I think it might be a mistake to say that control is always a defensive strategy, or that aggro is always offensive. While that is true in a CCG, Mage wars is more of a Minis game. I read a warmachine article relatively recently that said that there are six different playstyles, three offensive and three defensive.

Offensive: alpha strike (like aggro; strike first and hard at your opponents forces, crippling key models), assasination (like combo; the enemy warcaster/warlock is your only target) and domination (like control, rely on superior fire power to completely destroy enemy forces)

Defensive: attrition (sort of like aggro; taking hits better than opponent and eventually overcoming them through numbers/toughness), terrain/movement control (like control, a bit self explanatory), and denial (like combo, preventing your opponent from using their best models and striking their soft underbelly).

http://steam-poweredgamer.blogspot.com/2011/11/list.html?m=1

So what does this mean for Mage Wars? Well, I'm thinking a lot of these playstyle/strategies need to delve into other playstyle/strategies as a backup plan against certain matchups in order to be competitive. There are also hybrid strategies. Example: one good idea for a hybrid playstyle would be to combine Denial with assasination. Prevent your opponent from using some of their important cards, and then strike at their mage while they are vulnerable. Or you can try a Terrain/movement control and assasination strategy, physically separating the enemy mage from their forces. There's probably a ton of potential different hybrid playstyles.

As for whether you need all six playstyles to be supported relatively equally for a balanced game...I'm not entirely sure. Someone would have to come up with an accurate metagame clock. I imagine it probably is very complicated, especially when we start talking about hybrid playstyle/strategies. Here is all that I've guessed so far:

This extremely incomplete clock is for when both players are completely entirely equal in both spellbook building and playing skill.

Attrition = Domination (unstoppable force meets immovable object)

Yeah, I have no idea where to go from here. I imagine that most good spellbooks are either hybrid or have a backup plan for dealing with certain playstyle/strategies, which means that perhaps no one is purely going for just one of these playstyle/strategies in a competitive build.

Of course this is just a theory; for all I know, it could be way off the mark when applied to Mage Wars.

What do you think?

This is an amazing idea! I love it! The battle system sounds particularly ingenius. The spaces of the arena, but without the outer walls! Perfect for roleplaying. However the rulebook you posted here needs to be more organized and legible. Also, I don't think putting those kinds of limits on what your mages can cast will make for a very balanced game. I'm pretty sure you gave the Forcemaster an advantage there, since she's better at soloing. Of course, since I STILL haven't had the chance to play a full game of Mage Wars yet, I wouldn't know for absolute certain.

How about this for a premise? You are a student in a university for Mages in Sortilege, and you are on a field trip/vacation/whatever. Or the adventure can take place at the university. This university has six colleges--one for each major school of magic. Your character will start out with only minimal spellbook points and stats, as well as weak or nonexistent versions of their mage class's special abilities.

For dungeon looting, I think it should depend on the scenario. I have an idea of kidnapped professors or parents/important public figures. When you rescue professors, they'll teach you a new spell or two. When you rescue your parents or an important public figure, they give you new equipment. Some enemy creatures can have equipment to loot as well.

Of course, for equipment you can buy them for in game money/campus credit or something. Your character can get a part-time job.

Also, if we're having some of our adventures in a school, we cannot CANNOT forget the minigames. Competitions and sports and stuff. Some of those minigames might have prerequisites, like being trained in a certain school of magic or having certain kinds of spells available in your spellbook.

Apprentice Mages that can only cast 1 or 2 spells per fight sounds rather boring. That sounds like the level of middle school mages, and I'm not sure anyone's going to want to play as one of those.

Also, I don't think it's a good idea to play as a mage with a full 120 spellbook points right from the start. That would be like starting from the level cap, since only some of the best mages get selected to fight in the arena, and they all have 120 book points. Those mages are already long out of graduate school. If you want to have the opportunity to level up your character and still be consistent with the story, I would say all mage characters in the RPG are students.

I think creatures are absolutely fine, as long as we're sticking to the amount of spellbook points available. Let's face it, a nature student in their senior year in magical college should be perfectly capable of summoning a few Ferrets. And again, I'm pretty sure that banning all, or even a significant number of creatures would give soloing mages an unfair advantage compared to their teammates, rivals and enemies.

Here's what I'm thinking for the stat/level up system:

All Mages start out at Rank 1 as high school graduates or Freshmen--or rather, Freshmages.

Rank 1--High school graduates and Freshmages have:

*1/6 of the spellbook points that an arena level Mage of the same class has
*20 less Health than an Arena level Mage of the same class
*the same channeling rate as an Arena level Mage of the same class. This rate does not change with Rank up.

*additionally, all Mages start out with up to 8 starter spells. You want these to not get too close to your maximum Rank 1 spellbook points, because if they do it will be very hard to learn new spells during your freshmage year. Of course, you can also find a specialized Mind Mage who can force you to forget spells, they often do it for free, but some of them might charge you, especially if you rely on their services too much.

Rank 2 is Sophomage, Rank 3 is Junior Mage, and Rank 4 is Senior Mage. Rank 5 is Graduate Mage, and Rank 6 is Arena level.

Each Rank up is equivalent to another year of successful magical college curriculum, and you gain 1/6 of the spellbook points that an arena level mage of the same class has. When you Rank up you also gain +5 max health. Also, different types of activities and actions could have different types of EXP. Different types of campaigns or classes could also award new knowledge and skills for completing them. They can also be used to recruit new party members or befriend NPC's. Once you've reached Rank 5, it's time for graduate school. Rank 5 Mages are pretty powerful mages. Rank 6 mages are the ones that can be drafted into the arena. If a Rank 6 mage loses in the arena, they die in story too, so you better hope that your GM isn't sadistic enough to draft your mage. Although if you have a sadistic GM, you might want to think of finding another GM.

Your idea of 10 EXP=1 spellbook point has merit, but if we're trying to make the story consistent by making the characters start out as student-level Mages, it will be harder to calculate that way, especially if you want characters to gain experience from both their classes and campaigns.

Also, I hate not being able to have the freedom to customize my build. If I start with no spellbook points and only get a couple points in each battle out of several hundred battles, I'm going to be severely restricted in planning my Mage's spellbook for the long term. I don't want my Mage's spellbook to be a hodge podge of random spells that were only useful for a short while when they were learned without regard for how they work together in the long term. Having 6 levels and gaining 20 spellbook points for level, while being able to forget spells with the help of an NPC mind mage completely eliminates this problem. It gives the players more leg room to customize their characters and their characters' magical education for the long term without it being at the expense of their character's life, well being or overall magical ability in the short term.

So what do you think? Are my edits and additions approved?

This is an absolutely amazing wonderful idea, but I think it still needs some work. I deeply look forward to playing this.

What should I do if there turns out not to be any ambassadors in my area? I'm having a lot of trouble finding anyone in real life or online to teach me or even who plays the game at all, and I don't want to wait until I transfer to the university in the fall to get into the game. I tried learning how to play online, but it didn't go so well. It will be a lot easier to learn in person. If there are no ambassadors in my area will it be too late for any more to apply? I'm so insanely bored right now that I'm falling asleep in classes that I find interesting even when I've gotten enough sleep. I'm just that inactive right now. All of my other many attempts at finding a hobby have failed, so I would really appreciate it if someone could help me with this. How soon will the ambassadors be officially selected? Three days, five days, a week? Where will the announcement be posted? I'm sorry of I'm sounding a bit short, I'm extremely frustrated right now by the utter lack of things for me to do this summer due to sheer coincidence and all of my friends being too busy to spend any time with me.

Thanks!

Just so you know, I actually already have OCTGN and that's where I first was taught how to play. Before that I watched most if not all of the tutorial videos on youtube. Maybe you're right that learning how to play online wasn't the best idea, since it makes it harder to keep things straight in my head, especially since that game was interrupted by internet problems almost as soon as my opponent finished teaching me all the basics.

I haven't actually bought the game yet, since I was hoping to test online before I bought it. But I've been having some trouble finding opponents on there for some reason.

Um the sandstorm and Fellella thing. Wow, that was also a stupid mistake on my part. Also, if you read the last few posts, you'd see that someone already pointed out the exact same issue with the mana flowers/crystals. I know that this isn't MtG. The reason I put the mana acceleration in there at all is because this is a MIDRANGE build, and as far as I know Midrange needs mana acceleration regardless of whether the game is MtG or Mage Wars. If it wasn't a midrange build, I probably wouldn't have put any flowers/crystals in at all. The wand thing was also good to point out. Also, it was already stated that this spellbook will probably be better suited for the Druid once it is released.

You're right, I do need more experience. I very much appreciate your advice, and that you at least attempted to give it without sounding exasperated and condescending. Next time you might want to wait a little bit and read over what you write more before posting. Nevertheless, I'm still glad that you posted. I find your advice quite helpful.


Also, shouldn't it be "Theory is greater with practice than theory alone"? Since saying "the difference between theory and practice is greater in practice than theory" means that "the difference" is greater in practice, rather than "the theory" being greater in practice. I'm pretty sure you were NOT trying to say that someone can't recognize the distinction between theory and practice without practicing their recognition. Seriously, who on Earth are you quoting who would make such a simple concept sound so long and confusing that the person talking about it doesn't realize that they're saying something completely different?

Nitrodavid, I think I will take your advice and use the druid for this build once the new expansion's released. While I don't know what abilities she has (or he, if there eventually is a male version), the idea of being able to cast a bunch of mana flowers early in the game without running all around the board would be perfect for this build. Now that I think about it, considering that Midrange strategies rely on mana acceleration to work, the fact that I didn't include any Walls to guard my flowers and crystals was kind of dumb of me. The tanglevines will probably help a lot, especially if the Druid is able to cast them from anywhere regardless of LoS. Considering that several of the cards in this build are currently only available as promos (the Stumbles, Enchanter's Wardstones and the Sunfire Amulet), I'm thinking that the Druid will be my best bet. Since I'm not so sure that the Druid will have the fast trait, I decided to increase the Cheetah Speed count to 3. I also removed the Beast Staff. Thanks for telling me about the Druid. Otherwise I wouldn't have thought to look on the wiki page for possible upcoming mages. Now I suppose you'll have to create a WIP category or something, since the Mage for this build hasn't been released yet?

And....there goes the premise of the spellbook. I can't believe I forgot about teleport. If I had remembered that I would have realized that this build doesn't fit the forcemaster. Considering that it's so enchantment heavy, I'm currently trying to revamp this build as midrange-control using a beastmaster, shadow of the forest, that pixie familiar that can only cast enchantments, and Force Hold. Once I have a 120 point spellbook list again I will repost.

Thanks for your help! I'll keep what you've said in mind if and when I build a Forcemaster spellbook in the future (which I probably will.)

Thanks for the help everyone, I now know that this game is affordable to me. And after looking at the mages, I've decided that I really want to try a Forcemaster build. I've already started designing it, so that when I buy the core set and the expansion I'll be able to build it right away. This is going to be great!

Yeah, but the word Diplomat doesn't sound cool at all compared to Ambassador. Maybe "envoy" I suppose? I'm not sure if that really works, though. Then again, while I'm sure it's easy to get Ambassadors in the Mage Wars Ambassador program confused with the Ambassador Mage in the Ambassador format, the difference should be very easy to explain and remember: one's a program for representing Mage Wars in the community. The other is a team position in an alternate format of playing Mage Wars.