Magic Maze
| Magic Maze | |
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| Game data | |
| author | Kasper Lapp |
| graphic | Gyom |
| publishing company | Sit down! / Pegasus Games |
| Publishing year | 2017 |
| Art | Board game |
| Teammates | 1 to 8 |
| Duration | 3 to 15 minutes |
| Age | from 8 years
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| Awards | |
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Magic Maze is a cooperative board game by the game designer Kasper Lapp for one to eight players, which was published in 2017 by Sit Down! appeared and is distributed by Pegasus Spiele . It is a dungeon crawler style game . During the game, an unknown terrain has to be explored in which the group of players is given specific tasks. In the same year the game was nominated for Game of the Year alongside Kingdomino and the Race to El Dorado . Magic Maze won the innoSPIEL 2017 - awarded by Friedhelm-Merz-Verlag.
Style of play
In Magic Maze , the other players play the role of role-playing heroes who have to steal the equipment for their next adventure in the “Magic Maze” shopping center. The group of heroes is moved through the shopping center by all players, although the players are only allowed to talk to one another to a very limited extent and communicate in other ways. The aim of the game is to find all the equipment as quickly as possible, carry out the thefts and then leave the department store through the exits.
In addition to the instructions, the game material consists of:
- four pawns in four colors that represent the heroes,
- 24 shopping mall map pieces,
- 12 "out of service" markers in the form of crosses,
- 9 action cards for 2 to 8 players and 7 action cards for the solo game,
- an hourglass with a running time of three minutes,
- a "do something!"
- a theft card part and
- a rating sheet "The Big Book of Challenges"
Game preparation
At the beginning of the game, only the starting field of the shopping mall card pieces is laid out in the middle of the game and the four game pieces are placed in the middle of this starting field. The players receive the action cards designed for their number of players, and the hourglass, the “Do something!” Pawn and the theft card part are laid out. The players align their action cards according to the compass marking.
The rest of the process depends on the scenarios selected, with 17 different scenarios including several introductory scenarios being described in the game description.
Game flow
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Tasks of the game
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The game consists of several phases in which the heroes have different tasks. In the first phase, they have to explore the mall and find the equipment they want to steal. As soon as all heroes have found their equipment and are in the appropriate spaces, they carry out the theft (and thus activate the alarm) and have to leave the mall as quickly as possible. If the heroes manage to complete these tasks before the time runs out, they have won the game - if they fail, they lose the game. Discussions and planning are allowed during construction, but once the hourglass has been turned, communication with one another is no longer permitted. The players are not allowed to talk to each other, gesticulate, give signs or make noises. The only form of communication allowed is staring at and knocking with the “Do something!” Pawn.
During the game, the other players can perform the actions depicted on their action cards as often as they like during the game. Since there are no moves, the players always carry out the actions when they consider them to be useful, but they are not allowed to interrupt the movement of another player. There are four different actions in the game:
- Movement , indicated by arrows on the cards: A player with a movement card may move any figure in the direction of the arrow at any time.
- Use Vortex : The player with the “Use Vortex” action card can place any hero figure from any field on any vortex field of the appropriate color. The vortex fields are deactivated as soon as the thefts are carried out.
- Use escalator : The player with the action “Use escalator” can move a hero figure from one end of the escalator to the other.
- Explore : The player with the “Explore” action can add new map parts to the game board as soon as a hero stands on an exploration space of the corresponding color in the direction of an unknown area.
If a new map part has been added to the plan, it can happen that another exploration field is connected to another map part. This connection can then be used by all heroes in both directions. If a new exploration field is created on a wall of a map that has already been laid out, a dead end is created.
The hourglass indicates the time in which the theft and escape must be carried out. The heroes can extend the time if they come to the hourglass space on the map pieces; if this succeeds with a hero before it has expired, the hourglass is turned and the heroes can consult until their next action. A used hourglass field is deactivated with an "out of service" marker. The theft is carried out automatically if all four heroes are simultaneously on the loot field of their color. Once this has happened, the theft card part is turned over so that the B-side is visible.
End of game and evaluation
The game can end in different ways. Players win if they manage to reach all equipment before the hourglass expires, steal it and exit the shopping center through the exits. The players lose if they fail.
Expenses and reception
The game Magic Maze was developed by Kasper Lapp and published in February 2017 by Sit Down! published in a multilingual version for the Nuremberg Toy Fair as its first commercially available game. It is distributed via Pegasus Spiele , in which a German version was also published in May of the same year.
The game was nominated for the Game of the Year award in 2017, alongside Kingdomino and the Race to El Dorado . The jury justified the admission as follows:
“The cooperative“ Magic Maze ”opens up a completely new feel to the game that nobody wants to switch off for even a second. In the clever introductory campaign, the requirements gradually increase, but even here the extraordinary rules of movement as well as the action and time pressure boost the adrenaline production and get the players' bodies going. This rousing hectic pace simply leaves no one indifferent. "
At the German Games Prize 2017, the game came 9th.
supporting documents
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i Rules of the game ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. for Magic Maze at Sit Down!
- ↑ However, the rules for solo play mentioned in the instructions are considered to be too difficult and immature, so it is advisable to modify the rules, see e.g. B. boardgamegeek.com: Variants for Solo game: a review of the alternatives .
- ↑ Magic Maze in the Luding game database ; Retrieved July 5, 2017.
- ↑ Versions of Magic Maze in the BoardGameGeek database; Retrieved July 5, 2017.
- ↑ a b Magic Maze on the website of the game of the year e. V .; accessed on July 1, 2017.
Web links
- Magic Maze on the Pegasus Games website
- Rules of the game for Magic Maze at Sit Down!
- Magic Maze in the games database BoardGameGeek (English)
- Magic Maze in the Luding games database