Once your ancestors found or created a source of magic - the exact knowledge of its origin, as far as you know, has long been lost. A small community has developed around the source, which seeks to protect this place and keep it as secret as possible.
Unfortunately, some magical beings — half corporeal, half ethereal — have now tracked down this source. These beings of dubious character, which you call "Djinn", have appeared in various places of the city to dispute your access to the source. You are young members of the Magic Guild, and to prove your abilities, you are tasked with capturing the Djinn so that they can do no harm. You can control them permanently only if you catch them in special Djinn bottles. To seal these bottles, you also need corks made from the bark of a tree near the magic source.
Whichever of you succeeds best in protecting your small town will be accepted into the inner circle of the Magic Guild and will soon be allowed to learn even more secrets...
In Djinn, you take turns moving across a map that shows thirteen locations. These locations are linked to actions where you can get the resources you need and catch the Djinn that are in six locations. In those locations you can do things like receive bottles and corks, collect magical power, buy magical items, hire mages to accompany you, discover secret passages, and more.
In each round, you can reach only one of two or three of the locations, so you must plan carefully to have all the resources you need in time to catch the Djinn. The game ends when all six "Boss Djinn" have been captured and removed from the map, then you score points for all captured Djinn.
-description from developer
Images
- Unique music theme
- Easy to teach but with depth
- Innovative turn system
- Appeals to both new and experienced gamers
- DJing and music production
- DJ booth
- Upstaged
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Hand Management — Players manage cards.
- Set Collection — Core mechanic involves collecting sets.
- Simultaneous Reveal — Used in the 'My First Talent Show' scenario.
- Take That — Includes 'take that' elements.
- Variable player powers — Players can use special abilities.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- The show became three dudes and immediately became nothing but hot takes and all yelling at each other
- If you don't get a 12th of the year for yourself, selfish to say.
- This is an unprecedented time. Otani is unreal. Uh, to be able to provide that value and we're talking about value as in games, right?
- We're all League ignorant here, but Riftbound is a pretty sweet card game.
- make it so that you don't get screwed for resources. And make it so you never have to shuffle your deck.
- Again, they switch seats. But the set does look incredible.
- My head still hurts from that game, by the way.
- You know what's funny, too? It actually has a solo game which I'm interested in because area control and solo game never really I I never would have thought
- It's really cool to talk to Mike getting to know his background as a musician and as a DJ and uh how he used that um to um take him along the journey of the board game design.
- it's crazy how simple of a game it is and how much it paralyzes you and it's like a hallmark of his design.
- None of us were correct. That's so funny.
References (from this video)
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- Circle action spaces are stronger than the square.
- End game is triggered when there are no longer any boss Gins on the board.