It’s high time to mix up Magical Athlete! This variant adds to the game bonus, single-use effects. These “Advantages” can make big impacts and cause unexpected twists of fate ... if you use them wisely.
You will need to print the Advantages' icons at the bottom, or you will need something else to use as tokens for the Advantages.
You can download the variant in full as a PDF document here. Or see below for the document text.
Advantages
A Magical Athlete variant by Adam Sequoyah
At the Magical Athlete fairgrounds, you watch the arriving racers warming up and showing off. A bald sage in a robe hovers above the mud, dangerously close to a man with a horse’s body practicing mule-kicks. A fierce-looking woman with a red sword rushes a man who waggles his finger and pushes her back with some unseen force. A lady clad in scuba gear inspects a large puddle, and a very old, bearded man shuffles past her as he constantly checks his pocketwatch.
Unimpressed for the moment, you venture out past the grandstand, past the hawkers selling commemorative trinkets, and past the steam and sizzle of food frying in small booths. Eventually you spot a lone table with a scowling dwarf seated – or possibly standing – behind it. As you approach, his squinting eyes and a single exposed tooth indicate his attempt at a smile.
“What are you liking today?” he says in a gruff voice, gesturing to the items on display. Quite a variety is set out before you. And you realize it’s probably best not to question how it was all smuggled in.
You recognize some of the name-brand magical products in their cellophane packaging. Several other unlabeled, shabby boxes twitch fitfully, emitting octarine sparks. You wince and avert your gaze. But the baubles hovering above the table are really not bad.
“Lots of goodies,” says the dwarf, “to give a little extra advantage if it’s needed.”
Then you notice a large bundle nearly concealed behind the table. The dwarf speaks up in a different tone. “Oh, don’t think you’d be interested in that one there. Still experimental, it is. Of course, I might be able to make you a bargain....”
Setup
Provide each player with 1 extra VP to start the game.
Cut out the Advantages on the last page of this document. Set out the stock of Advantages for all to see. The available Advantages are:
2 Boot Boosters®
2 EMPs
2 Insta-Gusts™
2 sets of Magic Beans
1 Mind Control Experiment
1 Old Explosives
4 Shiny Baubles
Gameplay: The Draft
Advantages are available to purchase for players who have drafted at least 1 character but not all of their characters for the races. Whenever a player in this situation chooses to pass instead of drafting a character, they can pay 1 VP to the supply and take any 1 Advantage that is available in stock. This purchase is optional. A player can purchase no more than 1 Advantage per turn.
A player can pass on their turn to purchase an Advantage even if the normal game rules would not allow them to pass (i.e., when there is a character on the 0-cost space). If this happens, a new character is drawn to take the 4-cost space, and the other characters are shifted over. The character that was on the 0-cost space is moved from the game board to the bottom of the character deck. If a player does not purchase an Advantage, they cannot pass when the normal game rules would not allow them to.
Advanced Draft variant:
To cycle through fewer characters and to give players more chances to snag the characters they want, you can play with these alternative rules for the draft. The same rules apply from above for purchasing Advantages, but the way the draft works is fundamentally different.
Instead of 1 player taking a turn and then the next character being drawn, the draft is played in a series of rounds and game turns. A round lasts until each player drafts 1 character. The draft lasts as many rounds as the number of characters each player should draft (e.g., 4 rounds for a 5-player game). Each round consists of an unknown number of turns. Each turn, a new character is drawn and added to the board. During each turn, in clockwise turn order, each player has 1 chance to pass or to draft a character. Once a player has drafted a character during the current round, that player is out of the round. When a turn ends, the player to start the new turn is the player who is closest in clockwise order to the player who started the last turn.
Multiple players can each purchase 1 character during a turn. If there are no more characters on the board, all players who have not already passed or drafted a character this turn must pass.
A player still in a round can pass almost any time, and usually all players can pass in a turn if they want. The only exception is if there are characters on all 5 spaces on the board and all other players have passed during the turn or are out of the round. In this case, the last player in the turn must draft a character.
In the Advanced Draft variant, players do not lose VP they still have at the end of the draft.
Gameplay: The Races
During the races, an Advantage can be discarded to activate its effect. Besides the Shiny Baubles, which have no usable effect, Advantages have 1-time uses with temporary effects. A player can use an Advantage on any player’s turn. A player can use an Advantage when their character is in the current race, has finished the race, or has died. Some Advantages can even be used before a race begins.
Advantage effects are not considered the same as character “abilities” referred to in character descriptions. Advantage effects cannot be canceled or denied by character abilities. Advantage effects take priority over character abilities.
The Advantages
Boot Booster®
As seen on MV!
2 in stock
Effect: +5 to a character’s movement. This can be used on any character while they are moving, either from their normal movement roll or from another effect such as from a character ability which provides a certain number of spaces to move. It can be used to add to movement even if the total movement was below 0. Since it only affects movement, this Advantage does not add to rolled numbers (i.e., it does not affect dice per se); but it can add to the number of spaces to move which resulted from a die roll. If a character is not attempting to move (such as when they lost their turn or when their movement was stolen or canceled), this Advantage cannot affect them.
EMP (Electromagical Pulse)
Guaranteed results. Temporarily.
2 in stock
Effect: Cancels both the effects and the use/triggering of all character abilities until the next end of a turn. This cannot undo ability effects such as characters having already been moved forward or backward, but it can cancel effects such as a character losing their next turn (e.g., after having had a spell put on them by the Witch). The EMP can be used before a race (when no one is currently taking a turn), but it cannot cancel 1-time abilities. (E.g., the EMP does not cancel the abilities of the Prophet, the Rocketeer, or the Thief, nor does it prevent the Xenomorph from entering the race or Johnny Two Times from costing extra VP to draft ... but it can cancel the Spy’s ability, since he can use it multiple times.) If a duty ability is canceled that would have replaced a character’s normal movement roll, that character takes a normal movement roll this turn.
Insta-Gust™
From the magical inventors that brought you Weight Drops™!
2 in stock
Effect: Moves all characters that are stopped on a space forward or backward 3 spaces. This can be used on any space at almost any time, including in between character abilities being resolved (although not between simultaneously triggered abilities being resolved). It cannot be used when a character has only partially finished their movement (e.g., when they have moved 4 spaces out of 5). It can move characters to the start or the finish. If this causes multiple characters to finish the race at the same time, all those characters take the same place in the race and get the full amount of that place’s prize (if first or second place).
Magic Beans
“I’d give my last cow for them!” – Jack, loyal customer
2 in stock – 3 beans in each set
Effect: When cast upon the ground, this magical fruit sprouts and grows extremely rapidly. When a player purchases this Advantage, they take a set of 3 Magic Beans. (3 tokens can represent the Magic Beans, or a separate die can show how many Magic Beans a player has.) A single Magic Bean can be used apart from the others, or multiple Magic Beans can be used together for a cumulative effect. (I.e., 1-6 Magic Beans can be used at once.) Each Magic Bean adds 1 to the number of any type of die. The resulting number does not have to show on the die. (E.g., a die roll result of 6 becomes 7 by discarding 1 Magic Bean, and a Programmer's die showing the number 5 can become 10 by using 5 Magic Beans.) A player can use Magic Beans on dice they are using or on dice other players are using.
Mind Control Experiment
“You’re not supposed to be in here!”
1 in stock
Effect: The player who uses this Advantage can choose if and how 1 character’s abilities are used, until the end of that character’s next turn. Duty abilities still trigger; if there is a choice in how to use them, the player using this Advantage can choose. Like the EMP, this can be used before a race (e.g., to let a player use the Prophet’s ability instead of the Prophet’s player, etc.). Any benefit gained by a character who is under the control of the Mind Control Experiment still goes to that character or player. (E.g., the player using the Mind Control Experiment on the Prophet can write the Prophet’s prediction, but the Prophet’s player would later receive VP if the prediction was correct.)
Old Explosives
Acm_ D_nam__e
1 in stock
Effect: These packed sticks of nitroglycerine must have been sitting around for decades. To use the Old Explosives, the player who has them must successfully detonate them. To attempt to detonate them, the player rolls a die. This roll cannot be affected by character abilities. A roll result of 5 or higher detonates the Old Explosives, and they cause the current race turn to immediately end. All character movement immediately stops, all ability effects being carried out immediately stop, and any abilities that would trigger do not. The player who used the Old Explosives has the next turn, then the normal turn order resumes, beginning with the next player to the left. Detonating the Old Explosives can be attempted once per turn. The Old Explosives are discarded only when they explode. Once a player begins attempting to use the Old Explosives, they do not have to continue attempting it every turn; they can wait until a later time.
Shiny Bauble
Ooo... ahh...
4 in stock
Effect: Each Shiny Bauble is worth 1.1 VP. When the draft completes, players do not lose Shiny Baubles they still have. Shiny Baubles can be used for drafting characters or for anything else during the game. Shiny Baubles used as payment to the general supply (such as during the draft) are not available to be purchased again. If used voluntarily by their owners during the game, Shiny Baubles’ values are temporarily rounded down to the nearest whole number of VP. Otherwise their values are not rounded. (E.g., a player can give the Realtor’s player a Shiny Bauble to move their character to the Realtor’s space, which increases that player’s total VP by 1.1. But a Shiny Bauble cannot be forcefully stolen by the Thief since it is worth more than 1 VP.)
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