Playing Magic Realm

 "Good ol' Magic Realm"

 

Last played Magic Realm about 5 years ago or so but since setting up is a bit of a commitment (particularly after not playing for a while) it hasn't been on the table since. 

The selection of chits I use for MR is a little odd. I really don't like punching out components and cards for games and when my copy arrived in decent shape,  I was a little disappointed that all the cards and more than half of the counters were unpunched. 

 

 

So, I made print and play versions of all the components in my copy that hadn't been punched. That said, the redesigned counters are probably a little better functionally because they're labeled and have the Fame and Notoriety scores printed on them.

As long as I've been looking at fantasy gaming things Magic Realm has been there. I can remember seeing ads for it in magazines or maybe comics, somewhere. But I never saw it in a store. Not once. Well maybe once, but then it was only once. And I believe I also asked someone about it long ago, someone more worldly and knowledgeable about such things, and was told that it was really complicated and not at all like D&D or AD&D. At that point, I guess, I sort of wrote it off, but years later I ran across people talking about it online and instantly recalled how curious I'd been about this game a million years ago - who can forget the cover once you've seen it. Shortly thereafter I bought myself copy.

I've only ever  played Magic Realm solitaire. The game is a bit much for the casual gamer, so roping people into a game and then them not hating you for it afterwards... 

One of the issues with MR is that while it's really not that complex, it's very difficult to explain some of the mechanisms. Always an issue with your more sophisticated games and things to be sure, but something about some of these mechanisms makes them difficult to describe.

Combat, for example. It’s this odd rock-paper-scissors system combined with resource management. Combat also has these discrete mass and speed factors that stack and affect outcomes and...see? Hard to explain.

It is a unique game. It has presence. It creates a definite mood that's integrated into the whole. It has depth. And I can tell that while it's soloable, that's not what it's meant for. It's meant for campaigns with friends and frenemies. I am certain that's where it shines brightest.

For the most part, I play 2nd edition, but I look at both 1st and 3rd edition rules sometimes as I play just because I like to.

And that's the important thing. Whatever else one can say about Magic Realm, the most outstanding thing to me, the most important, is that it amuses me. I'm entertained when I'm playing with it. It's fun to play with. A great toy. That's all one can really ask of this sort of thing, isn’t it?

 

A brief on Avalon Hill's "The Legend of Robin Hood"

 The Legend

There’s really nothing else quite like Avalon Hill's "The Legend of Robin Hood."  

 

Established AH game conventions and mechanics, but applied a little differently...

All the special case chrome is easy to remember, intuitive, and effectively models the main Robin Hood tropes; the archery contest, Maid Marion, disguises, Merry Men, robberies, rescues etc. all present, simple and tastefully built in to the course of the game.

 

 

 

But the game also easily slips into non-Robin Hood situations. Often hilariously so. I think it's a fantastic period narrative generator, really, as it often does a great job simulating medieval "local trouble" situations, i.e. squabbling nobles, people running around the countryside, murder, sham justice, rich bishops to plunder, a little sex & romance, etc. just not necessarily Robin Hood situations.

 

 

You could rename this game "Merovingian Mayhem” or “Squabbling Saxons.”

It could be a game about some Frankish princes trying to squash each other or it could be Alfred the Great's triumphant return.

The story of native son versus new intruder overlord class is familiar to everyone, even if it has perhaps earned extra emphasis in the Anglosphere. And the game models all that sort of thing, those stories.

And with that said, you could play it, each player sort of adhering to the basic Robin Hood legend outline, more or less, in the general course of play, and it could potentially simulate true-to-the-source-material Robin Hood stories, I believe. The elements are certainly all there.

And then there is this chess-like energy that creeps in at certain points which is a thing I look for in games. It usually indicates that something is right with the design. Randomness, which is necessary here, is constrained to allow for deeper strategic play, a balance optimal for modeling a situation like this properly as a game.

 

As further evidence as an example of a finer game, the almost perfectly divided opinion of players who feel it lacks balance; half of those people think the game favors the Sheriff and swear the Sheriff player is guaranteed a win if he truly understands the game, and the other half making the same claims for the Robin Hood player.

I really dig it will almost certainly play "The Legend of Robin Hood" again.