You can try out some of the features of Phantasma before registering. (Of course, registration is free, so this may be a little pointless...but you could think of it as trying out before making a commitment.)
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Note: For more detailed documentation, please visit the Phantasma forums for The Newbie Guide, or find a Newbie Guide item within the game.
A powerful wizard has invited you to Cobweb Castle. To research, train, learn spells, meet your fellows...what you do, ultimately, is up to you.
Stone. Everything was stone. The walls of the castle room were stone, as were the ceiling and floor. The room was decorated with statues, also stone.
The inhabitants were also mostly stone.
"We look forward to a long and healthy relationship." The voice sounded like great boulders crumbling against each other. It emanated from the largest statue, a nine-foot-tall multi-armed goddess. Her hands slowly ground between different meditative positions as she spoke. "We also look forward to receiving the respect we deserve as sentient life-forms."
The goddess was flanked by a number of quite lifelike, and in fact living, sculptures of humans. Facing them were a few actual humans. Reason was there, blindfolded, with Midnight Moon at his right hand. To the left was another wizard, cloaked in blue, watching the proceedings with piercing blue eyes. Reason's face was a smiling mask as he finally responded. "I feel there is much we sentient life-forms may learn from each other," he said. "To illustrate this point, and to cement our new relationship, a gift." He glanced at the figure to his left, who picked up a metal can, its edges spattered with a strangely rippling purple color, and offered it to the statue.
The goddess accepted the can, her expression not changing. "To cement our relationship, and illustrate the value we may have to each other, a gift," she replied. A male statue stepped forward, bald and clad in wizard's robes, holding a broom in one hand. The other hand offered forward a spherical blue crystal, slightly larger than an egg. A star shape glittered on its surface. Reason took the object, showed it to his two companions, then pocketed it. "And now other important matters call for our attention," the goddess intoned. "But you are always welcome...here." The large statue bowed, then turned and made its ponderous way across the room to a doorway. The assembled statues broke ranks and began to chat among themselves, producing sounds like the polishing of myriad gems.
Reason glanced at the blue-robed wizard and smiled. "What did you think, Druid? You didn't mind giving up your paint?"
"It's fine," he replied, looking curiously around at the statues. "I can always make more. What else can you get a statue? It's like clothing for them. What was that crystal they gave you?" He suddenly turned to look at Reason.
The other wizard pulled the gem out of a pocket. "This? I believe it's a star sapphire. Tiny imperfections make a star pattern appear on its surface. Quite pretty, very rare, but as far as I know it has no magical effect. Of course, I don't pretend to know everything." He handed the stone to Midnight Moon, then glanced up...a startled expression on his face. "Sophie?"
A small statue of a girl stood there, regarding them from behind huge goggles. A tiny stone turtle perched on her shoulder with a tiny set of goggles on its face as well. "Yes and no," she replied.
Druid raised his eyebrows and looked at Reason. "A statue of someone named Sophie?" he asked. "You know her? How close is her personality going to be copied?"
"A good question," Reason admitted.
"But ultimately unimportant," the Sophie statue added. "I do not matter, but you do. Here." She held something out to Druid.
The blue-robed wizard took it and peered intently. He was holding a plain flute, carved crudely from stone but still quite light. "What is it?" he asked.
"A warning," the statue replied.
"Oh, great," Reason sighed. "Not another one."
Much of Phantasma revolves around types of magic, or realms. Every wizard starts with a skill of 1 in each realm. The maximum possible skill is 9.
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Wizards spend much of their time performing research. You may research any of your nine realm skills in any combination. Performing research increases your skills, and gives you a chance to discover "spell seeds" of the realm you're researching. (See "Spells", below.) Casting spells also increases your skills; thus, casting Magical Trinket (a low-level Artificing spell) will increase your skill in Artificing. Increased skills give you a better chance to cast difficult spells. Your skills also have a direct effect on your stamina (see below).
Spells are the whole point of Phantasma, allowing wizards to affect the game world in many ways. Spells are usually learned through research.
When you research a skill, you do not learn spells directly; instead, you discover "spell seeds". A spell seed represents an idea for a new spell, an opportunity to create it. Before the spell may be cast, the spell seed must be researched. To research a spell seed, find the link in the spell's description on your atelier page. Researching spells costs a significant amount of time (in other words, stamina; see below) and magical power (GC; see Currency, below). This is to encourage wizards to choose carefully which spells to learn, perhaps even specializing in one or two skills.
Spells have many effects, but may be categorized in several ways. Every spell is aligned to a realm, of course, and spells are also divided into seven general types.
Note: Spells may also be learned from spellbooks, which do not require messing around with spell seeds. And, alternately, spell seeds may be learned from spell notes, thereby taking the randomness out of which spell seeds come from research.
Stamina represents the time and energy a wizard has available for magical activities. (In another game, it might be called "turns".) Stamina represents a wizard's capacity to cast spells before requiring rest (what, in another game, might be called "MP"). Stamina is used to cast spells, but also in other magical activities, such as research, duels, and so forth. It refills completely every 36 hours, but is actually recalculated every hour. In other words, every hour you get 1/36th of your maximum stamina back. (Technically, it only refills if you visit your Atelier page.)
Stamina depends upon magical power, which is the sum
of your nine magical skills. Thus, to get more stamina, develop
your skills through research.
Some wizards also have skills that do not relate directly to magic, such as sculpting, gardening and cooking. These skills may sometimes affect how a certain spell performs, but more often than not they are used with other activities. They may be increased through practice.
Each wizard is a member of a class, which shows what "type" of wizard they are. Classes give minor bonuses and affect what spells wizards start with.
Phantasma takes place within a place called Cobweb Castle, an edifice woven of magic and illusion. The castle's layout seems to fluctuate regularly, maps often proving useless. Points of interest:
There are four types of items in Phantasma.
Note: Despite what the above list says, administrative staff can always view the inventory of any player.
Items also have different uses:
Resources and Reagents are specialized items found on the Spells page of the Atelier. Resources are small portions of magical power aligned to some element. (For example, Flame Gems are aligned to fire, while Snow Grapes are aligned to water.) Reagents may be magical or nonmagical, but are useful in other ways. Resources and Reagents are used as ingredients for spells; they do not have any direct use alone. Also, unlike Items, Resources and Reagents are listed in "stacks" or "multiples" (10 Fire Scorpions, 22 Silver Veins, etc.).
There are three currencies in Phantasma.
The creator of Cobweb Castle has recognized that humans seem to have an innate need for competition. In order to channel this urge into something at least marginally useful, duels were created. There are two types of duel, simple duels and certamen. Simple duels (or just "duels") are a test of each wizard's highest magical skill, as they try to drain the opposing wizard's magical power (the sum of all nine skills). Certamen is similar, but much more involved, drawing on all the battle spells each wizard knows. Certamen also involves any minions the wizards may have. (Both duel types are automatic; simply find a wizard and challenge them to the duel type you desire.)
New! There are now strategic duels. These duels are played in steps; when you challenge someone, they receive a magemail message (see below) notifying them of the duel. If they accept another magemail is generated. Each round all the participants perform an action, and when a round is over all participants receive a magemail. In this manner the participants do not have to be online at the same time.
Magemail is a sort of in-game email and news system, accessible from the main Atelier page. Keep an eye out for annoucements here.
Please visit the forum if you have questions, comments, ideas or bug reports.
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Personal Information |
Inventory |
Personal Library |
Spells |
Research |