What is Mage Duel?

Mage Duel: War for the Wellsprings is fast-paced skirmish game for 2-4 players which depicts powerful wizards who summon magical minions and cast epic spells as they struggle to control wellsprings of magic erupting into their world. 

This article is meant to give readers a sense of whether or not they’d like to learn the game. It is not meant to teach everything about the game. 

The Fiction 

The mages of Irulia have long controlled the continent’s destiny. Capable of wielding incredible arcane energies and constantly at odds with each other, these rare and powerful magic-users pursue their own agendas with little concern for the world around them. Sometimes, mages will find their interests in alignment only to find themselves enemies a short time later. So it goes. For the most part, the mages have sought greater and greater mastery of their arts and remained unconcerned with non-magical affairs. Some mages congregate together at the Crystal Tower to share their magical insights, but most are solitary. The mundane citizens of Irulia are largely fearful of magic and mostly concerned with their daily survival. So, when the Wellsprings began to open in remote places, most of Irulia hardly noticed. For the mages, however, the Wellsprings changed everything.

The Wellsprings are explosions of magical energy form a parallel universe where magic is everywhere. When a Wellspring opens, magic pours out of it, attracting magic-users from all over the realm. The Wellsprings amplify magic, and in their presence, legends take physical form and beings once thought to be mythical walk in abundance. The mages quickly determined that the energies pouring from the Wellsprings could be gathered and controlled. Almost immediately, Irulia’s most powerful mages began to harness these powers in an effort to amplify their hard-earned abilities. This soon drew the mages into conflict with each other, as they vied for control of the Wellsprings. As pandemonium ensued, each mage found themselves forced to make temporary, uneasy alliances in a desperate effort to keep up with the competition.

Characters 

The main characters are mages. In a game, each player will control one or two mages, depending on game size and desired game length. Mages are the stars of the game. They never leave play and are the centerpieces of a player’s strategy and tactics. Each mage is an individual with a background, motivation, and a unique spellbook which gives them powerful in-game options that reflect the mage’s unique character.

These supporting characters in mage duel are minions. Minions can come solo ir in small groups, but either way, they are summoned into play by mages and put back in reserve when defeated (banished) by opponents. Minions tend to be a bit more generic than mages, often invoking tried and true magical tropes.

Each minion unit is associated with one of the nine schools of magic, and each mage has access to two schools. When building a list, each mage selects two minions to potentially summon during the game. These mage might select one from each of the schools they can access or two from one school.

The Nine Schools 

• Necromancy – Magicks which harness the forces of life and death. Necromancers can call on the undead for aid.

• Druidicae – Magicks which call on the power of the natural world. Druids can call on wild creatures for aid. 

• Illusion – Magicks which create perceptions of unreal things. Illusionists can call on phantasms for aid. 

• Sorcery – Margicks which call on the abyssal powers below. Sorcerers call on denizens of the lower planes for aid.

• Enchantment – Magicks which enthrall the minds of intelligent beings. Enchanters can call on charmed beings for aid. 

• Artifice – Magicks which empower fantastical machines. Artificers can call on mechanical constructs for aid. 

• Elementalism – Magicks which call on the primal elemental forces. Elementalists can call on beings from the elemental planes for aid. 

• Devotion – Margicks which call on the celestial powers above. The Devoted can call on denizens of the higher planes for aid.

• Transmutation – Magicks which fuse and transform mind, matter, and flesh. Transmuters call on magically-created creatures for aid.

List Building 

First, the players draft mages. Then, in reverse order, they draft minions.

Each mage has access to minions from two of the nine schools. That’s 36 potential unique school pairs. Right now, we’ve got 9 mages, so there’s plenty of open space before we’ll need to repeat or deviate from the two schools per mage template. 

So many choices...

At the time of this writing, each of the nine schools has three minion units, so each mage has access to a unique pool of six minions. Each game, players draft mages, then minions. Two Minions per mage. That means that each mage has 15 unique combinations of minions they can bring. Assuming the default version of the game (2 players, 2 mages each), we’ve currently got over 5 million potential draft outcomes.

And remember, this is just the start - the plan is definitely to add mages and units down the line. This is a game that allows you to dream up a lot of different combinations of characters, is the point.

Here’s an example of a draft:

Tina and Arnav are playing a one-mage game and determine that Tina is first player. Tina drafts Tyro the Fantastic, a mage with access to Elementalism and Artifice. Arnav drafts Old Bezoula, Hag of the Steppes, who has Elementalism and Sorcery. Now that each player has chosen their one mage, the draft order reverses for minions. Arnav goes first and selects the Warlike Fiend from the Sorcery school. Next, Tina selects the Dust Devils from the Elementalism school. Arnav is a bit salty about this because he wanted to pick the Dust Devils next (Bezoula also has access to Elementalism). Since Tina sniped his pick, Arnav goes with the Gang of Imps, another minion unit from the Sorcery school. With the final pick, Tina takes the Autonomous Ornithopters from the Artifice school. Now each player has two minions for each mage, so the draft is complete.

The Map

Mage duel is not played on a traditional board. It’s played on a map formed from individual tiles which can be removed, added, and replaced as the game goes on. 

Here's an example map:

These tiles can all be altered in-game

Each tile represents a kind of terrain that affects how characters interact with the map. Rough terrain is harder to move across, water blocks your path, hazards inflict damage, and portals let you move to other portals. Most important are the Wellspring tiles which are the strategic goals (the Objective Hexes) that score you points when you have the most characters around them.

Winning

The game is organized into Rounds. Each round has a number of player turns. Players take turns activating their units, and when there are no more turns in the round, the round ends. When a round ends, players add up the victory points they earned from controlling Wellsprings (by occupying Wellspring tiles and the tiles adjacent to them) and from defeating enemy characters. The player with the most victory points wins the Round. Then, all victory points go to zero and a new Round begins. When a player has won two Rounds, they have won the game.

There’s more to the game (we didn’t even mention activations, actions, status effects, etc.), but let’s close with some FAQ:

Is This Game For Me?

It might be if you like:

• Tactical decision-making

• Inventing stratagems by combining rules effects 

• Managing risks and resources 

• Character-driven emergent story

• Thinking about list building 

• Manipulating the game environment

• Clashes between diverse playstyles

• Not dealing with measurement/line of sight

• Fantasy settings 

• Summoning mechanics 

Who made this?

I did. In my spare time. GearBox did some early playtesting along with MightyFinePants and Dave M. MightyFinePants also helped a lot with the Tabletop Simulator mod.

Is this just a Godtear clone?

Definitely not. There are some general similarities (hexes, tactics, dice), but the mechanics and decision points are very different. I love Godtear. Playing and writing about Godtear has definitely helped me refine my own sense of what I enjoy in games, but Mage Duel is a new and different thing.

Can I play this on TTS today?

Yep. Here is the link to the mod.

Here are the core rules. Please consider playing it!

Can I play this in physical space?

Sure, but you’ve got some physical cutting and pasting to do because this thing is not yet published. However, feel free to use these assets to print and play. All I ask is that you tell me how it went.

How would I do that?

Using this form!

Are you like… a real game designer?

Definitely not. This is the first game I’ve ever made.

Are you trying to make money off of this?

Maybe some day. For now, please enjoy for free. I just want people to have fun.

Is that art AI-generated?

Sure is. Look - I can’t make drawings and this endeavor has zero budget. If it ever does have a budget, the first thing I’ll do is invest in human-made art for the game. In the meantime, the choice was effectively between making it with AI or not making it at all. I chose to make it.

Is your writing AI-generated?

No.

Will you update the game?

If people play it and give me feedback then yes absolutely. Please play it and give me feedback.