Tabletop_Gaming__Issue_27__February_2019

Res Arcana’s world is

inspired by a mix of fantasy

and medieval alchemy

22 February 2019

RES ARCANA

RES-CUED

Despite Lehmann being one of the most revered

creators on the tabletop today and the obvious appeal

of a game that combines the fantasy battling of Magic

with the fast, addictive gameplay of Race, the designer

reveals that he initially struggled to nd a label willing

to take the project on.

“I designed the game for one publisher, but they

changed product managers before I was done,” he

says. “e new manager liked the game, but felt it

would be too hard to demo at a stand at the Essen

game fair. I then oered it to several other publishers,

but they all insisted that the theme would have to be

completely redone.”

Lehmann ended up showing Res Arcana to Maud and

Cyrille Daujean – the latter a industry veteran highly-

regarded for helping lead Small World and Ticket to Ride

(a game he also co-illustrated) publisher Days of Wonder

to success. At the time, the Daujeans were considering

starting their own publishing outlet; Res Arcana would

become the debut release of Sand Castle Games.

“I was very lucky that Maud and Cyrille Daujean

loved the game,” Lehmann says.

Tasked with bringing Lehmann’s fantasy vision to

life was Battlelore and Castles of Burgundy artist Julien

Delval, who had previously collaborated with Cyrille

on the look of Ticket to Ride and been responsible for

many other big Days of Wonder games.

“[He] did a wonderful job creating a unied ‘look’ to

match my fantasy setting,” says Lehmann.

TWO’S COMPANY

Res Arcana can be played with up to four people,

making it more exible as a competitive card game

than the head-to-head standard of Magic and other

games focused more on depleting the health of a

single opponent.

It can still work with just a pair of players, however,

with Lehmann highlighting the two-player match variant

the element of Res Arcana with which he is most proud.

e variant begins with a standard game, letting

both players see how the decks and cards work.

Afterwards, the players keep their mages and spread

out the game’s entire 16 artefacts in a four-by-four grid.

From this they draft their cards in a format similar to

the Rochester draft used in Magic – the loser of the rst

game chooses whether to go rst and pick one card, or

second with the ability to take two, the benet being to

select a strong combination from the o.

(a game he also co-illustrated) publisher Days of Wonder