Welcome to the Far Wilds!

When I was young, I had multiple hobbies that might have been considered somewhat "nerdy." I played traditional role-playing games, including Dungeons & Dragons. I always enjoyed the social aspect of the game, and I could lose countless hours interacting with other like-minded people in a particularly fleshed-out campaign. I also collected baseball cards. I loved the rush when I'd open a pack and find a particularly rare and valuable piece to add to my collection. Finally, I played a lot of strategy-based board games. I conquered the world numerous times playing Risk, and decimated untold armies playing Stratego. Even when I lost, I loved plying unusual strategies against my opponent -- what I might have lacked in pure intellect, I tried to make up for with unpredictability.

Imagine my joy in the early 1990s when a single game came about that incorporated all of these aspects! There were collectible card games before Magic: the Gathering came about, but no one else had done it quite as well. The premise of that game is that you are one of two opposing wizards, each of which possesses a deck of cards full of spells (and the energy required to cast these spells). You play your spells against your opponent, his possessions, or in reaction to the spells that he is trying to play against you. There are several different possible winning conditions, but most games end when one of the two wizards sees his life total reduced to zero.

Magic: the Gathering was a revelation at first, but over the years, the game has suffered due to the constant tinkering by its creators. Each year, multiple new expansion sets come out; where at first there were only a few hundred cards and rules to memorize, there are now more than 10,000 different cards (1). Many of these cards are so overpowered that they can be used in ridiculous combinations; often games between top players last only a few rounds before one wizard has assumed an unquestionably dominant position. More importantly, the cost of entering the game is now exorbitant. When the game began, any player could accumulate a playable deck of cards by merely purchasing a couple of retail starter packs. Now it's almost impossible to be competitive on even a regional level without spending up to hundreds of dollars on individual cards. The same is true of the other collectible card games that have risen to prominence in the past twenty years. The sad truth is that it becomes exponentially more difficult to immerse yourself in a game like this if you have not been playing since the game's inception.

Like most readers of this article, I've found myself affected by the recent state of the American economy. When I needed to reduce expenditures from my budget, the first cuts came out of "entertainment." I sold my Magic: the Gathering cards online, and I searched for alternatives among the many different contenders for its throne. Eventually, after a few false starts, I stumbled across The Far Wilds. This game was designed by a group led by Jed McCaleb and the Code Collective, and shares a lot of similarities to traditional collectible card games. The premise of the game, per the official website, is that "You are a warlord in the outskirts of the known world struggling to establish a kingdom in the wild lands. You must use strategy and wits to establish yourself and not be pushed back further into the wilderness" (2). There are hundreds of different cards available, and you can use them to design your own deck that can be used against an opposing warlord.

The Far Wilds distinguishes itself from Magic: the Gathering (and other similar games) in the use of a grid-based board. When you play a creature card, you can actually move this creature around the board and specifically choose what you want it to do (whether to attack another creature, or threaten your opponent's buildings, or even just to act as a scout and keep an eye on the other warlord's development). Instead of winning a game by destroying an opponent's life totals, you'll aim to capture special spots on the map. These spots are "flux wells," and you can only win by controlling more of these wells than your opponent does.

The flux wells are also important when it comes to playing your other cards. Think of "flux" as being like money. The other cards in your hand (creatures, spells, enchantments, and buildings) affect your ability to win the game. However, you won't be able to play any of those cards for free -- each of them has a cost associated with it. By acquiring additional flux wells, you'll have access to more flux, which will allow you to cast higher-cost (and usually more effective) cards.

The game's learning curve is accessible, but becomes incredibly deep as your skills improve. For such a new game, the developers did an incredible job of creating balance; there is no single "killer combination" that cannot be countered, and winning decks can be composed of cards from any race (or combination of races). Better still, at the time I'm writing this article, the game is still considered to be in its "beta" stage. Even the strongest and most experienced players in the game have only been playing for a few months. There are also special leagues (called "Intro Leagues") devoted to new players; you can try out unfamiliar cards and experiment with new strategies without getting blown out of the water by people who have spent a lot of money accumulating cards.

Speaking of cost -- if you recall, monetary concerns were what led me to search for a new game to play in the first place. The main lobby regularly holds free leagues for new players, and there are always players (both experienced ones as well as relative newcomers) who are willing to participate in free limited tournaments. There are even free decks available that you can use in constructed tournaments until you've accumulated cards of your own. The real beauty of getting in on the game this early is that you'll be able to create your own decks relatively cheaply. By spending just $20.00 on booster packs, you'll be able to put together a deck that will be competitive in almost any tournament. In addition, the tournaments and leagues provide a prize to winners -- before long, you'll probably find that you won't need to spend money on the game at all. You'll be able to sustain yourself and improve your collection simply by trading cards with other players and accumulating new cards with your winnings.

So to sum up, The Far Wilds is a great new pastime that incorporates the best elements of fantasy games (like Dungeons & Dragons), collectible card games (like Magic: the Gathering), and strategy-based board games (like Risk). You can have a lot of fun playing for free, but you'll probably enjoy yourself more by sinking a small amount of money into the game. Regardless, you can rest assured that you won't be spending hundreds of dollars chasing a perfect set of cards. If this sounds like the sort of thing you might be interested in, you can check out a demo and download the game for free at http://thefarwilds.com. If you have any questions, there is also an active set of forums at the site; the regulars and the developers will be more than happy to welcome a new player.

Best of luck, and if you see a player named "chiaone," feel free to say hello.

(1) = http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic:_The_Gathering
(2) = http://thefarwilds.com/aboutus.html