Magic Realm History and Resources

Magic Realm was originally designed by Richard Hamblen and published by the
Avalon-Hill Game Company in 1979. The Magic Realm playing system was
introduced in the First Edition rules by seven introductory "encounters" that could be
played sequentially to master the full game. Despite this programmed rule
presentation, many players found Magic Realm to be essentially unplayable due to
the rule complexity and the lack of examples of play.

The "Legendary, Lost SECOND EDITION of the Magic Realm Rules", were
published by Avalon-Hill without any other game-component changes in 1986. The
Second Edition rules reorganized the rules from seven encounters into four
encounters: Encounter 1 included movement, hiding, and searching for treasures;
Encounter 2 introduced combat with monsters; Encounter 3 introduced combat with
natives and other characters; and Encounter 4 introduced the magic system. Several
First Edition optional rules were incorporated as part of the Second Edition basic
game, examples of play were included, and new optional rules were introduced as a
part of a greatly expanded rule book. A transcription of the Second Edition rules by
Theresa Michelson is available on line at:
http://www.geocities.com/finiasjynx/MagicRealmRules.zip or
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/file/info/466

Avalon-Hill went out of business in 1998 and Hasbro Games purchased the rights to
Avalon Hill titles and back inventory and the name "Avalon Hill" for $6 million. Magic
Realm was apparently not part of the titles purchased by Hasbro and has been out of
print since 1998. Despite considerable interest in a reprint, the confused legal status
of the game has left Magic Realm in limbo. The designer, Richard Hamblen, has
been unable to confirm his ownership of the rights to republish Magic Realm. In the
absence of an "official" reprint, Magic Realm players have created and posted to the
web many additions, add-ons, new rule versions, and variants. Some of these
gamer-created resources are discussed in the next section.

Gamer-Created Resources

1. Complete Rules

The Unofficial, Updated THIRD EDITION of the Magic Realm Rules by Theresa
Michelson and Stephen McKnight was posted on-line in December 2005. The Third
Edition reorganized the rule presentation by eliminating the Encounter structure and
incorporated corrections and clarification to the Second Edition rules that were
confirmed by communications with Richard Hamblen. The most recent compilation of
the Third Edition rules dated 12/9/05 can be found in both PDF and MS-Word format
at:
http://www.thewinternet.com/magicrealm/

Magic Realm in Plain English by Joel Yoder (2005) is a formulation of the rules in
paragraph form, rather than as numbered rules, designed for beginners. It can be
found at:
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/file/info/9357

A video instruction version of Magic Realm in Plain English along with voice-
annotated example games with various characters can be found on Laurence
Spodes Bookshelf Games site at:
http://www.bookshelfgames.com/permalink/ep016.html

2. Rule Summaries

The Least You Need to Know to Play Magic Realm by Stephen McKnight (2002) is
an 8-page rule summary available at: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/file/info/4475
It has been translated into Spanish by Lucas Ferreyra (2007) and is on-line at:
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/file/28783

The Magic Realm Combat Summary V1.0 by Matt Becker (2007) is a 6-page
detailed summary of just the combat portion of the game, available at:
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/file/info/27644

3. Player Aids

Jay Richardson has created a very nice set of quick-reference tables which can be
down-loaded from:
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/file/info/22682
Other player aids from Jay Richardson are linked on Nands Magic Realm site at:
http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Vista/9049/mr00.htm
Dan Evans has a much improved Personal History/Melee Sheet and a new counter
set among other game improvements at:
http://www.magicrealm.org/components/

4. Magic Realm Strategy Articles

Monsters! and How to Kill Them by Jay Richardson (2006), uploaded with
graphics by Simon Hunt on 1/18/2007, is a player aid for beginners on combat with
monsters. It is on-line at:
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/file/info/21641

Magic Realm Strategy for Beginners by Stephen McKnight (2006) is a guide for
beginners about playing the non-magic using characters. It is available in an
illustrated version at:
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/file/22056

Magic Realm Probability for Beginners (Part I and II) by Stephen McKnight (2006)
includes tables to calculate the probability of most Magic Realm game events. They
can be found on the Boardgamegeek Strategy Forum at:
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/131614
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/139412

5. Computer Magic Realm

Robin Warrens RealmSpeak is a nearly full-featured Java implementation of Magic

Realm which can be used for solitaire or on-line group play. The latest release of
RealmSpeak, Version 0.59.1 (2007), is available at:
http://magicrealm.dewkid.com/rspeak/realmspeak.htm

6. Game Variants

There are a number of game variants that can be found on the sites listed under
Links below among other places. Notable is Jay Richardsons Book of Quests that
creates a broad choice of individual Victory Conditions for each character. It can be
downloaded from Nands Magic Realm site:
http://magicrealm.dewkid.com/rspeak/realmspeak.htm
7. Magic Realm Links

a. Boardgamegeek has the most complete set of Magic Realm forums, game
session reports, downloads, and links.
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/22

b. Nands Magic Realm Page has a variety of resources including transcriptions of all
the articles on Magic Realm that appeared in the Avalon-Hill General magazine and
several pages of never-before-published comments on the game and rule
interpretations by Richard Hamblen.
http://magicrealm.dewkid.com/rspeak/realmspeak.htm

c. Peter Morriss Magic Realm Wiki has reader-editable pages including variants,
instructions on play, a directory of players, game variants, and links:
http://www.triremis.com.au/pmwiki/pmwiki.php

d. Dave Browns Magic Realm Keep has a variety of game resources, including
notably Daves Victory Points Spreadsheet and Calculator.
http://www.geocities.com/finiasjynx/

e. Theresa Michelsons Magic Realm Parts Shoppe. Got an old game thats missing
a few counters? Contact Theresa at the link below and, if its in stock, she will send
you what you need free! Conversely, if you have an incomplete set that youd be
willing to donate, send it to Theresa and you will make many other gamers very
happy.
http://www.tarotmoon.com/MRParts/mrparts.html

f. Bruno Wolff moderates a Magic Realm List-Serve where subscribers can post
questions, observations, and other information:
http://wolff.to/mr/