Strategy Tips: Mystic

AEG News, Masters Trials

This is part two in a series of articles meant to provide tips and advice to players trying The Masters’ Trials: Wrath of Magmaroth.

The Mystic is the most math-y class to play. He is good at generating/manipulating mana and excels at taking down Seals.

When playing with a Mystic, dealing damage should not be your priority. This is a job meant for the other members of the party. You are there to generate mana and take out those Seals. If absolutely necessary, you can always provide one or two points of damage by using Fire mana.
Don’t try to break Seals as soon as you are able to. It is important to get as many mana-generating abilities on your character as possible. So, even if you get to 6 mana, it may be better to master 2 more cards from your Teachings instead of breaking a Seal. This will make it easier for you to get in a position where you will be able to take down even larger Seals on your own. Of course, time is limited in the game and after some rounds you must start destroying Seals, otherwise the party will have a very hard time in Magmaroth’s Lair.
Have a good look at your board every turn before playing. There may be combinations that you have not taken into consideration, that will grant you even more mana. Don’t forget to make good use of the Water Elemental action that allows you to move a die anywhere on its row.
Don’t be afraid to ask for help from the other players if that means getting to generate a lot of additional mana. It is usually worth it for another player to “lose” one of their dice, if you get to destroy a Level 3 Seal, for example, thanks to the extra move.

Cool Combinations

Enhancement is very powerful when placed on any of the top 2 rows of your character, due to the Mastery of Earth being present in both of them. You can then place even more Masteries on the same row, giving you more options.

If there is a Warden in the party, Torrent of Elements is going to be very useful and should be highly prioritized, especially when combined with Restoration.

The Order of the Everlasting Waterfall is the optimal Order for the Mystic due to Embrace the Elements and the 3 copies of Element Conjuration. The Order of the Glowing Embers also contains 3 copies of Element Conjuration as well as Imbue the Body which allows you to help the party with damage, without losing your focus. The Order of the Celestial Tide is another good option since it has Tame the Tide which you can make great use of, but the lack of multiple copies of Element Conjuration in its cards or the single Earth Mana on its board may make it a bit more challenging.

While Orb of the Elements is probably the most fitting weapon for a Mystic (due to Mana Shards being very powerful against Magmaroth when you have lots of mana), some of the other weapons’ abilities can be very helpful, especially Spiritual Trance found in the Chain of Balance.

The Masters’ Trials: The Wrath of Magmaroth is a co-operative dice placement game for 1 to 4 players. On sale in December!

The Origins of the Card Crafting System

Mystic Vale

Designer John D Clair has kindly provided us with a look into the creation and development of Mystic Vale.

I was taking a walk in my neighborhood on a warm Los Angeles evening in 2013. The goal of the walk was to brainstorm, bouncing around in my head anything and everything game related to see if I could come up with an original and good idea. Original ideas show up now and then. Good ideas are rare; I often mistake original ideas for good ideas. An original and good idea is an exceptional find. If we assume card-crafting meets the original+good criteria, I’ve probably hit on between 1 to 5 original(ish) and good(ish) ideas; the jury is still out on 4 of them. Sleeves and transparent cards have been around for a long time, but (I think) I’m the first one to stuff them together into a game.

On my walk I got halfway to that concept. I was trying to think of new ways to use various game components: dice, cards, game box, game board, dice tower, cubes, meeples, bags, dials. When I hit on card sleeves, it occurred to me that, to my knowledge, card sleeves had never been used as an essential component in a game rather than just as an accessory to protect one’s cards. If sleeves were used as an essential element, what might that look like….? I had hit on the idea of sleeves as a meaningful game component, which I see as the core of the innovation, but not yet thought of combining them with transparent cards, which is what dramatically opened up the design space.

The first prototype was a wonky deck builder. Imagine a deck builder where every time your deck runs out of cards you take the discard pile of the player to your right and shuffle it to create your new deck. That way all the cards are in constant cycle around the table. Moreover, all the cards are in sleeves with identical backs; each player has his own special set of sleeves with the same back as all the other sleeves but with a player-unique insignia on the front. When you buy a new card, you put it into one of your player-unique sleeves. Since the cards cycle around the table, other players will draw and use your cards, and every time they do, your cards give you a special “owner’s bonus”.

fig 1 It was a decent concept, but, after several iterations, I still couldn’t get it to click.

When it comes to the difficult transition from functional prototype to enjoyable game, brute force with occasional breather is my design strategy. Run into the wall and if it doesn’t break, back up a few steps, take a breath and hit it again.

After iterating unsuccessfully for four months, I backed up and took a breath to work on Downfall, a 4X design I’d been trying to turn into a good game for years. In terms of brute force design, Downfall was a bloodbath. I spent four years turning a terrible game into an awesome game, leaving behind a trail of prototype corpses along the way to ultimately signing with Tasty Minstrel Games (TMG) at the end of 2013. I couldn’t be more proud of the design I ended up with in Downfall, and TMG has really enhanced it with some fantastic art, making one hell of a nice looking game—I’m eager to see it finally released in the not too distant future.

The new year was upon me, 2014, and with Downfall signed, I set the goal of turning this “Card Sleeving” concept into a good game; I planned to have a pitch-ready game for BGG.con 2014 in November. The game hadn’t worked yet and there was the clear concern that a “Card Sleeving Game” might sound more like a fiddly chore or a gimmick than a game, something I thought might turn away publishers and gamers sight unseen. But I was confident that the concept could turn into a good game, and one that could offer a new, fun experience.

I took the best twenty-percent or so of my old design and started work on a new design. This time, there was a single central deck and all the cards were double sided… yada yada yada (avoiding spoilers).

fig 2 This design was ultimately thrown on the scrap heap after three months of heavy iteration. It was, however, the origin of a number of key concepts that ended up in the final design of Edge of Darkness, about which I will avoid spoiling too many details here. Additionally, this design is where I first added transparent cards into the mix. However, the transparent cards were used purely as modifiers players could occasionally add to otherwise complete cards. It wasn’t until later that I realized the combination of sleeves and transparent cards was the significant innovation, and thus, should be the primary mechanism.

fig 3 I took the forty-percent or so that I liked from the prior design, and what followed were a couple variations of what could be called “Card-Crafting” games before I settled on a what turned out to be the first decent game of the batch. I still get comments now and then from friends about this design and questions about whether I’ll ever go back to it, which is quite possible. Essentially it was an asymmetrical semi-cooperative game—one player was the “Demon Lord” while all the other players were powerful families or guilds (or whatever) vying for power and trying to stop the Demon Lord from winning. Either the Demon Lord would win or, if he was stopped, the player with the most victory points would win. Many players told me they greatly enjoyed it, and we did have a lot of great playtests with this design, but in the end I wasn’t happy with it. I didn’t like the semi-cooperative aspect and I couldn’t get the balance to feel right. Most importantly, I had, at last, refined the card-crafting system to a point where I could now see all kinds of design potential. I felt like I’d be missing an opportunity by making the first card-crafting game a niche (albeit cool) design like a one vs. many, semi-cooperative game.

fig 4

I spent about three weekends in a row doing my brainstorming walks, rapidly creating, playing, and scrapping prototypes, and, in general, contemplating what direction I wanted to take with this design. That’s when another original and good idea occurred to me; yada, yada, yada (avoiding spoilers), and Bang! the design clicked and Edge of Darkness was born. It was well short of perfect, but now I finally felt I had something special on my hands. For the next four months, I worked intently on Edge of Darkness and ended up having a pretty slick pitch-ready game for BGG.con in November.

Pitching Edge of Darkness was interesting. I got a range of responses, from (paraphrasing here) “I see what you tried to do there; hard pass,” to “Interesting! Looks fresh and innovative.” That said, the interest outweighed the disinterest which, in this highly competitive endeavor, is a win in itself. In the end, I signed with AEG. Among other factors, they had the advantage of being headquartered near where I live in Los Angeles and, more importantly, expressed a lot of excitement about expanding the card-crafting idea to more games than just Edge of Darkness.

As I further developed Edge of Darkness with Mark Wooten and other members of the AEG team, I went back to the drawing board to see where else I could take the card-crafting system. The design space this mechanism opened up was huge and entirely untapped. It seemed like every other day I had another concept for a game, and the challenge became picking which idea to go with—what concept made the most sense to prioritize and run with. John Goodenough and John Zinser of AEG specifically suggested that what they’d really love to see is a simpler game than Edge of Darkness, one that would hit a wider range of players—easy to learn, easy to teach, quick and addictive to play. I would argue Edge of Darkness falls into a medium-weight euro-game range, with worker management, economics, and combat in addition to the core card-crafting mechanic. The idea was to create a simpler game that emphasized the unique card-crafting system. So with that guidance, I moved this concept to the top of the design agenda.

I figured a pure engine-building game would fit the bill—a game that was essentially a race to take balanced cards and combine them to craft totally broken cards, then covert them into points faster than other players. I wanted the game to be pleasant and non-confrontational, where players can admire the kick-ass broken cards they’ve crafted, even if they didn’t win. I wanted to hold up card-crafting as the innovation centerpiece of the game, and placing it within the framework of a classic deckbuilder seemed like a good starting place. But I did want to throw at least one other layer of differentiation.

I wish I could claim to be the first person to have thought of using a blackjack-style hand draw in a deck-builder, but I believe that credit goes to Chih-Fan Chen in his brilliant little game Design Town (reprinted by TMG as Flip City and worth checking out if you haven’t already!). This is also a fairly untapped mechanic with a lot of potential design space. Playing Design Town six months earlier had gotten me thinking about ways of using similar push-your-luck, blackjack-style mechanics for drawing hands in CCG style games. So when I set to work on a simpler card-crafting game, it occurred to me that combining a blackjack-style hand draw with a card-crafting deck builder could result in a very cool and different take on deckbuilding, while still being simple, intuitive, and familiar for most gamers. From that starting point the design of Mystic Vale fell together with uncommon swiftness.

fig 5 The first versions of the game were enormously broken because the card balance and scoring was way off, but the core mechanics proved crisp and effective. Major changes in the first few weeks included the addition of the “on-deck” card mechanic so that you would know what bonus you could gain by pushing your luck and, more importantly, know what card you would start your next turn with if you didn’t push. Vales were an early addition to add variety to the available strategies and the types of cards players would want to construct. Guardian symbols came later as a way to ramp up the power of good card-crafting. The heavy lifting was in the card balancing and refining, which was a matter of playing over and over again and iterating toward what felt right.

Rather than go into all the details of the design choices we made, let me take a deeper dive into one example. Runaway leaders were a problem early in the development as the significant majority of a player’s points used to come from end-game points on cards. There was essentially no slow down mechanism as players transitioned from engine to points. Good engine and lots of points was a 1 to 1 ratio. Moreover, if a player broke out into a huge lead, there was no game clock that would then result in the game rapidly ending—it would just drag on and the lead would grow bigger. I had no desire to introduce a pick-on-the-leader element—that wasn’t the kind of game I was designing. So to deal with the issue I turned to card rebalancing and a change to the game clock. First, I dramatically cut end-game points on advancements, instead increasing the emphasis on in-game point-tokens and pairing decay with abilities that got you point-tokens (for those of you who have not played, decay is bad for your deck). Thus, a player picking up advancements that generate points will, at the same time, put a dent in his or her engine (unless of course care is taken to craft cards particularly well, which is the skill of the game). Second, I made the point tokens the game clock, so that (among other reasons) if a player starts scoring a ton of points and breaking away, the game rapidly ends. Runaway games can still happen, especially if only one player gets a jump on collecting spirit symbols and the other players don’t make it hard for him or her to get more, but the issue was greatly diminished. Interestingly, a Mystic Vale game often will end with a lopsided score while, in actuality, the game may have been very close. This is something I had to make peace with as a designer. Point collection in Mystic Vale is heavily weighted toward the end of the game, and players will commonly score 30-60% of their points on their last two turns, making for some explosive and fun finales. Essentially, if your opponent gets his engine to pop 1 turn before you do, that could be the difference in the game. You may have lost by 15 points, but you really lost by only 1 turn.

My fiancé Csilla Balogh, the project lead John Goodenough, and the development leads Mark Wooton and Bryan Reese, were huge contributors to the development of Mystic Vale, along with the dozens of other great playtesters who pounded through too many playtests to count. With direction from the great Todd Rowland, the art has given the game an awesome look and feel. And finally, AEG’s top-dog John Zinser shouldn’t go unmentioned; the excitement and heart that he has put into this game has really made it come to life.

I’m thrilled about the game we ended up with in Mystic Vale and the excellent production the AEG team has pulled off, and I’m excited and anxious to see how it’s received. Not without some obvious bias, I will say Mystic Vale is one of only a few games that doesn’t get old for me, no matter how many times I’ve played it (hundreds of times at this point). Beyond Mystic Vale, I can’t wait to get Edge of Darkness out there in 2017 (which will showcase a couple more design mechanics I’m particularly proud of); and I’m eager to find out if the card-crafting system passes muster for gamers.

Thanks for your interest and for taking the time to read my account of the creation of Mystic Vale and the origins of the card crafting system!

– John D Clair

Combining Valley of the Kings Sets

Valley of the Kings

There are trillions of ways to combine the cards in the three Valley of the Kings versions to create a unique gaming experience, but the suggested combinations below have been specially designed to be entertaining and challenging.

Do you have a favorite way to combine Valley of the Kings versions? If you do please send it to goodtimegames@live.com. If we like it, we may publish it here.

Nice and Sweet

By John Burt (quill65 on Board Game Geek) edited by Tom Cleaver

“This set was designed to give good buy and entomb abilities as well as allow for fun moves with chained actions. We don’t like conflict so we left out the attack cards.”

3 set (red): Middle Sarcophagus / Brain Hook, Linen Bandages

4 set (brown): Hopi Canopic Jar / Bracelet, Brooch, Necklace

 5 set (yellow-orange): Wadj Amulet, Tyet Amulet, Djed Pillar Amulet / Offering Chapel, Antechamber

6 set (green): Book of the Heavens, Book of the Netherworld / Dagger, Spear, Bow, Khopesh

7 set (blue): Statue of Anubis, Statue of Horus, Statue of Isis, Statue of Osiris / Goddess Nut, Apis Bull, Victory

Uniques (purple): Mummified Cat, Ka Figurine, Chariot, Boat, Burial Mask / Mirror Case, Hounds and Jackals Game, Sphinx, Calcite Cup, Ibex Statue

Nasty Nasty

By Tom Cleaver

“This set was designed for those of the ‘take that!’ school of game play. It has lots of player interaction and lots of nasty combos.”

3 set (red): Outer Sarcophagus, Inner Sarcophagus / Linen Bandages

4 set (brown): Duamutef Canopic Jar, Qebehsenuef Canopic Jar / Brooch, Necklace

5 set (yellow-orange): Weres Amulet, Tyet Amulet / Serdab, Antechamber, Burial Chamber

  6 set (green): Book of the Heavens, Book of the Netherworld, Book of the Dead / Sling, Dagger, Axe

  7 set (blue): Statue of Bastet, Statue of Sobek, Statue of Osiris / Harvest, Goddess Nut, Goddess Maat, Victory

  Uniques (purple): Censer, Chariot, Boat / Senet Game, Mirror Case, Ibex Statue

High Intensity

By Stuart Dunn (Dismas on Board Game Geek) edited by Tom Cleaver.

This game combines cards from all three versions (original, Afterlife, and Last Rites). It has an increased deck size, so it takes longer to play (perhaps 75 minutes).

Starter Deck: 2 Shabtis, 2 Menials, 1 Urn,1 Box of Food, 1 Offering Table, 1 Embalmer, 1 Kite, and 1 Medjay

3 sets (red): Sarcophagi and Mummification (6 cards)

4 sets (brown): Canopic Jars and Jewelry (8 cards)

5 sets (yellow-orange): Amulets, Chambers, and Builders (15 cards)

6 sets (green): Books, Weapons, and Priests (18 cards)

7 sets (blue): Statues, Tomb Art, and Builders (21 cards)

8 set (light brown): Artisans (8 cards)

Uniques (purple): Everything from all three games (16 cards)
Use one set card from each of the color sets, so that there are no duplicate cards in the game. Treat each set separately – don’t combine them into supersets.

Solitaire Rules for Valley of the Kings

Valley of the Kings

Can’t find an opponent for Valley of the Kings or its sequels? Don’t fret. You can still play by yourself. Below are two Valley of the Kings solitaire games. These two games will sharpen your skills when playing against others.

For both games the following additional rules apply:

You may examine the boneyard whenever you wish.
You may examine your discard pile whenever you wish.
You may not execute an action that refers to another player.
Duplicate set cards in your tomb count against you.

Starter Solitaire

These rules work for all three versions of Valley of the Kings, (original, Afterlife, and Last Rites). To win you must get a perfect score, that is, you must entomb 10 starter cards, all uniques, and one copy of each color-set card. This scores 164 points for the original game or Afterlife, and 198 points for Last Rites.

Master Solitaire

This game is the same as Starter Solitaire, except that you no longer get one free entombment per turn. You must therefore use card actions to populate your tomb.

Card Clarifications for Afterlife

The solitaire rules state that you may not execute an action that refers to another player. The following are clarifications for certain cards that refer to other players.

The action of Dagger is allowed.
The action of Offering Chapel is allowed.
The action of Linen Bandages is forbidden.

Card Clarifications for Last Rites

The solitaire rules state that you may not execute an action that refers to another player. The following are clarifications for certain cards that refer to other players.

The action of Brick Mason is allowed.
The action of Priest of Anubis is allowed.
The action of Priestess of Sekhmet is allowed.
The action of Draughtsman is forbidden.
The action of Leather Worker is forbidden.
The Action of Priest of Osiris is forbidden.

Valley of the Kings and its sequels – Solo Player Variant

by Arne Kjell Vikhagen (tilde72 on Board Game Geek) edited by Tom Cleaver

This solo variant uses a dummy player deck with cards that have special actions connected to them. It simulates the behavior of a real opponent, making it difficult to predict what will happen.

The game is played with the same rules and scoring as any other game with human players. The dummy player takes turns and the pyramid behaves exactly the same way as usual.

The dummy player does not have a hand – all cards that are taken by the dummy player are immediately entombed and count towards the dummy’s score. The cards in the dummy player’s tomb are open information and should be well organized.

Setup of the Dummy Player Deck

Shuffle the thirty starter cards that are not used by the player: twelve Shabtis, nine Urns, six Boxes of Food, and three Offering Tables. If you are playing with the Last Rites expansion, use twelve Menials, nine Embalmers, 8 Kites, and 4 Medjays. These cards will form the dummy player deck.

The Dummy Player’s Turn

Draw a card from the dummy player deck. Instead of doing the action listed on the card, play out the action that corresponds to the card drawn according to the following list:

Shabti (or Menial)
Entomb the cheapest card of the same color as the lower right card in the pyramid.

Urn (or Embalmer)
Entomb the cheapest card of the same color as the lower left card in the pyramid.

Box of Food (or Kite)
Entomb the most expensive card of the same color as the card nearest the top of the pyramid.

Offering Table (or Medjay)
Entomb the most expensive card in the pyramid of the set that matches the most developed set in the dummy player’s tomb. If this card is already in the dummy player’s tomb, entomb the most expensive card that matches the most developed set in your tomb. If that card is in your tomb already, entomb the most expensive card in the pyramid.

In case of a tie in any of the above, choose the card that benefits the dummy the most.

Near the end of the game, the Shabti (or Menial) and Urn (or Embalmer) actions may refer to positions where there are no cards. In such cases, use the card that is closest to that position.

Refill the pyramid as usual at the end of the turn. Reshuffle the dummy deck if necessary.

Setting a Difficulty Level

Before you start playing, select a difficulty level from 0 to 10. Draw a number of cards from the stock equal to the difficulty level, and put them in the dummy’s tomb.

For an even harder challenge, you may do the following: Once the first Level III card is drawn from the stock, the Shabti (or Menial) and The Urn (or Embalmer) card actions change; they entomb the most expensive card instead of the cheapest.

Winning the Game

You win the game if you get more points than the dummy player.

Special Card Actions for Valley of the Kings

Below is a list of cards which in some way address the opponent, and how their actions should be treated.

Boat
When an opponent buys a card, you may immediately discard Boat and take a card from the base of the pyramid.

Effect on Dummy Player: This action cannot be used.

Censer
Take the top card of an opponent’s discard pile. Put Censer on top of that opponent’s discard pile.

Effect on Dummy Player: This action cannot be used.

Inner Sarcophagus
Each opponent discards down to 3 cards.

Effect on Dummy Player: No effect.

Mummified Cat
When an opponent sacrifices a card, you may immediately discard Mummified Cat and take the discarded card.

Effect on Dummy Player: This action cannot be used.

Outer Sarcophagus
Put a card on top of an opponent’s discard pile. Draw a card.

Effect on Dummy Player: Put a card into the dummy’s tomb. Draw a card.

Linen Bandages
Entomb a card. Each opponent with at least one card in their draw deck may draw a card.

Effect on Dummy Player: This action has no effect on the dummy player. You get to entomb a card.

Offering Table
When an opponent’s action would cause you to discard or sacrifice, reveal Offering Table to prevent the action from affecting you.

Effect on Dummy Player: The dummy player will never cause you to discard or sacrifice, so the action cannot be used.

Qebehsenuef Canopic Jar
Each opponent sacrifices a card. Exception: Players with 5 or fewer total cards do not sacrifice.

Effect on Dummy Player: This action cannot be used.

Statue of Bastet
Each opponent puts a card on top of your discard pile. Exception: Players with 5 or fewer total cards do not put cards on top of your discard pile.

Effect on Dummy Player: This action cannot be used.

Statue of Sobek
Reveal the top 3 cards of your deck. Discard one. Entomb one. Put one on top of an opponent’s discard pile.

Effect on Dummy Player: Put the opponent’s card into the dummy’s tomb.

Weres Amulet
Put a card from your hand into an opponent’s tomb. Draw 3 cards.

Effect on Dummy Player: This works exactly as stated.

Special Card Actions for Valley of the Kings: Afterlife

Below is a list of cards which in some way address the opponent, and how their actions should be treated.

Axe
If you discard Axe as the result of an action, each opponent discards the highest cost card in their hand.

Effect on Dummy Player: No effect.

Burial Chamber
Put a card from your hand into an opponent’s tomb. Entomb a card from your hand or discar pile.

Effect on Dummy Player: This works exactly as stated.

Dagger
If there are at least as many cards in the boneyard as there are players, each player, starting with you, takes the top card of the boneyard.

Effect on Dummy Player: The card that the dummy player takes gets entombed immediately.

Goddess Nut
Select an opponent, That opponent may take the card with the lowest cost. You take the card with the highest cost.

Effect on Dummy Player: Solve ties the same way as described above. The card that the dummy takes gets entombed immediately.

Harvest
Each opponent with an empty discard pile sacrifices a card or discards 2 cards.

Effect on Dummy Player: No effect.

Linen Bandages
Entomb a card. Each opponent with at least one card in their draw deck may draw a card.

Effect on Dummy Player: This action has no effect on the dummy player. You get to entomb a card.

Offering Chapel
Each player may entomb the top card of their discard pile.

Effect on Dummy Player: This action has no effect on the dummy player. You get to entomb a card from your discard pile.

Offering Table
When an opponent’s action would cause you to discard or sacrifice, reveal Offering Table to prevent the action from affecting you.

Effect on Dummy Player: The dummy player will never cause you to discard or sacrifice, so the action cannot be used.

Pesesh-kef
Take a card selected by the player to your left.

Effect on Dummy Player: Take the cheapest card in the pyramid. If there is a tie, you get to choose.

Senet Game
Draw a card. Put Senet Game on top of an opponent’s discard pile. That opponent puts a set card on top of your discard pile, or reveals a hand with no set cards.

Effect on Dummy Player: This action cannot be used.

Sling
When an opponent entombs a card, discard Sling and entomb a card costing 3 or less.

Effect on Dummy Player: This works exactly as stated.

Special Card Actions for Valley of the Kings: Last Rites

Below is a list of cards which in some way address the opponent, and how their actions should be treated.

Astrolger
Put Astrologer on top of an opponent’s discard pile. Draw up to 3 cards.

Effect on Dummy Player: Put the card the dummy gets into the dummy’s tomb.

Brick Mason
Each player, starting with you, may entomb the top card of the boneyard or the top card of the stock.

Effect on Dummy Player: After you have taken your card, put the top card of the boneyard into the dummy’s tomb if it is a set card that is not a duplicate of one in the dummy’s tomb. Otherwise put the top card of the stock into the dummy’s tomb.

Draughtsman
Swap a set card in your hand with a card in the pyramid. Each opponent may put the top card of their discard pile into their hand.

Effect on Dummy Player: This action has no effect on the dummy player. You get to do the swap.

High Priestess of Bastet
Search the boneyard. Entomb the highest cost card. Put the lowest cost card on top of an opponent’s discard pile. Return the rest of the cards, if any, to the boneyard in any order.

Effect on Dummy Player: The lowest cost card.

Leather Worker
Reveal a card from your hand. Each opponent must discard a card with an equal or higher cost, or reveal a hand containing only lower cost cards.

Effect on Dummy Player: This action cannot be used.

Plasterer
Select an opponent. That opponent selects a number of cards from the pyramid equal to the number of players. Put one of these cards on top of each player’s discard pile.

Effect on Dummy Player: Take the two lowest cost cards. Put one on top of your discard pile and the other into the dummy’s tomb.

Priest of Anubis
Each player, including you, with an empty discard pile puts a card from their tomb on top of their discard pile.

Effect on Dummy Player: This action cannot be used.

Priest of Osiris
If an opponent has more cards entombed than you do, entomb a card from your hand or discard pile.

Effect on Dummy Player: This works exactly as stated.

Priest of Thoth
Put the top card of your deck on top of an opponent’s discard pile. Take a card from the middle row of the pyramid.

Effect on Dummy Player: Put the card the dummy gets into the dummy’s tomb.

Priestess of Sekhmet
Each player may draw up to 3 cards, without shuffling their discard pile to create a new deck.

Effect on Dummy Player: This has no effect on the dummy. You may draw up to 3 cards.

Burial Practices of Ancient Egypt

Valley of the Kings

Burial Practices of Ancient Egypt

By Tom Cleaver

Don’t just play (and win) at Valley of the Kings. Impress your friends with your deep knowledge of Ancient Egypt! Read on, and you may just learn how to make your own mummy.

If you were an ancient Egyptian noble, your death was only the beginning. Your corpse would need to be prepared in just the right way so that you would be eligible for the high life in the afterlife. When an ancient Egyptian noble died, he or she would undergo a two-month-long preparation for eventual burial. We think of Egypt as full of pyramids, but these were pretty much reserved for pharaohs. The ordinary nobility were buried in mastabas, rectangular tombs made of mud bricks.1

Canopic Jars

Ancient Egyptians believed that the body and all its important organs must be preserved so that the deceased could live for eternity. Since these organs would rot if left in the body, the first thing done in the preparation of a body for mummification was removal of the vital organs. You might think that the brain should be one of these, but no; the Egyptians had no use for the brain. Imagine an iron hook stuck up your nose. That’s the way they did it, ripping out chunks and pieces of the brain and dragging them out through a nostril.

The heart was considered a vital organ, but it was left in the body.

The organs selected for removal and preservation were the lungs, liver, stomach, and intestines. These were carefully removed, and each one was placed in its own special “canopic” jar. In Valley of the Kings, the canopic jars make up an important card set.

Frequently the canopic jars were clay pottery, but carved limestone and wood were also used. Each of the four jars was dedicated to a son of Horus and bore the image of the appropriate god on its lid.

The Hopi Canopic Jar held the lungs. Hopi, the god of the north, was depicted on the lid of the jar. He is usually represented as having the head of a baboon.

The Imseti Canopic Jar contained the liver. Imseti, the god of the south, had the appearance of a human.

The Duamutef jar held the stomach. This one is usually decorated with the head of a jackal (a dog-like scavenger). Duamutef is the god of the east.

The last jar has an almost unpronounceable name: the Qebehsenuef Canopic Jar. If you really want to know, it’s pronounced kay bay SEN oof.2 This jar represents the god of the west who takes the appearance of a falcon. The jar holds the intestines.

After the removal of the organs, the body was stuffed with natron. Natron is a naturally-occurring substance, mostly consisting of sodium carbonate decahydrate (a form of soda ash) and sodium bicarbonate (baking soda).3 It was used to desiccate the corpse. After the corpse was fully dried out, a process that may have taken as long as two months, the natron was removed, and the body cavity was stuffed with sawdust, spices, and other materials, and then wrapped in linen bandages.

Amulets

Frequently, amulets were included with the wrappings. They were supposed to have magical powers to protect the deceased or to help him on his journey to the afterlife. These amulets may have included the following:

The Heart Scarab Amulet: This amulet was typically carved from some kind of green stone, such as jasper or serpentine.4 The Book of the Dead describes the weighing of the heart. A light heart indicated goodness. The Heart Scarab Amulet may have been a charm to lighten the heart of the deceased.

The Djed Pillar (or Tet) Amulet: This amulet resembles a human backbone. It was intended to stiffen the body of the deceased.5

The Wadj Amulet: This amulet resembles the stem and flower of the papyrus. It was supposed to rejuvenate the corpse.6

The Tyet (or Tit) Amulet, also known as the Knot of Isis: This amulet calls upon the goddess Isis to protect the deceased from every kind of evil.7

The Weres Amulet: The Weres Amulet resembles a headrest. Egypt is a hot country, so few people used bed pillows. Instead they used headrests made of wood or stone. The amulet was not itself a headrest, but a small replica of a headrest. It was supposed to have the magical power to raise up the head of the mummy and also to keep the head from being severed.8

Other common funerary amulets (not included in the game) are:

The name bead amulet, worn around the neck and inscribed with the name of the deceased
The serpent head amulet, which supposedly protected the wearer from venomous snakes
The golden falcon head collar amulet, which was supposed to free the mummy from its wrappings
The flying vulture amulet, which provided the protection of Isis

Sacred Texts

The Egyptians were into magic in a big way. The walls of the tombs were covered with magic spells, and papyrus scrolls were also often found in these tombs.

Many of these spells came from the Book of the Dead. There are many other books, including the Book of Traversing Eternity and even the Book of the Heavenly Cow. That last book is not included in the game.

Stocking the Tomb

The tomb itself also needed preparation. The construction and stocking of the mastaba may have begun before the death of its future inhabitant, in anticipation of death.

Among the funerary objects would be boxes of food, some of which may have had meat wrapped in bandages. Yes, they mummified the food too.

Shabti dolls are frequently found in abundance in Egyptian tombs. This needs some explaining. Everyone in Egypt had a yearly duty of manual labor for the pharaoh. Rich citizens could afford to hire someone to perform this duty for them, but the citizen could not employ the same person twice. If this same rule applied in the afterlife, the deceased would need an infinite supply of workers. The shabti dolls in the tomb were supposed to fill at least part of that need.9 But perhaps some Egyptians considered that the rules might be different in the afterlife; rich nobles frequently stocked their tombs with one shabti worker for each day of the year. Tombs have been found with boxes stuffed with shabti.

Statues of the gods were common as tomb ornaments, and the Egyptians had plenty of gods to choose from.

Osiris was one of the most important gods to be found in a tomb, because the deceased would have to present themselves before Osiris to determine if they were worthy. Osiris would weigh the deceased’s heart against a feather.

Putting the Fun in Funeral

When all these preparations were complete, it was time for the funeral. This was a big event and included paid professional mourners called kites.10 These women would cry and wail as loudly as possible to get the attention of the gods and make the gods believe that the deceased was well-loved in life.

Just prior to placing the mummy in the tomb, a priest would perform the Opening of the Mouth ceremony, in which he would touch the mummy’s mouth with a ceremonial knife, insuring that the mummy would once again be able to breathe, speak, and eat.11

The mummy would then be sealed in a sarcophagus (coffin). There may have actually been more than one sarcophagus, so the mummy could have been buried in multiple sarcophagi, like a Russian matryoshka doll.12

The mastaba may then have been sealed. Alternatively, it may have been left open so that friends and family could visit the corpse and leave food and drink on the offering table, in the belief that the body continued to need sustenance in the afterlife.

So that wraps things up for mummification. Now you can go back to playing Valley of the Kings.

References

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Egyptian_burial_customs
http://www.pronouncenames.com/pronounce/qebehsenuef
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natron
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heart_scarab
http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/highlights/highlight_objects/aes/t/turquoise_djed_pillar_amulet.aspx
http://www.time-lines.co.uk/egyptian-wadj-amulet-017499-26394-0.html
http://www.mummies2pyramids.info/religion-culture-magic/tyet-amulet.htm
https://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/highlights/highlight_objects/aes/h/hematite_headrest_amulet.aspx
http://www.ancient.eu.com/article/119/
http://www.ancient.eu.com/Egyptian_Burial/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opening_of_the_mouth_ceremony
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Egyptian_burial_customs

Valley of the Kings Design Diary

Valley of the Kings

Designer Tom Cleaver has kindly provided us with a look into the creation and development of Valley of the Kings.

Egypt! Land of the Pharaohs. Its magic and mystery have fascinated me ever since I first saw Abbot and Costello Meet the Mummy. Many years later I traveled to Egypt with my family. We visited Luxor, Karnak, Abu Simbel, and the Valley of the Kings. These experiences were the inspiration and influence for the game.

Egyptian nobles stashing goods for the afterlife seemed like a perfect theme. Ancient Egyptians really believed they could keep their stuff after they died, so long as it was properly stored in their mastabas (tombs). Naturally, they sought out the best quality goods, including the amulets and sacred texts that were crucial to their religion. Valley of the Kings includes these features, and I have tried to make it as historically accurate as possible, consistent with good game play.

Some of the mechanics in Valley of the Kings were inspired by other deck-building games. But I believed that many of them had flaws. Why did the games need so many cards? Why couldn’t a card have three or more functions (purchasing power, action, and victory points)? Couldn’t the games have more player interaction? Wouldn’t the games be better if all the cards weren’t available all the time? In Valley of the Kings, I have tried to address these (perceived) flaws.

With each turn, a player must carefully decide whether to spend a card for its cash value, use it for its action, or entomb it for victory points. Valley of the Kings requires that players carefully manage deck building and victory point accumulation. The most valuable cards to have in your hand are also the most valuable to have in your tomb. The end game is frequently a scramble to get the good stuff stored away.

It can’t be Egypt without a pyramid, so Valley of the Kings has one. At the beginning of the game, players build a pyramid out of six cards, as shown in the example below.

Players can buy cards from the base of the pyramid. When this happens, the pyramid “crumbles;” cards tumble down from the upper levels to fill in the gap. At the end of the turn, the pyramid is rebuilt.

As with all of my game designs, Valley of the Kings went through multiple iterations – it’s never right the first time. I took every opportunity to get friends and strangers to try out the game, and I learned something new with each playtest.

When the design was mature, I began pitching it to every major game company. AEG had the wisdom (in my opinion) to pick up Valley of the Kings. I am both happy and grateful. John Goodenough and AEG’s staff have been fair, pleasant, honest, and competent.

If you play my game, I hope you enjoy it, and you might just learn something about Egyptian mythology.

Origins 2014

Lexicon 2015 tournament winner Sean Henrickson

About the Designer

Dr. Cleaver is Professor Emeritus of Electrical Engineering at the University of Louisville. During the day, he teaches engineering students about circuits, microprocessors, motors, and electrical safety. At night, he designs games. His published designs include Sword Play, The Conquest of Space, Galaxy!, and Darkhorn.