Players take on the role of wizards, gathering to participate in the Annual Grand Rite. During this competition, they work to fill their Spellbooks with new Spells. The wizards gather around a Vortex (represented by the Pouch), which emits various magical components known as Materia, some of which are placed on the Altar.

The wizards use this Materia to learn new Spells or store the power within their Familiars, both of which will earn them points. The contest ends as soon as any wizard’s Spellbook or Familiar is filled. The wizard with the most points wins the competition.

Setup

• Place the Altar tile and the Pouch in the centre of the table, then put all the Materia in the Pouch, mixing it thoroughly. Randomly draw 5 Materia from the Pouch and place them on the Altar’s empty spaces. Place the Discard box nearby.
• Each player draws 2 Materia from the Pouch, which they place in front of them, forming their initial pool.
• Each player takes a Familiar board, which they place in front of them.
• Each player takes a Player Aid card, as well as the set of Spell cards with the matching Familiar icon on their backs. Some of these will be placed on the table, as described in the next sections
• Randomly determine who will be the first player, and give them the First Player token

Gameplay

Spellbook has 3 different game times that grow with players, they are:

• First game: For your first game, each player places the set of 7 Spell cards with the four-sided star set symbol in front of them, next to the Player Aid card. The exact arrangement of cards does not matter.
• Future Game: To familiarize yourselves with the game, we recommend you play using the four-sided star set several times. Once players are comfortable with this set, precede to use the double four-sided star set for a few games, then the triple four-sided star set. Once you have mastered all 3 sets (and all 21 Spells within them), you will be ready to play the classic game.
• Classic Game: To play the classic game, you will have 1 Spell of each colour. For each of the 7 colours, the first player shuffles the 3 cards of that colour and draws one randomly. Every other player takes the same card from their deck. The chosen card is placed in front of them, and the other 2 cards of that colour are returned to the box, as they will not be used. Repeat this process for each colour.

Starting with the first player, each player completes their turn (Day) before moving onto the next player. A Day is split into 3 phases:

• Morning
• Midday, and
• Evening

During each phase, the player may perform a single action. At the end of their Day, the player resupplies the Altar, and play proceeds clockwise to the next player. This sequence continues until the game ends

Each phase has one or two primary actions that are available for players to use at the beginning of the game. As players learn Spells, additional action options may become available.

Morning

At the beginning of the game, only two primary actions are available to the players during the Morning phase:

• Take 1 Materia: The player chooses 1 Materia from the Altar and adds it to their pool: or
• Draw 2 Materia: The player draws 2 Materia from the Pouch and adds them to their pool.

Midday

At the beginning of the game, only one primary action is available to the players during the Midday phase:

• Store 1 Materia: The player takes 1 Materia from their pool and stores it on the first available space on their Familiar board (the space with the lowest value still visible).

Evening

At the beginning of the game, only one primary action is available to the players during the Evening phase:

• Learn 1 Spell: The player spends Materia from their pool to learn a new Spell. These Materia must be the same colour as the Spell they want to learn. One of the spent Materia is placed on the Spell card, on the space matching the amount of Materia the player spent. (For example, if 3 Materia are spent, one is placed on the bottom space of the Spell card, making it a level 3 Spell.) The other Materia are discarded into the Discard box.

When performing this action, the player may spend 3 Materia of any colour that all have the same rune. Doing these counts as a wild Materia, providing 1 additional Materia of the colour being spent. They can repeat this process to create several wild Materia, but they must spend at least 1 Materia that matches the Spell’s colour in order to place it on the card.

Pool Limit

Each player’s pool is limited to a maximum of 9 Materia which cannot be exceeded at any time during the game. Materia in the pool can be stored, spent to Learn a Spell, or discarded when using a Spell’s ability.

Spell

When a player learns a Spell which includes a phase symbol in the top-left corner (Morning, Midday, or Evening), another action becomes available in the depicted phase from the next Day onwards. When a player uses a Spell as an action, they can choose to use the effect for the Spell’s level or any lower level.

Spells that do not have a phase symbol will have either a permanent or instant effect, or will provide points at the end of the game.

• Instant Effects: If a Spell effect has the symbol that looks like a sun with an infinite in the middle, the effect is applied immediately when the player learns the Spell. After that, it will provide no further effect (other than points at the end of the game).
• Permanent Effects: If a Spell effect has the  symbol, the effect applies for the rest of the game, whenever the conditions listed are met during your Day.

Altar

After completing (or skipping) the Evening phase, the player resupplies the Altar.

• If there are fewer than 5 Materia on the Altar: Draw from the Pouch until 5 spaces are occupied.
• If there are 5-9 Materia on the Altar: Draw 1 Materia from the Pouch and place it on an unoccupied space on the Altar.
• If there are 10 or more Materia on the Altar: Discard all the Materia from the Altar, draw 5 Materia from the Pouch, and place them on the Altar.

End Game

The game ends when any player fulfills one or more of the following requirements.:

• They learn their 7th and final Spell,
• They fill the last available space on their Familiar board.

Keep playing until all players have taken the same number of turns (the player to the right of the first player will take the last turn of the game). Then, everyone tallies their points.

• For each learned Spell, players score the number of points indicated by the level space occupied by the Materia.
• Players score the number of points indicated by the lowest visible value on the Familiar board.

The player with the most points wins the game. In case of a tie, the tied player who learned the most Spells wins. In case of a further tie between the same players, the tied player with the most Materia in their pool wins. In the unlikely event the players are still tied, they share the victory.

First Impression

It is hard not to get excited about the first impressions of spell book, because my first impressions were playing with the designer himself and getting to meet the amazing Phil Walker Harding. This colourful, striking game just seems to leap off the table when you first approach it, and it just makes you want to play. So, whether I was playing with Phil Walker Harding or not, this was a game that as soon as I saw it on my I really want to play this.

Gameplay

After playing Spellbook with Phil Walker Harding, playing with my friends just didn’t feel as cool! I was excited to tell them all about my first experience playing this game. And after a quick walk through we set off our first game.

The gameplay of Spellbook is both tactical and strategic, where your gameplay style & strategy is forever changing. I had my winning strategy planned three times & still came second. And that is the beauty of Spellbook, there is so much happening on the table, familiars getting feed, spells being learnt & activities. The tide of the game can change by the time the comes back around & I love it!

As that ever-changing game play is my favourite part of the game, as the game is so exhilarating. As you have constantly got to keep your eye focus on the board and that make keeps the game exciting, keeps, and keeps the players interested.

Art

The Art of Spellbook just feels so harmonious. Though different colours a link to different spell types, they all seem to just so harmoniously come together and feel as if they are part of same Spellbook whichever of the chosen coloured spell you choose.

And those familiars are adorable…. in a magical kind of way. But adorable none the less. Cyrille Bertin has done such an incredible job of giving everything its own unique & magical feel on a balanced way, as not to tempt players that a spell is more powerful or better in some way. As I have been caught out by that before in another game.

Spellbook leaps off the table with its multitude of colours without looking overly messy, which Can happen when there are too many colours on the board.

Conclusion

Though, I was lucky enough to play Spellbook with Phil Walker-Harding, the designer of the game, and that is always a big plus to me. I still wanted to take this away and get my friends to play it and get their take on it and see what it is like outside the world of playing with the designer.

And with a played with Phil Walker-Harding or a group of friends. This game just really does shine. It is an ever-changing game that just fills the entire table with excitement, and it is so funny how just by taking your eyes off the table for 30 seconds can truly change the outcome of the game.

Though it is quite a simple game to learn. It really is a tough one to master and I think that is what I like about it most, is that this game grows with the players. As you get better, as you understand more, the continues game to evolves.

Spellbook is a big hit for me and I guarantee will be in my top ten list of 2023.