Mages' Ballad

OVERVIEW

This Death Match takes place on a 5 by 5 by 5 hexagonal grid, for a total of 61 cells.

Players take control of a mage (represented by either a grey or white piece) and will alternate turns moving and casting spells, attempting to ensnare their opponent.

ELEMENTS

There are two element types and three intensities of each.

The element types are of course fire and ice.

The intensity can be 1, 2, or 3, which are referred to as weak, medium, and strong intensities, respectively.

A cell may only contain up to one type of element. If an element is placed on a cell with an existing element, things can happen depending on the intensity and type of the elements.

If the element type is the same, then their intensities are added together, up to a maximum of 3. Therefore, a weak fire and medium fire would combine to form a strong fire, and two medium ice would combine to form a strong ice.

If the element type is different, then it depends on the intensity. If the intensities are different, the element with the stronger intensity overrides the weaker one. If the intensities are the same and also not strong, then they cancel out, leaving an empty space. Otherwise, nothing happens.

That means that strong elements cannot be removed.

MAGES

Players will control a mage on the board. You win if your opponent cannot cast a spell during their turn.

During your turn, you have two options: you may move up to one space, and you may cast a spell. You do not have to move, but you must cast a spell. You may do these in any order you wish. On the first player's first turn, they cannot move.

You cannot move into tiles that have medium or higher intensity of an element. Additionally, you cannot move into your opponent.

You cannot cast spells if you are currently on a tile of medium intensity or higher; you must first move before casting a spell if you are on such a tile. You may not cast a spell you or your opponent casted in their previous turn, even if it's of a different element (with the exception of Pass).

When casting a spell, you must select a spell name, and aspect it with either fire or ice. This will determine what element the spell will create. Additionally, this will shift your aspect in that direction. Your aspect can either be Ice II, Ice I, Neutral, Fire I, or Fire II. If you cast a spell with the opposite aspect of you, your aspect will return to Neutral. Otherwise, your aspect's intensity will increase by 1. If you are currently at an aspect intensity level of 2, you cannot cast spells of that aspect. For example, if your aspect is currently Fire I, and you cast a fire spell, you become Fire II, and therefore next turn you cannot cast a fire spell.

Right before you cast a spell, you place a weak element of the same type at your current location (which will interact with the spell cast). Note that even if this causes the tile you are on to be medium intensity or higher, you will still be able to resolve the spell cast.

SPELLS

There are a total of 15 elemental spells, split into 3 categories.

These spells have a base name, and are aspected by adding an element to the beginning of the name. Aspecting a spell with an element will replace all instances of [element] with the aspected element (and similarly for [opposite element]). Note that the word "element" without the brackets is unchanged. For example, a player could cast Fire Storm, and its effect would be "Select up to 3 non-adjacent cells; place a weak fire in each."

There is also a special spell: Pass. It does the same thing regardless of its aspect, and does nothing. Note that this is still a spell, and hence other spell related effects (not losing, placing a weak element in your current cell) will still happen.

At the beginning of the game, 5 elemental spells will be randomly selected to be part of the DM. There will be no duplicate spells. Three spells will be selected from category 1, one spell will be selected from category 2, and one spell will be selected from category 3.

All spells that ask for a direction to be picked refer to one of the six cardinal directions: NE, E, SE, SW, W, and NW. You can also use UR, R, DR, DL, L, and UL. Any spell that asks for multiple cells to be selected refers to distinct cells. A cell is not adjacent to itself. A cell is within 1 unit of itself. Spells' placements are all simultaneous. Any elements placed off of the grid disappear instantly.

GRIMOIRE

Category 1:

Arc: Select a direction; place an arc of 5 weak [element] exactly 2 units away from you in that direction relative to you.

Arrow: Select a direction; place a weak [element] in every cell (other than your own) in that direction relative to you.

Bloom: Select a cell; place weak [element] on all spaces without an element within 1 unit.

Fence: Select 2 cells that have [element] and are in a line; place a weak [element] on all cells in between, including the two selected cells.

Multiplication: Select up to 3 cells such that each cell is adjacent to a different number of [element]; place weak [element] in each.

Restoration: Select up to 3 cells adjacent to at least 2 [opposite element]; place weak [element] in each.

Spread: Select up to 1 cell with [element] of medium intensity or higher; place a weak [element] in all adjacent cells.

Storm: Select up to 3 non-adjacent cells; place a weak [element] in each.

Surge: Select a cell; place weak [element] on all spaces with [element] within 1 unit of it.

Category 2:

Mend: Select up to 2 cells adjacent to at least 2 [element]; place a medium [element] in each.

Spikes: Select up to 2 cells with any element; place a medium [element] in each.

Wall: Select a cell within 1 unit of you and a direction; place a medium [element] in that cell, the adjacent cell in that direction, and the adjacent cell in the opposite direction.

Category 3:

Meteor: Select up to 1 cell without an element; place a strong [element] there.

Override: Select up to 1 cell that has [opposite element]; place a strong [element] there.

Smite: Select up to 1 cell within 1 unit of your opponent; place a strong [element] there.

ADMINISTRATION

At the time of the game, 5 elemental spells will be randomly selected and revealed to both players. Players will have 1 minute to think about the spells, as well as decide who goes first. If there is a conflict, the DMO will decide. Then, the game will begin. Recall that on the first player's first turn, they cannot move.

Each player will have 1 minute to make their move. If they run out of time, they go into reserve time, of which they have 5 minutes each. If they run out of reserve time, they will attempt to cast Fire/Ice Pass (randomly selected). If this is not possible, they will move in a random legal direction, then they will attempt to cast Fire/Ice Pass (randomly selected). If this is not possible, then they will have failed to cast a spell on their turn, and therefore lose the DM.

On each turn, the host will post the board, as well as each spell with a timer counting down the number of plies until it is available again. The board will have each player's current aspect level intensity near the bottom. The cell labeled is such that the number of a cell indicates the position of the cell on the row from the left of the board.

EXAMPLES

Here are various examples regarding how the game will look, as well as various interactions.

Game Update

[0] Arrow: Select a direction; place a weak [element] in every cell (other than your own) in that direction relative to you.

[2] Mend: Select up to 2 cells adjacent to at least 2 [element]; place a medium [element] in each.

[0] Restoration: Select up to 3 cells adjacent to at least 2 [opposite element]; place weak [element] in each.

[1] Smite: Select up to 1 cell within 1 unit of your opponent; place a strong [element] there.

[0] Surge: Select a cell; place weak [element] on all spaces with [element] within 1 unit of it.

It is now Grey's turn to move.

In this example, Grey can only cast ice spells, as their aspect is Fire II, so the only spells they can cast are Ice Arrow, Ice Restoration, and Ice Surge (and of course Ice Pass). Additionally, since they are standing on medium fire, they must move first before casting a spell. Also note that some cells with elements are unnumbered; those are implied to be weak, or intensity 1, elements.

This game had the following sequence of moves to lead to this position:

Grey: Fire Arrow eastward

White: Ice Restoration on D3, F3, and F4, Move to D6

Grey: Move to E4, Fire Smite on C5

White: Fire Mend on C6, Move to D5

Intensity Interactions

The below image shows a before (top) and after (bottom) of a mage casting Fire Arrow towards the right.

The below image shows a before (top) and after (bottom) of mages casting Ice Spikes on the four cells with elements.

Arc Spell

This image shows a Fire Arc directed eastward and an Ice Arc directed up right.

Multiplication Spell

The first image shows the state of the board before White casts their spell. In this state, a valid move for White would be to cast Ice Multiplication on C5 (it is adjacent to 0 ice), C2 (it is adjacent to 1 ice (as the cast of the ice spell created a weak ice at D2)), and F4 (it is adjacent to 2 ice). The second image shows the result of that cast.

Wall Spell

All of these mages demonstrate valid Wall placements.

HOSTING

Here's your funny Penpa+ link: https://swaroopg92.github.io/penpa-edit/#m=edit&p=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

Surface for fire and ice, Number L for intensity levels, and Shape for the player pieces. Everything else should be self explanatory from both reading the rules and the examples.

SUMMARY

On a player's turn, they must cast a spell and optionally move (in any order); a player wins if their opponent cannot cast a spell on their turn.

Players cast spells from a shared pool of 5 spells and will aspect them with either fire or ice, which will fill the board with various elements; players are restricted from aspecting with the same element for too many turns in a row.

Cells can become occupied with elements of weak, medium, or strong intensities; medium or strong intensity elements cannot be moved into and players cannot cast spells while standing in them.