Manic E4: Idea #79 “Zephyr Dragons!”

During my 4th manic episode I had an idea, #79, of creating a fun, table-top card game to help kids (and/or parents) learn and memorize their times tables and practice other math skills. For now, I’m using the working title of “Zephyr Dragons!”

For the game’s math-skill underpinnings, my original idea was to make the numbers in it very big, like by using a 20×20 times table in the game. But I think that was just the mania hype of the idea. As I developed the gameplay, and as my mania faded, I scaled the idea down to just a 4×4 grid. A much more realistic place to start. Once I work out and test the gameplay mechanics, and if it is fun enough to play, I can scale the numbers later.

The bones of the game are pretty well thought out, but I would need to run a good number of iterations of the game to really see where my blind spots and friction points are. Maybe I could rope my nephews and other in-laws into playing it with me…? Then I could see if the game was actually fun, or if it was just fun in my head… It wouldn’t surprise me if the latter was true : D

…So anyway, here are the materials I wrote for the game. There are many key words and terms involved, so I would probably need to include some kind of glossary, but it all makes perfect sense when you play a couple of rounds of the game.

Background and Objective:

Chaos!!! Mayhem!!! The Emperor’s Clutch of Imperial Zephyr Dragons have broken their binding seals and wreak havoc across the land! Only the greatest Seers of the Empire can summon them to the Arena and pit their own Zephyr Dragon Clutches against them. By scrying from their Astral Orbs, the Seers may weave powerful Mystic Incantations to augment the power of their Dragons and Bind the Imperial Dragons once again. The Emperor offers a prize of the Elixir of Life for whomever can Bind the most Imperial Zephyr Dragons and restore the balance and harmony of the Empire. There’s no time to lose!!!

Setup and Materials:

Materials include:
1x 16-card objective deck: Imperial Clutch
2x 4-sided dice: Zephyr Shard and Dragon Bone
4x 16-card player decks: Seer’s Clutches
4x 4-card spell decks: Astral Orbs filled with Mystic Incantations

Each Seer gets a 1x Clutch of 16 Zephyr Dragons and 1x Astral Orb with 3x Mystic Incantations (4, if Advanced).

The quietest and most serene Seer starts the game by Invoking the Zephyr Shard and the Dragon Bone to Summon the first Imperial to the Arena.

Turns:

On their turn each Seer may choose to,
a) Dispatch a Dragon to fight the Imperial
b) Attempt to write a Mystic Incantation by sacrificing a Dragon
c) Burn an Incantation to Call a Dragon back from their Tower

Dispatch (1): The Seer with the strongest Dragon Binds the Imperial. Ties go to the latest Seer to play. Once Dispatched, the Dragon waits at the Seer’s Tower.

Dispatch (2): If a Seer has two Dragons and a Mystic Incantation, they may use them together to augment their power. If an augmentation results in a number less than 1, it is considered to have strength 1.

Sacrifice: The Seer with the weakest Dragon scries an Incantation from their Astral Orb . Ties go to the first Seer to Sacrifice.

Burn: An Incantation is expended and returns to the Astral Orb, in order to recover a Dragon from the Seer’s Tower.

Optional Rules:

Veils: Any player may play their Dragons or Incantations face down (the Color would still be visible, but the Strength would be veiled)

Include the Split Incantation: Only Integer division is allowed

Bound Imperials: If a Seer has any Bound Imperials they may be Dispatched once. Imperials are stronger than any other Dragons (unless Blocked with a Combo). Only one Imperial can be played against the summoned Imperial.
Also, if a Seer has a Bound Imperial that is summoned at the beginning of another turn, it is removed from the Seer’s Clutch, and may no longer be Dispatched.

Block: If playing with more than 2 players, two Seers may combine the power of their Dispatched Dragons. Each Seer sacrifices any two Dragons and one Incantation to nullify the Imperial.

Cards

Thanks for staying with me all the way down here!

In all reality, I probably won’t do anything with this for a long time, if ever… but who knows!? Maybe I should start a kickstarter for it! Tabletop games are king these days!

That’s all for now.

See you next week!