Today is day two of The Fantasy Trip. The series began with Metagaming’s Microgame 3, Melee in 1977. It continued a year later with Wizard, Microgame 6.
Wizard is a game of dueling wizards. It does include some basics of weapon combat for summoned characters, but not as extensively as Melee. In particular, weapons and armor are sparse in Wizard and the detailed hand-to-hand rules are missing. It does include rules for combining the two games.
We created a character called a figure for Melee yesterday. I recommend reviewing it as I’m not going to cover the two attributes it includes, Strength and Dexterity, in detail today.
Wizard adds a new attribute, intelligence. It governs how many spells a wizard may know, one per point, and which spells he can select. Spells are grouped by intelligence, and a figure can only cast spells from the group for its intelligence or a lower group. Intelligence is also used to disbelieve illusions and images and to resist control spells.
Strength has an additional purpose in Wizard. Strength is used to power spells. This means as you cast spells, you become easier to kill because you can withstand less damage.
As in Melee we distribute 8 points to the attributes, which all start at base 8. This means those points are spread much thinner. I’m going to add 2 points to all three attributes and the last 2 to strength. I’ll try to win by outlasting opponents by being able to cast and take damage longer.
ST: 12
DX: 10
IQ: 10
The next step is to pick 10 spells of IQ 10 or less. I’ll start with “Magic Fist”, an IQ 8 spell to perform a telekinetic punch for 1D-2 damage. Second, I’ll take “Summon Wolf” (IQ 9). I’ll take “Reveal Magic” (IQ 9) to see what protective spells opponents have cast. With protective magic in mind, I’ll take “Blur”, which me harder to hit with weapons, claws, bites, and spells, and “Slow Movement”. Both are IQ 8. That’s half of my allotment used up and I haven’t picked an IQ 10 spell. I’ll take “Summon Myrmidon” to get an actual human warrior as well as a wolf into the arena for me. “Speed Movement” helps my figure’s allies get to opponents just as “Slow Movement” deters others from getting to me. “Dazzle” is a 3-turn -3 to DX for nearly everyone on the board but my figure. For spell 9 I take one last IQ 10 spell, “Trip”. For my last spell, I head back to the IQ 9 list for “Avert,” which forces other figures to end their movement two hexes further from me than they began.
All that is left is to give our dueling wizard a name. I’m going to give into temptation and call him Harry.
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