wizwar6e/research/rules-6e.md

Wiz-War — Rules for the Chessex 6th Edition (1993)

Status of this document. No scan or transcription of the actual 6th-edition rulebook was found online. What follows is (a) a complete verbatim transcription of the 5th-edition rules (the text the 6th-edition rulebook is a light revision of), recovered from the Wayback Machine copy of the fan site wizwar.com; (b) documented, sourced facts about what the 6th edition changed; (c) the verbatim Expansion 1 & 2 rules (sold alongside the 6th edition); and (d) rulings from Tom Jolly's own official FAQ covering timing, counterspells, and edition errata. Each section is labeled VERBATIM, SUMMARY, or UNCERTAIN.

Key: the Chessex 6th edition (1993, blue box, art by Phil Morrissey, Chessex product code 7000) is, per Tom Jolly's own FAQ and history writings, the same game as the Jolly Games 5th edition with revised rules text and a slightly changed card mix (125 spell/number cards vs. 124). The rules below are as close to the 6E rulebook as can be assembled without the physical booklet.

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1. What the 6th edition is (SUMMARY — sourced)

• Publisher: Chessex, 1993. "New 1993 edition with revised rules and new cards!" Box back: "The new Sixth Edition Wiz War contains: 1 rulebook, 4 boards, 2 sheets of tokens, 125 spell cards and 1 die. May be enjoyed by 2 to 4 players." (BGG version page for "Chessex sixth edition", ObjectID 27352, product code 7000, box 10×8×1 in.)
• New larger blue box, new cover/token art by Phil Morrissey. ~2,000 copies printed; sold out. Known QC problems (~1 in 12 copies had miscounted cards or fingerprint smudges). (Tom Jolly, "A Brief History of Wiz-War", League of Gamemakers.)
• Edition lineage: 1st–3rd self-published Jolly Games (1985–), 4th–5th printed by Chessex with Jolly art (5th labeled "New 1991 Fifth Edition"), 6th = 1993 Chessex, 7th = 1997 Chessex "Classic Edition" (made in Mexico, same box art), 8th = FFG 2012.
• Expansion #1 (1991) and Expansion #2 (1993), by Jolly Games/Chessex, were the compatible expansions sold during the 6E/7E era.

Documented 6E-specific rule/content changes (SUMMARY — each point sourced)

From Tom Jolly's official Wiz-War FAQ (silcom.com/~tomjolly/wizfaq.htm, last updated Sept 1 2002):

1. "You can't attack yourself" first appears in the 6th-edition rules — "This is mentioned in the 6th edition rules, but no earlier editions. This is a very important rule!"
2. 6E boards have no dots in the centers of the squares, even though the rulebook text still tells you to measure line-of-sight dot-to-dot: "The new Wiz-War set, 6th edition, has no dots in the center of the squares with which to measure line-of-sight, even though the rules say to use these non-existent dots. Our advice is to eyeball the center of the square… It might also be worthwhile to take a magic marker and draw the walls brown, as they do not stand out very well as it is." (Implication: the 6E rulebook text on LOS is essentially unchanged from 5E.)
3. Card-count change 124 → 125. The 5E rules say "a deck of 124 cards"; the 6E box says 125. The FAQ notes that Dispel Creation was moved into the basic set from Expansion #1 without its text being edited ("DISPEL CREATION used to only be in the Expansion... it was considered a good idea to put one in the basic set, but unfortunately, it did not get edited to accommodate this move"). UNCERTAIN: whether Dispel Creation is exactly the 125th card, or whether other swaps were made; the fan card database's commentary also flags Bomb as "I think this is a 6th edition card."
4. A board layout was replaced between the 6th and 7th printings. Tom Jolly's site (wwbrdnu.htm): "Between printing the 6th edition and the 7th edition, a playing board was replaced in Wiz-War. Here is the art for the one that was removed…" So the 6E set contains one board layout that the 7E does not.
5. Die: "numbered from 1-4… may be 8-sided or 4-sided, depending on what game edition you have" (5E rules text — written to cover multiple printings; the phrase appears designed to survive into the Chessex printings). UNCERTAIN which physical die shipped in 6E.
6. 7E-specific notes for contrast (NOT 6E): 7E's 2-player board layout has exits that genuinely cross over (making Relocate Sector useless in 2-player 7E games), and the 7E 4-player setup diagram is misprinted (opposite edges should carry identical letters). Both per the official FAQ.

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2. Base rules (VERBATIM — 5th edition text, from wizwar.com "Wiz War 5th Edition Rules", archived 2004; © 1985 Jolly Games)

Transcription note: recovered from web.archive.org/web/20041205021940/http://www.wizwar.com/rules.htm. Typos in the source ("onE of the four sectors", the duplicated "He in turn will try to protect them" sentence, "theses things") are preserved where harmless. The 6E rulebook is a revision of this text; per Section 1, expect the 6E booklet to add "you cannot attack yourself" and say 125 cards.

INTRODUCTION

Wiz War is a game for magical combat in a stone labyrinth. Players attempt to bring two of their opponent's treasures back to their home bases while at the same time guarding their own treasures against theft. A game usually takes from fifteen minutes to an hour to play, and can be played with two or more players.

WINNING

There are two ways you can win Wiz War. One way is to eliminate all the other players in wizardly battle. The other way is to obtain two "treasure chests" from any of the other players (they need not both be from the same player), then return them, one at a time, to your home bases, and drop them there.

Alternatively, it is also possible to lose the game by allowing both of the treasures that you protect to be taken to another players' home bases and left there. The moment that both of your treasures sit on other players' home bases, you are out of the game.

EQUIPMENT

A four section playing board, a deck of 124 cards, one sheet of cardboard tokens, a rule booklet, and one die (numbered from 1-4). It may be 8-sided or 4-sided, depending on what game edition you have.

(6E: 125 cards, two sheets of tokens — see Section 1.)

STARTING THE GAME

Each player chooses one of the four sectors, face down, at random. Put these sectors together in any of the setups shown on the last page, depending on the number of players, and turn all the sectors over simultaneously. This is now your playing board.

Each player starts his playing piece in the exact center of the sector he chose. This center square is his HOME BASE, to which he will try to bring two of his opponents' treasures.

In each player's sector, his two treasure chests are placed on the small circles evident on each sector board. For the rest of the game, the other players will try to steal these, and he will try to protect them. He in turn will try to steal theirs.

Shuffle the cards and deal seven, face down, to each player. Put the remainder of the deck aside as a drawing stack. If "TRAP!" is drawn on the deal, discard it and redraw.

Take a sheet of paper and write the players' names and the number "15" below each. These are your life-points, and you will lose or gain points as the game progresses. If you get down to "0" points, you are considered dead, and you are out of the game. There is no upper limit to the number of points you might gain through actions in the game.

Turns go clockwise, starting with the player rolling highest on the die.

THE BOARD

Notice the letters on the setup diagram on the last page of the rules. These boards have open sides; that is, if you leave a board at point "A" on either side, you will reenter at point "A" on the opposite side. By the same token, if you smash down a wall right next to the "A" exit, then you can enter the opposite board edge at the point relative to where you smashed the wall.

The apparent double wall at the junction of any two sectors is not double at all; it should be treated as a single wall.

The AUTO WARP is only used in the three-player game. It does not count as a space; you go directly from one end to the other. For all purposes, treat the connected board edges as though they are adjacent. It serves to connect the three sectors together in such a way as to prevent any unfair advantages for any particular board. If a sector gets RELOCATED through use of the RELOCATE card, then the AUTO WARP is discarded, and only opposite board edges connect. ROTATION has no effect on the AUTO WARP.

If casting a spell, or checking line of sight through the AUTO WARP, treat it as a straight line, and the two connected boards as though they were adjacent.

Doors are the narrow sections in the walls that look a bit like doors. They are considered locked at all times, and require special cards from the deck to be opened. After passage through a door, it automatically relocks itself.

You can, if you like, cast a spell through an opened door without passing through yourself.

You can't follow someone through a door unless they state they are holding it open for you. There is no way, besides a REMOVE LOCK card, to jam a door open.

MOVEMENT

You may move up to three spaces per turn. If you wish, during any turn you may add one NUMBER card to your movement to increase your allowed movement for your turn. If the NUMBER card was "4", then you could move up to seven spaces that turn. The die is not used for movement.

OBJECTS

Fixed/Movable Objects: Fixed objects cannot be moved. These include such things as walls, firewalls, illusion walls, thorn bushes, doors, and solid stone squares. Movable objects include magic stones, treasure chests, the DAGGER, the LARGE ROCK, the WIZARDBLADE, and other players. Other players cannot be picked up, of course, but they can be DRAGged with the DRAG spell. Generally speaking, movable objects do not block line of sight, while fixed objects do.

Dropping and Retrieving Objects: Sometimes you will have objects in your card hand that you do not wish to carry at the time, since you are limited to seven cards in your hand and you may wish to get new cards. In that case, you can drop any or all of them. To do this, you merely state that you are dropping an object, and put an appropriate cardboard token representing that object on the space that your playing piece occupies. You can do this any time during your turn. Anyone else may pick this object up at a later time, if they land on it. The card designating the object, if there is one, is placed next to the sector where the object was dropped. Another player picking this object up must take the card for it into his own hand.

If an object is thrown, it is considered to have landed in the targeted square unless some barrier, such as a THORNBUSH, is in the way. In that case the object lands immediately before the barrier.

YOUR TURN ENDS IF YOU PICK UP ANY OBJECT, and you may perform no more actions that turn, except for drawing cards. You can't pick up an object out of turn, even if you TELEPORT onto it.

Treasures are treated like other objects, but YOU CAN ONLY CARRY ONE AT A TIME! After all, these things are pretty heavy. You can carry any number of other objects along with the treasure, though. Treasures do not count as a card in your hand. Treasures may NOT be thrown.

You can carry your own treasure, and may even go retrieve your treasure after someone has placed it on their own home base, in addition to taking yet another player's treasure off of someone else's home base. If you are carrying a treasure, keep the token with the playing piece and do not remove it from the board.

Objects cannot be forcibly taken from you unless another player has a DROP OBJECT spell card that allows him to do so, or unless he kills you. He cannot paralyze you with MEDUSA, then take everything you have. He must use a card that directly applies to the removal or destruction of a physical object.

THE CARDS

There are five different kinds of cards in the game. They are called ATTACK cards, NEUTRAL cards, COUNTER-ACTION cards, NUMBER cards, and MAGIC STONES.

ATTACK cards say "Attack" in the upper left-hand corner of each card. ONLY ONE ATTACK CAN BE USED DURING EACH PLAYER TURN. In the upper right-hand corner, the abbreviation "L.O.S." might appear. This means that a spell can only be used if a player has a clear line of sight to the person or object the spell is to be cast upon. Line of sight is defined as the line going from the center of the attacker's square to the center of the target's square. The center is the dot marked on each space. In the case of a CREATE WALL spell, the center would be the center of the wall to be created. If this line of sight is interrupted by any part of a wall, the spell cannot be cast.

(6E: the boards have no printed dots — eyeball the square centers. See Section 1.)

NEUTRAL cards are non-offensive or non-defensive spells. ANY NUMBER of Neutral spells can be cast during a player's turn. It is not impossible for a player to use his entire hand in one turn.

COUNTERACTION cards are the only cards that can be used OUT OF TURN. They can be used (but aren't usually) during a normal turn as a NEUTRAL card, but their primary use is as a defense against attacks. They are played immediately following an attack by the player who was attacked. You CANNOT counteract a Neutral card. You can, however, use an ABSORB or BLUNT against indirect damage caused to you (e.g., by a falling DESTROYed WALL).

More than one COUNTERACTION card can be used to defend against a single attack, either used sequentially or added together. It is also possible to COUNTERACT a COUNTERACTION card, so an attack may bounce back and forth a few times before coming to rest. In case a COUNTERACTION card only stops half of a spell, always round the resulting damage UP to the nearest whole number. If all damage from a spell is stopped, any secondary effects, such as a lost turn, are also stopped.

A player is not obligated to play a COUNTERACTION card if he does not wish to.

COUNTERACTIONS are instantaneous; they only affect the one attack spell they were played against.

NUMBER cards have three purposes. First, they can add to your movement, as mentioned earlier. Second, they can affect the DURATION of a spell, the NUMBER then representing the number of turns that the spell lasts. A duration spell starts when cast and ends at the start of one of the caster's next turns. Duration-based spells are marked as such on each card. Third, they can represent the POWER of a spell, so that a LIGHTNING BLAST with a "5" NUMBER card would do five points of damage to an opponent (plus one turn lost due to stunning, as mentioned on the card). This damage would then be subtracted from the victim's point total.

Only one NUMBER card can be played per action. So in one turn, a player may use a NUMBER card to enhance his movement, use another to ATTACK with, and use yet another to become INVISIBLE (if he has the card) for a certain number of turns, and so on.

MAGIC STONES are magical gems that bestow a special power upon the holder. Stones may be discarded like any other card if a player does not wish to keep them, or they may be dropped. The cards are permanent, and the power they bestow may be used as often as the opportunity arises. The name of each magical stone contains the word "STONE" and the description on each card is prefaced by the word "POWER".

Cards are used once, then discarded face up onto a discard pile. There are exceptions! These include physical objects such as MAGIC STONES, the DAGGER, the LARGE ROCK, the WIZARDBLADE, and the MASTER KEY. Physical objects are not removed from your hand unless they are dropped or thrown. Of all the physical objects, MAGIC STONES and the MASTER KEY have one other requirement: They must be displayed face up in front of you after you have used them. They are still considered part of the seven-card hand. If any cards are to be randomly lost or taken from a player's hand, these cards must be taken back into the hand before the choice is made.

If you kill an opponent, you get all of his cards, but you must immediately discard enough to bring your hand down to seven cards.

Some cards involve physical actions, like picking locks, removing locks, jamming locks, and throwing daggers. These are not spells.

THE TURN

You can do a lot during your turn. You may move, attack once, and use as many NEUTRAL and COUNTERACTION cards as you like. As an example, you play a "3" NUMBER card and say "I'm moving six spaces this turn." Then you move two spaces into L.O.S. with another player, cast an attack, move back three spaces, create a wall, shrink yourself, then move back one more space. The order you use doesn't matter, and you can break up your movement while performing other actions. If you pick up an object during your turn, your turn ends the moment you pick it up.

Losing a turn means you can do NOTHING for that entire turn, except COUNTERACTION.

For the purpose of lost turns, or spell duration, a "turn" starts when a spell is cast, and ends at the beginning of one of the caster's turns.

COMBAT

There is no combat during the first round of turns. Combat consists of taking a card from your hand and playing it against your opponent during your turn. If that player has a COUNTERACTION card, he may play it then. If you want to COUNTERACT his COUNTERACTION, and have the card to do so, you may. You may attack only once per turn. Spells automatically hit their target if not COUNTERACTed. If a spell misses for some reason, it dissipates harmlessly, and does NOT hit some object behind the target!

Any damage done to either player in the form of damage points is removed from the 15 points on his score sheet. If you get to "0" points, you are dead.

Damage points, points, damage, and point-based spells all refer to the same thing: things that take away points from you, an opponent, or object (such as a wall or door). They have nothing to do with duration-based spells.

If a person is eliminated from the game by being killed, then the last attacker gets all the dead person's cards. If a player is eliminated by having lost both his treasures to opponents' home bases, his cards are discarded.

You cannot physically attack through any type of wall, firewall, or bush. You cannot attack yourself. You cannot attack on the first round of turns, even if you have the SPEED spell.

(6E: "You cannot attack yourself" is stated in the 6E rulebook; FAQ errata: the first-round restriction should read "no ATTACKS during the first round", not "no combat" — e.g. Destroy Wall next to someone on turn one is legal.)

ANY CARD MAY BE PLAYED WITHOUT A NUMBER CARD, but its power is only "1". There are no "1" NUMBER cards in the deck.

When all else fails, you may PUNCH your opponent. This requires no card, but does constitute your attack for the turn. A punch does one point of damage, and you must be in the same square as your opponent to do it. If the object to be hit fills an entire square, you may be in an adjacent square to hit it. It is possible, though time-consuming, to punch a wall down. A wall takes 20 points of damage to destroy; a door takes 15. Any attack against an inanimate object counts as your one attack for the turn. The only inanimate objects you can attack are the walls, doors, and thornbushes.

It is possible to walk by an opponent or cast a spell past him without affecting him at all, if you want to.

Any deal can be made while in L.O.S. with another player, including, but not limited to, trading cards.

PHYSICAL DAMAGE and MAGICAL DAMAGE both take damage points from a player, but on rare occasions (designated on the cards) they are treated differently. Physical damage would include things like damage from the LARGE ROCK, the DAGGER, a PUNCH from another player, or a wall that falls on you from a DESTROY WALL spell. Magical damage would include any damage caused as a direct result of a spell, such as walking through a FIREWALL, getting hit with the WIZARDBLADE, or being hit with a LIGHTNINGBLAST.

CARDS AND ACTIONS THAT CHANGE THE MAP

If you add a wall, destroy a wall, create a bush or firewall, etc., then you must take an appropriate cardboard token representing this and place it where the item was created.

You CANNOT create an object on a player's home base, or on any space already occupied by a player or object (unless it is a wall, which doesn't actually exist ON a space, but in between them). You cannot, for example, cast a FIREWALL where an ILLUSION WALL already exists, or two THORNBUSHES in the same square.

Walls cannot be cast diagonally. They must be cast on the lines between spaces.

If a card has no duration mentioned on it, the effect is either permanent (such as CREATE WALL) or instantaneous (such as FIREBALL).

If someone has cast CREATE WALL or DESTROY WALL on a junction between sectors, and some other moron decides he wants to use ROTATE SECTOR on one of them, then roll the die for a 50-50% chance to see which one of the two sectors the "alteration" stays with.

GETTING NEW CARDS

You start with seven cards. You may draw up to two per turn, but may never have more than seven cards in your hand at one time. If for some reason you do, you must immediately discard enough cards to bring your hand down to the seven card limit. Draw new cards only at the end of YOUR turn.

If you want to discard cards from your hand just for the sake of getting new cards, you may. This includes cards which represent permanent objects, which give you the option of dropping the object or discarding it.

THE DIE

This is referred to as a D4 in the game. It is either 8-sided (numbered from 1-4 twice) or 4-sided, depending on which game edition you have. It is NOT used to roll movement.

Whenever a random direction is called for in the course of the game, pick a number representing the direction you are trying to go, or trying to cast a spell (if you are BLINKed), and then roll for that number.

If you need to roll a 50-50% chance, just call 1,2 as low and 3,4 as high, determining which roll represents what, beforehand.

DEATH

A dead player is out of the game and may not win even if two treasures are placed on his home base. His home base is no longer valid for the purpose of eliminating other players. His treasures, though, are still valid to use to win the game. A player who dies while performing an action that would normally win the game is considered to have died first, and is eliminated from the game.

© 1985 Jolly Games

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3. Expansion Set Rules for Expansion Sets 1 and 2 (VERBATIM — from wizwar.com/exp.html, archived 2003; © 1991, 1993 Jolly Games)

These are the rules that shipped with the Chessex-era expansions compatible with the 6th edition. Expansion 1 (1991): 84 cards, 2 boards, tokens. Expansion 2 (1993): 106 cards, tokens. (Counts per Tom Jolly's site, wwexp1.htm.)

MONSTERS

Expansion 1 introduces spells that create monsters. Any monster will follow the commands of its creator (unless otherwise noted on the cards, like the Imp), even when out of line-of-sight. They move any time during the controlling player's turn, so if a player gets an extra turn, or loses a turn, so does the monster (Imp excluded, again). Monsters, unless otherwise noted on the card, may not hurt their creators, carry items, cast spells or use cards from your hand. They are permanent creations, until killed. You may not add NUMBER cards to their movement, but you can cast NEUTRAL spells such as MIST-BODY and SPEED on them.

For the few instances where MONSTERS can carry items, they can't use those items at all (unless the card specifically says otherwise).

Monsters attack once per turn. They cannot attack the turn they are created, but may move on that turn. Creating a monster counts as your attack only on the turn it is created. You and your monster may both have attacks on later turns. Monsters can attack other monsters. Players may not attack a creature that they control. If a monster attacks a player and kills him, the controlling player DOES NOT get the dead player's cards.

If you cast SHADOW and later lose a turn, and you wish to maintain the SHADOW during your lost turn, it will still cost you a life point. If there are other "lasting" effects on you that you have no control over, these also occur even if you've lost a turn.

If you cast BUDDY, you can hurt the other player with a monster's attack without breaking the BUDDY spell, and he can do the same to you. A monster's attack is not YOUR attack.

If a monster sees an illusion, he has the same chance to believe the illusion as a player does.

A monster controlled by you does NOT count as a card in your hand. If you die, any monster controlled by you immediately disappears.

Monsters, like Wizards, will suffer the ill effects of objects in the corridor (like a Thornbush) just like Wizards. Also, if a card specifies "Opponent" or "Anyone" as a target, this includes Monsters.

Wizards can run past monsters without taking damage from them, just as they can run by other Wizards without getting punched. The obvious exceptions to this (like the Buck and the Fire Imp) are noted on the cards.

FLYING AND LEVITATING

Things that fly, float, or levitate are immune to the effects of ground-based effects such as TACKS, KILLER OOZE, and WATERWALL.

MAGIC STICKS

You can recognize a magic stick because the word "Stick" is in the name of the card. Each stick carries a number of "charges" set by the number card played when the stick is first used. This number tells you how many times the stick can be used before it gets discarded. Place a token on the card when played indicating how many charges the stick has, and leave the stick displayed. Any stick operates a maximum of once per turn. Once it is used up it is useless and may not be recharged, or retrieved from the discard pile. If ownership of a magic stick is taken by an opponent, then whatever charges are left on the stick are also transferred. If the initial number of charges has not been set, then the new owner may do so. AMPLIFY and ADD will both work when setting the initial number of charges.

Magic Sticks do not burn. They do, of course, count as a card in your hand.

SPEED or ADRENALINE will NOT allow you to use a Magic Stick more than once in your turn. While the spells speed YOU up (and your monsters, whose turns are slaved to you), they do not speed up the limits of the wand. This isolation of the wand from you allows you to use it even with NO SPELL cast on you.

ABSORB SPELL, of course, has no effect on Sticks, since they are objects and not spells, even though what Magic Sticks produce are considered spells.

OTHER NOTES FOR THE FIRST EXPANSION

There are tokens on the counter sheet marked with a number of Charges. These are to help keep track of how many charges a Magic Stick has left on it (place the token in front of you after you have charged up the stick). You needn't use them if you can keep it all straight in your head.

If you don't like a card in your edition of Wiz War, don't use it.

The tokens for Magic Sticks and Magic Stones aren't meant to be carried by a Wizard. They are there in case the player drops an item, to show where on the board it was dropped.

If you REUSE an object-creating spell, there may not be enough tokens to represent the new object. In this case, you'll have to rough it. Use a blank token, for example, with your own drawing on it.

The rules that let you discard cards that you don't want in your hand obviously do NOT apply to cursed objects (such as LOAD STONE). Naturally you CAN discard (crush) ARTIFACTS during your turn (or Magic Sticks, or Magic Stones, etc.). You may not discard or drop objects out-of-turn.

Some card effects let you perform multiple attacks in a turn, but certain objects which can produce attacks are limited to one use per turn. Since this is a limitation on the object, this means you can't use the object multiple times, regardless of the effect that exists on your Wizard. He must use other spells or physical attacks to get his quota of attacks in.

ARTIFACTS

Artifacts were introduced in 1993 in Expansion #2.

Artifacts are physical objects which, if left uncontrolled, would completely destroy the balance of the game. Fortunately, these are objects of such great power that they do not "like" to be owned by any one person for very long. In fact, if you want to steal an ARTIFACT from another player, all you need to do is walk into the same space that player occupies and say "I'm taking your ARTIFACT", or whatever you wish to say to get your point across. THIS IS NOT AN ATTACK. You can only take one ARTIFACT from one player per turn. That player, of course, could come back the following turn and take the ARTIFACT back if he is in a position to do so.

Alternately, if a player seems too powerful with an ARTIFACT, and you cannot get close to him, you may WISH it out of existence. This is not a card... you may do it anytime. However, it requires a bit of a sacrifice. You lose 4 life-points (not reversible) and you must discard all your cards, except for cursed cards which say that they cannot be discarded. A small price to pay to keep those other Wizards from winning the game.

Your turn continues even after taking an ARTIFACT from another player, but if you pick one up off the floor it ends your turn.

Being INVISIBLE, or under SHRINK, or in a DUST CLOUD, MIST-BODIED, etc., has no effect on another player's ability to steal an ARTIFACT from you. There is no way to obscure the fact that you have an ARTIFACT for the taking.

ARTIFACTS can be used as many times as you like unless they are attacks, in which case you may only use them once per turn.

TOKENS FOR ARTIFACTS, STICKS AND STONES

While the Artifacts all have separate tokens for each Artifact, to designate their board location in case they are dropped, Magic Sticks and Magic Stones do not; there are only generic tokens to represent either category. These are also only meant to represent the item in case it is dropped on the board.

TRANSFORMATIONS

In Expansion #2 it is possible for you to change yourself into a Ghost, Vampire, or Werewolf, if you get the card for it. These DO NOT make you a MONSTER! You are still a Wizard.

TEAM PLAY OPTION (thanks to Jeff Ingalls)

If you have 4 or 6 players, it may be fun to try team play. For 4 players, the 1st and 3rd are one team, the 2nd and 4th the other. For 6 players, use 3 teams of 2. Winning is determined by either killing the other players, or by getting 3 of the opponents' treasures on either of your team's home bases in any combination. You may not attack your teammates (unless a teammate is under someone else's control). Discussion of strategy is allowed, but you may not reveal or trade cards with your teammate unless in L.O.S.

TWO PLAYER VARIANT

For better board access for two players, cross the B and C exits on the 2 boards (see the diagram in the basic set). Thus, each player has a B exit and a C exit in his sector. It's a lot more fun this way.

DOORS VARIANT

You can, if you like, play with the optional rule that within each sector a Wizard can open his doors without a key. Suggestion by Tracy Johnston.

Wiz-War Expansion 1 and 2 Rules, Copyright 1991, 1993, Jolly Games.

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4. Official FAQ rulings — timing, counterspells, and clarifications (SUMMARY of Tom Jolly's FAQ, last updated Sept 1 2002)

Source: silcom.com/~tomjolly/wizfaq.htm (via Wayback Machine). These are the designer's own answers, applicable to the Chessex-era editions. Highlights most relevant to core play:

Timing / counteraction priority

• Counteractions always resolve before Attacks. E.g., a Bloodstone counteracts a point of Fireball damage before the Fireball's side effect destroys the stone; Absorb Spell defeats Card Erasure because counteractions take effect first.
• If you have two Counteractions to play, you choose their order. Playing two BLUNTs against 5 damage: 5 → 3 (round up) → 2; they don't cancel damage entirely.
• If a spell is counteracted, the Number card that accompanied it is also discarded.
• Absorb stops one attack only, not accumulated damage from multiple attacks.
• Lost turns accumulate; while under a lost turn you may play nothing but Counteractions — you can't even draw cards. If your own reflected attack costs you "a turn", it's the current turn, not the next.
• If hit during your own turn by an out-of-turn source (e.g. a Fire Imp), you may only respond with Counteractions even though it's your turn.
• Counteracting with EMPATHY: the duration runs to the beginning of one of the attacker's turns.
• Duration spells: duration still ends at the start of a caster's turn, but the turn count is based on the recipient's turns (relevant with SPEED).

Combat and attacks

• You can't attack yourself, and you can't attack your own monsters.
• "No combat on the first round" means no ATTACKS; damaging someone indirectly (Destroy Wall) on round one is legal.
• Second-hand kills (falling walls, monsters) do NOT give you the victim's cards.
• Nicking the corner of a wall breaks LOS (a corner counts as two walls for Visionstone purposes).

Objects and treasures

• You can throw objects (not treasures); thrown objects do no damage unless a card says so.
• You can't pick up two objects at once, even from the same space.
• Discarding a physical object needn't put it on the board; discard it to the pile. Only during your own turn.
• You may carry only ONE treasure — your own or an opponent's (the 7E rules wording implying you can carry two is wrong).
• If a player is eliminated, treasures left on his home base do NOT count toward eliminating their owner.
• Wizards/monsters are generally NOT "objects" for spells like Teleport Object / Animate Object (badly defined pre-8E; use house rules).

Board

• Magic Stick charges: the charging NUMBER card is discarded (doesn't stay in hand); sticks don't have to stay displayed (contradicts/refines expansion rules text).
• Magic Stones may be discarded even after being displayed.

The FAQ also contains ~90 per-card rulings (Absorb through Wraith). A full text copy is preserved as official-faq-2002.txt in this directory; the archived source URL is in rules-sources.md.

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5. Card inventory (SUMMARY — 5th edition base set, from the wizwar.com card database/scans)

The fan site wizwar.com (built on scans of actual 5E cards) lists the 5th edition Basic set as 68 distinct spell cards plus Number cards. Multiples in parentheses; all others ×1:

Attack: Blind, Card Erasure, Dagger (object), Drop Object (×2), Fireball (×3), Go Away, Large Rock (object), Lightning Blast (×3), Lock in Place, Medusa, No Spell, Power Drain, Powerthrust (×3), Slow, Slow Death, Stone Dead, Sudden Death, Swap, Telepath, Teleport Opponent, Thought Steal, Waterbolt (×3), Wizardblade (object)

Neutral: Add, Amplify (×2), Around the Corner, Buddy, Create Wall (×2), Destroy Wall (×2), Drag, Extend, Fill Square with Stone (×2), Illusion Wall, Jam Lock (not a spell), Mist-Body, Pass Through Wall, Pick Lock (×4, not a spell), Power Run, Relocate Sector, Remove Lock (not a spell), Reuse Spell, Rotate Sector, Shrink, Speed (×2), Thornbush (×2), Ugly

Neutral/Counteraction: Invisible, Teleport, Wall of Fire, Waterwall

Counteraction: Absorb (×2), Absorb Spell, Anti-Anti, Blunt (×2), Full Reflection, Full Shield (×2), Reflection (×2), Reverse

Stones/Objects: Bloodstone, Brainstone, Powerstone, Shadowstone, Shieldstone, Soulstone, Speedstone, Visionstone, Master Key

Trap: Trap!

Number cards: 2 (×12), 3 (×10), 4 (×7), 5 (×4), 6 (×1) — 34 number cards.

Spell/object/trap cards total 90; 90 + 34 = 124 cards, matching the 5E rules' "deck of 124 cards." The 6E box says 125; the extra card is most plausibly the Dispel Creation promoted from Expansion 1 (see Section 1, item 3). UNCERTAIN — verify against the physical 6E deck. (A BGG forum thread, "6th Edition Chessex Card List", thread 2356205, exists asking for exactly this list; it could not be retrieved — BGG blocks automated access and the thread is not in the Wayback Machine.)

Expansion 1 and Expansion 2 card lists (verbatim from Tom Jolly's site and the expansion rulebook) are included in the archived expansion rules; full per-card texts for base + both expansions are preserved in cards-5e-with-expansions.txt in this directory.

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6. Gaps — what needs the physical 6E copy

1. The exact 6E rulebook wording. Everything above except Section 1 is the 5E text. The 6E booklet is "revised"; known revisions are the can't-attack-yourself rule and (presumably) the 125-card count, but the rest of the revision is unverified. A page-by-page read of the physical booklet is needed to catch other wording changes.
2. The definitive 6E card list (125 cards): confirm which card(s) were added/changed vs. the 5E list above (Dispel Creation? Bomb? any art/text changes).
3. The 6E board layouts — one 6E board was replaced before 7E; identify which of the 4 boards it is (the removed board's art was posted at silcom.com/~tomjolly/wwbrdnu.htm; the archived page exists but the linked image capture was not verified).
4. Which die shipped (d4 vs d8 labeled 1–4 twice).
5. The 6E setup diagrams (2/3/4-player layouts and the Auto-Warp placement) — described in text but the diagram page itself is only in the physical booklet.
6. Whether the 6E rulebook includes any of the FAQ errata (it predates most of the FAQ, so probably not).