THE DEADLY REALM

by Richard Hamblen

MAGIC REALM is a very flexible game that can be modified for a number of different purposes: solitaire play, combining game sets in one large game, etc. The sections below provide rules for modifying the game for these purposes. Playing aid charts for these and other rules are included in this issues special insert.

Players who have become familiar with the game mechanics will find that they can defeat or run away from nearly any monsters or natives that they meet in the game. Monsters should not be such patsies, so as soon as you start feeling nonchalant about running into enemies make the following changes in the rules:

THIRD ENCOUNTER
l. All Medium and Heavy monster counters are turned darker side up at the start of the game (and at the start of each month).
2. During combat, when a character divides the monster counters on his sheet into three groups and places them in the white ATTACKING NON-CHARACTERS boxes, the attacking counters must be divided as equally as possible between the three boxes. The character can still choose exactly which counters go in each group, but the largest group can have at most one counter more than the smallest group.

FOURTH ENCOUNTER
3. The LOST CITY and LOST CASTLE counters trigger monsters just like Sound counters, except they trigger all of the monsters pictured in their sections of the APPEARANCE CHART. After a character ends his turn and finishes placing the monsters that appear due to Sound counters in his tile, if he is in the LOST CITY’s tile all LOST CITY monsters still in the MONSTER ROLL row are triggered and appear in the LOST CITYS Clearing; if he is in the LOST CASTLE’s tile the remaining active LOST CASTLE monsters are placed in the LOST CASTLE’s Clearing.

FIFTH ENCOUNTER
4. All unhired natives are turned darker side up at the start of the game and at the start of each month. 5. All attacking natives (and their horses) on a characters sheet must be divided equally among the ATTACKING NON-CHARACTERS boxes as if they were monsters. (see rule 2 above) If a native and horse and monster were all attacking, each would have to be placed in a different box.