Tower of Mages
A downloadable game
As long as there has been magic, there have been Mages' Towers. Tall, dilapidated structures built in wild curves to tap into elemental energy. As the Solstice approaches, three Wizards break ground on what they're sure will be... Well, it will be a tower anyway.
Tower of Mages is a dice game for one player. Each of your three dice represents a scatterbrained wizard with a short attention span. Over the course of the game they will be working together to build a tower to gather elemental energies, convert them into valuable spells, and to predict and manipulate the spell market.
The game uses a sort-of-rondel mechanic. You roll your dice and choose which order to play them in. Each time you use a die, you count down the list of tower segments, starting at the last segment built.
There is also a market speculation aspect, all Elements begin at a value of -2. As the game progresses, you will roll dice to see how values grow and fall. To make the best of this, you can build high value rooms, destroy negatively valued rooms, cap towers to score them early, and gain rerolls to adjust the outcomes of the market.
All you need to play is this PDF, three standard dice and a pencil. I would love to see the towers you wind up with, so please, share your highscores, and scans of your completed games!
If you like this, you should try my other, similar game: Hall of the Dwarven King!
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I know this game is from a bit ago but maybe a little faq to clarify stuff? I would like that very much.
Since explosions aren't rooms you can't build special buildings instead of doing them, right?
When an explosion crosses out a building icon, you skip it during the building phase when spending dice to build rooms, right? For example, if Fire was crossed out and the last room you built was Light and you spent a 2, you would go to Water instead of Air.
Each room is composed of multiple segments but the observatory counts rooms and not segments, right?
Distorter allows you to Reroll one die of any type, including the market?
Hey, thanks for playing!
Really I need to do a definitive edition with a longer, dedicated rules doc.
Your assumptions here are correct except the second. Explosions destroy a room from the Building Plan, not type of room.
That makes sense. The observatory counts the stairwell as a room, then? Feels like the observatory is where the major points could be.
Also, when the rules say "connected" it means directly adjacent I'm assuming? So, you could build an earth room then an air room then another earth room since the two earth rooms won't be touching?
I would love to see a definitive edition. It's a great game! Thank you for your time!
That is correct, yes.
I did actually release a revised version under the ButtonShy label available on PNPArcade. It doesn't have the expanded rules though.
Hi !
I have a youtube channel where I present free pnp (small channel with 200 subscribers). Most of those games are in English and I translate them to allow French people (who don't speak English) to play these games which for the most part are excellent. I really like your 2 games Hall of the dwarven king and Tower of mages. I would like to play them on my channel and put the link to your website in the description. But I think that the people who follow me will not go on your channel to download the English files. That's why I'm asking you to authorize me to propose the download of the files translated into French for my viewers. Thank you and congratulations again for your games.
CURSE YOU, ELEMENTAL MARKET! he shouted at his ceiling, alone.
Tower of Mages and Hall of the Dwarven King are brilliant fun. Highly recommend. I had to print both on laminated paper to save from destroying rainforests with how often I play these two games.
Hi! I'm trying to make a small mobile game for myself, according to the rules of your game. However, I still haven't figured out how explosions work.
1. Do I cross out a room in the list of rooms and will not be able to build it anymore? If so, what should I do when I get to a crossed-out room in the building phase?
2. Do I cross out the icon of an already built room on the building plan, like in this video?
If so, can I cross out stairs, tower caps and observatories, etc.? If so, how does the explosion of specific rooms work?Number 2, You cross out a room from the tower.
I think it should say "icon of your choice" rather than "room". It doesn't make sense to cross out a non-element room. Basically crossing it out means you won't be able to score it later. I hope that helps.
I think an app would be a good fit for this game. If you make something you'd like to release publicly, let me know!
Do you think the explosion of the predictor and the distorter makes sense? After all, this deprives the player of the opportunity to reroll the dice with the distorter or predict prices in the market out of turn. And a library that gives us 10 points may lose them. Or, according to your idea, only elemental rooms explode? (and the laboratory if it copies the elemental room, if I understand correctly)
Thanks a lot for the clarification! I will definitely keep you informed and let you know when the game is ready)
Yeah, that all checks out.
Another question: can the laboratory copy the library and earn another +10 points?
I think so, yeah. As long as you have the element rooms to do so.
I also LOVE this game. I got a few things wrong on first play through but next time will be clearer from reading the q’s below (above?). Thank you
my only remaining question is: when scoring observatories, do you cross off room icons? I think no, because they take staircases into account. Thanks!
Love the game but still a bit confused about endgame scoring despite the questions on here. It makes sense that tower and observatory score when capped. But at game end do all elemental rooms score or just those that have been capped? Thanks again for the fun! Love how you make a unique creation each time
Love the game, especially that it's in one page. Its easy to have a quick round at work. Apologies for spelling.
A few questions.
1. What if part of a room were to go off the page?
2. For special rooms do I still count down the rooms table?
3. Am I able to just build stair cases instead of bombs and tower caps?
4. How does the library work. What elements do I cross off and where do I need them? In the line the whole tower or the tower connected to the library?
5. I still don't get the predictor even though its explained again here.
6. For the observatory what is a room? Would air water earth be 1 pont (3 drawn rooms) or 3 points (9 squares).
7. I think the laboratory could be rewarded to is say copy the rooms ICON. If I understand correctly.
8. The same for explosion. It says cross out a room in the rooms list but not in the rules. Should the list maybe say the following: Cross out a rooms icon on the building plan.
Amazing game though.
Hi, I'm glad you liked it!
This is a terrific little game. I have a few rules questions after playing my first game.
Does the laboratory work by copying the bottom-attached room to one of the upper rooms immediately? Does it copy what is built on one of the sides to the other immediately? Is the clone just a thing that can at any time clone one of the attached parts to anywhere on the tower?
For the observatory, does it count every room, every square or just every unused symbol? For example, do stairwells count as rooms?
Thanks for trying it out!
The laboratory copies the room type you attach it to immediately after it's built, so this will be the bottom room. Just draw the same icon onto it.
The observatory counts rooms, including stairwells. It doesn't care about symbols like the tower cap does.
Had a few questions on this gamee
When we initially place a circle on the record track, on our first turn, do we draw that room to start on the game, or wait and draw the room on our first official turn?
If we land on explosion dn we have to cross off a room, or is it optional?
Do we only do a market phase, or only when have an eye under the hourglass?
What I we are unable to get a tower cap? Is there a way to mitigate it?
Do we only count to obtain a score if we are able to 'cap' a tower?
I'm really enjoying your games.
Thanks!
Tina
1: You do not build that initial room
2: Explosions are generally bad, and also compulsory
3: You only do a market phase when there's an eye on the time track, or when you do an early one by triggering a predictor
4/5: Tower caps let you score elements early. You get to score everything that's not crossed out at the end of the game as well.
enjoying my first play through of Tower. Can you clarify - which elemental rooms do I score after placing a tower cap? And do those same rooms score again at the end of the game?
Hey, thanks for playing, I'm glad you enjoyed it!
Starting with the room directly under the tower cap, you score each room going down to the ground.
And when you score rooms you cross them off so you won't be able to score them later.
Thanks! It’s a brilliantly designed little game.
Right, so I place a tower cap, then score and cross off each room that follows in a sequence to the ground (but not the rooms that are not in the same sequence/path). Is that correct?
You've got it!
brilliant. Thanks.
I have to say that I'm a bit confused by the Elemental Market. I fail to see what filling it triggers in the mechanics of the game. Am I missing something obvious?
It just tracks how many points you get for your element rooms when you cap a tower, and at the end of the game.
Does that answer your question?
What happens if you do fill out a element? Is it worth -2? or 0?
It's worth -2