Fantasy Realms is a popular card game that was one of three nominees for the 2021 Kennerspiel as well as one of the Finalists for the 2021 GeekDad Game of the Year. An expansion, Fantasy Realms: The Cursed Hoard was released which included additional suits as well as cursed items the players can choose to use during a game. Now everything released for Fantasy Realms is now available in one box in Fantasy Realms Deluxe Edition.
What Is Fantasy Realms Deluxe Edition?
Fantasy Realms Deluxe Edition is a hand-building card game for 3-6 players, ages 14 and up, and takes about 20 minutes to play. The game consists of players drawing cards from a deck or discard pile in order to form the best combos and score the highest points. Fantasy Realms Deluxe combines the original Fantasy Realms with The Cursed Hoard expansion and adds some extras as well. Fantasy Realms Deluxe was designed by Bruce Glassco and published by Wizkids, with illustrations by Octographics.net. It’s currently available from your friendly local game store as well as through online retailers such as Amazon and has a suggested retail price of $35 for a copy of the game.
Fantasy Realms Deluxe Edition Components
Here is what you get in the box:
- 71 Cards
- 24 Cursed Item cards
- 100+ Full art card sleeves
- 1 Rulebook
- 1 Full-color scorepad
There are 53 original cards from Fantasy Realms. They are divided into 10 suits of five cards each with three cards that are wild rather than in one of the suits. Each card has a unique name at the top, a suit listed along the left side, a base strength in the top left corner which can be from 0 to 40, and bonus or penalty text that explain how the card interacts with other cards.
These 16 cards form three new suits of five cards each. Plus there is a new land card called Garden which replaces the original Bell Tower for the Land suit since Bell Tower is in the Building suit for the expansion suits.
The 24 different cursed items can be used to take a specific action, either as a replacement for your turn or anytime during the game. Most have a negative number as a penalty which decreases your final score. However, a couple add to your score but have a penalty that takes place during the game.
Fantasy Realms Deluxe Edition comes with an updated scorepad that is printed in full-color with printing on both sides. It adds a space for an 8th card which is used when playing with the expansion suits as well as a space for scoring cursed items.
If you are like me and play a lot of Fantasy Realms Deluxe Edition, you will be glad it comes with sleeves. These sleeves are transparent on one side and printed on the back. There are two types of sleeves. One is printed for the regular cards with the image from the box while the cursed item cards have their own image on the back to keep the types of cards separate.
How to Play Fantasy Realms Deluxe Edition
You can download a copy of the rulebook here.
The Goal
The goal of the game is to earn the most points with the combination of cards in your hand at the end of the game.
Setup
Fantasy Realms is extremely easy to setup and start playing. Shuffle the deck of 53 original cards and deal seven cards to each player. Then take the remaining cards and place the deck in the center of the play area along with open space to place discarded cards next to it. Randomly choose a starting player and then begin play. If you are playing with the expansions, include the 3 new suits and remove the original Bell Tower Card. Players each are dealt eight cards rather than 7. The cursed items deck is also shuffled and each player is dealt one card which they keep face up in front of them. The remaining cards are placed in a separate deck face down.
Gameplay
During a player’s turn, they can either draw facedown card from the deck or select one of the faceup discarded cards. The first player must draw from the deck since there are no discards yet. After drawing a card, the player then discards one of the cards from there hand and places it faceup near the deck. Be sure to spread out the discarded cards so that all players can see these cards. Players can discard any card, including the one they just drew. The player to the left then takes their turn and play continues in a clockwise direction with each player taking a card and discarding a card during their turn. When using the cursed items, players may choose to use their cursed item card in front of them. If they do, they turn it face down and then draw another cursed item card from the deck and place it face up in front of them.
As players are drawing and discarding, they are trying to create combos to maximize their points. Therefore, it is important to understand how they bonus and penalty text works. There are five main terms used in these texts on the cards. ‘With’ refers to a bonus you get when this card is with a card of the designated type. The bonus is only applied once. On the other hand, ‘For Each’ would provide that bonus or penalty multiple times if there are more than one card of the type listed. ‘Blanks’ can be a tough concept at first. If a card says it blanks other cards, those blanked cards have no suit, no base strength, and no bonuses or penalties. Essentially it wipes out everything for those cards. ‘Blanked Unless With’ applies the blanking unless one of the named cards is also in your hand. Finally, ‘Clears’ can get rid of a penalty or part of a penalty on a card. That card still keeps its suit and base strength.
Game End
The game ends as soon as there are 10 cards in the discard area (or 12 cards if using the 3 expansion suits). Players then calculate their scores using the score pad. On the score pad, players list the base strength of each card. They then list the bonus or penalty depending on the cards in their hand. More than one card can affect a card’s bonus or penalty. Add the base strength to the bonus/penalty to get a subtotal for that card. Finally, add up the subtotals for all 7 (or 8) cards along with any face down cursed item cards to get the final total. The player with the highest total score is the winner. In case of a tie, the hand with the lowest total base strength is the winner. There is also an online scoring app created by Wizkids. It can be accessed here and is great for catching all of the bonuses and penalties new players might miss. It also includes the expansion suits, cursed items and promo cards.
Why You Should Play Fantasy Realms Deluxe Edition
Before I go any further, I want to say that I absolutely love Fantasy Realms. It is one of my favorite games. I first played in when it was originally released in 2017 and have been playing it ever since. A new version of the game was released in 2021 and it was one of the three finalist nominees for the 2021 Kennerspiel de Jahres which recognizes the expert or connoisseur tabletop game of the year which are usually aimed at more experienced players. While the suggested age range is 14 year and up, I have played this game with my children when they were 12 years old and they were able to do well. Scoring and understanding bonuses and penalties are what make this game difficult for younger children. In addition to playing with 3-6 players, there are also rules for playing with two players as well as a version for up to 7 players.
There are several reasons I like this game. First, it is fast to setup and easy to teach to new players. The toughest part for beginners is understanding what blank means and I explain that it essentially erases all of the values and information on that card. While blanks can seem bad, there are other cards that have exceptions to those blanks. Another reason to enjoy this game is because it is different every time. Everyone gets seven random cards at the start. Therefore, it is hard to have a pre-arranged strategy. Players have to see what they get and then change their strategy on the fly depending on what cards they draw and what cards other players discard. In many games, I will come up with a plan at the start only to change it when something better is revealed during play. There is also an element of push-your-luck as you might hold onto a high value card that is only valuable if you can find another card that gets rid of a penalty that affects it. As a result, when the number of cards discarded begins to approach 10, you have to decide whether to ditch those cards or push on. The interaction between cards is amazing. While some cards have a bonus with just one or two other cards, others can benefit, or penalize, several cards. You really have to pay attention to both names as well as suits. Finally, a game of Fantasy Realms goes rather quickly. This makes it great for a quick game to start a game night, for playing during a lunch break. Since the box is not that big, you can also take it easily with you while travelling or camping, though I would suggest putting sleeves on the cards. It is currently a favorite of the students in my tabletop game club and perfect for playing in a short amount of time.
While you will most likely just play with the original cards at the start as you learn the game, you will want to add the expansions. You may want to play with only one at a time at first, so you can get used to the new changes separately. However, once you are comfortable with them, you will probably want to use them both from then on. Adding the three new suits adds a lot more combinations and options to the game as well as allowing players to have an eighth card in their hand. The deck of cursed item cards adds another layer to the game. These items essentially allow you to break the rules and do things you can’t normally do. The downside is that the more of these you use, the more points you lose from your final score.
Everyone with whom I have played Fantasy Realms Deluxe Edition has enjoyed it. For the many reasons I have already stated, I highly recommend without any reservation Fantasy Realms Deluxe Edition as a vital addition to any game collection. Even if you have the original Fantasy Realms, you may want to get Fantasy Realms Deluxe Edition since the art has been updated to match the new expansions and some text has been changed to accommodate the expansions.
For more information, visit the Fantasy Realms Deluxe page!
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Disclosure: GeekDad received a copy of this game for review purposes.
