Waving Hands (Spellbinder) 7

-Example Game-

1. Black starts with 2 W's hoping to use the left as a possible W-W-S counter- spell in the event of White opening with an attack, or as a possible W-W-F-P resist heat spell. His right hand also opens for a possible counter-spell or W-P-F-D cause heavy wounds if White has no possible attack; the second P will also cover against any S-D missile attack. White has the same ideas for his left hand as Black and opens with a P for his right hand in case Black tries a stab, leading to P-D-W-P remove enchantment hopefully.

2. Both complete their second gestures as intended and both notice that neither can use an offensive spell on the third turn so they can switch their left hands to W-W-F-P resist fire. Black notices that the only spell White could be preparing with his right hand is remove enchantment and hence his own resist fire would be canceled. Since he cannot adjust his right hand sequence to produce a counter-spell he resolves to use his latest W to start a W-D-D-C lightning bolt.

3. White had to continue his remove enchantment in case Black called his bluff but now knows it is pointless to continue as there will be nothing to cancel. Black is certain to hit White with an unstoppable cause heavy wounds next time but notices too late that, had he instead of gesturing a D with his left hand, gestured a W, he could have cast a W-W-S counter-spell at White and stopped his resist heat from working. However, he has a lightning bolt coming as compensation...

4. Black hits White with his cause heavy wounds and White becomes fire- resistant. White notes that had he gone ahead with his remove enchantment spell he would have been doing two P gestures this turn - surrendering! Instead he performs a W with his right hand to time a counter-spell after Black's last continuation.

5. Black aborts his lightning bolt spell, but White still follows through with his counter-spell, just in case. Black switches to the other combination for lightning bolt, D-F-F-D-D and sneaks in the start of an amnesia D-P-P. White commences a summon ogre P-S-F-W with his left hand, but upon seeing that next time he will be struck by amnesia realizes that he won't be able to continue it. Knowing the nature of the spell, he decides to switch next time to a spell starting off with 2 identical gestures, a W-W-S counter-spell for safety.

6. Black hits White with the predicted D-P-P amnesia spell, meaning that White must repeat his gestures next time with the same hands. White knows that he has a "free" S-D missile on Black since Black cannot do a P shield to defend himself or he would be performing the surrender gestures.

7. Since Black knows White's gestures, he can tell that White will be able to time a counter-spell to ward off the proposed lightning bolt D-F-F-D-D, so he changes to a fireball F-S-S-D-D. However, White is resistant to fire so a P-D-W-P remove enchantment is called for from the right hand.

8. White surprised Black by repeating his W gesture in the left hand so he can now time a counter spell for the next round and thus prevent the remove enchantment from affecting his fire invulnerability (although his resistance to fire will be unaffected by the counter-spell since he has already cast the spell on himself in round 4). With his right hand, White half-heartedly starts off a confusion spell to interrupt Black next time.

9. Black does 2 F gestures having to change in mid-spells after White's cunning gestures last round. He decides to go for a blindness spell D-W-F-F-(d with his right hand, and for cold resistance S-S-F-P with his left, to cut his losses. White casts the counter spell W-W-S on himself so that his confusion D-S-F will work on Black.

10. Black writes down P for his left hand and F for his right, and White writes D and W. Since Black was hit by a confusion last time one of his gestures will be affected. He rolls a C on the right hand and this supersedes the F he had written down. Since he didn't C with his other hand and C is a 2-handed gesture, it counts as a null. Note that if he had rolled for a P he would have surrendered. White finishes off a summon goblin spell S-F-W, and a missile S-D. Black's left hand finishes a resist cold S-S-F-P but he decides to use only the last gesture as a P shield so that neither of White's attacks harm him. Now he will wish to dispose of the goblin as soon as possible so he can stop performing P's to protect himself.

11. Black stabs the goblin and, since only 1 hit is required to kill it, eliminates it. He also gestures a P shield so that it cannot harm him in that turn. White gestures for an amnesia D-P-P and a lightning bolt W-D-D-C (the sort which can only be used once per wizard). He also performed a P shield but didn't notice and since it is in the "protection" section it was cast upon himself. If he had cast it at the goblin it wouldn't have been killed. Black realizes that he will have no defence against either of White's forthcoming attacks, so chooses to work 2 spells beginning with the same gesture next time so that the amnesia won't be too damaging.

12. Black must start off both gestures from scratch after the stab and half-C and opts for P-P-(w-(s invisibility and resist cold S-S-F-P. White's amnesia spell is completed so Black must repeat next time as expected.

13. Black repeats, and White does a C gesture with both hands to terminate a W-D-D-C lightning bolt giving 5 points of damage to Black. White cannot cast another lightning bolt using the same gestures now, even if he does W-D-D-C since this type is allowed only once per battle. However, he may use the alternate gestures if he desires.

14. Black aborts his right-hand spell since a W with both hands is needed for the invisibility. White does 2 S gestures, hoping for a C-S-W-W-S summon elemental and either an anti-spell S-F-F or summon goblin S-F-W.

15. Black goes invisible for the next 3 turns so White won't be able to see his gestures. White continues with his summon elemental but has the option to change to a fire storm sequence if he so desires.

16. Realizing that he is about to be hit by an anti-spell S-P-F from White, Black opens up with 2 missiles S-D and catches White off guard. Next time Black must gesture from scratch again. Although White does not see Black's gestures he knows he has been hit by 2 missiles so can work them out.

17. For the second time, Black starts up for a lightning bolt W-D-D-C, hoping this time to complete it, and a covering anti-spell S-P-F so that White will be unable to defend himself from it. Meanwhile White realizes he is resistant to fire and unleashes a fire storm giving 5 points of damage to all those not fire-resistant which just happens to be Black.

18. White does 2 S gestures again hoping to fool Black into thinking that he will repeat the sequence he used after the last C gesture, whereas he intends to hit out with 2 S-D missiles next turn (when Black becomes visible again). Black continues with his plan.

19. Black is surprised by the 2 missiles from White and is not performing a P shield which would protect him. White is hit by Black's anti-spell S-P-F but is unaware of the impending lightning bolt anyway...

20. Black hits White with his lightning bolt as White prepares 2 more missiles which would kill Black if they hit, but, noting Black's C he daren't risk the possibility of it being followed by a pair of W's for a C-(w magic mirror which would reflect them back at White. Hence White decides to go for another anti-spell and fire storm.

21. Black does perform the 2 W's planning to cause heavy wounds or defend with counter-spell. White continues as planned and Black becomes aware that he is about to be burned to death.

22. Resigning himself to defeat Black surrenders just as White's anti-spell hits him. The battle ends before White can make the final C gesture which would have disposed of his enemy. White wins the contest.

Credits

Waving Hands (also known as Spellcaster) © Richard Bartle

Taken from Duel Purpose fanzine, written by Mike Lean

Scanned, OCRed, and edited by Andrew Buchanan

March 3, 1993

Edited by Ken Tidwell, April 9, 1994

Reposted by Palladhia Asmadhi on 2025

(Wow!!!! It's been 30+ years huh!? 😅)