Yesterday we ran an online playtest of the upcoming adventure Toil and Trouble by Chris Iredale. This adventure is specifically designed for beginning Magonomia players. It’s a quest to help a famous apothecary obtain rare ingredients for a magic potion, with plenty of surprises along the way (hence the title). Read on for some spoiler-free highlights of the game session.

What I like best about this adventure is that it has lots of opportunities for the wizards to use their spells. In Magonomia, every player character is a wizard with a repertoire of 11 spells. It didn’t take the players long to get familiar their spells and to start finding opportunities to apply them. The character sheet has a one or two-sentence summary of what each spell does, with a page reference to the rule book for the full details if needed. Most players cast their spells by consulting the character sheet. As much effort as we spent making a rulebook that explains things thoroughly while being fun to read, I think we can all agree the time to enjoy reading that rulebook is not the middle of a fight scene.

Because there was so much spellcasting, we got to see spells that haven’t come up much in other games. Here are some of the lesser-used spells the players employed to great effect (all of these are on the character sheets of the example characters):

• Weather Lore to make it rain at a fortuitous time

• Breath of Purity to clear the air of smoke, dust, and hostile gases

• Elixir of Wisdom to prepare a PC ahead of time to get the most out of a clue

• Balm of Protection from Fire to quickly deal with some of the toil and trouble that occurred

• Reading a Stranger’s Stars to size up the villain and get the upper hand in social conflict with him

Something special about Magonomia is that wizards don’t run out of spells. They can cast a spell whenever it fits the situation, though some spells do require ceremonial casting time and/or a Fate Point.

The plot of the adventure had a lot of variety: some action, some intrigue, some suspense, and even some social interaction. It’s well put together and flows well.

The next steps are a few minor design tweaks based on the first playtest, then illustrations, maps, editing, and layout. If all goes well, we should be able to have this available for sale by the end of 2022. I know I’m looking forward to running it again, perhaps at a convention.