In this Death Match, cast powerful spells with your hands to reduce the opponent's health to 0.
| Designer(s): RedsToad | Match Type: DM (for 2 players) |
| Featured in: The Genius: PnP | |
This game is a wizard duel to the death between two players.
Both wizards will make different gestures with their hands, and by performing a correct sequence of gestures a wizard can make a spell. The effects of which can vary from sending a magic missile, to summoning monsters or even calling fire storms
The game is divided into turns. On a given turn, each player will privately select 2 gestures, one for each hand. The gestures don't have to be different.
The full list of gestures is:
Clap [C]
Digit Pointing [D]
Proferred palm [P]
Snap [S]
Wave [W]
Each gesture can be shortened to 1 letter, which we recommend you do.
Clapping requires both hands to count as a gesture for a spell. Clapping with 1 hand will count as doing nothing. Every other gesture only requires 1 hand.
There are also 2 "non-gestures"
Stabbing [stab]
Nothing [ ]
After both players have privately selected their gestures, they are revealed and resolved simultaneously.
Performing a sequence of specific gestures with the same hand on consecutive turns will perform a spell. There are 16 available spells, the list of wchich can be found at the end of the rules.
🔍 For example, Magic Missile spell is S-D, which requires you to do the S gesture, followed by the D gesture on the next turn. Gesturing D with a different hand, or having other gestures between S and D will cause the Magic Missile spell to not function.
Note that there is a limit of one spell per turn per hand. Fireball, which is D-S-P-S-D ends in S-D, which is Magic Missile spell, but rarely you would want to cast the latter over the former.
The longer spell will be casted by default and you will have to specify if you want to cast the shorter instead.
Lastly, one gesture can be a part of more than one spell. In a sequence D-S-P-S-D-S-P-S-D, the first 5 (bolded) gestures will cast the first fireball and then the last 5 (underlined) gestures will cast another fireball. You can keep chaining them, it doesn't have to end at two fireballs.
Most spells require a target. By default, the target is yourself or the opponent, whichever one makes more sense. Any targeted spell can be missed as well.
Summoned beings can be controlled by the owner of the summon. They are free to attack other players or other summons.
Targets that are about to be summoned are valid. If the summon doesn't happen, the spell will miss.
Each wizard has 15 health points. When a wizard reaches 0 HP, they are knocked out and lose the Death Match. If both wizards happen to be knocked out on the same turn, 5 additional health will be granted to them with spell progress not resetting and summons staying alive.
A wizard can also choose to surrender by showing a Proferred Palm with both hands on the same turn. You lose the Death Match, but at least you're not dead.
You will be warned in the submission channel if you are about to surrender.
Your submission should consist of 2 gestures, first for the left hand, second for the right hand.
Then you should specify the target if necessary, both for you and your summons.
Players have 60 seconds to submit their move. Time will not be cut short if both players submit early.
If you miss a submission, you will repeat your previous submission. Time controls won't be incredibly strict, but don't abuse this.
Shield
gesture P.
This spell protects the subject from all attacks from monsters (that is, creatures created by a summoning spell), from magic missiles, and from stabs by wizards.
The shield will block any number of such attacks but lasts for only one round. The shield protects the subject on the turn in which it is cast.
Counter-spell
gestures D-P-P or D-D-S.
Any other spell cast upon the subject in the same turn has no effect. It will also act as a Shield when cast.
In the case of blanket spells, which affect more than one person, the subject of the counter-spell alone is protected.
The only spell a counter-spell cannot stop is Power Word Kill.
Cure Light Wounds
gestures S-P-W.
The subject of the spell heals 1 health point. This spell can not cause the subject to have more than their starting HP (so for example, you can not heal a Goblin to have 2hp, as it starts with 1 hp)
Summon Goblin
gestures W-W-S.
This spell creates a goblin under the control of the subject upon whom the spell is cast. If cast on another monster, the goblin is controlled by monster's controller.
The goblin can attack immediately on the turn it is summoned.
It does one point of damage to its victim per turn and is destroyed after one point of damage is inflicted upon it.
The summoning spell cannot be cast at an elemental.
Summon Ogre
gestures P-W-W-S.
This spell is the same as summon goblin but the ogre created inflicts and is destroyed by two points of damage rather than one.
Summon Fire Elemental
gestures C-P-S-W-W.
This spell creates a fire elemental. The elemental deals 3 damage to any wizard or monster not resistant to heat. The elemental takes three points of damage to be killed.
Elementals must be summoned when the spell finishes by targeting either wizard; the spell can not be missed and must be cast on someone.
Two elementals of the same type will join together to form a single elemental of normal strength, restoring the HP of the original elemental up to three.
Elementals, Fireballs and Fire storms do not damage it. Resist Heat cast on an elemental will instantly kill it before it attacks for that turn.
Missile
gestures S-D.
This spell creates a material object of hard substance which is hurled towards the subject of the spell and causes him one point of damage.
The spell is thwarted by a shield in addition to the usual counter-spell.
Power Word Kill
gestures P-W-P-W-S-S-S-D.
Kills the subject stone dead. This spell is so powerful that it is unaffected by a counter-spell. The usual way to prevent being harmed by this spell is to disrupt it during casting using, for example, an anti-spell.
The subject of PWK can not be revived for tiebreak purposes. If both players cast PWK at the same time they will clash like Harry Potter laser beams and cancel out, resulting in neither player dying.
Fireball
gestures D-S-P-S-D.
The subject of this spell is hit by a ball of fire and sustains five points of damage unless he is resistant to fire.
Fire Storm
gestures S-W-W-C.
Everything not resistant to heat sustains 5 points of damage that turn.
Two fire storms act as one.
Charm Monster
gestures P-W-W-D.
This spell only affects monsters (excluding elementals). Control of the monster is transferred to the caster of the spell (or retained by him) as of this turn, i.e. the monster will attack whosoever its new controller dictates from that turn onwards including that turn. Further charms are, of course, possible, transferring as before.
Paralysis
gestures W-W-W.
If the subject of the spell is a wizard, then on the turn the spell is cast, after gestures have been revealed, the caster selects one of the wizard's hands and on the next turn that hand is paralyzed into the position it is in this turn. If the wizard already had a paralyzed hand, it must be the same hand which is paralyzed again. The chosen hand will remain in the position written down (this allows repeated stabs).
If the subject of the spell is a monster, it simply does not attack in the turn following the one in which the spell was cast.
Fear
gestures S-W-D.
In the turn following the casting of this spell, the subject cannot perform a C, D or S gesture. This obviously has no effect on monsters.
Anti-spell
gestures S-P-P.
On the turn following the casting of this spell, the subject cannot include any gestures made on or before this turn in a spell sequence and must restart a new spell from the beginning of that spell sequence. The spell does not affect spells which are cast on the same turn nor does it affect monsters.
Resist Heat
gestures C-W-W-P.
The subject of this spell becomes totally resistant to all forms of heat attack (fireball, fire storm and fire elementals) for the rest of the match.
If the subject is a fire elemental, it dies before it gets a chance to attack.
Blindness
gestures D-W-S-W-C
For the next 3 turns not including the one in which the spell was cast, the subject is unable to see. If he is a wizard, he cannot tell what his opponent's gestures are, although he must be informed of any which affect him (e.g. summons spells, missile etc cast at him) but not counter-spells to his own attacks. Indeed he will not know if his own spells work unless they also affect him (e.g. a fire storm when he isn't resistant to fire.) He can control his monsters (e.g. "Attack whatever it was that just attacked me").
Blinded monsters are instantly destroyed and cannot attack in that turn.
Surrender
gestures P with both hands.
This is not a spell and consequently cannot be cast at anyone. The wizard making these gestures, irrespective of whether they terminate spells or not, surrenders and the contest is over. The surrendering wizard is deemed to have lost unless his gestures completed spells which killed his opponent. Two simultaneous surrenders count as a draw. It is a skill for wizards to work their spells so that they never accidentally perform 2 P gestures simultaneously.
Stab
gesture stab.
This is not a spell but an attack which can be directed at any individual monster or wizard. Unless protected in that turn by a shield spell or another spell with the same effect, the being stabbed suffers 1 point of damage. The wizard only has one knife so can only stab with one hand in any turn, although which hand doesn't matter.
Table of all spells
The wizards aren't expected to memorise all of the spells, here's a table of all spells sorted in alphabetical order:
Summon Elemental | C-P-S-W-W
Resist Heat | C-W-W-P
Counter-spell | D-D-S
Counter-spell | D-P-P
Fireball | D-S-P-S-D
Blindness | D-W-S-W-C
Power Word Kill | P-W-P-W-S-S-S-D
Summon Ogre | P-W-W-S
Charm Monster | P-W-W-D
Shield | P
Missile | S-D
Anti-spell | S-P-P
Cure Light Wounds | S-P-W
Fear | S-W-D
Fire Storm | S-W-W-C
Summon Goblin | W-W-S
Paralysis | W-W-W
Psych (The game tests the players' psychological & bluffing abilities.)
Simultaneous (The game involves players taking their turns simultaneously.)
Strategy (The game tests the players' strategic & tactical abilities.)