Have you ever wondered where all of those jaw-dropping magical items wizards use to do battle come from? Why, the Manaforge of course!
In this game, you take on the role of an arcane blacksmith and find out just how much goes on behind the scenes to outfit thrill seeking adventurers with the ability to call down incredible forces of nature on their foes. Do you have what it takes to make your shop stand out from all the rest and achieve wealth, power, and prestige throughout the land?
At a Glance: Manaforge is a dice rolling, resource management game for 2 to 4 players aged 13 and up. Games should take about an hour to play, though as with many games that rely heavily on card based textual mechanics, the first few times you play you’ll be doing a lot of reading and you can expect it to take as long as 90 minutes.
It’s currently seeking funding on Kickstarter, with a pledge of $40 for a copy of the base game. The rules are easy to pick up and there is a robust FAQ section in the rulebook that should cover any situational questions that come up during play.
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Components:
Note: My review is based on a pre-production prototype, so cards and the component list may be subject to change in the final version and I can’t judge the final component quality. The artwork on many of the early round cards is complete, however, and I feel confident that you can get a good sense of the quality from these photographs.
How to Play:
Overview: Manaforge is played over 9 rounds. During each round, 6 cards are drawn from the magical item deck and placed face up on the game board. A round consists of each player rolling their dice to generate “mana,” which is the in-game currency for purchasing (forging!) items, and selecting an item from the game board to add to their workshop.
Mana comes in 5 elemental flavors: Earth, Fires, Wind, Water, and Arcane. Players pass a First Player Marker each round which sets the order of play and determines who has the first opportunity to purchase items from the main game board using their mana.
As the rounds progress, players may choose to upgrade the cards they already have in order to increase their power or to score victory points. Items become increasingly more expensive to purchase as the rounds pass and the game relies on the player’s ability to set up a system for generating more and more mana as the game progresses. The ultimate goal is to accumulate the most victory points, representing the prestige of your shop, by the end of 9 rounds.
In more detail: Setting up the game involves randomizing a few variables that ultimately make each game of Manaforge a unique puzzle. There are two sets of cards that control the flow of the game and will ultimately drive the player’s strategy.
Once the game is setup play is straightforward. Each player rolls their dice and chooses 4 of the results to play with that round. Each player starts with 4 dice, one of each elemental type, and may accumulate a larger number through the drafting of Talent Cards during game setup or through the purchase of Items from the Game Board during their turn. No matter how many dice a player rolls, however, only 4 can be chosen to fund their purchases during their turn each round.
During each turn players have as many as 5 actions they can take, in any order, in order to setup their workshop, accumulate mana, or score victory points. These 5 actions are listed in detail below.
Once each player has taken their turn, the Game Board is cleared of any Item Cards that were not purchased and a fresh set of 6 cards are dealt out. Players reset any cards they have activated during the round and the First Player Token is passed clockwise to start the new round.
If you want even more detail, the entire rulebook is available for download.
The Verdict:
This game is simple to explain to new players, has a relatively easy to understand mechanic, and doesn’t require heavy strategy by players to simply enjoy the game. Where it shines, however, is the potential that hides under the covers. Replayability is high and strategy can be as complex as any individual player wants to make it. The mechanism for introducing randomness into the game is well thought out and forces players to try new strategies every time they play but doesn’t go so far as to make it simply a game of luck.
Each time my group has played the game, we were astonished by how close the games stayed until the very last round. Early leads evaporated as players were able to get their strategy working to its advantage and there was enough risk involved in choosing one strategy over another that even the most experienced players were forced to think carefully each round about where they were taking their game. The game feels very fair, no one seems to be punished by a string of bad dice rolls, and we haven’t had a situation where the randomization of the card decks produced a game that wasn’t fun to play to its conclusion. The artwork is lovely and the text on the cards is instructive and really helps to develop the theme of the game.
It must be said that players who are familiar with Magic: The Gathering will feel very at home with the mechanic of the game and will no doubt enjoy the ability for a player to turn their workshop into an efficient and game-winning engine. Generating mana and tapping cards to activate them will feel like second nature to players who have spent time building MtG decks. The ability to specialize through the use of Talent Cards makes each game feel like an opportunity to build a new favorite deck. People who aren’t familiar with Magic: The Gathering won’t feel lost nor should animosity towards that card game turn anyone off from Manaforge, it’s purely a bonus for fans.
If there is any drawback to the game it’s that players can become too focused on developing their own workshop and interaction with other players can suffer. There were times during our games where it was relatively quiet, each of us deep in thought planning our next turn. This can be the nature of strategy games, however, and Manaforge does work to combat this in the late game by including cards that force interaction with other players.
Overall I think this game has great potential and has the depth to stay on the frequent play shelf. The fact that it can be played casually or with depth is a huge bonus for me as my gaming group tends to vary quite a bit from week to week. I have played other games where it was obvious from the halfway point who was going to win and that is an absolute mood killer; Manaforge games have always stayed competitive for us from the first pass of the Talent draft to the last roll of the dice. Also, dice! Who doesn’t love chucking huge handfuls of dice over and over again! This game gets a big thumbs up from me and my gang of tabletop gamers.
For more information or to make a pledge, visit the Manaforge Kickstarter page!
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