Abracadamo 2014

Short summary

Djeco game of cooperation and language skills Abracadamo. The troubadors are on a quest to seek the lost words they need to write their stories. But Wordeaters lurk about. Rather than throw a die, players use words: the number of syllables determines how many spaces they advance. Duration: 20 min., age: 7-99, players: 2-4.

Game overview

In Abracadamo, the troubadours must explore a magical forest to find eight story elements for a fairy tale commissioned by the king. But dangerous Wordeaters (ogres) roam the forest, and the players must complete their quest before time runs out.

Instead of rolling a die to determine movement, players think of words associated with an Inspiration card and move their troubadour according to the number of syllables in the word they choose. Players work together to collect story-element tiles, use helpful items, avoid or recover from ogre attacks, and return all their troubadours to the castle before the ogre-card deck is exhausted.

What does a player do on their turn?

On each turn, a player performs three steps in order:

1. Find a magic word. The player looks at the current Inspiration card and says a word associated with its picture. The word may describe an object, an action, or a quality. Each player must choose a category that has not already been used for that Inspiration card by another player. The number of syllables in the chosen word determines how far the troubadour can move. The player may also choose to pass, but then their troubadour does not move.

2. Move the troubadour. The player advances their playing piece by the number of syllables in their word. For example, “crocodile” has three syllables, so it allows three spaces of movement. However, each ogre card in front of the player reduces their movement by one space. Players can also use secret caves to travel between cave spaces, counting both the entrance and exit spaces as movement.

Landing on a space containing a story-element, magic-potion, or distraction-word tile allows the player to collect it for the group. The tiles are shared resources that any player can use. When a troubadour reaches either of the small castle spaces, the current Inspiration card is discarded and replaced with a new one.

3. Move an ogre. The player draws an ogre card and moves the matching ogre along the path indicated by the card’s colour. Ogres cannot use the secret caves. The drawn card is then discarded, bringing the players one step closer to running out of time.

If an ogre and a troubadour meet, cross paths, or land on the same space, the ogre attacks unless the players can use a distraction-word tile to divert it. If no distraction is available, a magic-potion tile can heal the wound. Otherwise, the troubadour keeps an ogre card in front of them to mark the injury, reducing their movement on subsequent turns until healed with a potion.

When does the game end?

The game ends in one of two ways:

The players win: The group collects all eight story-element tiles and every troubadour returns to the castle. Together, the players then invent a fairy tale using the collected elements in the order they were found. The players lose: The ogre-card deck runs out before all the troubadours have returned to the castle. The king’s story is unfinished, and the quest fails.

How does a player win?

There is no individual winner. Abracadamo is a cooperative game in which all players win or lose together. Success requires the group to collect the eight story elements, manage movement and shared resources wisely, deal with the roaming ogres, and bring every troubadour home in time. The final storytelling activity completes the adventure.