I decided that during 2024, I'd create one game every month. This month, I've created Magic slinger, a game using the assets of the Grimslinger: Duels box.
Grimslinger: Duels is a game that I bought on a salesperson's recommendation that seemed promising, and ultimately turned out to be not very good. Of the 60 cards included in the box, 26 are useless and are meant as an expansion to a separate game entirely. I did a remix of the game last month, called Grim Magic but it only used a subset of the box assets. As an extra challenge, I wanted to try a game designed to use all (or nearly all) the assets included in the box (even the ones the original game itself doesn't use). Admittedly, this is mostly a thought exercise because I don't think many people own this game. Who knows, maybe if I enjoy future playtesting enough, I'll publish my own version with custom-designed cards.
My game uses all assets in the Grimslingers: Duels box, although it does requires some modification of some cards.
For the original game, the player characters and their robot companions (8 cards in all, called character cards from now on) are included in the box only to help track health and energy. Like at least 36 of the other cards in the box, the character cards themselves have no bearing on the original game. They have no special abilities.
Setup
In my game, the character cards serve as tokens, and are arranged in a circle in the center of the table. This is where the modification comes in. Before playing, you must mark each character card with a sticker or marker such that each one has a unique colour code. Using a marker or sticker, assign one of these colours to each character card:
- purple
- orange
- black
- red
- blue
- green
- pink
Shuffle the 12 spell cards, and place 1 spell card under or next to each character card. Distribute the remaining 4 spell cards among the 2 players.
Shuffle the poker cards and place them face up in the center of the circle. These are the reward cards.
Give each player a health tracker and an energy tracker. Use a glass bead or similar marker to track your health and energy levels, starting at 10.
Shuffle the 26 "target" cards and place them on the table. This is the draw deck.
Gameplay
On your turn:
1. Select your target
Take a Target card from the draw deck. The Target card reveals which character card attacks another character card (for instance, "Orange targets Pink"). If the Target card mentions a Rainbow, treat that as a wild card: you may declare any colour in its place.
2. Combat
Based on the target card, compare the spell card assigned to the attacker and the spell card assigned to the defender.
As the player who drew the target card, you are on the side of the attacker, while your opponent is on the side of the defender. At the cost of 1 EP, any player may cast spells from their hand to assist their character.
The spells assigned to the characters in combat, and any additional spells a player cast, are the Spells In Play.
3. Collect your reward
Whether or not additional spells have been cast, the winning and losing player must follow the instructions written on the winning spell card. This usually involves assigning damage, deducting EP, and so on.
You cannot cast spells while your energy is depleted.
The winner takes the top playing card from the reward deck.
4. Reset
The winner takes all Spells In Play, shuffles them, and distributes:
- 1 to each character combatant
- 1 to each player, starting with the loser
Endgame
Should you run out of health, you lose and the game is over.
The game is over when all cards from the reward deck have been claimed. At the end of the game, add the values of your reward cards together. The player with the most rewards wins.
Lessons
Exposing the current reward card lets players choose how ferociously they fight in the current round. If the reward isn't great enough, then playing an additional spell may not be worth the trouble.
Mixing up the spells after each round is a weak substitute for lack of spell choice.
The "spell" cards in this game don't hide the fact that the game is Rock-Paper-Scissors re-packaged. Spells that depend on one another for binary success or fail results are boring and don't feel like spells. The ability to cast additional spells from your hand somewhat mitigates this.
It's a pretty good game, I think. Better than the original, but only as good as the assets I'm reusing allows. With further iteration, this could be its own game, and it would probably be better for its liberation from the preset assets.
Header photo by Amanda Jones on Unsplash.