Overall, the rulebook seems pretty simplified, and way shorter than the 8th one. I was afraid that they had removed many parts, but the changes are all about speeding the game up. They removed many limits, and they left different schools concept to welcome back a single magic deck. At first, as I reported in the preview, the game seems better suited for new, casual players.
The rulebook itself is
pretty smaller because the tone used in this version is way more practical,
sometimes avoiding confusion as we founded (and loved) in 8th. I don’t like,
though, the fact they printed it in a foldable 6 pages sheet, since I’m sure i
twill be ruined in less than a dozen of games.
I will list all the
difference you can find between the 2 games, according to the rulebook.
Since I don’t want to write all rules again, I’m going to write only the rules
that have been changed, and I’ll provide you the rulebook scan (look at the end
of this post) for the whole read. Update: I’ve tried the game in a game with
a 8th ed. veteran friend of mine and a new player.
-
At the end of your turn, you may discard
AS MANY CARDS you want, and then you draw UP TO 7.
-
No more Energy but Numbers. These
number works exactly as the energy before, but while the limit of 1 number
boost per spell remains, you can now boost EVERY ACTION, both spells and
movement and so on. There stilli s “Add” letting you to combine 2 numbers for a
single spell, but you will also find more cards that allow using multiple
number. Nevertheless, the Number cards are considerely less than old energy
ones.
-
Pick up now don’t differ from
Treasures to Items. Anytime you want to pick up an object (both items, magic
items or treasures), your turn ends immediately.
-
Speaking about objects, they are
now well divided into “Normal Items” and
“Magic Objects”; the key difference is
that you can pick up normal items and bring back in your hands (and even
discard it at the end of your turn), but if someone had played a magic objects,
from now on it must be showed (faced up in front of you) no matter what, so if
you pick up one from floor, you must put it in front of you. This count as a
carried items in your hand’s card limit. Lastly, the 9th ed. focus on the
return of Magic Stones, I’ve founded a great numer in the deck.
-
Even with this distiction, Objects
rules are a bit confusing. For example, they don’t state precisely that
Treasures are now considered just a type of object. Nor they don’t tell players
if the spells that create something (i.e.Thornbush) are maintained spells (so
you can dispel them) or they just create the object and you simply discard them
-
Walls and doors are now identified
as “Terrain” (this would just change how cards and rules refer to they). They
lost the crack feature, and now they just have hit points like creatures, and
you have to keep track of the damages:
o
Wall 20 hp
o
Door 10 hp
o
Thornbush 5 hp (it’s resist fire
now)
o
Granite block infinite hp
-
They put a great focus on
declaring doors left opened. You cannot left open a door while not adjacent,
even if it’s yours (every door in your sector). It’s not forbidden to place a
door between 2 sectors, and walls created between 2 sectors must roll a die to
know if they stay there or they are destroyed. If they remain, they stay in
position. You can apparently create Doors on Walls. On the other hand
-
Rotate sector work exactly as
before, so portals stay in place. In addition, another card which return from
the old times is “Swap Sector”, which allows you to swap 2 sector boards
without thouching anything.
Since spellcasting went into major
differences, although hidden, I’ve decided to give them a proper post next to
this.
Everything considered, these rules don’t look
capable of making the game much easier. But surely the rules are pretty
different in some aspect, and I believe the focus here was to bring back to
life old version’s flavour. I believed this would speed up the game, but as we
played our first match, we found it more about preparing a big, scenographic
end than speeding up actions. It’s a matter of time finding out if the
unknowledge of this new deck played a major role in that match or not.
