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Table of Contents
Life in the Haze 3
Overview 3
Setup 4
Physical Game 4
Online Game 5
Starting the Game 6
Setting 6
Quest 6
Goals 6
Characters 7
An Immediate Obstacle 7
The Roles & Round in Detail 8
1. The Summoning - Conjure Magician 8
2. The Mark - Target Magician 8
3. What Shall Come to Pass - Future Magician 9
4. The World Moves - Awake Magician 9
Shifting Powers 10
Epilogue 10
More on Summoning Spirits 11
The Tenth Spirit 11
Safety Tools 11
Credits 12
Appendix - Cards for Printing 13

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 Life in the Haze
Magicians are a strange sort. Heads in the clouds and wands in the air, they have spent
far too long solving their problems with magic. They sit in their towers, surrounded by
their books, always half-immersed in an arcane dream.
When they must come down to the mortal world, magicians find themselves quite
discombobulated. Every tiny problem baffles them and they can barely tell what’s going on.
They travel in groups of three or four, muttering to themselves and fiddling with their
robes. Whenever a problem rears its head, they always - always - summon some god-forsaken
spirit, or demon, or djinn to help them. Sometimes it works. Often it doesn’t.
But such is the price for arcane power.

Overview
This Spells Trouble is a narrative role-playing game about magicians that cause a lot of
problems for themselves. In the game, 3 or 4 players quickly cycle through roles that see
them summon spirits, point them at problems, and helplessly watch the chaos that unfolds.
The game is played over a series of rounds. Every round the same four steps happen in
the same order, with each player assigned a specific step. As a group, you always start by
summoning something and end with some kind of resolution. Here are the steps:

1. The Summoning:
Choose a spirit to summon from a list Three Magicians
of available characters.
In a three player game,
2. The Mark: The Summoning and The Mark
Point the spirit towards a target. are merged into one role.

3. What Shall Come to Pass:

Introduce something new that will cause problems in the future.

4. The World Moves:

Resolve the actions of the spirit that was summoned. (This role is closest to what would
traditionally be the Game Master.)
Once the last player finishes their turn, everyone swaps roles and starts the next round
from the top. The spirit summoned last round is removed from play, to rest. After eight or
nine rounds (in a three or four player game, respectively), all spirits become available for
summoning again.

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 Setup
Physical Game
Print out the fifteen double-sided cards found
in the Appendix (or the PDF named
“This Spells Trouble - Cards for Printing”).
Place the nine main Summoning Spirits
on the table face-up, with the card’s name
and portrait visible.

In a 4-player game, This card replaces

place The Tenth The Summoning
Spirit nearby for and The Mark in a
later use. 3-player game.

Give each player a role card for the

first round. Each role has a number.
Deal them out clockwise in ascending order:
1, 2, 3, 4.
If you’re not sure who should start with which
role, give the most experienced player
Card #4: The World Moves - Awake Magician.

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 Online Game
Instead of cards, the online version of This Spells Trouble uses a shared spreadsheet.
You can save a copy of the spreadsheet (found here) to your Google Account following the
instructions provided there. Before you begin, decide on a turn order, writing your names
in the cells labelled in the spreadsheet.

Simulated Tabletops
If you’d rather simulate the tabletop experience, you can upload the card images provided
in this game package to your favourite online play platform.
I like to use playingcards.io.

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 Starting the Game
Once you’ve set up the game, take some time as a group to make choices about the story
you’re going to tell together. There are five things you must choose: your setting, quest,
goals, characters, and an immediate obstacle.
If you’re playing with an unfamiliar group, this is also a good time to discuss safety
tools. More information on these tools can be found on page 11.

Setting
You are...
Reclusive spellcasters making a rare pilgrimage from the woods
Modern day magicians buried deep in academia
Astro-sages hitching a ride through the stars on a freighter

-Or something else-

Quest
Why are you on this adventure together?
Magic
Magic ingredients
ingredients are
are running
running low,
low, prompting
prompting aa rare
rare trip
trip to
to the
the marketplace.
marketplace. This
This isis an
an
emergency: an important spell must be performed.
emergency: an important spell must be performed.
Thieves
Thieves have
have been
been intercepting
intercepting your
your supply
supply shipments.
shipments. After
After months
months ofof unsuccessful
unsuccessful
attempts to resolve this from a distance, your group is dispatched to their headquarters.
attempts to resolve this from a distance, your group is dispatched to their headquarters.
Find
Find their
their leader
leader andand
taketake down
down thethe operation.
operation.
An
An ally
ally on
on aa diplomatic
diplomatic trip
trip should
should have
have returned
returned by
by now.
now. You
You must
must go
go out
out to
to assure
assure
their
their safety,
safety, butbut
alsoalso must
must determine
determine if the
if the mission
mission waswas successful.
successful.
-Or something
-Or somethingelse- else-

Goals
For your chosen quest, write down three specific goals you need to accomplish to be
successful. Take some time to talk about the specifics — why is the quest important to your
community? How do these goals get you closer to finishing the mission? The game moves
fast, so it’s good to have everyone on the same page at the start.
Write these down on a cue card or add them to your spreadsheet.

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 Example Quest & Goals
A group of forest gnomes have run out of fresh pixie dust.
Unfortunately, pixies are hard to come by — the only local pixies are pets
in a nearby troll colony. The gnomes have set three goals:
infiltrate the troll cave, secure the pixie dust, and cast a spell of mischief
before the dust goes rancid.

Characters
Each player should take a minute to answer two or three of the following questions
about their character:
What role does your magician have in the community?
Why did they become a magician?
What was their most recent magical blunder?
What do they look like?
What is their name? What are their pronouns?
Share the answers to your questions with the group. The things you discuss may or may
not come into play, but they can help guide your choices of who to summon and what to
target during the game. It may even give you insight into what your character notices when
they look at the world or peer into the future.

An Immediate Obstacle
The last thing you need is an immediate problem your characters are facing. As a group,
decide exactly where you begin and a little about your surroundings. It’s generally best that
you start close to your destination, rather than at home. Finally, choose some obstacle that
immediately blocks your group from getting where you want to go.
Now you’re ready to start.

Example Obstacle
The gnomes are right outside of the troll cave, but there’s a troll
standing guard at the entrance. She’s taking a swig of pixie liquor and
holding a rotting log that she seems to consider a weapon.

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 The Roles & Round in Detail
Each round, the following steps happen in order.

1. The Summoning - Conjure Magician

Seeing the new obstacle between you and your goal, you know just what to do: summon
up a spirit to handle the problem for you.

Playing Offline Playing Online

Nine or ten Summoning Spirit cards
are laid out across the table, each showing
the name and portrait of a being you can
summon. It's your job to choose someone
who can help you out of this tricky
situation. Select a face-up spirit and
announce their name to the table.
Once you've used the card, flip it over
so the card’s name and portrait are no
longer visible. You can't use this card
anymore. When only one of the cards is
left face-up, flip everything back to the
face-up side. They can now be used again,
and the process repeats.
On the spreadsheet, you should see a
column with ten Summoning Spirits. It's
your job to choose someone who can help
you out of this tricky situation. Select a
spirit and announce their name to the
table.
Once you’ve chosen the spirit, type an
“x” into the “Used?” box beside it on the
spreadsheet. The cell should turn black to
show that you can’t use this spirit
anymore. When only one of the “Used?”
boxes is left empty, delete all the “x”s. All
the spirits are now available again, and
the process repeats.

The Tenth Spirit

In a four-player game, there’s a special rule
that applies during the first nine rounds. See
“The Tenth Spirit,” on page 11.

2. The Mark - Target Magician

The Conjure Magician has used all their energy to summon the spirit. Now you need to
step in with your power to aim it. Choose something in the physical world: a building, an
owl, a heart, a pile of paperwork.
This will be the target for whoever your colleague summoned.

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 3. What Shall Come to Pass - Future Magician
Your magician reaches out into the future. In their mind’s eye, they see something
happening now that will become a problem for all of you.
Introduce some element or object that’s going to cause problems later. “A bored-looking
bureaucrat walks into the office.” “Thunder roars from stormclouds gathering above.” “An
asteroid blinks somewhere on the ship’s radar.” “Gleaming suits of armour line the king’s
hall.” You may want to consider introducing something related to the goals you set together
at the start of the session.
Whatever you introduce, it shouldn’t be an immediate threat or consequence. With
your powers of divination, you see something that will impact the narrative, but you don’t
know how it will affect you yet. That’s the next magician’s job.
“In the next room, the duchess is throwing a fit about undercooked duck” is great.
“The duchess holds a dagger to your throat” is too in-your-face. You want to add something
the next magician can play with, but you don’t want to force them to address it. These
problems will find a way of worsening on their own.

Tying Up Loose Ends

If you feel like the game is reaching its conclusion, you might
want to start pushing things towards a resolution. Consider
offering an opportunity instead of adding another problem.

4. The World Moves - Awake Magician

From any action, there are always consequences. As the only magician currently out of
the mystical daze, it’s your job to explain what’s happening in the real world. What does
the Summoning Spirit do?
Consider the following questions:
How does the Summoning Spirit interact with the target this round?
Do any problems arise from the elements introduced by the Future Magician?
Have any problems been resolved?
Have any goals been accomplished? If not, does this move you closer to your future goals, or
farther away?

Most importantly: what does your group need to respond to,

right now?

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 Don’t answer these questions directly, going down the list. Instead, let them guide how
you show what’s happening in the world. You should only say two or three sentences about
what happened. After your turn, whatever was summoned disappears.
Make sure you leave your group with some immediate problem to respond to! Resist the
urge to tie everything up into a nice resolution. Maybe you need to introduce a new threat,
or maybe the problem is already obvious and you just need to remind everyone.
This is the trickiest role! But that’s okay, because it’s pretty quick. Before you know it,
you’ll be a very silly wizard again, retreated back into the world of the arcane.

Shifting Powers
This isn’t a role, but it’s the last thing that happens every round.

Playing Offline Playing Online

Pass your role card to the left. Begin the
next round with the person who has the
Card #1: The Summoning - Conjure
Magician, continuing clockwise around the
table as before.
When you first enter your names into
the spreadsheet’s Turn Order section,
you’ll be assigned your roles for the first
three or four rounds. This turn order and
role pattern will repeat for the whole game.

If you feel you’ve reached a narrative climax, now would be a good time to move to the
Epilogue.

Epilogue
If the Magicians have accomplished all three goals — or have gotten themselves into a
position so bad that the goals can never be accomplished — move to the Epilogue.
Each player should describe the consequences that resulted from one of the goals, met
or unmet. If playing with four people, the last person to speak should resolve the fate of the
community itself.

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 More on Summoning Spirits
Spirits are flexible: Each Summoning Spirit is represented by their name,
portrait, and a brief description. If the way you imagine these characters is different from
what’s depicted in this game, that’s okay! This is your story. You can twist and remix these
characters to fit the setting and story you have in mind. Share your idea to the group and
see what they think.

Spirits aren’t there forever: When conjuring and resolving the spirit’s
actions, try to imagine each round as a self-contained summoning event. The effects of
your spirit can persist from round to round, but the spirits themselves should go away,
making room for the next one. Part of the job of the final magician each round is to decide
how much time is passing; you might spend a couple days under the protection of your
spirit, but it’s still only one round.

The Tenth Spirit

In a four player game, players will choose one of the creatures or people they encounter
in their story to become The Tenth Spirit. This spirit will act like all the other Summoning
Spirits but is unique to your game. There’s no set moment when players must create The
Tenth Spirit, but you may wish to do so within the first cycle of nine rounds.
In a three player game, The Tenth Spirit is not used. That being said, if players are eager
to create their own spirit, they may choose to remove one of the nine other spirits from
rotation, adding in their own creation as a replacement.

Safety Tools
This Spells Trouble is designed to be a fun, silly game about goofy problems that spiral
out of control. It’s also a fast game where things can happen quickly. While the game itself
does not contain adult content, players may create themes or situations that are
uncomfortable for some people at the table.
If you’re playing this game with a group of adult friends who have role-played together
before, you probably won’t run into problems — though your magicians certainly will. Keep
tabs on people’s responses and don’t be shy to veto stuff you don’t want to see.
If you’re playing this game at a convention, with strangers, or with a hack that contains
more adult themes, the following safety tools are recommended:

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 Lines & Veils: Before the game starts, take some time as a group to identify content
you don’t want to include in your story. Lines are topics that you don’t want to see at all.
Veils are things that are okay in-game, but not on-camera (“she falls off the cliff” is probably
fine; “...and lands with a sickening crack” might not be).

Brakes: This game is a conversation. If something comes up that you’re not okay
with, say something! The players are more important than the game, and it’s always okay to
take a step back and undo something that didn’t feel right.

Credits
Designed, illustrated, narrated and published by Kurt Refling.
Edited by Kathleen Hartin.
Find more of our work at our itch.io page, A Smouldering Lighthouse.
Thanks to all my playtesters: Charlotte Artuso, Scott Berry, Mark Chiasson, Matthew
Gossack-Keenan, Alex Horvath, Jenn Horvath, Emma Hubley, Anthony McCanny, Vijay
Mohan, Alex Rodway and Jess Vail. You’re all darlings and I’m so grateful for your help.
Thanks to Emily Griffith (@warmleshii), Kathleen Hartin, Kara Parkin
(@karalynn.design), Alex Rodway (@lord_lexan_tattoos), Christiane Rosin, Jem St-Onge
(@princess_jem4) and Kendra Tiller for their helpful advice on art. I am extremely lucky to
have so many talented friends to provide help and encouragement.
Thanks also to Sanata Davidson (@SisiD_), who was kind enough to lend her
bewitching likeness to this game. I’m thrilled to have her as Aria.
For caring about my art and sharing sad stories, thank you to Ian Howard. For
providing early process direction, thank you to Jason Pitre. For being good, cool people
who have created spaces where I felt safe to share my work, thank you to both Alexes, Sisk
and Roberts.
This game was inspired by (but took far too long to enter) the 2020 Golden Cobra
Challenge.
This Spells Trouble was made using an ancient copy of Adobe Photoshop Elements
(with an even older tablet), Affinity Publisher, Audacity, and the Google Drive suite.

Extra Credit
Did you play this game? I would love to hear about your story.
Tag me @KurtRefling on Twitter, share a Reddit post by tagging
u/Takenote, or post a comment on this game’s itch.io page.
Thanks for reading..

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