Overview
At a glance
Is this game right for my group?
ABG editorial scores on a 1–5 scale.
Harder to teach
High replayability
Highly interactive
Scales well
Deep strategy
How it plays
How does it play?
Victims of a curious card trick gone very, very wrong, you and a rival Magician find yourselves lost in a billowing sea of fog.
Core mechanisms
Key systems that shape the decisions players make.
Grid Movement
Move pieces between adjacent spaces on a regular grid.
Contracts
Complete specific requirements to earn rewards, income, or victory points.
Hand Management
Time and sequence a limited hand of cards to preserve future options.
Map Addition
Expand the playable map by adding new tiles, regions, or spaces.
Once-Per-Game Abilities
Each powerful ability may be used only once during the entire game.
Read the full game description
Victims of a curious card trick gone very, very wrong, you and a rival Magician find yourselves lost in a billowing sea of fog. When it dissolves, you gaze upon the immense emptiness of Fantastiqa, the legendary land of fabled beasts and fantastiqal quests, only moments before it is summoned into being... And you are the Magicians who will summon it! With nothing but a shared pack of magical cards, you and your opponent continue your competition by creating Rival Realms in Fantastiqa itself. Summon strange landscapes! Adventure through arcane regions! Find fabled beasts! Gather odd and awesome artifacts! The Magician who scores the most points for her Realm in these weird ways is declared the winner. Rival Realms is a standalone game. You do NOT need a copy of Fantastiqa to play this game. Players play cards from their hands to create Regions and to go adventuring in each of their Rival Realms. By collecting Adventure Tokens, players gain the assistance of Creatures and Artifacts which allow them to perform special actions that help them explore further. The player who scores the most points by creating and exploring Regions, connecting Regions of the same type, and by completing Quests wins the game.