4 players from one box?

[Mestrahd]

What would be the best way to jerry-rig a 4 player game out of the contents of one box? I plan on getting a dowel of appropriate diameter and making all the control markers. I can just photocopy the player boards, but I'm kind of stuck on the game board and spell books. Any ideas?

[Klaxas]

you will probibly need a core spell tome maybe 2 not sure depends on how many duplicate spells people want.  depends on how bad you wanna jury rig it, you could use a posterboard with lines marked for the board (or just make one board with 24 sections so it all looks the same) for the spellbooks you could use a card binder, or just have a stack of cards that the players shuffle through (not nearly as cool but you did say jury rig...)

[1unatic]

Excellent question!  The spell supply was designed to comfortably accommodate 2 players.  For example, any 2 mages from the suggested starter spellbooks on page 38 can coexist without overlap.  If you have 4 players and only 1 set, the best thing to do is to have each person choose a different mage or specialize in a specific school to prevent spell shortage.  However, commonly used spells such as heals or dispels may run dry.  As Klaxas suggested, you could purchase a core spell tome to alleviate this potential problem.  You could also just substitute spells with hand-made proxies if quality is not a concern.  Of course, if you have access to 2 sets of the original game, or own the 4-player set to be released this fall, then spell supply should not be a problem.

As far as the game board goes, it depends on how you want to play.  The official board size is 4x3, note this is larger than the demo/apprentice version.  If you are playing a 2v2 game, then this size is probably adequate, and the 2 mage teams can start on opposing ends of the board.  If you want to play a 4-player free-for-all, then you could customize the board for a larger size (and it doesn’t necessarily need to be rectangular).  Since it is just a simple grid, there are a number of ways you could delineate the zones.  The simplest may be to just draw a grid on a large piece of paper or posterboard / cardboard (as Klaxas proposed).

Hope this helps.

[Klaxas]

WOOT 2 for 2.  although i had not considered the proxies.  

the changeing of the arena board is something else i had not considered.  very interesting pssabilities there including built in walls and/or traps.  something to think on.

[Dragkin]

I really look forward to seeing what multiplayer forms of this game will be like. Sure, there's the 4v4 free for all being tossed around, and of course a 2v2 team - but I'd really like to see different scenarios and such put on. Maybe a defend a spot for X turns game, or a capture the flag type of game or something like that. Not entirely sure how well they'd work, but definitely having a battlefield like it does you can do lots of things I think.

[Arcanus]

If you want to play 4-player free for all, the easiest way to do this is to have 2 sets of the game.  If at least 2 people in your foursome own the game, you can readily do this.

This would ensure plenty of spells, markers, etc.  Put the 2 boards together to form a 4x6 grid.  A 4x6 grid is PERFECT for 4-player free for all.  Enough room for each player to establish a small base of operations and not be too close to the next player so there is some time to react before being rushed.

Where do players start?  If you number the 24 zones from left to right, top to bottom, with 6 zones across, and 4 rows of zones tall, the starting positions are:  1, 5, 20, and 24.  Or, try 3,12,13, and 22.

The only problem with 2 sets is that there are only 2 player colors.  You can use pennies or tokens for action markers for 2 of the Mages. A 4-player set with green/purple will be available for purchase this fall.

[Klaxas]

will this 4 player set be a new main box or will it be an add on to the base?

[Arcanus]

It will be an add-on with extra game board, spellbooks, dice, markers, status boards and color pieces.

[Klaxas]

nice nice.  i really do hope they come out with spellbooks that have the names of the mages on the spine....  hint hint.  or maybe someone can do it third party

[Dragkin]

Names of the mages on the side would be cool, but I'd much rather have more selections for the art on the front and back of the spell books. I love this aspect of the game btw.

Can't wait to get my hands on the 4 player pack. I hope it comes out before December (not holding my breath). I can just picture Christmas Eve with my wife and I battling my brother and his girlfriend.

[Klaxas]

well i was thinking the cover could be indicitave of the type of mage as well.  hide bound for the beastmaster maybe, etc etc.

[Dragkin]

Ohhhhhh, I see. That could be pretty cool actually. These would make pretty cool tournament prizes I think actually.

[Havelock]

The only problem with 2 sets is that there are only 2 player colors.  You can use pennies or tokens for action markers for 2 of the Mages. A 4-player set with green/purple will be available for purchase this fall.

Why every game designer hates colorblind people?

If it's still possible, change those colors to something easily distinguishable. Like black, white (ivory), yellow, grey etc. Green and purple could be the worst choice of all.

Wiki says:
Deuteranomaly (most common — 6% of males, 0.4% of females): These individuals have a mutated form of the medium-wavelength (green) pigment. The medium-wavelength pigment is shifted towards the red end of the spectrum resulting in a reduction in sensitivity to the green area of the spectrum. Unlike protanomaly the intensity of colors is unchanged. This is the most common form of color blindness, making up about 6% of the male population. The deuteranomalous person is considered "green weak". For example, in the evening, dark green cars appear to be black to Deuteranomalous people. Similar to the protanomates, deuteranomates are poor at discriminating small differences in hues in the red, orange, yellow, green region of the spectrum. They make errors in the naming of hues in this region because the hues appear somewhat shifted towards red. One very important difference between deuteranomalous individuals and protanomalous individuals is deuteranomalous individuals do not have the loss of "brightness" problem.

Thanks for your time.

[stadi]

I'm sorry that it's a problem for some people but my favorite color is green  and I'm always sad if there isn't green in a boardgame. I don't really intend to play non-2player but maybe I will buy the multiplayer expansion just for the green color. Purpule is also not bad but if I could chose I would have chosen yellow.

[Tauriel]

From Havelock:  "Why every game designer hates colorblind people?"

I'm sure that game designers don't hate colorblind people, they just don't realize the difficulty that colorblind people have with certain colors.

Great suggestion by the way!