Spellcaster

Richard Bartle was probably the individual responsible for more of my college hours spent gaming than any other single game designer. He is perhaps best known as the co-creator of MUD, precursor to the modern MMOG. But MUDis not the game that devoured my free time. The game was Spellcaster, also known as Waving Hands.

Developed in 1977, according to Wikipedia, (though I didn't encounter it until 16 years later), Spellcaster represents a magic duel between wizards. The objective is to reduce your opponent to zero life points. Keep in mind, this was before Magic: the Gathering popularized this kind of activity.

Spellcaster has no cards. There is no board. There are no tokens. You could conceivably play with no material components of any kind, although it's much easier if you have a pen and paper, and the printed rules for quick reference.

Each turn, you secretly decide on one of six gestures for each hand: Wave (W), Palm (P), Digit (D), Palm (P), or Fingers (F). There is also a Clap (C) gesture (only useful if you perform it with both hands, of course). You cast spells by stringing together a series of gestures into one of the forty-or-so specific combinations and then choosing a target. For example, the sequence W-P-F-D casts the spell Cause Heavy Wounds, which does three points of damage. There are all kinds of spells, including damage, healing, protection, summoning, and disruption of your opponent's spells. The spells are quite well-balanced, with longer spells having more dramatic effects.

When all players have decided on a course of action, they reveal and resolve the turn simultaneously. Then you write down another turn, and repeat until one of you loses.

Spellcaster shines for several reasons. It's easy to learn (the only intimidating part is the sheer length of the list of spells, which you learn quickly enough after a game or two). The games are short, maybe 15 to 30 minutes each. As you play more often, you discover the depth of strategy that exists. You recognize D as an aggressive gesture, while W is more defensive. You learn which combinations of spells supplement each other. You start to consider opening series of moves as you would in Chess. In short, the game has depth and replay value beyond the majority of video games out there.

In spite of the game having no graphics and only minimal text, it's as evocative as the best interactive fiction games. You can imagine a wizard performing the actual gestures, and it doesn't take much effort to imagine what they must look like.

And then there's the multiplayer. The rules only assume two players, but it can easily be extended to support any number of wizards without any rules modifications (the spells are written in such a way that they always either affect a single target or everyone). Multiplayer deathmatch can be fun in a chaotic sort of way, as one player getting ready to cast an area-effect blast spell might be simultaneously hit with several countermoves that could cancel each other out. Team battles allow for a whole extra layer of strategy; we did several eight-on-eight battles that were epic and legendary.

If you like turn-based strategy games, this one is well worth your time to discover. It may take a few plays to get used to, but once you do, it'll keep you coming back.