Designed by: Jens-Peter Schliemann,Kirsten Becker
Magician’s Night (or Nacht der Magier, to give it its box title) is a simple children’s game that may also tickle grown-ups. What makes the game very unusual is that it is played in the dark – the darker the better. The goal of the game is get one of your cauldrons into the fire.
The circular board (on a podium) is placed on the table with a bunch of cauldrons around the central fire. Trees and wooden discs are placed around the cauldrons, each player takes their chosen wizard, and then the lights are switched off!
On a given turn, the active player simply pushes their wizard across the board. The wizard will have three matching cauldrons, so you can go for any one of them. But as soon as you hear any piece fall off the board – the game should be played in relative quiet – your turn finishes instantly. If your wizard falls off, your turn also ends.
The game continues until someone has shuffled one of their cauldrons into the ‘ring of fire’ – at which point, they win.
I'm not sure about this. Take away the gimmick of playing in the dark, and there's not a lot to it. That's probably churlish, I'm sure with kids it could be a real treat, but for me, this won't replace Waldschattenspiel when there's a power cut.
It would be a hard heart that took offence in a game of Magician's Night, but very young children could potentially be frustrated.
Low. The game moves fast.
Minimal at best, though there is scope for tiny smidgen strategy.
It's a very quick game, and fun in the dark, but it doesn't have a huge amount of variety. Best with 3 or 4 players.
2-4
Players
4+
Years
5-15
Mins
Sam says
It's good fun when played at the right time. The game asserts it can be played in the light as a tactical battle, but where the only mechanic is pushing something with your finger, the game really needs the cachet of darkness. Fans may enjoy the similarly murky Waldschattenspiel.