Cost: $8.95 per Starter, $2.75 per Booster From: Wizards of the Coast, Box 707, Renton WA, 98057-0707 Players: 2+ Playing Time: 120+ minutes Type of game: Collectible Card Complexity: 8 Skill level: 7 Reviewed by: Peter Sarrett, Issue 2.4, Summer 1994
Easily the most-anticipated game of the year, Jyhad is Wizards of the Coast's second Deckmaster game. Just in case you've been in a cave for the past twelve months, Deckmaster is WotC's name for the game genre it's created: the collectible trading card game. Its first Deckmaster game, Magic: The Gathering, is a phenomenon the likes of which the gaming world hasn't seen since Trivial Pursuit or Dungeons and Dragons. Articles about Magic have appeared in numerous publications including Games Magazine, Wired, and The New York Times. It's a game most people don't just play, but obsess over.
Following in those gargantuan footsteps is Jyhad, a game based on Vampire: The Masquerade, White Wolf's role-playing game of the blood-sucking undead. Jyhad is distributed in Starter Packs of 76 cards ($9.95) and Booster Packs of 19 cards ($2.75). The complete set comprises over 400 different cards in multiple levels of rarity. As with Magic, each Starter or Booster contains a random assortment of cards, your only guarantee (barring distribution snafus) being that you'll get a certain number of common, uncommon, and rare cards in each pack. With Jyhad, you also get a few vampires every time.
Vampires belong to one of eight different clans. Each clan tends to possess a certain group of skills, and these skills allow vampires to take various actions. The obfuscate skill tends to allow stealth- and disguise-related actions, while celerity tends to increase abilities in combat. Since many cards can only be used by vampires possessing the appropriate skill, it's important to make sure your vampires match the skills needed by your other cards. Likewise some cards may only affect or be used by vampires of certain clans. Right away, Jyhad offers more nuance in deck construction than Magic.
Players use two decks in a game. The first deck, called the crypt, consists entirely of vampires (at least twelve of them). The second deck (the Library) is limited to forty cards plus ten additional cards for every player in the game. One nice feature of Jyhad is that whenever you play a card, you immediately draw from your library to replace it. This rapid infusion of new cards to your hand keeps the game lively. Often you'll find yourself using a card you don't really need to play in the hope of drawing something better to replace it.
Everyone begins the game with a "blood pool" of 30 life points and deals the top four cards from their crypt face-down in front of them. These are the player's uncontrolled vampires. During your turn, you may transfer up to four blood counters from your pool to these uncontrolled vampires. Each vampire has a blood capacity ranging from one to ten. When that number of blood counters accumulates on the vampire, it becomes active and is turned face up. Note that in order to activate a vampire and bring it into play, you've got to sacrifice your own blood-- so every transfer must be carefully considered. In Jyhad, players invariably do more damage to themselves than their opponents do to them!
There are two types of library cards. Master cards, with grey borders, may be played only once per turn. Minion cards are played by a player's vampires and other controlled creatures (known collectively as minions). These range from equipment which enhances a minion's combat abilities to direct attacks against other minions or players.
Minions and Master cards tend to be "permanent"-- that is, they stay in the game once played. Most other cards are discarded when played. When a minion acts or a permanent card's ability is used, that card is "tapped" by turning it on its side. A tapped card can't be used again until it is untapped at the start of the owning player's next turn.
Each vampire is unique, and only one of each vampire may be in play at a time. If a second vampire with the same name appears, both are "contested" and are turned face down. Players with contested cards lose blood each turn until someone yields by discarding the contested card, allowing the other card to be turned face up and used again. This doesn't seem to happen often in practice.
The player to your left is your prey, while the one to the right is your predator. If your prey dies, you get a victory point. The last player left in the game also gets a point, and whoever has the most victory points is the winner. The most common way of damaging your prey is by having your vampires "bleed" him. Any number of your untapped vampires can attempt this on your turn, and any of your prey's untapped minions can try to block. Cards can be played to help make your bleeding vampire stealthier (harder to block), but your prey can counter by boosting his minion's ability to intercept and block. If the bleeding vampire gets through, its victim loses a blood. If the vampire is blocked, combat ensues.
By default, combat occurs at close range and vampires do 1 point of damage to each other. Cards can change that, moving combat to long range (thus preventing damage by all except ranged strikes) or inflicting more damage. One counter is removed from a vampire for each point of damage it receives. If it takes more damage than it has counters, it goes to "torpor" and must be rescued by another vampire before it can act again. Combat normally lasts for only one round, but some cards allow a player to extend combat.
Most actions taken by minions can be blocked by other players' minions if the blocker has enough intercept to do so. Whenever a block succeeds, the blocker is tapped and the acting and blocking minion enter combat. Regardless of the outcome of combat, the blocked action fails. Unlike Magic, where all creatures attack at once, minions in Jyhad act one at a time.
Jyhad can be played with just two people, but it was really designed for more. The political action cards take particular advantage of this aspect of Jyhad's design. These minion cards offer a scenario, such as "Propose a new seating order," leaving it up to the player to fill in the specifics. A vote ensues. Each player gets one vote. The issuer of the proposal gets an extra vote. Some vampires give their owners up to three additional votes, and any player can burn a political action card from their hand to cast a vote. If the proposal receives a majority of votes, its effects are carried out. Since these effects can be quite dramatic, making sure you've got clout in elections can be crucial. As I discovered in a recent six-player game, it's also important to select proposals carefully to make sure that the players with the most votes will cast them in your favor. The alliances, promises, and other byplay during the voting process adds an entirely new level to the game.
Although wounded vampires can regain one blood each turn by tapping and "hunting," it is extremely difficult to replenish lost blood to your blood pool. This makes every drop of blood precious. The balance between spending blood to bring vampires into play and keeping enough to survive attacks from your predator is a delicate one.
The most prevalent way of gaining blood is via possession of The Edge. The Edge is a special counter or token (it can be anything you have handy, like a hat or a book) which starts the game unowned. Whenever a player successfully bleeds his prey, he gets The Edge. If you have The Edge at the start of your turn, you may add a point of blood to your pool. The Edge tends to bounce from player to player, with players conspiring to take it away so that the current holder doesn't benefit from it at the start of her next turn. The Edge can also be surrendered in exchange for an additional vote during political actions. Handy in emergencies, or if you think you're going to lose it before your next turn anyway.
Jyhad is a more complex game than Magic-- I've only barely touched on some of its subtleties. But is it as good a game? Maybe it's just because it's newer, but I may actually like Jyhad better than Magic. There appears to be far more strategy involved in Jyhad and less reliance on luck. Where a bad hand can cripple you in Magic, the luck of the draw plays a less pivotal role here-- especially since you can cycle through cards fairly rapidly. Jyhad allows for a good deal of strategic planning in the use of available resources. Since vampires don't automatically heal after each combat as creatures do in Magic, long-term planning becomes possible and effective.
Thus far I've been conspicuously silent about the cards themselves. If anything, they're generally even more impressive than their Magic forefathers. The modern gothic theme runs throughout the set and provides a dramatically different tone. The vampire portraits are especially striking. I've always thought Anson Maddocks gave us the best Magic artwork, but lots of people are giving him a run for his money in Jyhad. Somehow, though, Sawed-Off Shotguns and other modern images don't inspire my imagination like Shivan Dragons do. Some of these cards, like the Thrown Gate and Glaser Rounds, are definitely for mature audiences only.
Jyhad will never duplicate the Magic phenomenon. I doubt any other collectible trading card game will. Maybe that's just as well-- the cards should stay available for a while. I've thoroughly enjoyed every game of it I've played (most have been three player, three hour affairs). I don't intend to collect a complete set (I've learned my lesson, thank you very much), but I'd certainly enjoy having one. Jyhad is a worthy follow-up to Wizards of the Coast's blockbuster debut.