Additional Cards for WizWar

Back in the dark shadows of 1988, a small, silent stranger crept onto the wide free gaming hall of Orccon. Few paid him a glance---his small grocery bag and stooped over figure certainly could not compare to the miles of counters spread over maps of Europe throughout the room.

Placing the bag on one of the few empty tables, he extracted a small, non-descript box, placing it in the center. He sat back, waiting, in no real hurry.

Soon, the time would come.

As he sat back, a pair of innocents, lost kids in blue-jeans and t- shirts wandered past, staring wide-eyed and the wonder around them. The two seperated, and one (tired from two days of some role-playing something) sat at the stranger's table, without paying him a glance. The stranger smiled. His first victim. ``Hey kid,'' he whispered, leaning forward, ``want to play a game?''

WELCOME to the production of the Harvey Mudd Wiz-War Irregulars. Four years since that initial meeting, I still have not overcome my strange little addiction to a strange little game. It has gone through three editions, two companies, and an expansion set, but has never shied far from Tom Jolly's original random conception.

It is truly a game which needs to grow: it allows growth, providing almost as much making of loops and traps as a D&D/Nomic hybrid. Over the past months, it has reached vogue and sprouted wings to create, among one group of people, the Harvey Mudd Wiz-War Set (tm, (c), all rights reserved, ad atto absurdum, MCMXCII).

But first, the legalese...(ah-hem)...

This file may be distributed, copied, and redistributed in any form, for any non-profit person, provided the name Tom Jolly (for the original game) and Harvey Mudd Irregulars stays with the transmission. Also, feel free to add to the cards, lists, rules, or history of this rules set as appropriate. It's our game...everyone has the right to change it.

Now, the game. Wiz-War, as you know, was made by its cards. But cards alone do not a game make (Sit down, bridge players...you need score cards, and as in our game, a dummy). The following rules add 70-some odd news spells, but don't just throw them in and expect a game.

For one thing, this nearly doubles (after you add numbers) the size of the deck. With the original set, you might expect to see every card in the deck over four or five games---with this set, you may not see a card for fifteen or more games. If there are cards you specifically like, in this set or the original, add duplicates so they don't get lost in the crowds.

Second, game balance. We have tried to remain true to the ratio of attacks to defenses to creations to movement to monsters...to do this, we duplicated a few cards from the original deck, especially a few counteractions (Remove Curse, for example). This is a matter of your own taste...do you want an attack or defense-based game? Movement or creations? (We like maximizing the number of tokens on the board). This set multiplies the number of traps in the deck by sevenfold or so, so a few Trap Counteractions do wonder for the balance of play.

Number cards are also important. If you use all the cards in the following deck, we suggest the following additions to keep the numbers balanced:

                     card    number to add      
                     ----    ------------- 
                       2          12
                       3          10
                       4           7
                       5           3
                       6           1 
                     1-4           3
                     2-5           1

Again, adjust numbers to taste. Oh, those last ones, roll the die when you play the card. Adds a bit of randomness, if you didn't already need it so badly.

The card descriptions below are rather terse, so they actually fit onto cards. We made the cards out of little blank 2x3 business type cards---since there are so many new ones, they don't need to look like the old (rumors of future PostScript files are just rumors. Really). Cards with a (*) after the title have notes and addendum at the end of the list. Hopefully, the wording makes at least a little sense.

Which brings us to a last word. What we have is a simple set of rules with 250 exceptions. Some ideas are simple. Random means roll a die. ``Straight line'' means direction of pointing, not L.O.S. Dead means dead.

Many of the exceptions will conflict, however, though creativity will reveal the most interesting questions (If you put solid stone over a pit, will it fall in and crush victims in the pit, or will it merely cap the top? What about a wall on the floor? Will it cover the pit? If walls cover pits and stone falls in, can you put a wall on a pit, put stone on the wall, teleport an opponent to the pit and dissolve the wall? And what ABOUT chocolate-covered manhole covers? Did you ever really want to know?). Have fun. Make an impartial judge decide, and let the judgements change from game to game. Keep the game loose, and avoid those double-amplified fireballs.

Kerim Aydin

July 14, 1992

AND NOW, FINALLY...THE NEW CARDS

                         May carry 20 megatons.
                          000  3>-\           
                           0000  III====---===>    
                          000  3>-/

   Moves and acts like THE FOG (see rules).
Effects:         1> PEACE, MAN: no attacks / 1 turn.
                 2> BLINDNESS for 1 turn.
                 3> NO PAIN, MAN: May take no damage for 1 turn.
                 4> BAD TRIP: Illusionary attack drawn from top of  
                                deck.  Draw until attack is drawn.

                               ^
                              / \
                             /W.W\       
                            (_HMC_)
                              | |
                              /-\ 
                      (tm)HMWW Irregulars