Levitation: Masters of Magic Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Game Components
• Game Setup
• Objective
• How to determine turn order
• Roll all Dice
• Take an Action
• Card Notations
• Symbol Meanings
• Game Play Summary

Game Components

• Game board x1
• Ticket tokens x50, in five player colors
• Point tokens x5
• Turn tokens x20
• Illusion cards x48
• Acclaim cubes x50
• Flair tokens x50
• Die rolling cup x1
• Round marker x1
• Dice x20

Game Setup

1. Shuffle the illusion cards and place one on each of the city spaces of the board. Place them randomly face-up. Place the rest of the deck face-down next to the board as the draw pile.
2. Each player chooses a color and takes all turn tokens of that color. Each player places their point token on the "0" space of the point track. Players are not given ticket tokens-those tokens are gained during game play.
3. Each player is given two acclaim cubes.
4. Place the round marker on the first round space on the upper right side of the board. All other tokens are placed in groups by the side of the board to form the supply. You are now ready to start!

Objective

You are creating the best magic stage show possible and gaining as many points as you can in 3 rounds. Each round you will take four turns. At the end of the 4th turn of the 3rd round, the player with the most points wins. The rounds and turns are tracked on the upper right side of the board (see #5).

How to determine turn order

Each player will have 4 tokens of one color and numbers 1 through 4. Each round, including the first, players turn their turn all tokens face down in front of them on the table and mix them up. Simultaneously all players turn one token face-up. The smallest number goes first, placing their turn token on the board. Start in round 1, turn 1. Other players then take their turns in order of numbers, smallest to largest. Stack all tokens for a turn on the same space. When the turn is complete, all players will have placed one token in the stack. Then repeat the process for each turn. When the round is complete, all players will have placed all turn tokens on the board.

If there are two or more of the same number revealed, those players use the smaller number in the white magic symbol to determine whose turn it is. As before the smallest number goes first until all players with identical numbers have taken a turn.

Roll all Dice

During the game players will roll all 20 dice, then place them on the teacher with matching dice. There are three magic master spaces that hold the dice. The 5s and 6s go on Harry Kellar. The 3s and 4s go on Howard Thurston, and the 1s and 2s go on Alexander Herrmann.

On a player's turn he may roll all 20 dice anytime there is one master teacher that has no dice. This includes the beginning of the game.

Once all dice are placed, the player takes his action. After placing the turn token on the current space of the board the player chooses one die from one master teacher and removes it from the board. This will allow the player to take the action corresponding that master teacher.

TURN EXAMPLE: On turn one of the first round each player turns over one random turn token. The yellow and purple players have the lowest numbers (1). Purple goes first because she has the lowest number on the white magic symbol (1), she places her turn token on the "1" space of the board then takes an action. The yellow player goes next, followed by the green, red and last the blue. Each player stacks the tokens on the "1" space of the top row.

Take an Action

If a player removes a die from the Howard Thurston space that player takes an illusion card from the board. Note that the Howard Thurston space shows a card just below it. The chosen card is placed face-up before the player. The card must have an icon matching the die color.

For example: a card with this blue gadget symbol can only be gained with a blue die. Most cards have two colored icons on them and can be gained and activated by either colored die. This particular icon means the player has learned an illusion that is performed by means of a gadget.

Before or after the main action is performed, the player may activate an effect shown on an illusion card, but only if the cards activated have the same color icon as the chosen die. To do so, the player first places acclaim cubes equal to the number shown on the card. The player may activate as many cards as he has cubes to do so and that match the die color. He may not activate the same card twice. The cubes are not lost from the player, just spent for the turn. When the turn ends, the player retains all acclaim cubes. Gaining more acclaim cubes are done when performing shows in certain cities (described later) and by performing certain illusions.

A card may be activated the same turn it is gained. If a player wants to perform card action(s) before gaining the card he may do so. Card effects and the main effect from choosing a die may be done in any order.

EXAMPLE: On the yellow player's turn he removes a green die from the "Howard Thurston" space of the board. This means that he can gain one card from the board with the green (accomplice) icon. He chooses the levitation card and places it face-up in front of him. Now he can activate all cards with a green icon including the one just chosen.

Since he has five acclaim cubes, he can activate both "Levitation" and "She" cards. He gains 1 flair token from the Levitation card and places it on the "She" card. He has a ticket token on the board in Liverpool. The "She" card allows him to move a ticket token from one city to another. He moves a ticket token from Liverpool to Naples. Naples gives him two more acclaim cubes. Plus, he gains one point from the flair token on the "She" card.

If the player removes a die from the Alexander Herrmann space, he gains three ticket tokens of his color. He may then activate any illusion cards that match the die color chosen as described earlier.

If the player removes a die from the Harry Kellar space he may place a ticket token from those he holds onto a city space on the board or a point space. Open city spaces are spaces where there is no illusion card and room for a ticket token. In round 1 all cities can hold a maximum of one ticket token. In round 2 each city can hold 2 ticket tokens, and in round 3 each can hold three tokens.

EXAMPLE: On the purple player's turn she chooses a green die from the "Harry Kellar" master space. She has 2 ticket tokens in her supply. She has previously placed ticket tokens on Naples and Tokyo. She places an ticket token in the London space (London shows a green die). Now she has a ticket in each row of cities and they are connected either orthogonally (Naples to Tokyo) or diagonally (Tokyo to London). She now gains 10 points from her performance in London. She removes those three tickets from the board and replaces the empty spaces with new Illusion cards. Now she can activate all cards she owns with a green icon.

If the player chooses a city space he has performed a show in that city and gains the reward. The city chosen must show a die that matches the die color chosen.

There are 3 rewards possible from a city:

First is one or two acclaim cubes as shown on the city. The player takes these into his supply. They are used to activate illusion cards as described earlier.

The second is one or two flair tokens as shown on the city. A player places these on an illusion card or discards them for one point each. Each time the effect of that card is used, that player gains one point for each flair token on the card. The maximum number of flair tokens that can be placed on a card is shown on the card. The number ranges from 1 to 4. Once a flair token is placed on a card it cannot be moved or discarded. If a player gains a flair token and there is no room for it on a card, the token can be discarded for a point.

The third is points as shown on the city. In order to claim these points, a player must have two other ticket tokens placed in cities connecting the top, middle, and bottom rows. The tickets must connect the cities diagonally or orthogonally. They can be placed in any order. Once the player has all three, he gains the points, moves his point token up the number shown on the city, then removes the three ticket tokens. They are returned to the general supply, he does not keep them. Any other tokens present in those cities are returned to their owners, they do keep them to place again. New illusion cards from the draw deck are now placed on those cities.

Note: A player may have multiples of his own tokens in one city as long as the total doesn't exceed 2 in the second round and 3 in the third round.

EXAMPLE: She has 5 acclaim cubes, but only one card with a green (accomplice) icon. She places the required three acclaim cubes on the Queen of Flowers card. From the effect on that card she places one additional ticket token on Mumbai (it is a yellow die space as indicated by the Queen of Flowers card). She gains one point for the flair token she previously assigned to the card and two acclaim cubes from Mumbai.

The other place a player may place ticket tokens is on the point area of the board. These points are not gained immediately but are gained at the end of the game. There can only be one ticket on each point space. One player may place ticket tokens on multiple spaces. Points gained by this action are shown in the scroll next to the point icons.

In the example here, the red player would gain points for the number of "technology" illusion cards he owns at game's end.

Note: that the points are only gained for a maximum of 4 illusions (10 points). If a player has more than 4 of any one type, he gains 10 points.

There are two general categories in the point area. The second gives one point for each token a player has at game end. There are three types of tokens that can gain you points if chosen. Flair tokens on cards, ticket tokens in a player's supply and on the board, and acclaim cubes in a player's supply. The player gains one point for each item to a maximum of 10 points possible. These points are also only counted at the end of the game.

EXAMPLE: At the end of the 4th round the purple player has 59 points, the green player has 62, blue has 63, yellow has 68, and red has 70. Now all players gain the end-of-game points from the point area of the board. Purple has a ticket token on the "gadget" icon. She has 4 illusion cards with the "gadget" icon and so gains 10 points. She also has a ticket token on the acclaim cubes. She finished the game with 6 acclaim cubes for 1 point each giving her a grand total of 75. (59+16)

The yellow player ends the game with 5 accomplice illusion cards and 2 medium small (the rabbit icon) sized illusions. Since you can only get a maximum of 10 in any one illusion icon category she gets 10 for the accomplice cards and 3 for the rabbit cards. She ends the game with 81 points. (68+13)

The blue player has 3 slight of hand cards for 6 points and 2 medium sized illusions (the dog icon) for 3 points. This gives a total of 72 points. (63+9)

The green player ends the game with 8 ticket tokens that are both on the board and in his supply. He gains 8 extra points for a total of 70 points. (62+8)

The red player has no eye tokens in the point area.

The point summary at the end of the game is: Yellow: 81, Purple: 72, Blue: 72, Red: 70, Green: 70.

Card Notations

• One, two or three blue acclaim cubes shown on a card: Blue cubes on a card indicate how many acclaim cubes are required to perform the illusions and gain the effect. There are between 1 and 3 cubes on most cards. These cubes are placed on a card when it is activated helping the player know which cards have already been used. Each card can only be used once each turn. Once the player's turn is done all cubes are removed from cards and retained by the player.
• A blue acclaim cube beside a gold coin, separated by a slash: This symbol indicates that each point gained by effect of the card requires one cube. More than 3 cubes can be placed on these cards.
• Gold "1" coin, a red die and a black die (dashed outline): Gain one point for each black die off the board.
• Gold "1" coin, a red die and a black ticket token: Gain one point for each ticket token of yours on the board.
• Hand with a flair token: Gain one flair token for your personal use. If it cannot be placed on a card it is discarded for a point.
• Hand with a ticket token: Gain one ticket token for your personal supply.
• Hand with an acclaim cube: Gain one acclaim cube for your personal supply.
• Ticket token with an arrow pointing to a question mark: Place one ticket token from your supply to the point area of the board.
• Black card with a red and a yellow circle: Duplicate the effect of a card held by another player. Do not duplicate that player's flair tokens.
• Black card with two yellow circles: Duplicate the effect of another card you own. Do not duplicate that card's flair tokens.

Symbol Meanings

The symbols on the cards show what secrets are needed to create and perform each illusion.

• Blue represents illusions that require gadgets.
• Red shows those done by camouflage.
• Yellow are slight-of-hand illusions.
• Black are done with technology.
• Green are those done with accomplices.

The animal printed on each card represents the size of the illusion and how large the audience can be.

• The mouse denotes close-up magic for very small groups or individuals.
• The rabbit sized illusion can be done for small groups.
• The dog shows illusions for small stages and intimate gatherings.
• The horse can be done in larger venues.
• The elephant is for the largest audiences and sheer grandeur of the illusion.

Game Play Summary

1. Each player places turn tokens face down and chooses one at random to determine turn order. Tokens are stacked on the turn space of the board.
2. On a player's turn he chooses one die from one of the masters. If one master has no dice, the player may re-roll all 20 then choose one.
3. Take an action based on the master.
   • Kellar: place one ticket token on the board either on an available city space (with matching die color) or an open point space.
   • Thurston: Choose one Illusion card from the board. Card must contain same die color.
   • Herrmann: Gain 3 ticket tokens of your color.
4. Activate all cards you own with the same color icon as the die chosen. Cards can be activated only if the player has enough acclaim cubes as shown on target cards.