Thread:Talk:Magical Assistant/Great idea!

I really like the core idea of this - cooperative games can be a lot of fun, and dealing with spell components with math puzzles seems entirely novel and intriguing!

To tie in a story - the premise might be that there is a council of wizards (or however you'd like to label the spellcasters) who are truly incompetent. It is the role of the assistants (or lackeys, or minions, or apprentices) to keep the council from being a menace to society, as they do damage control to keep the dangerous and perhaps ridiculous spells their masters are casting from becoming public relations nightmares - and at the same time, doing their best to turn the spells into something that benefits the locals.

An idea to add some fun variation to gameplay: each player draws a random card at the beginning of the game that describes the wizard they are assisting. Each wizard modifies in a significant way the powers of the assistant. The game could be played in large rounds, each one representing the time it takes to cast a spell. Each round, every player draws a card with a potentially harmful spell their wizard master is trying to cast, and they all work cooperatively to assist one another with preventing the spell from going horribly wrong. They take turns around the table, each trying to resolve their spell as best they can while assisting their teammates doing the same. Players not only have to juggle the reputation of the entire council, but struggle to keep their personal wizards from being disgraced. When a wizard is disgraced, a player has to draw a new wizard card and draw a special complication card that makes the game more challenging for everyone.

The win condition could be that the players collectively are able to draw out a net positive effect from the spells the council wizards cast within a certain number of rounds. Different levels of success at the end of the game can be obtained based on how high the team is able to score - maybe something that can carry over to future games, or not if the game is more one-shot focused.

Just brainstorming!!