Words of Magic Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Goal of the Game
• Components
• Setup
• Gameplay
• Player's Turn
  • 1. Form a Word
  • 2. Pass
• End of the Game
• Magic Cards
• Familiar Letter Cards
  • Familiar's Magic Properties
• Character Cards
• Additional Rules
• Classic Mode
• Word Categories

Goal of the Game

Form words using the cards you need from your hand, magic, and your character's abilities. The Familiar's letter cards and his magic properties will help you.

The winner is the player who has the fewest cards at the end of the game!

Components

• 4 player decks (each with 28 letter cards, 2 joker cards and 4 magic cards)
• 3 Balance of Power decks (24 green, 30 yellow and 16 red cards)
• 6 Familiar letter cards
• 8 character cards
• 1 Familiar planshet
• 1 Familiar figure
• 12 joker tokens
• 4 Familiar codex cards
• 1 first player card

Before the first game, assemble the organizer by putting all of its dividers in their places inside the box. If needed, follow the assembly instructions linked by the QR code in the source; the instructions are not part of these rules.

In the first game it is recommended to play without character cards.

Setup

1. Place the Familiar planshet in the centre of the table, with the side that shows the Familiar's magic properties face up.

2. Take the 3 Balance of Power decks, shuffle each one separately, and place them face down above the Familiar planshet, on the spaces of the matching colours.

3. Shuffle the Familiar letter cards. Take 3 of them at random and place them face up under the Familiar planshet, on the marked spaces. Place the Familiar figure on the middle Familiar letter card. Return the remaining Familiar letter cards to the box; they will not be needed in this game.

4. Deal each player 1 player deck. Each player shuffles their deck and lays out 5 cards face up in front of them. This is the player's hand, which all opponents can see.

5. Next to each player's deck, place 3 joker tokens of the matching colour, asterisk side up.

6. Deal each player 2 character cards. Each player chooses one of the two characters, places its card face up beside them, and returns the other character card to the box.

7. Deal each player 1 Familiar codex card.

8. Agree on the category of words you will form during the game (see the section "Word Categories" below). In the first games it is recommended to play without any restrictions.

Everything is now ready to start the game!

Gameplay

Starting with the first player and continuing clockwise, all players take turns in order.

On their turn, the active player may form a word, play magic cards, or pass. Depending on the length of the word formed, the other players may receive additional cards.

After this, the active player draws cards from their own deck, and the next player takes their turn.

Player's Turn

On your turn, perform one of two actions:

1. Form a word

or

2. Pass

Whichever action you choose on your turn, you may also play any number of your magic cards.

1. Form a Word

You may form any word of 3 or more letters that belongs to one or more of the categories chosen before the start of the game.

To form a word, you may use:

• Any number of letter cards and joker cards from your hand. A joker card may be played in place of any letter card.
• Any number of your unused joker tokens. Each joker token lets you use any 1 card from your hand as any letter card you need. To mark the use of a joker, place it on the card it was used for.
• One available Familiar letter card. When you use a Familiar letter card, immediately place the Familiar figure on it.

Note: some words need an apostrophe, but the game has no such card. Consider that you always have an apostrophe at your disposal. So to form the word «М'ЯСО» (meat), it is enough to use the letters «М», «Я», «С», «О». Note that the apostrophe is not a letter, so it is not counted towards the word length.

Once you have decided which word to form, take the necessary components (cards from your hand, joker tokens) and lay them out in front of you in the correct order. If you used a Familiar letter card, leave a gap at that position in your word.

Example of forming a word

Nastya has 7 cards in hand (6 letter cards «Ж», «З», «И», «М», «О», «Є» and 1 joker card), as well as 3 unused joker tokens. She wants to form the word «МОРОЗИВО» (ice cream). To do this, Nastya lays out, in order:

1. the letter card «М»;
2. the letter card «О»;
3. the letter card «Ж», and places a joker token on it to get the letter Р;
4. the Familiar letter card «О», leaving an empty space in place of it in her word;
5. the letter card «З»;
6. the letter card «И»;
7. a joker card, which she uses as the letter В;
8. the letter card «Є», and places a second joker token on it to get the letter О.

So Nastya has formed a word 8 letters long.

Now count the letters in your word and perform the following steps:

a. Announce the word length. Tell your opponents how many letters your word has.

b. Take Balance of Power cards. Balance of Power cards are letter cards and joker cards that players use in the same way as ordinary letter and joker cards from their own decks. Depending on the colour, the letter cards in the Balance of Power decks differ in how difficult they are to use.

Look at the "For neighbours" row of the Familiar's codex. It shows how many and which Balance of Power cards each of your neighbours (1 player to the left and 1 player to the right) must take, according to the length of your word.

Announce these cards to your neighbours. Without looking, they take the matching Balance of Power cards and place them face down on top of their decks.

For example: having formed a word 8 letters long, you tell your neighbours: "Take 1 yellow card and 1 red card each."

• If a player takes several Balance of Power cards, they choose the order in which to place them on top of their deck.
• If any Balance of Power deck does not have enough cards for all the players involved, players take cards from it in turn, clockwise, starting with the player to the left of the active player, until that Balance of Power deck runs out. Players who run out of cards do not place cards on top of their decks.

c. Discard the used cards.

• Place your letter cards, joker cards and magic cards that you used to form the word face up in your discard pile.
• If you used joker tokens, turn each of them face down and place them next to your deck.

All Familiar letter cards remain in their places until the end of the game.

d. Draw cards.

The number of cards you must have in hand at the end of your turn, if you formed a word, is given in the "Draw up to" row of the Familiar's codex. This number depends on the length of the word you formed.

Word length	3	4	5	6	7	8	9+
For neighbours	–	green	yellow	red	green + yellow	yellow + red	green + yellow + red
Draw up to	9	8	7	6	5	5	5

Word length is the number of letters in the word. "For neighbours" means the Balance of Power cards that neighbours must place on top of their decks. "Draw up to" means you draw cards from your deck until you have the stated number of cards in hand.

• If you have fewer cards in hand than stated, draw from your deck until you reach the required number. If you have more, you do not draw, but you also do not discard the excess cards.
• Important: during the draw step, you may no longer play magic cards.

After this, the next player clockwise takes their turn.

• Important: if your deck runs out, take all the cards that remain in it. You do not create a new deck to reach the required number.

Example of a player's turn

Nastya has 7 cards in hand (6 letter cards and 1 magic card "Відродження" (Revival)). She plays the magic card to restore one of her joker tokens and places it face up in her discard pile. Then Nastya forms a 5-letter word using 5 letter cards from her hand.

This is a three-player game, so Nastya tells her neighbours: "One yellow card each."

Both of Nastya's neighbours place 1 yellow card face down on top of their decks.

Nastya places the used letter cards face up in her discard pile.

During her turn she discarded 6 cards (1 magic card and 5 letter cards), and 1 card is left in her hand.

Next, Nastya must draw cards from her deck to have 7 cards in hand, so she should take 6 cards into her hand from her deck. However, her deck has only 4 cards, so Nastya simply takes all of them and ends her turn.

2. Pass

If you decide not to form a word and pass, take the top 3 cards of your deck into your hand. If your deck has fewer than 3 cards, take all the cards that are there. Then the next player clockwise takes their turn.

Even if you pass, you may still play any number of magic cards from your hand.

End of the Game

The end of the game is triggered when any player takes the last card from their deck, or the last card from one of the Balance of Power decks.

After the active player finishes their turn, the other players continue to take their turns in order until the turn reaches the first player. The first player does not take another turn, so all players take the same number of turns.

The game then ends, and each player counts how many cards are left in their hand and in their deck in total. The player with the fewest cards wins. If several players are tied, the player with more unused joker tokens wins. If several players are still tied, they share the victory.

Example of the end of the game

Nastya has 6 cards in hand and 4 in her deck (10 cards in total) and 0 unused joker tokens.

Olena has 9 cards in hand and 3 in her deck (12 cards in total) and 3 unused joker tokens.

Sasha has 5 cards in hand and 5 in his deck (10 cards in total) and 1 unused joker token.

Nastya and Sasha have the fewest cards, but Sasha has more unused joker tokens, so Sasha wins.

Magic Cards

Each player's deck contains magic cards with special effects. On your turn you may play any number of these cards. To play a magic card, place it in your discard pile and apply its effect.

Magic cards count towards the total number of cards in your hand.

If needed, you may use a joker token to turn a magic card into any letter you need.

Explanation of magic card effects

You always add cards taken through the effects of magic cards to your hand, and you may use them immediately.

Revival (Відродження) To restore a joker token, turn your used joker token face up. You can now use it again.

Renewal of Strength (Оновлення сил) Place any number of cards from your hand under the bottom of your deck, then take the same number of cards from the top of your deck.

A used magic card is sent to the discard pile before its effect is applied, so it cannot also be placed under the bottom of the deck.

Gap in the source. The source explains only the two magic cards above. Each player deck contains 4 magic cards, and the card faces of the other two types are titled «Пошук долі» (Search for Fate, blue deck) and a light-blue card whose title is only partly legible at the printed resolution (it ends «…порції», apparently «Додаткова порція»). The rulebook gives no explanation of their effects, and the card text is too small in the PDF to read reliably, so their effects are not transcribed here.

Familiar Letter Cards

The Familiar's letter deck holds his knowledge, which he guards jealously. It contains vowel letter cards that players may additionally use to form their words.

On your turn, you may choose 1 available Familiar letter card and use it in your word.

A Familiar letter card is available if it does not have the Familiar figure on it.

Example of moving the Familiar: when you use a Familiar letter card, immediately place the Familiar figure on it. It then becomes unavailable.

Familiar's Magic Properties

If you are not playing the classic mode, you have 3 additional magic properties of the Familiar available, shown on his planshet.

When you use a Familiar letter card, you may (but are not required to) use the magic property printed on the planshet above the letter card you used, in addition to using the letter itself.

Available magic properties:

• Discard the top card of your deck. After forming a word, place the top card of your deck face up in your own discard pile.
• ±1 word length. After forming a word, you may decrease or increase its length by 1 and carry out the actions of the Familiar's codex according to the new word length.
• Discard any card from your hand. After forming a word, place any card remaining in your hand face up in your own discard pile.

Example: Nastya formed a 5-letter word using a Familiar letter card that lies under the ±1 property. She decides to use the Familiar's magic property and reduces her word length from 5 to 4 letters. So Nastya's neighbours each take 1 green card instead of a yellow one, and she draws up to 8 cards in hand, not 7.

Character Cards

Once you have chosen a character card, the player may use its abilities for the whole game.

• Amazon (Амазонка). When forming words, you always have 1 additional letter «А» at your disposal. It is counted towards the word length. Example: Sasha has letter cards «К», «Р», «П», «А», «Н» and the Amazon card. Sasha forms the 6-letter word «ПАРКАН» (fence), playing all his cards and using the Amazon's ability. After this he discards the 5 used letter cards.

• Witch (Відьма). Note that every other player takes a yellow card into their hand, not just your neighbours.

• Gnome (Ґном). You take the top card of your deck into your hand. Do not forget to take the card in time! If you forget to do so during another player's turn, when that player activated the Gnome's ability, you can no longer take this card later.

• Dragon (Дракон). During the game you never place a red card on top of your deck. For example, during the draw step, or as a result of another player's character ability (there are no characters with such abilities in this box).

• Druid (Друїд). You may use at most 1 Familiar letter card per turn. It may be available or unavailable. When you use an unavailable Familiar letter card, you do not need to move the Familiar figure.

• Elf (Ельфійка). If, after forming a word, you have magic cards left in your hand, you may still use this ability. Example: Sasha formed the 8-letter word «ПРИБУТОК» (profit), and after this only 2 magic cards were left in his hand. He must therefore draw cards from his own deck until he has 5 cards, but thanks to the Elf's ability Sasha may draw cards into his hand until he has 7 (5+2) cards.

• Mage (Маг). When you play a magic card, carry out its effect in full, and then, if you wish, you may carry out this effect once more.

Additional Rules

• There is no limit on the number of cards in a hand.
• Cards lying face up in front of players are open information; each player may look at these cards at any time.
• A player may review the cards in their own discard pile at any time, but not the discard piles of other players.

Classic Mode

This mode is set in the times when magic did not yet exist in the world, the Library was only being created, and the Familiar could still be called a kitty, without turning into a worm right after!

The game follows the normal rules, with one change: there is no magic in the game. During setup, place the Familiar planshet with the side without magic properties face up (A), and remove all magic cards from the players' decks (B).

This mode encourages you to form words more carefully and to use joker tokens with more caution. Be prepared to pass more often in this mode: taking several extra letters and thinking it over for one more round is a good idea!

Word Categories

You may use the usual restrictions on word formation for games of this kind: singular nouns in the nominative case. Or you may choose another category with other restrictions, or even several different categories! You may also not restrict yourself at all, using any words you like.

At least in your first game, it is recommended to play without restrictions: form any words that come to mind.

If you plan to play seriously, then before the game choose one or several categories and take a dictionary that players will consult if disputes arise.

The table below gives examples of some categories. However, do not limit yourself to them, and feel free to invent your own categories!

Word category	Examples (Ukrainian, with English gloss)
Noun (singular)	дуб, вікно, пісня (oak, window, song)
Noun (plural)	котики, бобри, абрикоси (kittens, beavers, apricots)
Adjective	світлий, важке, приємна (light, heavy, pleasant)
Verb	прасувати, мріяти, відпочивати (to iron, to dream, to rest)
Proper noun	Київ, Гикач, Микола (Kyiv, Hykach, Mykola)
Surzhyk (mixed Ukrainian–Russian vocabulary)	пропуск, резина, ножниці (skipping/pass, rubber, scissors)
Anglicisms	інфлюенсер, ейчар, інсайт (influencer, HR, insight)
Abbreviations	ЗНО, ООН, УЗД (external independent exam, UN, ultrasound)
Your category	write your own examples here...