Quacks rules refresher

Read the refresher

You are trying to score the most victory points over nine rounds by brewing potions without blowing up your pot. You do that by drawing chips blindly from your bag, pushing your luck as far as you dare, then spending what you earn on better ingredients.

For setup, put the flame on space one of the round indicator, and the four seal tiles on the seal fields with the zero showing. Each player's scoring marker starts on the seal tile of their color. Sort all the ingredient chips into three piles by value: ones, twos, and fours. Lay out the orange pumpkin book and the black book, using the black book page that matches your player count. Then pick one set of ingredient books, matched by the bookmarks on the lower edge, and lay out only the green, blue and red books from that set. The yellow and purple books from that set are set aside for now. Each player's pot goes down with the plain side up, droplet on the zero space in the middle, flask on the large trivet with the full side showing, rat stone on the small trivet. Into each bag go four white one-chips, two white two-chips, one white three-chip, one orange one-chip, and one green one-chip. The last person to cook something takes the shuffled fortuneteller deck and starts.

Each round follows the same shape. The player holding the fortuneteller deck reads the top card aloud and discards it face up; the action applies to everyone. Purple fortuneteller cards resolve immediately before the round, blue ones apply through the round or at its end. Then, from round two onward, the rats: everyone except the player in the lead counts the rat-tails on the scoring track between themselves and the leader, puts their rat stone on the droplet's space, and moves it forward that many spaces. Then everyone brews at the same time, drawing chips until they stop or explode. Then comes the evaluation, in six steps, and then the round ends and the deck passes clockwise to a new start player.

When brewing, each chip you draw is placed on the number track in your pot, counting forward from the droplet, or from the rat stone if you have one. A one-chip goes one space past, a two-chip two spaces, and so on, each new chip counting from the last one placed. Spaces skipped stay empty. After every chip you choose to draw again or stop. Stopped players lay their bag on the table so everyone can see. You may never look inside your bag.

The explosion rule only counts white chips. If the white chips in your pot total more than seven, your pot explodes, you must stop, but that final chip still stays in the pot. Chips of other colors never count toward that total, and exploding does not cancel chip actions or fortuneteller card actions.

Once per round you may use your full flask to put the chip you just drew back into the bag, then carry on drawing. You cannot use the flask on a chip that just exploded your pot. Flip the flask to the empty side once used.

White and orange chips have no action. Blue, red and yellow chips act the moment they are drawn, and you may always decline an action. Green, purple and black chips only do something later, in the evaluation. What each color actually does depends on the book laid out for it, so glance at the books in play.

Evaluation runs along the banner from left to right. Your scoring field is the field directly after your last placed chip, exploded or not. First, the bonus die: among players who did not explode, whoever reached the highest scoring field rolls it; if two share the same number, the one who went farther along the track with chips wins that, and genuine ties all roll. The die gives one point, two points, a ruby, a droplet move, or an orange chip into your bag. Second, the black, green and purple chip actions resolve, starting with the start player and going around. Third, anyone whose scoring field shows a ruby takes one, exploded or not.

Now the important restriction: if your pot exploded, you must choose either victory points or shopping, not both. Points come next, equal to the number shown on your scoring field. If you reach or pass field thirty-three, put the chip on thirty-three, take fifteen points and thirty-five coins to shop with, and if you did not explode you also roll the bonus die. Then shopping: starting with the start player, you may buy one or two chips of different colors, spending coins equal to the number of your scoring field. Prices are printed in each book, left to right for the one, two and four-chip. Leftover coins are lost, supplies are limited, and everything you bought goes into your bag along with all the chips from your pot.

Finally, for two rubies you may move your droplet one space forward, and for two rubies you may refill your flask; you can do either as often as you can pay. Take your rat stone out, pass the fortuneteller deck clockwise, and advance the flame. Before round two, add the yellow book; before round three, the purple book; before round six, everyone adds one extra white one-chip to their bag. In round nine everyone draws simultaneously on the reader's call of Stir, each player either pulling out a chip or an empty hand.

The game ends after the ninth round. At the end of that last round you may buy victory points, each costing five coins or two rubies, as many times as you like. The player furthest along the scoring track wins. If there is a tie for first, the tied player who filled their pot the most in the last round wins, and if that is still tied, they all share the title.

A turn, played out

It is round 4. Earlier you paid 4 rubies to move your droplet twice, so it sits on space 2 of your pot. The red player leads, and the scoring track between you shows 2 rat-tails. Your rat stone goes on space 2 and moves forward 2, to space 4. You will count from there. You draw a white 3. It lands on space 7, and your whites total 3. Next comes an orange 1, which goes on space 8 and adds nothing to the white total. A white 2 goes to space 10, and your whites now total 5. A green 1 goes to space 11. Then you draw another white 2. That brings the whites to 7, still safe, but one more white would end you. Your flask is still full, so you put that chip back in the bag and flip the flask to empty. You draw again and get a white 1. It lands on space 12, and your whites total 6. You stop and lay your bag on the table. Your scoring field is 13. The blue player stopped on field 11, and the yellow player exploded. You reached the highest field without exploding, so you roll the bonus die. Your green chip resolves when your turn comes. You score the points on field 13, and you get 13 coins to buy one or two chips of different colours. Anything you do not spend is lost. The yellow player exploded, so they must pick either their points or their shopping.