by Jonathan Leistiko
When wizards duel, they don’t attack each other. They value their lives and respect each other far too much to die over something as inconsequential as a disagreement. Instead, they create simularcra of themselves to fight in their place. Under their wizard’s guidance, these simulacra change shape over and over, each trying to select a form that can defeat the other without being injured itself. Are you resourceful and perceptive enough to win a Wizard’s Duel?
Reduce your opponent’s life pool to one chip or less.
This is not a turn-taking game. Both players act simultaneously during each phase. When both of you are done with a phase, proceed to the next phase. When all phases are complete, a new round begins. A round consists of four phases:
Establish Your Form
Secretly allocate your life chips to Body, Mind, and Spirit. Make sure they’re all face-up. You do not have to allocate chips to every section.
Reveal Forms
Show your opponent how you allocated your life chips. Starting with the player with the least Mind, purchase your Body and Spirit dice. If you’re tied, choose randomly. When you “spend” a chip on a die, flip it face-down. Dice cost as follows: 1 chip = d4, 2 chips = d6, 3 chips = d8, 4 chips = d10, 5 chips = d12, 6 chips = d20. For example: If you have 4 chips in Body (or Spirit) , you can purchase a d10, or 4d4, or any other combination of dice that adds up to 4 chips in value.
Engage
Roll your Body dice and your Spirit dice. Keep them separate. Your goal is to have one of your Body dice match one of your opponent’s Spirit die. If that does not happen, you can flip a Mind chip face-down to:
Resolve Combat
If one of your opponent’s Body dice matches one of your Spirit dice, you lose a life chip. You also lose a life chip if you have no Spirit dice and your opponent has any Body dice.
The game ends when at least one player has fewer than two life tokens.
At the end of the game:
Keep ‘Em Guessing – Secretly purchase your dice during the Establish Your Form phase instead of during the Reveal Forms phase. Instead of purchasing dice, you can flip a chip face-down to purchase your dice during the Reveal Forms phase.
Spiritual Strength – If your Spirit die is less than each of your opponent’s Body dice during the Resolution phase, you gain a life chip.
I wrote this game up for the About.com 2006 game competition, but did not submit it.