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In Via Magica, a new version of Rise of Augustus, you vie with your fellow players to complete "objective" cards for special powers and ultimately for victory points. Each card has 2-6 symbols which you must populate with tokens in order to complete the card. These symbols are drawn one at a time from a bag, with all players gaining the benefit equally, but interestingly, the bag contains more of some symbols than others.
So the pivotal skill you'll deploy is in making your choice of which three objectives you'll start the game with (you're dealt six) — balancing potential difficulty of completion against value of the reward — and then which of five available objectives you'll add to your plate each time you complete one of your three. The game ends when someone completes seven objectives.
- color-blind friendly design elements
- very accessible and easy to learn
- portal-based, family-friendly
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- portals / cards with symbols — players use chips/portals to fill symbol patterns on cards; color-based components; accessible mechanics
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- rolling rights in general are just relaxing by nature because you feel like you can kind of kick back
- it's the bang for your buck and for the size of the game
- this is my holiday gift to myself
- it's the most interesting game we've played
- an experience that lasts multiple sessions
References (from this video)
- Strong thematic flavor around coffee
- Dice-driven tension and decisions
- Limited play data in the transcript; precision onBalance unknown
- coffee culture and competition
- Cafe/coffeehouse competition theme
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- dice-based resource generation — Dice are used as the primary resource to fulfill orders and take actions
- order fulfillment/game tempo — Players race to complete coffee orders in a competitive round-based flow
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- Canada plays was a amazing experience it was absolutely fantastic
- Altered was one that we learned at Canada plays and I freaking loved altered
- I freaking loved it and I can definitely see myself falling down the altered black hole
- Contra banter is definitely a game that stressed me out but it was very fun