When the Mages play God…

the Kingdom suffers the most.

Players take up the roll of very powerful Mages who accidentally opened up a portal to the dark Realm of Malakoth where the most dreadfully powerful and accursed creatures reside. With the kingdom they have sworn to protect now confronted and burdened with an onslaught of these treacherous creatures, they must in turn fabricate some of the strongest enchanted creations they can with the help of powerful cryptic offerings left behind from the Ancient All-father to combat against the swarm of enemies trying to destroy their beloved Kingdom and to seal the portal closed for good!

MageSaga is a co-operative variable action deck building tower defense board game utilizing player variable power mechanics and an innovative card crafting system.

The World & Lore of MageSaga

Through out history, mages were tempted to search far and wide for the rumored ancient All-Father who supposedly resided in the “Realm of Malakoth”, a dimension enriched with an infinite reservoir of energy and magical essence to tap into. A place where the angels and gods themselves we’re said to live, blessing whoever with insurable amounts of power and knowledge, transcending any mortal into an enlightened being if found. Tales of the All-father, who apparently had started humanity, also brought teachings of incantations and fabrications of the black arts to the mortal plane. A plethora of treasures inscribed with cyphers that only high level mages could decipher.

Well in desperate means to reach the realm in hastily fashion due to the Kingdom the mages have grown to love and sworn to protect being plagued by famine, they tried one last final attempt to pool their resources and magical skills together to reach the gods themselves. However, was this realm they were seeing before them really the Realm of Malakoth or a completely new and horrid discovery? Hideous, demonic beasts plagued the realm and started pouring out of the portal rampaging onto the world the mage’s occupied. Unbeknownst to the mages, these decrepit all-powerful beasts feed off of weakened creatures, creatures that wreak of sickness and death, which is what the Kingdom itself was riddled with. Now confronted with protecting the Kingdom against another huge threat that they brought upon themselves, they must work together to put an end to this disaster and seal up the portal indefinitely so no other mage tries to follow the false legend again seeking such power.

Can you and your companions stop the hordes of creatures from destroying your homeland?

An insight look into the mechanics

  • Transmutation & Relic Cards

    Players perform actions through Relic Cards, so they must build their deck carefully to be able to exact any action needed. Transmute is the most important action.

  • Creature Crafting & Combat

    Players purchase Creature Fragments and install them onto their Creature. Each Fragment enhances the overall level and mana of the Creature. Each Fragment has it’s own attacks and spells.

  • Harvest Dice

    When an enemy Creature gets slayed, it drops loot in the form of Harvest Dice. Players roll however many dice and see what level to collect from.

The Board

In MageSaga, enemy Creatures spawn from the Portal (Enemy Deck) located to the left and make their way across the board towards the Kingdom each turn moving one slot at a time starting in the Safe Area to the Red Threat. If they survive and pass the Red Threat, they cause an Outbreak event to happen which is not good. Players move their mage characters to the Front Lines to initiate combat to protect the Kingdom surrounded in a Mana Barrier that can be destroyed with enough outbreaks. The Orb Reservoir is where players place Vitality Orbs to pull from. Players throughout the game will place a Pillar miniature on each numbered circle surrounding the portal in order to close the portal up for good. If any enemies are still out in the field, they must be destroyed in order to fully win the game.

Key Components

Conversion Realm. Players move their mages into this realm in order to transmute. They place their mage in the correct space they want to obtain by converting “X” resource they already have.

Vitality Orbs. These are elemental orbs that once obtained get placed onto a Creature a player is building that powers up an attack.

Player Tableau. Here is where players store their orbs and fragments, as well as their Relic deck, spells to activate, tracking Mana and enhancements, etc.

Relic Cards. An in-depth breakdown of how a Relic Card operates.

Calamity Clock. Players move the hand on this clock from left to right whenever a new Pillar gets placed on the board, influencing the calamity. This increases the difficulty of the game.

The gameplay loop of MageSaga is an extensive and detailed process but a rewarding one when you finally create a Creature that is successfully defending the base, and drawing from a strong well built Relic deck that runs smooth full of powerful actions.

Building up your Relic deck with high grade actions allows you to purchase/exchange for better Creature Fragments thus making your Creature stronger. Buying item cards builds up your Mage character. With both of these beings powered up, it becomes easier to stop the horde of enemies approaching. But players work quick and pay attention because every new phase the strength of the enemies increases so your own Mage and Creatures must be on par to combat properly.

  • Varmints & Overlord Cards

  • Outbreak Event Cards

  • Dark Magic Cards

  • Equivalent Exchange Guide

  • List of Actions

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