Grand Tribunal Monday, December 12, 2005

Atlas Games has just announced that they will be releasing an Ars Magica board game named Grand Tribunal in March of 2006.

Grand Tribunal is a board game for three to five players, inspired by the Ars Magica roleplaying game. In Grand Tribunal, players use Vis tokens to activate cards representing magic item types, spell categories, and resources, which they then assemble into powerful magic items. Each round, players place their votes for the item types and spell categories they're most likely to be able to play. Three times during the game -- at the periodic Tribunals -- players are presented with 1st-, 2nd-, and 3rd-place awards for creating magic items with item types and spell categories that match those with the most votes. The player at the end of the game with the most points based on those awards wins!

I like to reserve judgment on a game until I play it, but this seems like an awfully thin representation of such a rich and interesting game setting. Maybe a spell and magic item creation game can be fun, but a game with steeped in myth, rife with deep political intrigue within the Order, and filled with ancient magic, demons, faeries, and beasts of legend, do we really want a game where we compete for first place in a county fair?