The Mind of a Wizard - An Elemental Explanation

          There are five elements in The Mind of a Wizard – Water, Fire, Earth, Air and Void. Each element has two other elements that it gets bonuses to combat rolls when fighting.

          The way these elements interact is detailed here:

          The Elemental Star is based off of Chinese Five Element Theory and Rock Paper Scissors Lizard Spock.

          Starting at Water, the arrows leading out point first to Fire (around the outside to the right) and second to Earth (through the middle). Fire then leads around to Earth and through to Air; Earth to Air and Void; Air to Void and Water; and Void to Water and Fire, completing the circle. Each arrow denotes which two elements the original has bonuses against.

          The explanation for why each element has the two bonuses is as follows: Water extinguishes Fire and erodes the Earth; Fire scorches the Earth and consumes Air; Earth stands strong in the Air and fills the Void; Air purifies the Void and manipulates Water (hurricanes); and Void corrupts Water and smothers Fire.

          The way this affects the game is during combat. Floor Tiles explored in the dungeon may have Monsters in them. Each monster had its own elemental type. The Hydra in the previous post is a Water Type. (There’s also Harpies that are Air Type or Fire Dragons etc…) Each element is represented equally in the Floor Tile Deck but you never know what tile is going to be drawn next.

Depending on the Monster Type drawn, Players will want to react by playing Spellbooks to buff their Spells and gain bonuses against the Monsters they are facing. Adding a Water Spellbook will give you bonuses against Fire and Earth Type Monsters or a Void Spellbook will gain bonuses against Water and Fire Types.

          The most common bonus is a “+2” to combat rolls using a d20 (A player rolls a dice and adds 2 to the outcome). It is very important to stack bonuses as the game progresses. The higher level a Monster is, the more Health Points it will have and the more bonuses you will need in order to kill it. With the ultimate goal being to kill a Boss Monster, basic knowledge of the elemental system in The Mind of a Wizard is essential to gameplay.

The Mind of a Wizard - A Board Game

Who will be the strongest spell when you play inside The Mind of a Wizard?

3-5 Players
30-90 Minutes
Ages 12+
A Card Driven, Modular Dungeon Crawl with Dice Combat and a focus on Character Upgrades.

Game Overview:
Players compete against each other as magical spells inside of a Wizard’s Mind to see who can become the strongest spell. Spells grow stronger by defeating Monsters, collecting Treasure Chests and Augmenting themselves with magical Spellbooks that increase their power. The first player to defeat a Boss Monster wins the game and is chosen to be added to the Wizard’s Spellbook as his new amazing spell!

The Idea:
You literally play as a Spell while the Wizard (the game) creates a dungeon inside of his mind for his Spells to compete within. Gameplay centers on dungeon exploration and character upgrades.

The Character Upgrade portion of the game is my favorite part: You start off as a Spell (one of the base elements in The Mind of a Wizard - Fire, Water, Earth, Air or Void) and the goal is to upgrade yourself with Spellbooks that both increase your power and augment your name.

Example: I start off as "Fire", I play a Level 1 Spellbook "Storm" down on to the table next to my Spell effectively increasing its power in game, visually on the table and audibly when I cast it. My Fire Spell becomes a "Fire Storm" Spell.

As the game progresses you can tack on up to 6 Augmentations to create a spell like "The Moon's Floating Royal Void Ray of the Living Volcano". Each Augmentation has a different bonus in game and is essential to growing strong enough to defeat a Boss Monster and win the game.

This is the way that Spellbooks are played down in front of you.

Level 1s are addon words (Fire Blast / Earth Spike / Air Stream).
Level 2s are Dice Effects.
Level 3s are adjectives that can be placed on either side of the Spell Name.
Level 4s are nouns that can also be placed on both sides. 

This gives the game a vast amount of Spell Names that can switch out and be played to gain the bonuses needed to defeat Monsters.

Card Design

Treasure Chest Cards

Floor Tile Cards

Early Playtest

Current Progress:
Today I printed full color cards on cardstock for more solid playtests.

I'm preparing to print a nice version on actual playing cards soon, but I want to playtest it a bit more.

My local game store has a game night that they invited me to test at and this new color version is more suited to their tastes.

The Rulebook is just missing an appendix of terms but all the basics are down and almost ready for blind playtests.

Overall, I'm very excited. It's been a fun adventure so far.

Jason Brown