I am concerned about the interactions of this spell with creatures that have large amounts of life. Imagine an earth elemental with the incorporeal trait. Of course, killing those is already pointless, but what about something like a hydra or a gorgon archer? Currently, incorporeal creatures are carefully balanced so that their low health offsets their considerable ability to ignore damage. As far as softening up creatures goes, incorporeal is generally far superior to armor.

I would recommend that this be made a 1-use defense. The name "phase shift" brings to mind a creature shifting slightly into another dimension to let an attack pass through, but not staying there. Something a little like block, but that works on unavoidable attacks as well (and does not prevent all damage/effects, since it is only granting temporary incorporeality).

Blank dice with printed label/stickers would replace conditions/mana/damage markers and tokens

Yes, they would. I suspect that they would be more bulky, though, and I would prefer to represent things with cards whenever possible.

Also why not shared mana and life boards to either side with different markers from other games (like same size cubes in Lords of Waterdeep). To ensure no mistakes made via greater transparency and awareness of opponent's resources.

You mean like an extra status track? A good idea, but my objective is to reduce the number of components. I don't think tracking the opponent's resources is that difficult; you can always ask them. I'll think about this.

I think the zone intersections should be square-shaped, not rectangular. It might not make much difference, but it might be easier to make the zones line up properly in some variant formats if the zone border cards are just as long as they are short. Like if you want to have triangular zones by overlapping the zone borders, or something like that.

The reason I am making them rectangular is that I want them to fit on the same size cards as Mage Wars cards so that they can fit nicely into the same size card boxes. I can also make some square versions, though; I'll get those up at some point.

Of course, you could also make the zone border cards only have one line on them, then put them in transparent card sleeves. Then draw lines in permanent marker on the card sleeves, in different ways depending on the shape and arrangement of the zones. So there would be some zone border cards with horizontal lines and some with vertical, and some card sleeves with vertical lines on then and some with horizontal. Then you can have bigger card sleeves with diagonals and curved lines and such.

Perhaps pens could be used for the outer walls of the arena?

Good idea for alternate board types. My primary concern right now is making the standard game portable, so I'll focus on that. Regarding pens, those would work, but I don't think they're necessary.

I found an alternate image host, so here are some replacements for stackable status conditions. Print them doublesided, and I think they should be a net reduction in volume over the cardboard tokens. Just slide them under creatures as though they were enchantments, with the appropriate part showing.















Here's a way to replace the initiative and compass rose markers. It's a zone intersection, but with additional information. Just turn it so that the arrow points at whichever player currently has the initiative.

I've been very busy lately, but here are a few more cards:

Building on the Mana Tree mechanics:


A non-undead implementation of reanimate:


My attempt at partially solving the "teleport problem" that DeckBuilder and others have brought up with the game.



Regarding blink, it sounds like there are disadvantages to range 2 blink compared to range 1; I'll have to reconsider it. Maybe I can just make it the same mana cost as the blink spell, then.

Yeah, forget the idol; Deathlock alone is a major threat. The Druid's creatures trade armor for regeneration, so shutting down the regeneration is like removing the armor from another mage's creatures.

If you're going for a swarm of level 1 creatures, you should consider including meditation amulet and lair in this build; they are perfect for it. The beastmaster can meditate and summon a creature with quick action, and have the lair summon another creature. Because level 1 creatures are so cheap, the lair will not slow down the strategy too much. With ring of beasts and lair's channeling, you might even get to a point at which you can stop meditating and just summon 3 creatures per round (though that is likely unnecessary).

I'm not big on Vine Snappers myself. It looks like your plan is to use Teleport wand to keep your opponent in that zone, but if you ever lose your wand your Vine Snappers will be useless. I'm not using any in my current book. I do think it's important for the Druid to take at least one non-plant creature, just so everything she casts won't be vulnerable to flame damage. I'm using Galador, who additionally has that nice stun/daze attack.

Good points, Aylin.

I was going for the "Druid uses vine markers to remotely battle" concept, Thornlashers dragging enemies into Vine Pits, Flowers for extra concentrated firepower, Teleport Wand augmenting concept, the sedentary plants keeping the Druid safe in her forest. But it just seems too slow.

Evolution following feedback...

-4 Snapper (-8)

Whoa; don't lose the vine snappers. They are the Druid's most efficient attacking creatures (7 mana for an attack of 5 with piercing! 6 mana with leaf ring!). The druid absolutely does not need teleport wand to make them effective; just pair the vine snappers with thornlashers and/or restrain enemies after they are finally dragged (kicking and screaming, no doubt) into their zone. Vine snappers also make good guards for your valuable trees. I would cut down on Raptor Vines instead; it is unlikely that you will be casting 4. Also, why no stranglevines? The Druid's ability to weaponize conjurations is (in my view) one of her greatest strengths. Suppression Orb is also a good thing to include, since your opponent will almost certainly be moving more than you will.

Edit: what Wildhorn said, but with even more vine snappers. 4 is a good number.

I'm not sure if this really counts as "Alternative Play" (no rule changes), but I couldn't figure out where else to put it, so I'll put it here for now.

One of the major problems with Mage Wars is how not portable it is. The objective of this thread is to provide replacements for game components, with the ultimate objective being to fit the entire game (or a portable and playable subset of the game) into as few deck boxes as possible (small deck boxes; think UltraPro). This will be mostly accomplished by converting as many things as possible into 2.5"x3.5" cards and finding alternative ways to represent aspects of the game state. This is not intended to replace the game components, but rather to provide an alternative for players who find themselves traveling and want to bring the game along with them in as little space as possible.

Game Board
This is the easiest to replace. The mage wars board is basically a modified tic-tac-toe board. Here are ways to simulate it:

Draw a board with chalk/markers/pencil/pretty much anything else.

Say what you will, this works and is extremely easy and quick to do.

Mark zone intersections.



These cards represent zone intersections. Just place 6 of them in a grid (or 20, if you absolutely need to define the arena outer boundaries), with as much space between them as you would like. The lines between the four-pointed stars become the zone borders. Also lets you build custom or multiplayer boards. The fancy purple-starred card replaces the initiative and compass tokens - just point it at the player with initiative, and use its compass when you need to determine directions at random.

Note that you don't have to use these cards - literally anything will do for a zone intersection. I have played Mage Wars on a board made out of peanuts and tangerines (true story!). Post-its also work nicely.

Mage Status Boards

Use Status Cards



Note that this life card is scaled to 5-per-row and color coded by severity of your injuries. But where, you ask, is the place for zero on either of these cards? Simple: just don't put the marker on the track if it is at zero (put it on your mage card or something if you are worried about losing it).

Use a Status Dial

Instructions for making a basic status dial here:
How to make a status dial (easily)
Unfortunately, the current model is still about as bulky as a regular status board, though it does have fewer separate parts. I will see if I can improve upon this. I am considering 3D printing as an option.

Action and Quickcast Markers

These are unnecessary. Take a page out of Magic and turn creatures sideways after they have acted. The facing of the card can be used to keep track of who owns it (and players generally remember which ones they own anyway). You can also keep your objects closer to your side of each zone.

Similarly, the quickcast marker can be represented by turning your Mage card (not the one with your picture, but the one with your abilities) sideways.

I have tried this, and it works well. I no longer use action markers in my own games, and barely notice the difference.

Spellbooks

As many have noted, the books are not necessary; keeping the cards in a deck works fine and takes up less space (also less setup and take-down time for the game). I personally prefer to use decks as a general rule, but in terms of portability they are an obvious choice.

Dice
Not going to mess with these (yet). I can't think of any alternative that would use less space, and they aren't terribly bulky anyway.

Assorted Tokens
Still working on these. Not all should be replaced, but I think there is definitely some scope for reductions here.

Mage Ability Tokens



If your mage's ability is one use per round, you can turn this card over to indicate when the ability has been used. If its ability is a pet-type ability, slide this card underneath its target. This works because all mages have at most one ability that requires a single special token (not considering warlord's vet tokens).

Mana and Damage Markers

Miniature dials can function to display health and mana very efficiently; each creature needs only one or two such dials. Examples:



These require a bit more assembly than the other solutions here, but the materials are very cheap. This thread contains more information and resources for constructing these dials.

Imaginator proposes use of change such as pennies, dimes, etc. as damage/mana markers. He also proposes a "penny mage" optional variant for this. Depending on the type of change you use, this could potentially cut down on space a bit by reducing component sizes.

Stackable Conditions

These are replacements for stackable conditions. Print them doublesided and put them under the creature so that the desired part of the card sticks out:



Initiative and Compass Rose Markers

The following special zone intersection replaces the initiative and compass rose markers. Just point the initiative arrows at the player that currently holds the initiative.



Rulebook and Codex
The best way to carry these is in your brain. I am still thinking about a replacement codex, though.


Comments and suggestions welcome.

Quote from: aquestrion on December 07, 2013, 09:26:14 PM

Yes akiros hammer can be shut down with a fog bank. But if you put a wall in front of it yourself don't you shut down that potential fog bank?

That's like saying the cure for a broken toe is to cut off your foot.

Depends what the wall is. A wall of Pikes or a Bloodspine wall would not block LOS, and would prevent the other player from playing a wall on that border.