Wizard (game)

Wizard
Game data
author	Ken Fisher
graphic	Franz Vohwinkel (Amigo)
publishing company	Canada Games , ; US Games Systems , ; Bicycle , ; Amigo
Publishing year	1984, 1996
Art	Card game
Teammates	3 to 6
Duration	45 minutes
Age	from 10 years on
Awards
	Dutch Games Award 2011: nominated

Wizard is a card game by Ken Fisher that is played as a trick game. It appeared on the American market in 1984. In 1996 Amigo brought out a graphically redesigned version in Germany. 1.7 million copies had been sold in Germany by January 2020.

The aim of the game is to take a number of tricks predicted by the player himself. It is therefore similar to the trick-guessing game .

Play device

The game has 60 cards , namely 52 cards with values 1 to 13 in four suits (e.g. clubs, spades, hearts, diamonds), four magicians (Z) and four fools (N), plus a writing pad with the tables that are required to enter the announced number of stitches and the scores. - You can use a felt-tip pen to make a wizard card set from two sets of 52 cards: ace = 1, king = 13, wizard and jester handwritten.

The cards of the purchasable game are printed with illustrations, without any significance for the course of the game. They show four races assigned to the colors: humans (blue), dwarfs (red), elves (green) and giants (yellow). They are designed so that cards of the same color with neighboring numerical values can be placed next to one another, which results in a continuous picture (descending from left to right). A job title is assigned to each value, e.g. B. Blacksmith. Two of the cards each show female and male figures.

For the 20th anniversary, Amigo has launched a special edition that contains 6 additional cards with new properties. These make the game more varied and more difficult to calculate. The classic game with 60 cards is still possible.

Course of the game

A game has 10 to 20 rounds. In the first round each player receives one playing card, in the second two and so on. The remaining cards are placed face down in the middle, only the top one is turned up. Your suit is the trump suit . If this card is a fool or if there is no card left, there is no trump suit. When a wizard is revealed, the issuing player determines the trump suit after looking at his hand cards. Now the players in turn have to estimate how many tricks they will take in the round. The player to the left of the dealer begins, the information is noted in the table.

When playing with the Canadian Rule or plus / minus one variant , the sum of the estimated tricks must not be equal to the number of expected tricks. For example, if three tricks were announced on five cards, the last player should not say "two".

When all information has been given, the player to the left of the dealer plays one card, the others follow in clockwise order: a trick.

A wizard or a fool can always be played out.
Fools at the beginning of a stitch have no effect on what follows.
If the first card of a trick (after possible fools) is a magician, any cards can then be played.
Otherwise, the color of the first non-foolish card is the one that has to be served (this can also be the trump suit): every player who has at least one card of this color in hand must play one. If you do not have the required color, you can play any other card.

When all players have played a card, the player with the highest card takes the trick. The following applies:

The first wizard to be played always stings.

If no magician has been played, the highest trump trumps the other cards.

If no magician and no trump have been played, the trick is won by the player who played the highest card of the required color .

A fool does not take a trick unless only fools are played in a trick. In this case, the first fool wins the trick.

Points

Each player sets aside the tricks they took. When all tricks have been played (one in the first round, two in the second, etc.), everyone adds up how many tricks they have taken. If this value agrees with the prediction made previously, the player receives 20 points for the correct prediction and 10 points for each trick. If it does not match the forecast, he receives 10 minus points for each stitch deviation .

Example: Player A predicted three tricks and got them; he receives 20 + (3 · 10) = 50 points. Player B predicted four tricks but only got two; he receives 20 minus points. Player C predicted zero tricks and got none; she receives 20 points (for correct forecast).

You can vary the count: For the correct forecast, the player receives ten bonus points per card dealt, i.e. ten points in the first round, twenty in the second, etc. up to a hundred points in the tenth round, etc. Ten plus points are only given for every trending stitch. For each deviation there are successively ten penalty points more, i.e. for the first deviation ten points, the second twenty (i.e. a total of thirty), the third thirty (i.e. ten plus twenty plus thirty = sixty minus points) etc.
Examples: Player A has in the round Predicted eight three stitches and got them. He receives 3 · 10 bullet points plus 80 bonus points (110 in total). Player B predicted two tricks but got three. He gets 2 · 10 bullet points minus 10 deviation points (a total of 10). Player C predicted four tricks but only got two. He receives 2 · 10 key points minus (10 + 20) minus points (a total of −10).

The sum of the points over the laps is noted. - All points can be reduced by ten.

Playing

The game can be played with three to six players, so there are between 20 and 10 rounds: 60 cards divided by the number of players. In the last round all cards are dealt, so there is no more trump suit. The player with the highest point total wins. In one variant, if there are more than three players after 10, 12 and 15 rounds, the player with the lowest number of points is eliminated; the remaining three players are eliminated in the last 5 rounds.

More games from the Wizard series

The following other games, which are similar to Wizard in terms of game rules and design of the cards, have also been published by Amigo:

Wizard Junior : a simpler variant, suitable for younger children from 8 years of age (according to the manufacturer), which is only played with 36 cards (4 colors, 1-8; 2 magicians and 2 fools each). Chips are also included here for better visualization of the stitch forecast. These are also available (in different colors) in Wizard Extreme . The scoring has also been simplified.
Wizard Extreme : Here you not only have to predict the number of stitches, but also the colors in which you will make the stitches. This is done by means of different colored seals (small chips made of cardboard). If you make too many stitches or a stitch in the wrong color, you have to take a black seal, which is even more negative than a missing stitch (remaining seal at the end of the round). One player per round can play as a black mage. It is his job to play so that the other players receive as many black seals as possible.
Witches : Similar to the card game Herzeln . All red cards bring penalty points. However, all 11s and the green 12 are special cards, which have various (positive and negative) effects. It is also possible to give all players a significant amount of penalty points by collecting all 14 red cards and certain special cards in your tricks - similar to Herzeln, where there are sometimes comparable rules for all 13 heart cards.
Druids : Here each player sorts the cards from his tricks by color. You form one color per stack, with the last card you received on top. The top card of each color scores points (max. 4 colors); however, the player must avoid collecting all 5 colors. In this case, the round is canceled and the player receives minus points.
Wizard anniversary edition : For the 20th anniversary of the game, this special edition was released, which contains 6 new special cards in addition to the classic Wizard deck. Including z. B. the dragon that beats all sorcerers, and the fairy who is beat by all fools; if the dragon and the fairy fall in one trick, the fairy wins. This makes the ranking of the cards intransitive .

A changing trump suit is only available in Wizard (including the anniversary edition) and Wizard Junior . There are generally no trumps in Witches and Druids ; In Wizard Extreme , red is always the trump card.