There is not a single Arena. Just a huge battlefield for Mages to fight on. The only walls are the ones that occur naturally in the surrounding environment, or the ones that the Mages themselves create. However, there is an imaginary line that the battlefield is surrounded by. If a Mage steps outside of this line, he or she forfeits his place in his or her faction's army. All Mages are part of a faction, and each faction is a team that tries to win the war.
Since it would be difficult to use or find a ginormous enough table to play a game like Mage Wars in large numbers (not to mention it wouldn't work since people's arms aren't long enough and it would be a nightmare to keep track of whose objects are where on the table), players would have to carry their own little mini tables: a piece of cardboard with six zones on it and outer rims to prevent cards from falling off, strapped to their arm. The limited space of these six zones represent a loose magical barrier that is placed on you by your enemies to prevent escape. You could flee, but if you do you will be forsaking your duty, and will be cast off from your faction's army (forfeit)
To keep the game balanced between different playstyles, each mini-table's zones would have to be arranged differently depending on the Mage using them. For instance, a wizard might want his zones to be arranged like this:
ZZZ
ZZZ
While a priestess might prefer it like this:
ZZ
ZZZZ
Of course, this would require modular tiles. During the Encounter Resolution step (explained in a bit), the surviving players would have the option to strategically rearrange their empty zones (tiles with no cards on them). This represents taking control of the barriers your enemy placed on you when they are killed. It also gives you the element of surprise to keep them in place under your control, since it masks your magical abilities so your enemies cannot sense you from a long distance.
The real-life room will be divided into zones also, and whenever two or more opposing players enter the same zone, their mages must do battle. Players sit down on the floor of the real-life zone for this. (hopefully you would bring your own cushion to sit on)
After the battle, a Mage's stats all remain the same, and any cards on their 6 zones remain there. Any cards that a player owns that are in someone else's set of zones go back to the spellbook. Players would not be allowed to leave a real-life zone until this has occurred. This step is called the "encounter resolution" step. If a player is caught moving their cards outside of battle or the encounter resolution step, they are disqualified.
Each faction would be led either by a Mage Wars ambassador or by someone that is otherwise deemed trustworthy. The faction's leader would be able to cast giant versions of certain zone-exclusive conjurations at strategic locations, and also send other players to protect them. Depending on the size of the factions, it might be useful to delegate leadership over distance measured in real-life zones.
A faction (or pieces of it called battlegroups) can surrender if they're losing really badly. Surrender occurs by majority vote within a faction or battle group. A faction can continue playing if their leader is defeated, but it will probably be challenging, especially in particularly large games.
A real-life zone is only allowed to contain as many players as can comfortably fit in it sitting down, with their mini-table zones all connected. It is allowed for multiple teammates to fight against a single opponent, but it would not always be a good strategic option.
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What do you think of my idea so far? Just thinking about it makes me so excited!
