Magic Realm.
The Magic Realm.
As a fantasy board gaming enthusiast, this title has been
the Holy Grail for me for some time. Twenty-five years late, it had always
remained an enigma and mystery of what such an experience could be.
I’d search for copies, but none were ever complete, one
would need multiple copies to try and assemble a complete set.
Print and play was an option, but even that had challenges.
A reprint?
HeroQuest did get a reprint, but the starts would not only
have to align for Magic Realm, the game itself plays to a group and time that
no longer exists.
Magic Realm was a brief window in time.
And just like that, through a gaming collection contact I
had a copy of Magic Realm in my hands. I had helped them out through the tabletop
tournament scene for a while and hearing me talk about the game, they gave me
their copy.
The bought it new, planned to play it, but never did, so not
only was it a *new* copy, it was completely un-played and un-punched.
I had just stepped outside of space and time and stole fire
from the Gods.
What hit me first was an odd kind of self-imposed paralysis.
How could I play this artifact of a game?
In such a condition shouldn’t it be in a gaming museum somewhere,
or perhaps framed?
For months I couldn’t bring myself to punch it so I read the
rules over and over again, which are well…Magic Realm.
I decided to honor the spirit in which it was given, to get
it on the table and play it, to still journey through the ‘Realm and finally
start playing the game that I always wanted to play.
Rulebooks, YouTube tutorials, and forum advice I was as
ready as one could be. Confidence was moderate as I had figured out Advanced
Dungeons & Dragons and Warhammer 40K Rogue Trader…sort of.
The day was set.
I called in the old Twilight Imperium crew and we scheduled
a session.
Which got canceled due to a massive snowstorm out of nowhere
the day before.
Rescheduling never seemed to align.
Next attempt was with a good historical (DBA) friend, who
got sick the night before and had to cancel.
Times after that never seemed to align with Magic Realm, the
game just sat on my shelf which certainly wasn’t in the spirit in which it was
given.
It got to the point that I noticed that I had felt a certain
way about the game, despite never playing it. For such an epic game, I wanted
it to be perfect, what I had imagined. Life seemed to keep on preventing me
from playing, even playing the game by-myself, it was always something in life
coming up or going on.
I was waiting for that perfect moment, which will never come,
and was antitheses to the game.
I punched it and never looked back, playing it when times were
tough, playing it at the lowest points in life, playing it with good and bad friends.
Magic Realm exists parallel to this realm, and waiting for
any moment means it will never come.
Games are meant to be played.
Just play the game.
The more you care about something, the easier it becomes to never actually do it.
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