of 1 leap counter and successful mage free throw (y). The mage may continue making successive free throws and moving giants until missing a basket or running out of leap counters. The mage is limited to no more than 5 leap counters at any time. 

The spy moves past a blocking giant by making successful free throws (y) equal to the giant’s cone stack. In this exchange, marker cones are permanently removed from the giant’s cone stack with each successful spy free throw. If destroyed, remove the giant’s last marker cone from the court and advance the spy directly to the destination at the end of the span.

Moving a giant to a span occupied by another giant creates a single giant super stack.

Despite appearances to the contrary, the W4 to E4 span requires a single giant to block.

If a spy’s turn ends before the giant is destroyed, return the spy to the location marker cone anchoring the span.

The mage may not make loose arrows or leap giants in response to the spy’s turn ending. 

A game ends with a spy’s capture, the successful casting of spell 16, or following a pre-determined number of turns played (5).

Penny Pinchers

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The map board can be used to track the progress of the mage in the pattern. It requires you to use three cards in total: The spell card, the make or miss card, and the map board: It's a bit of a juggling act. I ignore the map board when casting spells and just reference the make/miss card and spell card.

 I use pennies as markers because they are ubiquitous. Everyone has 'em. But while they may appear tiny in the hand, placed on a spell card they become cumbersome things.

So try this: Take two pennies and the spell card. One penny tracks the misses or measures of grace that may modify the spell. The other penny tracks the progress of the mage on the court and we do this by occluding the star that marks the Mage's current location in the pattern.

In the example above, the mage is attempting to cast Bo Quiverosa. The pattern begins at W5. At this point in the spell the mage has missed on the first shot. If the mage completes the spell without dropping another shot the end result will add up to 3 arrow counters to the scoreboard. 

In the illustration above, the mage has completed 4 basket attempts, two of them for misses. The penny on the pattern has pinched off W4. This marks the location of the mage. The second penny pinches off G2.

When playing the table top simulator against an opponent, it is the responsibility of the spy to track the spell's progress with the spell card and make/miss roll chart. The mage is busy rolling the 20 sided dice.

I promise this: A little practice will turn you into a penny pinching expert.

G.Walker

 

Scorer's table

 It is the scorer's responsibility to track the game's progress on the map and score board. The scorer provides marker cones to an assistant to run out onto the court. The scorer also provides directional prompts to the mage when casting spells.

Good board management comes with practice.