Wednesday, May 12, 2021

The Battle for the Mid-Realm

Does anyone remember this game? It's a fantasy card game by TSR artist Darlene in 1982. I remember seeing advertisements for it in Dragon, but I never saw it in the wild. I was reminded of it recently while flipping through copies of the magazine from my youth and thought I'd ask if any readers have any direct experience of it.

12 comments:

  1. I used to own a copy. They were all hand-numbered and signed, I think from a set of 500. It was quite playable and felt faithful to the Jasmine comic strip's setting, although card printing technology back then didn't let it do full justice to her artwork. Of the many things I've sold over the years I regret parting with this odd bit of history more than almost any other - although given how many other things I've lost to fire & flood it's better that my copy didn't go out that way.

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  2. Darlene runs Jasmine at GaryCon and NTX regularly, for folks attending those shows.

    Allan.

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  3. Nice card images over on BGG; apparently 2000 copies were produced.

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    1. Ah, I couldn't remember the count. Think I had #442 but I can't swear to it after 25 years.

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  4. One right now on ebay, a mere $300 canadian with shipping.

    I am not even close to wanting it at that price...

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  5. Just double-checked, Darlene still has a few copies she's selling for $133 USD. No reason to pay $300, especially since you'd be supporting the actual creator directly at the lower price.

    http://darlenetheartist.com/darlenes-stores/jasmine-the-battle-for-the-mid-realm-collector-card-game/

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    1. hah! probably the same price, with shipping, in canadian pesos. but thanks for looking

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  6. Damn, this is fun! Got a new game out of it and everything!

    Do a Tom Wham advert now!

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    1. Still kicking myself for not buying the boxed version of Planet Busters when Troll Lord Games did one a while back. Dumb, dumb, dumb.

      I honestly wonder why so few of his games have been resurrected, they'd certainly sell to the nostalgic, and most are pretty solid light games even by modern standards. I've got younger friends who'd rather play Elefant Hunt than Zooloretto. Does he somehow not control the rights?

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    2. Can you not find a copy of Dragon #64 with the game in?

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    3. I've still got my copy of the Dragon game (although not the issue itself), laboriously mounted on cardboard and cut apart by my kiddie self. But it is really, really worn at this point, and from what I've heard the TLG reprint tweaked the game a bit as well as having proper die cut counters.

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  7. Had a blast playing "Jasmine: The Battle for the Mid-Realm" at Gary Con in 2019, with Zach Howard as a co-participant, and Darlene herself running the game!

    I picked up a couple copies and must say that it's brilliantly conceived. The game is a lot of fun, and I've run it for my daughters and a friend of theirs, since.

    Probably my pick for a game to bring on vacation, rather than lugging all my RPG stuff around.

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