''War of Wizards'' is a

board game Board games are tabletop games that typically use . These pieces are moved or placed on a pre-marked board (playing surface) and often include elements of table, card, role-playing, and miniatures games as well. Many board games feature a co ...

published by TSR in 1975. It was TSR's first publication for

M. A. R. Barker Muhammad Abd-al-Rahman Barker (born Phillip Barker, November 3, 1929 – March 16, 2012) was an American linguist who was professor of Urdu and South Asian Studies and created one of the first roleplaying games, ''Empire of the Petal Throne' ...

's world of

Tékumel ''Tékumel'' is a fantasy world created by American linguist and writer M. A. R. Barker over the course of several decades from around 1940. In this imaginary world, huge, tradition-bound empires with medieval levels of technology vie for control ...

Development

David M. Ewalt, in his book ''Of Dice and Men'', described how

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public land-grant research university in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States. ...

professor M. A. R. Barker "made his game-design debut at TSR. A scholar of ancient languages, Barker had spent decades crafting a fantasy world called Tékumel, writing thousands of pages of histories, describing its culture, and even constructing its languages. He served as adviser to the university's wargaming club, and after Michael Mornard showed him

Dungeons & Dragons ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (commonly abbreviated as ''D&D'' or ''DnD'') is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game (RPG) originally designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. The game was first published in 1974 by Tactical Studies Rules, Inc. (TS ...

, Barker wrote two games based in Tékumel; a

tabletop role-playing game A tabletop role-playing game (typically abbreviated as TRPG or TTRPG), also known as a pen-and-paper role-playing game, is a form of role-playing game (RPG) in which the participants describe their characters' actions through speech. Participa ...

Empire of the Petal Throne ''Empire of the Petal Throne'' is a fantasy role-playing game designed by M. A. R. Barker, based on his Tékumel fictional universe. It was self-published in 1974, then published by TSR, Inc. in 1975. It was one of the first tabletop role-pl ...

; and a combat-oriented board game, War of Wizards."

History

Originally published by TSR in 1975, it was reprinted by Tita's House of Games in 1999. ''War of Wizards'' predates TSR releasing ''Empire of the Petal Throne'' by a few months, making it their first ''Tékumel'' publication.

Gameplay

''War of Wizards'' could be used to enhance the combat rules in fantasy role-playing games.

Reception

Colin Wheeler reviewed ''War of Wizards'' for ''

White Dwarf A white dwarf is a stellar core remnant composed mostly of electron-degenerate matter. A white dwarf is very dense: its mass is comparable to the Sun's, while its volume is comparable to the Earth's. A white dwarf's faint luminosity comes ...

'' #8, and stated that "All in all, War of Wizards is an enjoyable game and can be played in a good evening session."

References

External links

*{{bgg, 6217, ''War of Wizards'' Tékumel TSR, Inc. games