The Arcane Scribes

The Arcane Scribes are the trusted aides of the mighty Magi. They are tasked with channeling the necessary mystical energies from the Elemental Oinks to awaken the runic manifest arriving from the various realms so as to inscribe powerful spells into scrolls ready to be cast by their prodigious masters at the snap of fingers during deadly battles of magic. Are you good enough to win the minion of the month award?

TKG ARENA: The Arcane Scribes is a game set up for 2 to 4 players.

Components required for this game:

FULL SPELL DECK: 1
WORLD TILES: 48
OINKS: 2 from each element for each player (Default)

Winning Condition

The player with the most victory points at the end wins the game.

The Arcane Scribes consist of a group of world tiles representing the sources of an array of available spells furnished by a FULL SPELL DECK, symbolizing the runic manifest. Players take on the role of an arcane scribe choosing and inscribing spells onto their master’s scroll by activating the required number and type of Oinks. The value of the collection of spells scribed depends on the strategic choices made and can be measured in terms of victory points.

Victory points are tabulated as follows:

1. The victory points from each spell card scribed are equal to the FACE VALUE of the spell card. E.g. A Telegate spell is worth 8 victory points.
2. The victory points of each spell card of an element double if all other players have less spells of that element in terms of number of spells scribed.

3. Reserved spells that are not scribed are worth 0 victory points.

Ending Condition

The game will end immediately when there are less spells cards than the number of players in play.

Setup

Players start the game by each drawing a card from the top of the common shuffled FULL SPELL DECK. The player with the highest number starts first and the players get their turns in a clockwise manner. The drawn cards go back to the bottom of the FULL SPELL DECK. In the case of ties, the tied players draw again till the turns are resolved.

Players then draw 5 world tiles from a stack of shuffled world tiles faced up from topmost first. The world tiles are put adjacent to each other in a row side by side faced up. 5 spells cards are drawn from a re-shuffled FULL SPELL DECK and placed on each of these world tiles from left to right. The rest of the spell cards in the FULL SPELL DECK remain face down as a pile.

Additional Notes

Each player may only have a maximum of 5 Oinks (of any type) in their possession. Any above this limit must be immediately discarded back to the common supply. Players may choose what they want to discard whenever this limit is exceeded. Whenever the common supply is not able to fulfil any needs, the need will be unfulfilled.

Game Flow

During each turn, players can do one of these four actions:

1. Take 2 Oinks of different elements from the common supply.

2. Exchange 1 Oink for up to 3 Oinks from the common supply. The Oink must be of a different element from the 3 Oinks traded. The 3 Oinks must be of the same element type.

3. Reserve a spell card and place it face down in the respective player’s personal playing space till it is scribed at the normal cost. For 1 – 4 players, up to 2 spell cards can be reserved at one time.

4. Scribe a spell card and pay for the cost depending on the FACE VALUE of the spell card. 1 Oink of any element is required for each unit of the FACE VALUE. E.g. for a FACE VALUE of 9, 9 Oinks must be expended and returned to the common supply. If the Oink used is of the same element type as the spell card to be scribed, it will count as 2 Oinks for this purpose. E.g. An ASHW spell of FACE VALUE 9 can be scribed with 4 ASHW Oinks and 1 Oink of any other element.

When a player either reserve or scribe a spell card and the spell is moved from the world tile to the player’s personal playing space, the elemental insignias on the world tile will be revealed and a follow up effect for the rest of the players occurs.

1. If there is only 1 elemental insignia on the world tile, the rest of the players get an Oink of that element from the common supply.

2. If there are 2 elemental insignias on the world tile and they are different, the rest of the players can choose to get 1 Oink of an element from either element but not both. If the 2 elemental insignias are the same, there will be no choice.

3. If there are 3 elemental insignias on the world tile, the rest of the players can chose to exchange 1 Oink for up to 3 Oinks of elements matching the elemental insignias. The Oink that is traded must be of a different element type from any of the elemental insignia(s) on the world tile.

4. If there are 4 elemental insignias on the world tile, it is an ARENA world tile and players can choose to take 1 Oink of any of the 4 elements present from the common supply.

After this follow up effect, the world tile is discarded and a new world tile is drawn from the stack to replace its position and anther spell card is drawn from the FULL SPELL DECK to replace the spell card that has been just scribed or reserved. The ending condition is then checked to see if the game should end and victory points calculated according to the winning conditions to determine a winner. When there is a tie, the player with a greater variety of spells scribed in terms of element types wins, If there is still a tie, the player with more Oinks in his/her possession wins. If this does not break the final tie, let the players rejoice in their joint victory.

Adjustment for more players

The game can be adjusted to accommodate up to 8 players if there are sufficient Oinks to satisfy the component requirements. For 5 - 8 players, only 1 spell card can be reserved at one time.