This is a board game concept I'm in the early stages of poking at, and I'd appreciate any feedback you all have.
Each player plays as a mage attempting to defeat the other players in a last-man-standing duel of cunning and wizardry. The game takes place on a hex grid; each player can, on their turn, move to an adjacent hex grid, and cast a spell. Casting a spell involves choosing a spellcard from their hand (each player has an identical hand), putting it face-down on the table, and putting a d6 on it as a timer. Most spells also require placing a targeting token onto the board; the targeting token is matched to the d6 by color so you can recognize each. Each turn, the player then decrements the d6 on the spellcard; when the counter hits zero, the spell activates.
So for example, on my turn, I decide to cast a fireball at you. I have three different Fireball spells to choose from, with varying casting times and levels of power. I choose the 2-turn version, put it face-down on the table, and put a d6 on it with the 2 on the die facing up. I then put a targeting marker on a hex near you. Two turns later, if you're in the targeted hex or an adjacent hex, then you get hit by the fireball and take damage.
Now obviously, in this simple example you'd see the spell coming and easily be able to dodge it. My plan is to have enough different kinds of spells and areas of effect that the game turns into a bunch of doublethink as people try to figure out what their opponents are casting, how to avoid them, and what counterspells to use. Sufficiently-clever players also ought to be able to trap their opponents so at least one spell will land.
At the moment, here's the different kinds of areas of effect I have:
* Any: one visible hex
* Ball: hits the target hex and all hexes within a given distance of the target hex.
* Ring: as Ball, but hollow
* Ray: hits all hexes on a bent line out from the player, with the ray never doubling back on itself nor turning more than 60° at one time.
* Wall: hits a line of hexes centered on the target hex. Wall spells will need three variations for each possible direction (i.e. the facing of the wall depends on which spellcard you pick).
* Player: affects chosen player. Target markers for these spells would be played on the sideboard.
And here's some sample spells:
* Fireball (Ball): deals damage to players in area of effect (1/7/19 hexes depending on casting time)
* Lightning Bolt (Ray) (Range scales with casting time): All units on affected hexes take damage.
* Meditation (Player): Retrieve 1 spell from your discard pile per turn used to cast.
* Pyroclastic Flow (Ray): affected hexes turn into magma, which deals damage when players end their turns on it. Players in affected hexes immediately take damage.
* Frostwyrm's Breath (Ray): affected hexes turn into ice, which cannot be stopped on (players moving onto ice move onto the next hex automatically). Players in affected hexes are pushed back and take damage.
* Teleport (Any): move to the target hex. Faster-casting versions deal damage to you.
* Blink (Player): move to a hex within N hexes of your current position (N increases with casting time; starts at 1)
* Haste (Player): Set the d6 for this spellcard to N. For the duration of the spell, you may move 2 hexes instead of 1 on your turn.
* Knife (Adjacent): Deal damage to adjacent player. No casting time; do not discard after use.
* Feint (Any): Choose any casting time for this spell. No effect when it is cast; do not discard after use.
* Gravity Flux (Ball): all affected units must move towards the center of the ring, if possible. If they are blocked (either by trees or by another unit) or are already on the center hex, they take damage instead.
* Molten Cage (Ring): Turn hexes surrounding the target hex into magma.
* Warp Spell (Any): Move the target for an opponent's spell one hex in any direction.
* Sanctuary (Ball): Convert affected hexes to grassland, which is ordinary terrain.
* Thicket (Wall): Convert affected hexes to forest, which cannot be seen or moved through. Unseen tiles cannot be targeted (already-targeted spells still cast).
* Counterspell (Any): cancels one uncast spell.
* Mind Probe (Player): You may look at one unrevealed spell card.
* Nullify (Ball): All spells with target tokens in the affected area are canceled.
What I'm looking for mostly is ideas for new spells and areas of effect, but I'd love any advice or recommendations you have. I'm thinking of using my Heroscape set for the board and wizards; mostly what I need is the cards and three differently-colored d6s for each player.
One concern I have is that the game needs to end gracefully in a reasonable timeframe (not more than an hour at the very most, I would think, with a half-hour to 45 minutes being preferable). As it stands, it seems like sufficiently-agile players could dodge spells indefinitely. If you have suggestions for a natural way to force a conclusion, I'd love to hear them.
