Magician's Challenge Card Game

Compete in Magician’s Challenge to determine who is the best magician.  Win points by playing your props cards to perform magic tricks.  Magicians are sneaky, and you can gain advantages by pick pocketing props away from their opponents, pulling props from hidden pockets, and many other cunning actions.

The Game

 Magicians hold a hand of Magic PROPS cards from which they select the Props that will win the most points when performing one of the 9 Tricks.  

Players take the role of one of six Magicians, each specializing in one type of Prop and for whom that Prop is a wild card, able to become any type of prop when performing Tricks.  Magicians may play SNEAKY cards to gain advantages or to annoy opponents.   Perform each Trick once and add up the scores to find out who will win the Magician’s Challenge!

Magician’s Challenge is appropriate for ages 10 and up with 2-4 players.  It’s easy to learn and may also be played in solo mode or with two or three 2-player teams.  Games typically last about 10-12 minutes per player or team.

Each Player takes the role of one of the 6 Magicians, each with their own special powers to turn one type of Prop into any other type of Prop.

The SNEAKY Cards allow you to gain advantages over the other Magicians, but be careful, because they won't always grant you the benefits you wanted.  These are pictures of just some of the available SNEAKY Cards.

There are 6 different types of PROPS; Rabbits, Wands, Ropes, Birds, Rings, and Balls. Each type of prop is identified with its own color and icon. PROPS Cards are worth between 1 and 6 points each.  

There are 9 Tricks that every Magician must perform; each Trick just once.  Some of the Tricks are more challenging than others. Your Sneaky Cards will help you get the right combinations of PROPS Cards.  Plan wisely, because your Magician's Wild Prop Powers won't help you on 3 of the Tricks.

The Performance Cards outline the steps of each Act. All Magicians start with the Evening Performance, and then each subsequent Act will flip over the card to alternate between the Matinee and Evening Performances. Your hand of PROPS will be smaller during the Matinee Performance. Will that be the best time to use your Sneaky Cards?

The game includes a 12-page Rules Booklet and comes with a 25-sheet, double-sided pad of Score cards.  Additional Score Pads may be purchased or you can download a free PDF file from the MagiciansChallenge.com website to print more score sheets.  

The Setup

Separately shuffle the PROPS and SNEAKY decks.  Each player starts with a hand of 11 PROPS Cards, 1 SNEAKY Card, a Performance Card, one of the 6 Magician Cards, and a set of 9 TRICKS Cards.  Each player draws and discards a PROPS Card; the Magician with the highest value card will go first.  Add the players' names to the Score Card, and you're ready to begin!

Brick & Mortar Retailers

We look forward to working with small business game stores.  If you'd like to offer Magician's Challenge for sale in your Brick and Mortar store, please contact Sales@TableTopShelfGames.com during the Kickstarter Campaign to lock in a special Kickstarter Edition offer.  You'll pay 50% off MSRP for 11 games and get a 12th game free (for Demo or Sale) plus free shipping for the whole case.  

This Kickstarter Campaign

Magician's Challenge evolved from a game we created three years ago. We developed the game's theme and then refined both the artwork and rules many times, making the game easier and faster to play. We incorporated feedback from hundreds of play test sessions with friends and other game designers. The game play is solid and fun, and new players are quick to ask, "Where can I buy this game?" 

So, here we are at Kickstarter asking for your support for the next step, manufacturing the game to enable sales through online and brick-and-mortar stores. And, of course, to give you a Reward for your Kickstarter Pledge.  

The primary goal of this Kickstarter Campaign is to fund the costs of manufacturing and shipping from overseas to our US-based Distribution Center.

Pledges & Rewards

Thank you for supporting our project and helping us to bring this idea into the physical world and onto tabletops everywhere.  We're offering a variety of rewards for your generous pledges.

The shipping costs for physical deliveries are listed with each Reward's description and will be added to your pledge amount.  We're packing items efficiently to keep such costs at a minimum, and, for this first Campaign, we're only shipping to United States destinations.  

$4 Pledge - Print & Play Files

$20 Pledge - Early Rabbit Special

$25 Pledge - Kickstarter Edition

$25 Pledge - Gift to The Singletons

$40 Pledge - Las Vegas Headliner

$40 Pledge - Magician's Assistant