Wizard Time

A Roleplaying Game of Arcane Arts

Medieval (fantasy) presumably
Self Published
2018
Complexity: only technically playable

Wizard Time is another one of those one-page RPGs I’m so fond of reviewing because they take very little time to read. Now I’m not entirely sure what I expected from this game, but I can say with a high level of confidence that it absolutely did not deliver. Aw snap, I’m not supposed to tell you the game is bad until the actual review. I’ve gone and killed the suspense.

I should probably warn y’all that this is going to be one of those angry salty reviews, as opposed to of the usual sassy but good-natured ones.

Setting: 1/3 [−]
This game is set in a world that possesses both wizards and libraries. That is more or less the extent of what is provided

Character Creation: 2/5
Characters have three attributes, which I assume are See, No, and Evil, as those things are listed after the section on generating attributes and seem to be formatted in a was as to suggest that they are in fact the attributes. Each attribute is generated by rolling 2d6 and comparing to a chart, returning a result of 0 to +3. Players also start with two thralls, who must be given a name, appearance, and two “domains of power,” which leaves them only slightly more fleshed-out than the player characters.

Mechanics: 1/5
The rules manage to somehow be both lacking, and overly complicated. All checks are resolved by rolling 2d6 plus an attribute against a target of 8. Characters don’t have any version of hit points, but instead can be given a number of conditions--e.g. Injured, Charmed, Lost. These conditions remain until the GM decides that they don’t. Oh yeah, the thralls can probably do things too, although “expend its life to perform a single magical effect” is the only action that they’re even alluded to being able to perform. Characters also have a library that they can increase their power by adding to, which allows the wizard to level up, gaining additional thralls and marks of power. What are ‘Marks of Power’ you ask? Well that’s a very good question. Each Path of Power has a specific task that once completed to earn a Mark of Power which allows a wizard to do “special things.”

“What’s a ‘Path of Power,’ what are the tasks, and what special things?” you ask.

Well, those are all good questions, and ones this game isn’t going to answer. Because much like 99% of the rules, the GM is just supposed to figure it out.

Writing and Presentation: 0/5
Overall, this game reads like a quickstart guide to a better game. Each section more of less gives the impression of being an introductory paragraph for the actual rules, but they never come. Things are phrased weirdly and reference things that the I guess author assumed would exist later--like condition boxes on the character sheet. At one point it’s mentioned that a situation may ”call for a throw of the dice with the characters ability to see as the DM.” The abbreviation “DM” is never used at any other point, nor is any term used which DM could stand for. I assume it means for make a check with the ‘See’ attribute, but the phrasing is completely different than that used at any other point.

I review role-playing games, often amateur and/or bad role-playing games, and this games manages to confuse me with only a single page of text. However, assuming that I’ve actually gotten all the rules right here, it is technically comprehensible. Albeit with many assumptions.

The game is laid out in a very basic “large decorative title, block of text, repeat” format with occasional bolded text to highlight important concepts, but it is inconsistently used--likely due to the vagueness of the rules. Overall very little effort has been put into presentation and readability.

Content: 0/3 [−][−]
Basically, there are things that you are told are part of the game, but are not provided. Notably the Marks of Power and equipment, which more or less say “the GM will figure it out” while providing absolutely nothing in terms of examples or even vague suggestions as to what this things are and can or cannot do..

Final Remarks
Wizard Time is a game that has concepts, but concepts that is does absolutely nothing with. It ends up just seeming to be yet another case of a rampantly egocentric and aggressively lazy designer who had an idea, worked on it for about an hour, decided it was too much effort, and released it anyway because clearly anything from their special little mind must be at least as good as real games made by real people. Normally I can see where things can improve--even Xtraor had some potential--but the only way to fix Wizard Time would be to use it as a concept for a real game.

Base Points: 4
Character Creation: 2/5, Mechanics: 1/5, Presentation: 1/5
Adjustments: −4
Setting: −1, Writing: −1, Content: −2

Overall Score: 0% (0/15 Points)
Have the GM provide a witty closing line for this review.