by Niels Vilhelm Frang
There’s nothing like a good night of pondering the Magic Orb. The curtains are drawn, the lighting is turned down, and the Orb is on! But what is this? Is someone at the door? Maybe it’s the prince needing more advice. Maybe it’s a summons to Wizard’s Council. Maybe it’s another villager who wants his goat healed... You better grab your wand and use your magic to repel the intruders so you don’t miss out on a night of pondering! Pondering Orbs!
Presentation
- Time: 60 min
- Players: 2 – 4
- Language: Danish/English
Pondering Orbs is a game about wizards looking to pass the night away by gazing into their Magic Crystal Balls. That is the only thing they care about, and they will do everything in their power to avoid their obligations and ponder in peace.
But the life of a Wizard is not easy, and the responsibilities are many. You may be summoned to court, or you may be interrupted by peasant supplicants or old wizard buddies who will keep you from your pondering. It is now your job to use your magical powers to get away from your wizarding duties so you can get on with the all-important pondering.
Wizards hang out in their towers and take turn managing their spells, and drawing Orb cards to see what “program” is currently on the orb, then they draw events and use spells, and sometimes snacks, to negate the bad events, or improve the good ones.
They may also use their powers to spy on other Wizards and look in on what they are watching on their orb, or maybe they want to play some tricks on their fellow wizard colleagues by messing up their pondering instead?
But look out! Excessive pondering may lead to sanity loss!
The first wizard to score 25 Orb Points from their pondering wins!
About the designers
Niels Vilhelm is attending Fastaval for the first time this year, but he has participated at Aarhus Brætspilsfestival for a couple of years with some of his own games.
Niels Vilhelm has way too many projects going on at the same time. In 2024 alone he made 4 new games, though 2 of them only exist on Tabletop simulator
Niels Vilhelm is very fond of RPG and very fond of making his own systems. He will talk a long time about HeroQuest if he gets the chance.
He also loves playing Settlers of Catan but prefers to make his own homebrew scenarios
Niels Vilhelm was born and raised in Silkeborg, but currently lives in Randers where he plays a lot of HeroQuest and sundry homemade RPG systems
Kasper has played board games for more than 40 years. As a science librarian he loves to deconstruct games and scrutinize what makes a game bigger than the sum of its parts. He favors strategy games with historical settings. Kasper first Fastaval board game design “Witch Hunt” won an Otto for best board game and was published as “Pagan: Fate of Roanoke” in 2021.
