Fantasy Realms
🐸 Dettagli da BoardGameGeek
Consiglio BGG sul numero di giocatori
Categorie
Meccaniche
Design & Art
Lingua
Pre-order - leggi i dettagli
🐸 Una rana saggia sa quando dividere l’ordine… e quando aspettare il salto giusto.
Si abbina bene con
The FroGames Sheet
You have seven cards. You draw the eighth and realize it can transform your kingdom into an empire — but you must discard the wrong card. You make a mistake. Your opponent smiles.
WHAT IT IS ABOUT
Seven cards that power up, cancel out, and transform each other
Bruce Glassco built Fantasy Realms around a simple idea: each card in your realm has a value, but that value depends on the other cards you have in hand. The deck has only 53 cards, each unique: a base strength ranging from 0 to 40 points, a suit, and one or more bonuses and penalties that activate in combination with specific cards.
On your turn, you do two things: draw a card (from the deck or the visible discard pile) and discard one, always keeping seven cards in hand. When ten cards end up in the discard pile, the game ends. Everyone reveals their realm and counts. The player who built the most profitable combination wins. The whole game is about knowing when to stop: every extra turn is a risk that someone else will find the card you were looking for.
Published in 2017 by WizKids, Fantasy Realms has become a modern classic: nominated for the Kennerspiel des Jahres 2021 and awarded the Dice Tower Seal of Excellence. This is the Italian edition curated by Studio Supernova.
Fifty-three cards, seven in hand. There are no strong cards: there are strong cards next to the right ones.
The secret of Fantasy Realms in one line
This is our first read of the game: the sheet will be enriched after the first games at the table with the Italian edition.
From the game experience
Fantasy Realms
FrogScore · FroGames editorial rating · based on rules, international reviews and game sessionsHow a card works
Four pieces of information, hundreds of combinations
Base strength
Each card starts with a value between 0 and 40 points, printed on the card itself. Alone it says little: cards with high base strength often have the heaviest penalties.
Eleven suits
Army, leader, wizard, weapon, artifact, beast, land, weather, flood, flame and wild card. The suit is what other cards look for — or avoid — when calculating their bonuses.
Bonuses
Extra points that trigger only in the presence of specific cards or suits in your hand. This is where combinations are born: two cards put together can be worth more than triple their sum.
Penalties
Penalties that activate when you hold the wrong cards together. Some zero out entire suits: building your realm also means knowing what not to put in your hand.
Recommended sleeves 53 cards in 1 size ▼
Cards change hands every turn: if you play often, protecting them with clear sleeves makes a difference to their lifespan.
| Size | Quantity |
|---|---|
| 63.5 × 88 mm | 53 |
| Total cards | 53 |
Twenty minutes later, you'll still be thinking about the card you discarded on the third turn. That's when you realize you want to play again.
🎲How to playThe rules in four steps▼
How to play
The flow of each turn
A turn lasts thirty seconds. Two actions, no frills.
Take a card from the face-down deck or the visible discard pile. If you draw from the discard pile, everyone sees what you've taken: you're declaring your plan to the table.
Choose a card from your hand and place it face-up on the discard pile. You now have seven cards again. The discarded card is available to anyone.
When the tenth card goes into the discard pile, the game ends immediately. There are no warnings: you must be ready to count at any time.
Each player reveals their hand and calculates the score card by card: base strength, plus active bonuses, minus penalties. The highest score wins.
⏱️Your first gameThe moment-by-moment chronicle▼
A game in five moments
What happens at the table
Not the rules. The experience.
The first seven cards
You draw your initial hand and look for a plan. Different suits, scattered values, no obvious direction. You don't yet understand what you're building. That's normal: the realm reveals itself turn by turn.
The first combination that works
On the third turn, you draw the card that activates the bonus of another card you already had in hand. The value of your realm jumps, and you finally see a direction: you know which suit to focus on. Now you have to find the missing pieces before someone steals them from the discard pile.
Risk assessment
In the discard pile is the card that would complete your best combination. Do you take it immediately or wait for a draw from the deck? If you take it, everyone understands what realm you're building. If you wait, someone else might take it.
The unforeseen penalty
You draw a card with very high base strength and tuck it into your hand without thinking. Only later do you realize that its penalty nullifies the bonus on which you had built your entire realm. Now you have to choose: keep it and recalculate, or discard it and give it away to the table.
The final count
Ten cards in the discard pile: game over. Everyone lays their cards on the table and counts aloud, card by card. You discover that your opponent had built a completely different realm from yours and beat you by a few points. You should have discarded that card one turn earlier. Next time, you will.
🐸Good to know beforehandThree honest things, from friends▼
Good to know beforehand
Three things nobody tells you
Final scoring requires patience
Each card has its formula printed on it: base strength, conditional bonuses, penalties. Some require counting how many cards of a certain suit you have or don't have. With 5-6 players, scoring can take a few minutes. It's not a flaw, but it's a fact: if you want pure speed, play it with 2-3.
The first two games are chaotic
You don't know all 53 cards. You don't know which combinations exist. You'll build inefficient realms and discover too late that the card discarded on turn 2 was worth a fortune. It's part of the experience: Fantasy Realms rewards those who memorize synergies, but doesn't punish those who play by instinct. After three games, you start to see the patterns.
The discard pile is public information
Everything that ends up in the discard pile is visible, and whoever draws from there declares their intentions to the entire table. Those who read the discard pile have a huge advantage. If you play distractedly, you lose. It's not a party game for chatting: it requires constant attention.
🏆Victory and defeatWhat the ending rewards▼
How it ends
How to win and how to lose
Only one victory condition, a thousand ways to get there.
Victory
- You have the hand with the highest score at the final count
- You read the discard pile better than others and took the key cards at the right time
- You managed the pace: you understood when it was convenient to let a card go into the discard pile and when to wait
Defeat
- You built an incoherent realm: cards that don't interact and bonuses never activated
- You waited too long: someone else ended the game before you found the card you needed
- You ignored penalties: a single wrong card in hand can cancel out the bonuses you built everything on
Fantasy Realms is not the game with the most beautiful combinations. It's the game where every card is a potential combination, and you just have to find them before others do. Nominated for the Kennerspiel des Jahres 2021, with 53 cards and nothing else.
💬Frequently asked questionsQuick answers before checkout▼
Frequently asked questions
Fantasy Realms FAQ
What mechanics does Fantasy Realms use?
Hand management (you manage seven cards trying to optimize the total value), open drafting (you draw from the deck or from visible discards), set collection (you collect cards that boost each other) and end game bonuses (the score is calculated only at the end, summing all synergies). It's a pure combo builder: each card modifies the value of the others.
Can it be played well with six players?
It works, but it's not the optimal experience. With 5-6 players, times get longer and there's less control: the cards you want might be drawn by someone else before your turn comes back. It's best with 2-4 players, where the pace is lightning-fast and every choice carries more weight. If there are many of you, consider it a strategic filler, not a fast eurogame.
Is an app needed to calculate scores?
No, but it can help. Each card has the formula printed on it and you can easily count by hand, with pen and paper. WizKids provides a companion app with scoring assistance for Fantasy Realms, especially useful in the first few games when you don't yet know the interactions by heart.
How many cards are in the game?
53 unique cards: there are no duplicates. Each card has a base strength from 0 to 40 points, belongs to one of eleven suits (army, leader, wizard, weapon, artifact, beast, land, weather, flood, flame, and joker) and carries bonuses and penalties that activate in the presence of other specific cards.
Is it suitable for people who have never played board games?
Yes, but with an asterisk. The rules are very simple (draw-discard-count), but understanding which combinations work requires experience. A novice can play and enjoy it from the first game, but will only win if the others are novices like them. If there's an expert at the table who knows all 53 cards, the score difference will be brutal.
Is it available in Italian?
Yes, this is the Italian edition by Studio Supernova, with translated cards and rulebook. The text on the cards needs to be read during the game to understand bonuses and penalties, so having the localized edition makes a real difference compared to the English one.
The people behind the game
Who invented it, who publishes it — and what else they've done.
Fantasy Realms is a strategic card game for 2-6 players, designed by Bruce Glassco, originally published by WizKids in 2017 and brought to Italy by Studio Supernova. Each game lasts 20 minutes and revolves around a single mechanic: hand management with interlocking bonuses and penalties. Players draw and discard cards trying to build the fantasy realm with the highest score: 53 unique cards, each with a base strength from 0 to 40 points, one of the eleven suits, and synergies that multiply or cancel their value. Nominated for the Kennerspiel des Jahres 2021 and awarded the Dice Tower Seal of Excellence, it offers high replayability and an accessible learning curve. Recommended age 14+. Available for pre-order on frogames.business, expected release date September 18, 2026.
Fantasy Realms
Frequently Asked Questions
The answers you're looking for, no beating around the bush.
📸Do the images match the actual product?
The photos on the website often come from BoardGameGeek and are intended to give you an idea of the game. They may vary slightly from the version you receive. The content declared by the publisher is always binding.
📦Does the content of the box match what is indicated?
We always strive to provide the correct content, but minor variations are possible due to reprints or updates. The information comes directly from the publishers. If you have any questions, please contact us!
⏳How do pre-orders work?
Pre-order the game before release, payment is immediate, and the game is reserved for you. As soon as it arrives, we'll ship it right away! If there are any delays, we'll update you promptly.
🔒Can I trust buying here?
Absolutely! Secure payments, tracked shipments, and a team that loves board games as much as you do. If something goes wrong, we'll do our best to fix it.
🛠There's a problem with my order, what should I do?
Write to us now! Whether it's a missing part, damage, or an error, we'll help you resolve it as soon as possible. Your experience truly matters to us.