A game of the supernatural, by Chris Elliott & Richard Edwards
Outside the thin circle of salt stood a nightmare. A will start as the Demon. The Demon player takes the
huge bony tail lashed to and fro across the floor, leav-
ing a trail of sparks, and the claws on the hind legs
gouged deep scratches in the flagstones. For a moment
it rested on one taloned paw, while its head swung
from side to side and murderous eyes stared at the
figure inside the floe pointed star. Then its gaze shifted
to the one tripod which remained of those that stood
at the five points, its contents still hidden by glowing
mist. A clawed finger stabbed out, and traced a figure
of fire which hung in the air for a moment before
hurtling into the mist. As it reached the tripod, there
was a sudden rush of wind. The symbol flared into
incandescent brightness and then hung in the air
above the tripod. With a snarl of triumph, the horror
contemptuously swept aside the lines of salt on the
floor, and reached out for the figure inside . . .
It was a matter of regret to some in the profession of
Magic that the awesome struggle of a wizard to sum-
mon and bind a demon had ever become the subject
of anything as trivial asa gambling game. Be that as it
may, the game of Sorcerer’s Hazard, or Demondare as
it was popularly known, seemed to hold a special
fascination for magicians, with its combination of luck
and logic. And when even the Archmage himself had
been known to indulge in a small wager who were
lesser mortals to turn their noses up at a few turns for
the usual stakes?
INTRODUCTION
The rules which follow are for the popular two-player
version of the game, as played in Sorcerer’s Guilds
across all three continents. As it is a gambling game,
it is played in a number of rounds, each of which con-
sists of one challenge. During a challenge, one player
tries to break out of a magical circle and break the
defences of the second player’s circle using powerful
spells, symbolised in the game by magical signs.
The game consists of a board marked with a triangle
within a circle, which is where the demon materialises;
a pentagram within a circle, which is where the wizard
stands, and 16 counters representing four of each of
the four magical elements (Air, Earth, Fire and Water).
STARTING PLAY
Before you start playing you should remove the centre
pages, glue them to some card to keep them stiff, and
then cut out the playing pieces. Decide how many
rounds you are going to play for. Before you start the
first game you must agree on the number of rounds that
will be played. The wizards of the Sorcerer’s Guild
usually went to eight rounds, though games sometimes
went up to a hundred rounds if there was a lot of gold
coinage or prestige riding on the outcome! You should
find that eight or ten are sufficient to determine who
is the better player; always ensure that the number of
rounds to be played is an even number.
Next decide who will start as the Wizard, and who
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eight Planet counters and the Wizard takes the eight
Alchemical counters. Before you start playing ensure
both players have read the rules from start to finish so
they have at least some idea of what is going on!
THE COUNTERS
Counters
Element Colour Planets Alchemical
Fire Red Sun Candle
Mars Blood
Air Blue Mercury Quicksilver
Jupiter Heart
Water Green Venus Holy Water
Moon Egg
Earth Brown Earth Stone
Saturn Flesh
This is a brief summary of each round of the game:
The Wizard goes first, laying all his counters face down
on the points of the pentagram and on the circles in
the triangle. These represent the material components
of the spell intended to bind the demon that are plac-
ed in the tripods at these points, and which form the
wizard’s defences. The Demon then plays its counters
one at a time, in an effort to counteract the wizard’s
defences. There is only one rule, and it is a simple one.
THE RULE
No opposing elements may be placed on the same line
by the Wizard.
There, we said it was simple, didn’t we? Opposing
elements are those directly opposite each other in the
diagram on the board (i.e. Fire and Water, Earth and Air).
For example, the Wizard can’t lay down Blood and Holy
Water on two of the points of the triangle.
THE WIZARD SETS UP
Before he gets down to the very serious job of sum-
moning up his Demon, the Wizard must first of all
prepare his defences. The Wizard should first of all
secretly choose an element – such as Fire, for example.
He then places two Fire counters face down on the
circles surrounding the triangle, without revealing them
to his opponent. This leaves one corner empty.
Because of the rule about not having opposite
elements on the same line, he is obviously limited to
only two of his three remaining elements to fill the re-
maining space. In our example, the Wizard can only
play an Earth or Air piece; let’s say he chooses Earth.
This now leaves our Wizard with two complete sets
of elements, and one set with only one element. This
odd element is the `keystone’ to the pentagram (the
larger circle). He must place this remaining element on
one of the points of the pentagram just inside the cir-
cle. He then places the remaining two elements on
adjoining points, and finally the other two points
leading from the odd one. So, for example, our Wizard
places the remaining Earth on one point, then (mov-
ing clockwise around the board) an Air, the two Waters,
and the other Air. Have a look at the pretty example
drawings and you’ll see what we mean!
Now the Wizard thinks he’s prepared. Let’s bring
on the Demon!
ENTER THE DEMON!
There’s a nasty rumbling noise, a faint smell of
something very disgusting, all the candles go out, and
all of a sudden there’s a ten-foot scaly thing in the mid-
dle of the triangle! The Demon player begins within
the confines of this triangle, and must attack all three
points before moving on to blast his way inside the pen-
tagram and win (in real life this would be accomplish-
ed by eating the wizard!).
The Demon attacks by laying pieces alongside those
laid by the Wizard, and revealing the two symbols to
see which has won. The first counter played by the
Demon must be a guess (mind reading is considered
bad form amongst Diabological players), but from then
on a clever Demon player should be able to use logic
to increase his chance of scoring points.
Please remember that the Demon player doesn’t
have to follow the same rule of not having opposite
elements on the same line.
Hint for the Demon player: Once the triangle has
been broken, the keystone to the pentagram is the weak
point, since finding that will reveal the orientation of
the pentagram. There are 5 possible positions for it;
try and locate the keystone as quickly as possible in
order to score the highest points.
STRIKING A BLOW
If an element is attacked by a second one (by the
Demon platting an element next to it), one of four
things can occur. It may be destroyed, it may destroy
the second element, they may mutually destroy each
other, or nothing may happen.
The diagram on the gameboard shows how this is
resolved:
Both the same element – nothing happens.
Second element has arrow from it – second ele-
ment wins.
First element has arrow from it – first element
wins.
Opposite elements – both are destroyed.
Note that there is no ‘superior’ element, as each is
defeated by another. Therefore you’ll quickly find that
there is no ‘surefire’ method of success, and that win-
ning requires luck as well as logic.
SCORING POINTS
For every counter that destroys one of the wizard’s
counters, the demon scores 1 point. For every counter
that destroys one of the demons, the wizard scores 1
point. No points are scored by either player if nothing
happens, or the counters destroy each other. When all
the demons counters have been played, the players note
their scores and reverse roles. The wizard player
becomes the demon player, and vice versa.
WINNING THE GAME
Once all the agreed number of rounds have been
played, the player with the most points is the winner!
And that’s all there is to it!
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