Djinn

• Designer: Benjamin Schwer
• Publisher: H@ll Games
• Players: 1-4
• Age: 14+
• Time: 60-90 min
• Played with copy purchased at Spiel 2023

Once your ancestors found or created a source of magic – the exact knowledge of its origin, as far as you know, has long been lost. A small community has developed around the source, which seeks to protect this place and keep it as secret as possible.

Unfortunately, some magical beings — half corporeal, half ethereal — have now tracked down this source. These beings of dubious character, which you call “Djinn”, have appeared in various places of the city to dispute your access to the source. You are young members of the Magic Guild, and to prove your abilities, you are tasked with capturing the Djinn so that they can do no harm. You can control them permanently only if you catch them in special Djinn bottles. To seal these bottles, you also need corks made from the bark of a tree near the magic source.

Whichever of you succeeds best in protecting your small town will be accepted into the inner circle of the Magic Guild and will soon be allowed to learn even more secrets…

In Djinn, you take turns moving across a map that shows thirteen locations. These locations are linked to actions where you can get the resources you need and catch the Djinn that are in six locations. In those locations you can do things like receive bottles and corks, collect magical power, buy magical items, hire mages to accompany you, discover secret passages, and more.

To set up, place the board on the table and then randomize the 12 actions tiles into the central section. 6 of the actions are square basic actions and they refer to locations seen around the board edge.  6 are circular special actions – where you will encounter Djinn!  A market is set up, based on player count, and the equipment cards are placed near their store.  The Tavern holds the keys and 4 decks of mage cards, the cards you need to catch Djinn.  3 Scoring cards are drawn at random and placed near the board.  One Boss Djinn is placed at each round action space plus some extra regular djinn.

Each player takes their own player board and bits, and each player gets a random roof tile with the dragon tile denoting the first player.  There is a track on the board for Magic, Capacity and Base – Magic is your current amount of Magic while Base is the minimum you can ever have and Capacity is the most you can ever have.. 2 of your 4 spell circles are active at the start of the game, you can hold 1 Djinn in each active circle.  Each player places the same 4 secret passages onto the board.  Finally, players snake draft one positive and one negative character tile which give each player unique advantages and disadvantages.

On a turn, you move your mage to an adjacent action space and take the action there.  Note the direction of movement as you can never go backwards; orient your Mage so that you know which way it is traveling through the city.  If you land on a space with another Mage, you have to pay them to take an action there; alternatively, you can skip that space and continuing moving.   If you go to a round space, you’ll encounter a Djinn.  This process continues until the 6 Boss Djinn are caught or run out of the city.  If you go to a square space, you may perform the basic action on the tile, and if you have a secret passage at that location, you can do that action as well.  You also have the option of not doing actions and taking any combination of 2 coins or magic. 

The six types of actions appear twice each.  The basic version is on the Square token and the special version is on the Round token.   In general, the special token is uniformly better than the basic one.  Examples of the basic actions (and special actions):

Academy – gain 1 scroll and 3 Magic (and increase Capacity by 1)

Tavern – Choose 1 of 2 non-key mage cards (choose from all 4 mage cards and gain a key)

Catacombs – Reveal 1 chest and gain what you find (do it twice)

Archives – choose 1 of the 5 options (choose 2 of the five options) shown on the board

Manufactory – buy cork and an equipment card for 2 coins (2 cork + card for 3 coins)  Equipment cards give you a permanent or once-a-round ability.

Market – move to a different market tent and you may buy what they offer (do it twice)

The Magic Source space is in the center of the board, and it has two actions. First, you either max out your magic OR spend 6 magic to catch all the Boss Djinn available.  Next, you can spend scrolls to get bottles, cork or activate mage cards.

There is a reminder graphic aid in each section of the board for the corresponding actions.

Now each time you go to a round space, you also have to try to catch the Djinn there. Target whichever Djinn you want, then pay Magic Power or use Mage cards to capture them. Each Djinn has a base strength of 4.  Mage cards also have their own base strength and then offer some bonuses based on the color of Djinn present.  You can combine these cards with your own magic power.  In order to catch a Djinn you must either put it into an active spell circle on your board OR place it in a bottle of matching color AND have a cork to seal the bottle.  If you cannot or do not want to catch a Djinn, you lose 1 Magic as penalty.

Check the space after capture, if a Boss Djinn is there by itself, it flees. Discard it from the game.  Boss Djinn have a base strength of 6, plus 2 for each other Djinn present.  If you do manage to catch a Boss Djinn, as a bonus, you capture one other Djinn there for free.

Also, if you manage to capture Djinn in bottles, check to see if you have 3 of the same color; if so, you can trade in for a Trophy. It has an immediate bonus on it, and then you flip it over and put it near your board for the endgame VP bonus on the back.

The game continues until all 6 of the Boss Djinn have either been captured or have fled the board.  The current round is finished so all players have the same number of turns, and then one additional round is played where each player moves their mage to the central Magic Source space and takes the action there – though in this final round, players may not earn any trophies.

Points are then tabulated

• Trophies (36 or 30 VP)
• Djinn in bottles (10 each)
• Djinn in a spell circle (3 each)
• Unused cork or bottles (1 each)
• Scoring cards – per the rules/conditions printed on each card

The player with the most points wins. Ties broken in favor of the person with the most things left over.

My thoughts on the game

So, Benjamin Schwer is one of those designers that I think deserves more notice. I have been a fan of some of his previous games: Hadara and Crown of Emara.  Both of those games remain in my game collection, so that certainly has something to be said for it.  

When reading the rules, I thought that the game was going to be fiddly and complicated, but once we got into it, it’s remarkable how streamlined the game actually is.  Each of the different actions has its own area on the outside of the board, and there are helpful reminders of what each action does in each area.  Many turns happened nearly instantaneously as each player had the time between their turns to figure out what they were going to do on their next turn.  Sure, you might rarely get blocked by another player, perhaps your desired market location becomes occupied, or maybe someone takes the card that you were hoping to get – but for the most part, you can plan away between turns and then rapidly execute your planned action.

Each of the six basic actions is really quite simple, and after you’ve taken the action once, there really shouldn’t be too many questions.  Each advanced action adds another option or a better choice; and these are also pretty easy to deal with once you’ve seen it once.  The way that the board is set up, you’ll pretty much be alternating between the basic actions and the advance actions, though you’ll leapfrog another player from time to time.  The large central spot is also a useful way to quickly change which portion of the map you traverse; and the actions can also prove useful.  Close to the end of the game, don’t forget the ability to go there and spend 6 magic to get a boss djinn from the supply.  This is a good way to finish up a set or just bag a nice ten points.  

You’ll move around the board trying to manage all your resources.  You’ll need to build up for magic levels (and/or get Mage cards) in order to catch Djinn.  And, while you’re doing this, you also need to buy/gain the bottles and corks to hold them.  If possible, you can find time to work on your outfit to gain specialized bonus or increase your magical ability.  As you can see, you’ll have plenty of things you’ll want to do, and choosing which order to do things in will be a big part of the game.  Sure, the layout of the board will determine a fair part of this process, but at each fork, you’ll have to choose the direction of your strategy.  Using your secret passages wisely can help you try to maximize your path around the board.  I’ve seen players cleverly place their secret passages so that there were able to stay in a very small loop and gain access to each basic action at least once per loop.  

The game is set up with lots of modular bits, and for the most part, the system works well.  Each time you play, there should be a unique setup due the random placement of the action tiles.  Also, you will likely get a different positive and negative bonus tile; and each of these will likely shape your strategy for that particular game. A little quibble would be that maybe the pieces are a little too snug – we have definitely had pieces that were super hard to extract at the end of the game! Each game will feel a little different with the variable map, different bonus/malus tiles and achievement tile bonuses – but overall, the game itself follows the same path.  

I found the game to be a fairly relaxing medium weight game.  There is not much conflict nor interaction between the players.  You can possibly block a path on the map or a tent in the market for another player.  There is a mild race aspect if you are fighting for a particular color of djinn on the board.  But, other than that, you just work on collecting the resources you need to accomplish your goals.  This is a game that I’d be happy to play whenever anyone suggests it, and for the time being, it looks like it might win a spot on a permanent shelf in the gaming basement, or at least be in competition with one of the other Schwer games for that space.

Thoughts from other Opinionated Gamers

Simon W: (1 play) very smooth, quite fast, lovely theme which felt really connected to the game. I liked the planning element and felt like I’d do better next time. 

Ratings from the Opinionated Gamers

• I love it! Simon N. Simon W
• I like it. Dale, Steph H, John P
• Neutral.
• Not for me…