Rule changes when playing on yucata.de

You can choose to play without schools when creating an invitation.
The number of players is limited to 4.

Game Summary

"Double, double, toil and trouble! Fire burn and cauldron bubble!" (Macbeth, Act 4, Scene 1)

It is the contest of alchemists! The most talented Adepts of the mystical art come from around the world to compete. They fill their cauldrons with exotic and rare ingredients, thereby creating new potions in the quest of fame and honor. In addition to demonstrating their talents by replicating their competitors' potions, each has a secret goal: to promote the use of the ingredient his/her own school of magic values the most! The person who brings most fame to his/her school and to himself/herself will be elected Supreme Adept!

Game Setup

Place the game board (with the potion compendium and the fame track) in the middle of the table. Put the potion value tiles and the scoring chips next to the board. Select a color and take the 6 seals and the player screen of your color. Place one of your seals on the 0 space of the fame (scoring) track, and the other 5 in front of your screen.

The oracle bag needs to be filled before the game begins. Depending on the number of players, find the quantity of each ingredient that will be used for the game in the table below. Place the ingredients for the reserve next to the board (sorted by type), and fill the bag according to the table.

Randomly select 12 ingredients from the bag and put them behind your screen without revealing them to your competitors. Each player starts with 12 randomly selected ingredients. The remaining ingredients in the oracle bag will be used during the game.

Give each Adept a randomly selected school ingredient card and keep it hidden from the other players. The starting player is chosen by any of the ancient customs and rituals the group of Adepts has learned during their years of training, or the oldest player may go first. (Alternatively, the person who most recently used a "recipe" may go first.)

Each school of magic considers one ingredient especially powerful. The adept representing that school tries to use it himself/herself and encourage its use by the others as much as possible, because it will give him/her bonus points at the end of the game.

Game Play

The starting Adept begins. Play the proceeds clockwise around the table. On his/her turn, he/she must choose one of three actions:

• Create a new potion
• Copy an existing potion
• Take ingredients

After completing his/her action, the next Adept takes his/her turn.

Note: If there are only 2 Adepts playing, he/she MUST create a new potion of value 5 or higher as his/her first action (see below).

Creating a New Potion

You create a new potion by choosing the type and quantity of ingredients for that potion and by recording the recipe in the Compendium. Choose an empty cauldron and mark it with one of your seals on the round field.

Take 1 to 5 ingredients (your choice) from your personal reserve and put them on the square fields of the cauldron. You have to meet the following requirements:

• You may not copy an existing recipe from the Compendium.
• You may not use any ingredient more than twice in the same recipe.
• You may not use an ingredient that the recipe will produce as by-product (for example, you cannot use any yellow ingredients in a recipe that produces a yellow ingredient).

Select a potion value tile from the value tiles remaining next to the game board, and place it on the field between the ingredients above the cauldron. You then advance your seal on the fame track equal to the potion value you selected. In addition, you receive the ingredients (by-products) that the potion produces as shown above the cauldron from the ingredient reserve next to the game board.

Note: Towards the end of the game, you may create a recipe that produces an ingredient that is no longer in the ingredient reserve. If this happens, you do not get that ingredient (or ingredients, if both are used up).

Example: Abigail (purple) would like to create a new potion recipe. She takes one of her seals and places it on an open cauldron. Since this cauldron produces a yellow and a green ingredient, no yellow and/or green ingredients may be used. She decides to use 5 ingredients: 2 blue, 2 gray and 1 orange. Since this is a very complicated recipe, she selects the potion value tile 9 and places it on the cauldron. Abigail now gets 9 points. She also takes a yellow and a green ingredient from the ingredient reserve.

Copying an Existing Potion

If you choose to copy a potion already in the Compendium, you CANNOT select a potion YOU have created. You may only use a potion recipe that another player has created! (The seal above the cauldron indicates who has created that potion.) Take the exact mix of ingredients displayed in the cauldron from your reserve behind your screen and remove all except one from the game (they are NOT returned to the ingredient supply). As tribute to the Adept who created that recipe, you give him/her the one ingredient that is not removed from the game. You choose one from the ingredients used in the recipe.

You score as many points as the potion is worth - as indicated by the potion value tile. Move your seal on the fame track accordingly. In addition, you take the ingredients shown above the cauldron from the ingredient supply and place them behind your screen.

Example: Merlin would like to use the potion that Abigail just created. He takes 2 blue, 2 gray and 1 orange ingredient from his personal reserve and puts them in front of his screen. Merlin selects one of the gray ingredients and gives it to Abigail, who puts it behind her screen. The remaining ingredients are removed from the game. For this alchemic performance Merlin gets 9 fame points and 1 yellow and 1 green ingredient, which he puts behind his screen.

Taking Ingredients

If you decide to take ingredients, you may either take any 1 ingredient from the ingredient reserve or 2 random ingredients from the bag. If the bag is empty, you may only take 1 ingredient of your choice from the reserve.

Game End and Victory

The game ends when 2 or fewer ingredient types remain in the ingredient reserve. The round is completed so that each player has the same number of turns.

You now reveal the ingredients you still have behind your screen, and score 1 fame point for every 2 ingredients (rounded down).

Finally, the success you had in promoting your school's ingredient is examined. Place all ingredients that were behind the screens or in the oracle bag back into the ingredient reserve. Now count how many of each ingredient remain in the ingredient reserve (do NOT count ingredients in the Compendium). The Adept with the school ingredient card matching the ingredient of which there are the LEAST remaining gets the first-place school award and the fame points shown in the table below. The second-place award goes to the Adept holding the school ingredient card corresponding to the next-lowest ingredient number, and so on.

Depending on the number of Adepts competing, the following fame points are awarded:

If a particular school ingredient card was not used for the game, do not rank that ingredient for the purpose of the final scoring. Only rank active ingredients.

The winner is the Adept with the most fame points. If two Adepts are tied, the Adept with the higher school ranking wins!

Additional Notes

• Remember that you cannot copy potion recipes that you created yourself.
• Creating many potions may limit the number of potions you can score points with later!
• If you have no seals remaining you cannot create any more potion recipes.