| Icecaster | |
|---|---|
| David Artman, David Cherryholmes | |
| A two-fisted spell-casting battle for 2 or more players. | |
| Players: | 2 or more |
| Icehouse stashes: | 1 Treehouse stash per player |
| Other equipment: | 1 stash pad per player |
| Setup time: | 3 minutes |
| Playing time: | 10–30 minutes |
| Rules complexity: | Medium |
| Strategy depth: | High |
| Random chance: | None |
| Mechanics: | Dexterity, turnless |
| Theme: | Mystical |
| BGG Link: | not ready yet |
| Created in April, 2007 | |
Inspired by Spellcast (AKA Waving Hands, by Richard Bartle), Icecaster is a game of dueling wizards battling to be the last mage standing. Each player uses both hands to setup spells (similar to Zendo koans) which are finally cast by tipping a pyramid to point at the target.
But using magic has a cost: the very pyramids you use to build spells are those which comprise your life force. Further, when damaged, you lose pyramids from your life force, reducing your spell casting options. Run out of pyramids, run out of life force and lose the battle.
Equipment
One Treehouse set per player.
A stash pad for each player to put pyramids on until they are cast or lost due to damage or overload. This can be as simple as a small napkin, or could be a Looney Labs’ Icehouse Stash Pack pad, if you are lucky enough to have gotten one—anything which clearly shows available pyramids versus lost pyramids.
Setup
Players first organize their sets on their stash pads in whatever way they feel will best suit their play style and strategy.
Icecaster is turnless, so there is no “first player.” Rather, all players signify readiness by putting the tip of one finger of each hand on one pyramid each. When all players are ready, the game begins immediately.
Playing
Each player places pyramids either into a left hand spell configuration (with only the left hand) or into a right hand spell configuration (with only the right hand). Furthermore, at any given moment, a player may only handle one pyramid per hand, whether that involves placing a pyramid into that hand’s spell or reorienting a placed pyramid in that hand’s spell. As such, a player may place or handle a pyramid with each hand simultaneously.
A player may choose to remove a pyramid from a spell, placing it back on his or her stash pad. Usually, such a removal is done to shift the spell being cast to another spell.
Overload
An overload occurs whenever a player catches another player doing one of the following:
- Touching a placed pyramid while holding another pyramid in the same hand.
- Holding more than one pyramid in a single hand.
The player who notices this calls “Overload” plus the offender’s name, and the pyramids involved are immediately removed from play (i.e. set aside, not on the player’s stash pad or near a spell configuration).
Spells
Various combinations of pyramid size and orientation combine to create a spell (see Spell Lists, below). A spell is cast at a target when the requisite pyramid in the spell is tipped or reoriented to point at the intended target. The casting player then announces the spell name, target, and effect; and the target must immediately do what the effect requires, after first setting any held pyramids back onto his or her stash pad.
If a spell has an instantaneous effect then, once it is resolved, the casting player may put the spell’s pyramids back onto his or her stash pad or may begin to reorient them to setup another spell. As with any pyramid manipulation in Icecaster, only the hand that controls that spell may be used, and only one pyramid at a time may be handled with each hand.
Damage and Winning
Many spells do damage of some kind to the target. Whenever a player is damaged, he or she loses a pyramid (or pyramids) from his or her stash pad, per the spell effect.
When a player has no more pyramids on his or her stash pad, that player is eliminated from the game. The last player with pyramids on his or her stash pad is the winner.
Spell Lists
There are two levels of complexity to Icecaster—Neonate and Magus—which are primarily distinguished by whether or not color is relevant in a spell configuration. Beginning players should use the Neonate Spell List, but more experienced players (or those with better memories) might prefer the Magus Spell List.
A spell is defined with a spell name, the pyramids it requires, and a brief description of the effect.
Pyramid size is designated using the the following letters:
- “L” for large
- “M” for medium
- “S” for small
The pyramid which must be tipped to point at the target and cast the spell is surrounded by parentheses ().
In the Magus Spell List, the pyramid color follows the size designation, using the following letters:
- “bt” for blue or cyan (referred to as “teal” to avoid confusion with clear)
- “ro” for red or orange
- “yc” for yellow or clear
- “gp” for green or purple
- “kw” for black or white
Finally, if a spell requires both hands to cast (i.e. the configuration must be setup in both hands) then the whole spell is surrounded by curly braces ({}).
Examples:
Neonate spell:
- Foo
- L(M)S (large, medium, and small; tip the medium to cast) Do foo to target.
Magus spell:
- Bar
- LbtMro(Syc) (large blue or teal, medium red or orange, small yellow or clear; tip the small to cast) Do bar to target.
Neonate
[TBD-colorless]
- [spell]
- [pyramids] [effect]
Magus
[TBD-color using]
License
This work is distributed by David Carle Artman and David Mark Cherryholmes under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License.