Zone enchantments vs spells to be deployed, and other problems/requests

[Sailor Vulcan]

I thought that this would have been asked before, but I didn't see a thread for it, and I have no clue why not.

That rule that says that spells to be deployed should be placed next to their spawnpoints...why not put them sideways underneath their spawnpoints? Otherwise they look like zone enchantments, and that can get confusing.

Also, mage-attached enchantments should be placed off to the side of the board with the mage's ability card, just like their equipment. Otherwise they take up a TON of space and are torture to move. I really don't see much of a good reason not to place mage-attached enchantments off to the side of the board. All of the competitive players on OCTGN do it, and it doesn't change any of the game mechanics or give any player more of an advantage/disadvantage, it doesn't actually change the game state at all. The only "problem" is that it's ever so slightly less aesthetically consistent, since all the enchantments targeting anything else go on the board, and you can't put the enchantments on a steelclaw grizzly off to the side for instance. While I suppose the tiny loss of aesthetic consistency is ever so slightly detrimental to new players being able to grasp what they're seeing when they watch a competitive game, I would hazard a guess that if they can't understand that the enchantments next to the ability card are only there because they're attached to the mage, then they probably won't be able to follow much of the game anyway.

And I mean, what do you even do at tournaments when you run out of room in a zone and a player tries to put another card in that zone but can't because of the lack of space?

Then again, this could easily be solved with adjustable zone borders. If you've seen ACG's zone intersection cards in his Mage Wars portability project, then you'd know what I'm talking about. Could you please make zone intersection tokens available? And maybe while you're at it, could you make arena boards/mats without the zone borders on them? I would totally buy some of those, they'd make playing mage wars in real life so much neater and less messy.

Thanks!

[DaveW]

Agreed with the rule wording change. I can't remember ever seeing this done the way the rule is worded. I tend to put the cards to be deployed laying across on top of the spawnpoint. These come into play before any actions are taken, so it doesn't really matter to us where you put them as long as you remember to deploy them. (This also applies to spells to be cast from familiars, even though they come into play during the Action Phase.)

I also understand your point about enchantments, but I personally would much rather have the enchantments on the board, both from a personal and a practical standpoint. From my own personal point of view (and I suppose some others') I tend to forget things that aren't on the board in front of me. I've gotten used to the typical pieces of equipment that people tend to play, so I know to look for them when it becomes important... but I fear that I will completely forget that there are important enchantments in play if they are kept off the board (no matter how near to it they are). It doesn't matter to me what people do on Octgn... I don't play there, and presume that some others (perhaps most Mage Warriors?) also do not.

The second, more practical, point is that (I presume) the hyper-enchantment of mages may become somewhat more rare with the advent of additional anti-enchantment abilities of some newly introduced spells. Maybe not a lot... but perhaps enough to have more room on the board going forward. It'll also depend on the matchup. A Warlock and Beastmaster perhaps may have many enchantments on themselves, but I don't see too terribly many on most of the others that would make it a great annoyance.

I suppose that if your opponent agrees, you can do whatever you want. I'd just hope that the Mage Enchantments off the board idea never gets printed in the rules.

[sIKE]

In OCTGN there is typically a gentleman's agreement on placing the cards to the side of the board. The most important rule that should be and most of the time is follow is order placement of hidden enchantments. This is why most IRL games don't follow this and also official tournament games. So I can see the Enchantment attachment rule not changing.

With the advent of card auto-attachment and auto-alignment introduced with the last release, this should become even less of an issue in OCTGN.

[Sailor Vulcan]

In OCTGN there is typically a gentleman's agreement on placing the cards to the side of the board. The most important rule that should be and most of the time is follow is order placement of hidden enchantments. This is why most IRL games don't follow this and also official tournament games. So I can see the Enchantment attachment rule not changing.

With the advent of card auto-attachment and auto-alignment introduced with the last release, this should become even less of an issue in OCTGN.

Isn't it easier, not harder, to see the order of mage-attached enchantments placed to the side of the board?