Game finished. :)

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Read carefully.

This will be a modified game of Magic: The Gathering using experimental house rules that I call "Forum Melee". You need to be familiar with the basic rules of MTG to play, but these rules differ in significant ways.

This will likely be a *long* contest, but it should be fun, and the prize is worth some effort. You will be playing for your choice of a gift code for Two Worlds and Two Worlds 2: Epic Edition or a gift code for Shadow Warrior (2013).

To enter, you must have a forum reputation of 10 or more and have a forum avatar (does not have to be unique). I might make an exception for you if you have less than 10 reputation but link me to posts where you help others, express enthusiasm for GOG/DRM-free, post thoughtful replies to a topic, etc (send me a PM to ask for the exception). You may enter any time from now up to March 15 by posting your first turn. The later you enter, the fewer turns you'll be able to take and the greater your mana disadvantage, but skill can make up the difference (and you'll start at 20 Life, giving you some leeway to catch up with others who might have already lost Life). The game will run until one player remains (not counting me).

You get to take one turn each time that I summarize/resolve the previous round and post something like "All actions resolved, next round." This will likely happen late Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights Central Time Zone (schedule allowing; no guarantees). You do not have to take a turn each round (if you are not online some days), but you may not make up a turn later, so participating each round benefits you. If you are not present for a round, I may choose for you to block or cast a spell to avoid loss of Life.

I could change the round update schedule to late Thursday and Saturday nights to allow players more time to post their turns and responses if that'd be easier for some of you to manage. Please vote for your preferred round schedule, W-T-F-S or T-S in your post for your first turn. I reserve the right to switch to T-S regardless of voting if the number of players grows beyond expectations.

You must respond to any actions taken against you during the current round BEFORE posting your turn for the round. Each turn you take must begin with a status summary posted in the following format: You may add one basic land to your domain each turn. You may choose one card from any set (excepting cards banned from this tournament) to add to your hand each turn. You may not choose the same card to add to your hand more than once during the tournament. Place (+) after the land type you added to your domain and the card you added to your hand this turn.

Tip: http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Advanced.aspx

You may summon creatures, cast enchantments and other spells, and attack other players with your horde during your turn (within the post for that turn). Each creature can attack only once per turn, but you may choose a different player for each creature to attack. As per normal MTG rules, attacking creatures are tapped and thus unavailable for blocking attacks against you (unless they have Vigilance). Creatures have summoning sickness the turn they are summoned and may not tap or attack (unless they have Haste).

For this format, creature spells can be countered during the round they are cast, but only if they have not been used to block or used an activated ability. Creatures with Haste will be treated as immune to counterspells.

All cards mentioned in posts except basic lands must be linked to their page on Gatherer for easy reference.

You get only one turn per round, but you may make additional posts to respond to any actions taken against you by blocking an attacking creature with an untapped creature from your horde or casting spells from your hand (if you have sufficient mana resources available that were not used in the post for your turn). You may choose to do nothing (take the damage from the attack). You may also respond to actions taken against other players by casting spells to assist or hinder other players. You *can* post a Response to a Response.

All game posts from participants must begin with the label TURN or RESPONSE. Turn should be followed by *your* turn number; everyone should have a Turn 1, Turn 2, etc. Responses should quote the action which they address but not the whole post.

Banned:
- The Rack
- Shahrazad
- Heroes Remembered
- Progenitus
- All Eldrazi creatures and Eldrazi tribal enchantments
- All Legendary New Phyrexia Praetors
- Mirror Universe
- Dual Lands
- Black Lotus
- The Moxes
- Sol Ring
- All Non-Basic Lands
- All cards with draw, discard, search a library, and/or reveal a card effects
- All cards requiring a coin flip
- All cards with Morph
- All Slivers (fun but probably too complicated for forum play)
- All Planeswalkers
- All cards from Unglued, Unhinged, and any other other parody sets

Players who deal a deathblow to another player take that player's head and gain 1 Life.

If this ends up being an unsalvageable chaotic mess, I reserve the right to choose a winner a via random number draw or hold a new contest or giveaway for the prize. <- This shouldn't happen if everyone follows the rules... but there could be design flaws in the contest itself... I meant it when I said "experimental". ;)

I'll start.

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TURN 1

DOMAIN:

Plains X1 (+)

HORDE:

ARTIFACTS & ENCHANTMENTS:

HAND:

Soul Warden (+)

LIFE: 20

ACTIONS:

- Taps Plains to summon Soul Warden

I find this topic to be very misleading. In fact, I would say it is nothing more than click bait for fans of historical fantasy with rocking soundtracks. I came in expecting a very different Gathering and a much more mysterious Prize. Well damn -- I'll put my sword away, just as soon as I +1 SeduceMePlz for his generous, if deceptive, giveaway.


Here we are, born to be kings. We're the princes of the universe.... D:

Obligatory bump before I pack it up and go to sleep. I'd thought more GOGers would have dabbled in MTG at least enough to wing it. I'm no Magic player extraordinaire myself. Must be too social a game for a bunch of computer gamers. You can play online these days, you know? :P Jk.

The first round will conclude *late* tonight. Get in before then to get a bit of a mana and card edge on latercomers. Hehe. I started thinking of Highlander shortly after beginning to design the game. That's why I included this bit:

"Players who deal a deathblow to another player take that player's head and gain 1 Life."

Gotta love this song, too, of course: Gimme The Prize (awesome fan-made music video)

Hmm... iirc the last Highlander series things I watched were the anime and The Source... I *really* need to watch the first movie or some of the show again soon.

;)

I don't mind trying things out but i would have no clue as to what i would be doing. :p

Seems to have been a busy day on the forums, but still no players. I'm leaning towards cancelling this game, returning the prizes to my trading pile for the time being, and designing a more accessible game or contest in the future. I expected more of us here to be 'geeks-of-all-trades' and have at least dabbled in some form of MTG enough to play. No worries tho, I have another idea shaping up for a possible challenge. :)

If anyone finds this later and is up for a game, drop a note here and maybe we'll get something rolling if there's enough interest. Just be aware that the contest as announced above might be cancelled. I'd try giving you a sort of quickstart tutorial, but interest in the game seems sparse at this point.

The original basic rules are simple and mostly intuitive. I think this has been key to its popularity. The game has become more complex as it's progressed and new abilities and whatnot have been added, but the core concept is easy and fun.

However, I honestly cannot recommend buying physical cards these days. The game has been sickeningly commercialized by Wizards of the Coast: new core sets *every* year, 3 or more expansion sets every year, constant changing of cards allowed in official play requiring new purchases. It'd cost a small fortune to really keep up with the game these days. You might be able to get by researching each set list and just buying particular cards from resellers, but still... It's been enough to put me off the game.

A much better (and free, unless you use one of the paid programs or the WotC expensive official Magic: The Gathering Online, for which you 'rent' cards; similar to Steam in that regard) way to play is to play online. Iirc, in the past I used Magic Workstation (MWS) and Cockatrice, which require some setup but work well.

Still, nothing quite like five guys sitting around a table talking some friendly smack and playing at being wizards. ;)

And what did she say after you told her that?

This is a great idea for a giveaway. A friend of mine was into Magic, and he introduced me to the game. It's been a few years, but I remember the rules for the most part. I'll give it a shot, and I hope I didn't screw anything up! :p

Preferred round schedule: - T-S

TURN

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TURN 1

DOMAIN:

Mountain (+)

HORDE:

ARTIFACTS & ENCHANTMENTS:

HAND:

Dragonmaster Outcast (+)

LIFE: 20

ACTIONS:

- Taps Mountain to summon Dragonmaster Outcast

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Hopefully things work out - thanks again for a very clever and interesting idea, SeduceMePlz. :)

Can we get the perfect draw each time? 1st turn win!

You should also bann alternative win conditions like the cards that have "you win the game at 'this event'".
Also ban overly complex cards.

Turn 1: Leyline of the Meek x4 in opening hand ;D ... joking

You got it right, sir! Was wondering if I'd explained it well enough.

And that's a sweet first turn! Hadn't seen that card before, good choice for this format. :) If I remember, I'll bump the thread a few times during the week. We'll see what happens, might go ahead with the game if there's a few more players. And if not, it's still good to know you like the idea. :) Not bad, but if you *really* want to have some fun with tokens, then Doubling Season is *the* card.

If this game takes off, perhaps I'll show you what can be done with it... Truly one of my favorite cards. ;) Hey, I like some of the alternative win/loss conditions... hehe... poison counters... ;)

But I did forget to ban Planeswalkers. Will edit the ban list.

And there might be some newer things with which I'm not familiar, or some obscure older things that I'm forgetting...

Bump for the Monday sale crowd. Post your first turn if you want to play, and if we have enough players to make things interesting, we'll start later this week.

Small question that you haven't mentioned. How many creatures can we cast each turn? May want to (ab)use a small green deck I used a few years back.

There is no special limit on summoning or horde size.

But do remember: Summons must come from your hand (unless you have a card in play with the ability to summon token creatures), and you may add only one card to your hand each turn.

For this format, creature spells can be countered during the round they are cast, but only if they have not been used to block or used an activated ability. Creatures with Haste will be treated as immune to counterspells.

Not in (as I don't know anything about Magic: The Gathering), but thanks for your generosity, SeduceMePlz!

Lol. I forgot Shahrazad. Added to the ban list.

I love Sol Ring, but I suppose if it isn't banned in this format, then everyone will use it, and that'd be a boring round. Banned. ;)