Magic Realm - 1st Edition - Encounter 1

In this video I play through the first of seven encounters in the Magic Realm 1st ed. rulebook.

[@bluebotic2327]

Disclaimer: This is not a tutorial. It's just a case study in one curious gamer's quest to learn a peculiar tabletop fantasy game from 1979. The Magic Realm 1st Edition rulebook is divided into 7 'Encounters' that teach the game's subsystems one by one, each encounter building on the last. My goal is to learn the game by playing through all seven encounters of Magic Realm 1st Ed. These videos contain many rules errors and are not intended to be instructional, but they do illustrate what it looks like to try to learn this game. Hopefully by the end of the series I will be able to play Magic Realm correctly, and maybe these videos will inspire others to give it a shot.

[@chillbocamron]

Awesome task taking on this CLASSIC!!

[@bluebotic2327]

It's been a lot of fun. I still need to do a grand finale video with all the optional rules enabled.

[@RottenMechGaming]

Love seeing this old vintage game and your initial thoughts on setup and play. Looks like it could do with being published again with some updates.

[@bluebotic2327]

Thanks. Yeah, I'd love to see this game re-made with minor updates to art and rules clarity. There is so much heart and soul packed into this game, maybe more than any I've played. It's really hard to find or build this game, and the learning curve is brutal. But with an updated Fantasy Flight-like ruleset and component quality, this game would be a perfect 10 in my book.

[@danielt63]

At 25:09. The simplest way to think about it is that if a tile has 6 clearings, all 6 have to connect to Border Land. If a tile has less than 6, then only one clearing has to connect. Note that all the tiles _except_ for Ledges and High Pass have all their clearings connected internally. This is why there is a special rule for those two tiles.

[@bluebotic2327]

Daniel T. Thanks. Yeah I finally sorted that all out in my head during Encounter 2 with a little help from the 2nd Ed rulebook. Game setup now feels very intuitive to me. But was a bit daunting to sort out in Encounter 1.

[@DeafSparrow]

Rules clearly state every Clearing must lead back to Border Land. See first edition 3.413.

[@danielt63]

@@DeafSparrow 3.413 says "any clearing" not every clearing (except in the case of High Pass and Ledges). As I explained, they have 6 clearings so all 6 have to connect to Borderland.

[@DeafSparrow]

​@@danielt63Incorrect. It says a route must be traced by roadway to any clearing, meaning all clearings. Otherwise you could place something like Oak Woods without a path traceable to Clearing 5 or Clearing 2 and 4. This makes such clearings effectively dead. Hamblen edited this for Second Edition for unknown reasons. Likely to increase the randomness of map generation so placement was easier but the 6 clearing rule is not first edition, nor is it mentioned in The General supplement from 1979.

[@danielt63]

@@DeafSparrow Any does not mean all. If any clearing can trace a route to Borderland then the placement is valid. There's a reason that rule 6.12 says that the dwellings are placed "in the highest numbered Clearing that connects back to the BORDERLAND by roadway." and it's because not all the clearings are necessarily connected.

[@danielt63]

At 23:42. Once the Swordsman ends his phase in the same clearing as the un-hidden White Knight, the former could block the latter which would have forced the latter to loose his turn.

[@bluebotic2327]

Daniel T. Ahhh! You’re right! Good catch. I got wrapped up in the race against time and failed to look for blocking strategies.

[@MegaSnegovichok]

The Swordsman also has a special ability, that allows him to choose whether he goes first or second. So, on many occasions he could have also used it to block the unhidden WK, forcing the latter to lose turns (and showing the importance of Hiding) :-)

[@danielt63]

@@MegaSnegovichok Special abilities don't apply in encounter 1, but yes. Once special abilities are introduced, that comes into play as well.

[@danielt63]

There's no point in doing the two hides at the beginning of turns 1 & 2 because blocking comes at the *end* of each phase. So no matter which player goes first, if he moves out of the clearing in his first phase, he can't be blocked.

[@bluebotic2327]

Daniel T. Thanks for the feedback. That did occur to me as I rewatched my playthrough.

[@DeafSparrow]

There could certainly be a reason. If another chatacter plays next and the hide was unsuccessful, they can block you after a phase if they move into the same clearing. More than one H secures hidden status, though not in same clearing if an enemy that can block is present. If a target that can block is in the same clearing, then yes 2 H phases is pointless. I don't recommend Hidden Movement as an optional rule until you're thoroughly familiar with everything.