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We changed the rules a bit during play testing. We'll have a new version up soon. The big differences are how tests work, that you can't assist with your signature attack, and that the grade scale is broken out onto its own card. If something is different between this video and the rule book, go with the rule book!

For those of you who don't know what's going on: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1018340123/wizard-school

For those of you who do, thanks for your interest in Wizard School and, for the portion of you who are backers. THANK YOU SO MUCH! I can't wait to send you this thing.

Let us know in the comments here or on Kickstarter if you have any questions!
So you wanna know how to play Wizard School, either that or you're just super into watching instructional videos. Well either way let's do it!

The first thing you're gonna do is pick a student card. Everybody picks one, this is who you're gonna be for the game. Each student card has a name and some pretty art, a signature spell that they can only used during their turn, and the number of items that a student can carry.

Next you select 4 graduation cards. There are 4 difficulty levels of graduation cards, a freshman through senior. If you want an easier game you might not want to include any senior cards. If you want to never ever win just pick 4 senior cards. Graduation cards include a special rule that effects the game while the card is in play, a grade scale, and the mile stones you must achieve in order to move to the next year of Wizard School or if it's your last card win the game. So now that you've got your student card and your graduation cards the game begins.

In a four player game, each wizard takes six cards from the magical deck. Now there's a different number of cards that you get depending on the number of people playing but you get the idea. In the magic deck there are three types of cards. Items are available to you at any time if they are laid down next to your student card. They can aid in your spell work, save cards from the discard pile, that sort of thing. Magical friends are people you can call in favors from at any time and have an immediate effect but then the card is immediately discarded. Spells can also be used at any time and usually have an indicator of one of the five types of magic: transmutation, conjuring, illusion, manipulation, and divination. These are mostly what you will use to defeat monsters and achieve graduation mile stones. In addition to the magical power though spells also have various effects in the game and are also discarded as soon as they are used.

So now it is time to, like, play a round. On your turn you get one and only one action unless your cards tell you different so don't waste it. You start your turn by going to school, by which I mean flipping over a school card. When you do that it's gonna be one of three things: an activity, in which case you just follow the instructions on the card. This does not count as your action. A test which must be taken immediately and it does count as your action. Tests, as you might have found in real life, are undesirable. Or a monster which you just turn over and place on the table. It does not attack yet, it's just roaming the halls for now.

If you didn't flip a test then you have an action and you can do one of five things: Attack a monster if there's one out, attempt a graduation milestone, study which let's you draw a magical card, explore which let's you play another school card, or panic which allows you to simply discard the top card of the school deck. We will get to why you would want to do that a little later.

If you're attacking a monster or attempting a milestone you generally do this by matching it's magical power by using your signature spell and cards from your and everyone else's hands. It's a good idea to keep the school relatively clean of monsters because when they get activated they can be a pretty big pain.

Once you have completed your action your turn ends and it is now the school's turn to have a go at you. On the back of each school card there's a dot and it might be one of three colors. When a red dot is showing on the top of the school deck all red monsters attack, when a blue dot is showing all blue monsters attack, and when a green dot is showing your grade drops by one letter. That's why occasionally you might need to panic to get rid of that top school card if it's showing a green dot and you've already got a D. If your grade drops all the way to an F, you fail and your entire wizard squad is kicked out of Wizard School. It's a group project you guys.

After the school has had it's way with you, it is the next wizard's turn. It's important to note that this is a cooperative game so everyone is gonna be involved all the time. You are allowed and encouraged to discuss your plan of attack before it happens. That means that for the most part you aren't gonna make unsuccessful attacks because you've always got other options if you're not able to defeat the thing you want to defeat.

The mechanics of the game are pretty simple and don't take long to pick up but the strategies that develop as you play the game and work toward tackling some of the more difficult graduation challenges make strategy vital in having a chance of graduation.

Thank you for following along and thanks for being, I hope, as excited as we are about this game. We're so stoked that we're gonna be able to make it. Thank you to all of our backers, it's great to be where we are and, you know, I'm just glad that we can keep making stuff for you and that we're gonna get to send you this thing. I just can't wait to see some actual people playing it. So thank you and DFTBA.