Arcane Wonders

How to Demo

by Julie Ahern

Demoing Mortum, a game without a rule book for 1 to 6 players, is more of a challenge than your average game, but it is a game that benefits from having a demo. Here was how I found the most success.

The cards break this down in the setup one at a time. This is great at home, but have the characters, decks and time tracks (up to card 8) laid out to begin. Then the dialogue goes as follows.

“Hey there, welcome to Mortum. I am going to run you through a 15-minute demo. At that point we will stop; likely on a cliffhanger. Are you ok with this?” (Get confirmation.) “Great! Now this game has all the rules baked into the cards, there is no rule book. They are really that easy, but I am going to run you through them even faster.

“You are in a medieval realm where civil war devastated the land 12 years ago. The prince, ever fearful of another uprising, knows that the hammer (his army) is not always the solution, so he has created you (the scalpel). Your job is to seek rumors of unrest, find its root and end it quietly. For each of these missions, the story your prince tells will determine character count, not the number of players. For this story you need to pick three of them.”

Note that the characters have unique abilities that correspond with tokens. Place the tokens on their cards and tell them you will explain tokens after. Recommend they pick three that have a variety of tokens. Once they have selected, move on.

“You have chosen well. Coins are like money everywhere; they are for bribes and beverages. The ax is for fighting if you are attacked – not quite a defense but more along that nature. Then you have Surveillance. Just like a good PI, you are tailing and observing. See how the token matches the deck of cards. Next is Search. It’s not breaking and entering with the prince’s blessing but note that the Thief has this ability. It will usually get you an artifact or two. The last token, Raid, is the only time you are not subtle. Raid is breaking down a door, tying the suspect up and interrogating them. It may get results, but it will also burn bridges and remember: the prince does not want anyone to know who you are, so use sparingly. The story will tell you when you may do these actions.

“These resources may be replenished with sleep or within the story, but there is one resource you will not get back and that is time.”

Show the time tracker, how the hourglass token matches the icons in the corner of cards, and that the token must advance every time you see a new instance of that icon. Also show that after 6 p.m. (medieval curfew was rough) you will take damage that will cause penalties the next day.

If there is a dramatic individual in the group, have them read the story itself. If not, it is nice to have a more involved narrator and that means you, fair demoer!

The first two cards lay down the scenario and objective for this deck, model how to use Surveillance, and how to lay out the map of the game as well. When they get to the first choice, they will be able to go to several locations on the map. Lead them to the Farm if possible. This way can resolve in an early Raid. It is not the best option for a full game, but it does have a dramatic moment in the story and feels like a good resolution stopping point. If not, encourage them to dig deeper into the location they choose so that they have a more meaningful interaction than the front of the card. Those “entry” cards will cost time in the game and if you do not delve, you do not find out more of the seedy underbelly of the world. The most important thing is to stop at 15 minutes. They will want to continue … and they can with their new copy at home!