Rock Paper Wizard is a light “take that” game released by WizKids in 2016. “Take That” games are a cheeky sub-genre of game in which players take turns doing things that directly hurt one or more of the other players, presumably while standing up, pointing, and laughing as they do so. In Rock Paper Wizard specifically, you and five other silly spell-slingers have made your way into a dragon’s cave, and are each trying to swipe up as much of the dragon’s hoard as possible before the others can get their grubby hands on it. The first player to 25 gold wins.

The game consists of a player track with tokens showing how close the players are to the dragon hoard, and a pool of gigantic spell cards (equal to the number of players) laid out for all to see. The cards depict unique hand gestures which you’ll use to cast all sorts of spells on your foes around the table.

After perusing the spells on offer, players call out “Rock! Paper! Wizard!” and direct their spell of choice at an unlucky target wizard. Then, in player order, the effects are resolved. You’ll find yourself being forcefully pushed away from the treasure, as other spell casters inch their way closer, steal your hard-earned gold or even sabotage the spell you tried to cast (“Take that!”). At the end of the round, players who wind up closest to the dragon’s hoard receive five and three gold for first and second place. The oldest spell card on display is then replaced by a shiny new one and the next round begins.

Rock Paper Wizard immediately displays itself for what it was intended to be: a novelty. The main pull of this game is the transformation of a classic even odds game into a silly fireball-chucking slug-fest; there is something so innately pleasing about such a well known game being made into something truly epic out of it. The ability to throw your opponents across a cave as you race to grab the gold first certainly fits the bill theme-wise.

Unfortunately, Rock Paper Wizard falls just short of this goal. Inherent in the game’s design is one unavoidable thing—resolving the effects of the spells. The reason traditional Rock Paper Scissors works so well is that the signs are all very simple. You can look at a set of hands and know within a split second what the result is.

In Rock Paper Wizard, you instead have to systematically go through each player to figure out what’s happening. “Okay, Jess cast fireball on Marc, so Marc goes back five spaces”. Then you need to actually find Marc’s nearly indistinguishable player piece to move it, before you can move onto the next wizard’s spell. This leads to quite a large portion of the game being spent simply holding your spell aloft as you await another moment of action, particularly in a six player game. This is not the lightning-bolted mad-cap brawl that you initially expected or wanted. Luckily, the game doesn’t overstay its welcome—gold continually feeds into the game and eventually someone just can’t help but win.

So yes, Rock Paper Wizard is a novelty, and no, it’s not the fast-paced adventure you necessarily wanted, but that may not be the worst thing. The moment when two players point the same spell at each other, forcing them to draw a completely different spell can be hilarious. And making Marc point his own spell back at himself is also a very satisfying moment. Truthfully, the game would have been better served leaning into these chaotic moments, making that tedious resolution step all the more unpredictable and interesting. However, the fact is the game is cheap, only a few bucks each if you and your friends split it, and there is some real fun inside this box.

The Nerd Cantina rates Rock Paper Wizard 2.5 stars, with a caveat that this goes up to 3 or 3.5 if you’re playing with younger children ages 8 and older.

If you enjoyed this review, check out our other reviews (including Patchwork, Terraforming Mars, Dominion, and Wingspan). Also please comment below with your thoughts, especially if you end up trying Rock Paper Wizard after reading this!