Magical Athlete – a goofy little game that’s been a hit with several of my game groups – plays light and quick but with some interesting strategies that change every game. This has simple components and a simple ruleset ... which makes it easy to introduce fan-made variants!
You may have seen that I just posted a new Magical Athlete variant, called “Advantages.” I wouldn’t have thought up the variant had it not been for others creating their own extra characters. I found those custom characters on BoardGameGeek, and I was immediately enthralled. A Dragon, Cthulhu, the Rocketeer, Icarus, and the Mad Bomber? I was ready to play! ... But there were some problems.
For one thing, the best and biggest repository of characters was in a flat Excel spreadsheet (and hey, I love Excel). But I needed cards for these guys, to play along with the original character cards. So now we have printable cards!
And I needed some clarity. When I tried playing with the custom characters, lots of gnarly questions were raised about how abilities worked. Several times someone drafted a character expecting it to do things one way, then everyone else objected and thought it should be done differently. That was frustrating. There was far too much wiggle room and confusion. So this called for an edit!
I love editing. I’ve spent far too much time editing that original list of custom characters, editing my edits, re-editing, etc., ad nauseum. But I did it, and I brought it to a conclusion (for now).
And in the process of unknotting and reweaving each character’s ability on the loom of the computer and in the textile mill of my mind, patterns of new characters appeared to me! So I distilled dyes. I sheared sheep. I put wool to spindle and needle to thread ... and I typed words into Excel.
All to say that this variant is not merely a compilation of Magical Athlete creativity borrowed secondhand from others. It heralds newly crafted characters eager to unfurl upon the scene!
The Fairy Godmother!
The Faun!
The Predator!
The Hound of Hades!
The Wizard!
Lady Luck!
The Phoenix!
The Hipster!
The Loan Shark!
Kitty Kitty!
BOOM!
(Okay, I don’t know how or why fabric or woven apparel would explode, but that metaphor was bound to break down ... and apparently afternoon caffeine has this kind of effect on me. And I mostly included that last onomatopoeia as a tribute to Jamie. It’s an inside joke, and it’s generally great fun to say.)
There are even more new characters than these I just named. Thanks to Eric Dolansky (dialwand on BGG) and the other character creators for their contributions. Also, thank you Anthony, Kevin, Josh, Matt, the Erics, Nathan, and more for trying these out with me and finding all the loopholes!
Good luck playing with these custom characters. And may the best/most fortunate/best-deal-of-the-draft athlete win!
You can download the variant using the links below. There are 3 documents:
about/“readme” reference sheet – download here
character cards (with space for adding artwork) – download here
character abilities list, including notes for clarifications, plus FAQ reference – download here
Magical Athlete © Z-Man Games, Inc.
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