Vintage Game: MageStones

MageStones is a old TSR game from way back in the '90s. It didn’t do terribly well when it was released, and faded into obscurity very quickly. I remember getting my first copy one Christmas when I was a child, and I saw it in pound shops a few years back as well.

This game spent a long time unplayed. The written rules make very little sense unless you play along with the rule book in hand. If only TSR had written some better rules, I think that this could have really taken off.

Basically, its a abstract game with its roots in naught’s and crosses. Players roll 3 dice, add them together and then can place their stones on a board with lanes marked 3 to 9. The dice are d3's, and roll of 1-2-3 makes you miss a turn, and a treble number gains you a extra turn. The idea of the game is to move all of your pieces from your hand onto the board. Pieces that have been surrounded by another players pieces, are “dispelled”, removed back the the owning players hand.

Lane 6 is the most powerful, and can only be place there with a roll of 2-2-2. But pieces in this lane cannot be dispelled, but can be used to dispel other pieces.

On first glance, when you get the rules (or have someone show you more likely), the game is shallow with not a lot going on. The theme is pasted on so badly it could be ANYTHING. But after a few plays, the strategy starts to come out, a lot like my findings with Dominion. When you see what can be achieved, with cunning ploys or outright bluffing, this game really comes into its own.

Coupled with the fact that a no game ever really goes over 15 minutes, even with 3 players, this is a great game to play when you are waiting for people, or even at parties. Simple enough, yet also highly competitive I think this would stand well with a league/table based on it.

Its a pretty rare find these days to get a nice copy of this. This game goes for between £10-25 on eBay (plus p+p), so can discourage people to buy it based on an old game at that price. But get this, this has the Farlands recommendation attached to it, it is a valuable addition to any game collection, and a testament to this game is that I spent £30 just to get this in my collection.