Alchemicus Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Setup
• Object of the Game
• Course of Play
• 1. Draw a Card
  • Buildings (they function only once built)
  • Fame Card
• 2. Move Your Pawn
• 3. Perform the Action Associated with the Space
  • 3.1. Building
  • 3.2. Spirit of Transmutation
  • 3.3. Acquisition
  • 3.4. Transport
  • 3.5. Transmutation
  • 3.6. Sale
  • 3.7. Gifts
• 4. Playing a Fame Card
• 5. End of Turn
• Other Rules
• Optional Advanced Rules
  • Card Bank (recommended rule)
  • Advanced Raw Material Sale

Components

• Rulebook
• Game board
• 4 Alchemist player pawns
• 1 Spirit of Transmutation pawn (gold)
• 140 Game cards:
  • 18 Horten [Garden]
  • 18 Metalle [Mine]
  • 18 Pergula [Stall]
  • 14 Fornax [Foundry]
  • 14 Alembic [Alembic]
  • 14 Taberna [Shop]
  • 14 Domo [Workshop]
  • 10 Labrium [Laboratory]
  • 10 Donarium [Treasury]
  • 10 Gloria [Fame]
• 48 Fame tokens (24 × 1, 16 × 5, 8 × 10)

Setup

Lay out the game board in a place accessible to all Players.

Place the Spirit of Transmutation pawn on the Labrium space of the inner ring of the Spirit of Transmutation.

Each Player chooses a pawn and places it in front of themselves.

Give each Player one Horten (Garden) card and one Pergula (Stall) card. The Players begin the game with these cards laid out in front of them. Cards laid out in front of a Player on the table represent the buildings that Player has built and owns. The Horten (Garden) and Pergula (Stall) buildings are meant to represent the beginnings of the career of an herbalist who wishes to become an alchemist.

Next, shuffle the remaining Game cards thoroughly, deal 5 random cards to each Player, and place the rest in an easily accessible spot as the draw pile. Place the Fame tokens beside it.

The starting Player is the eldest Player, or the Player who scored the fewest Fame points in the previous game, or a Player chosen at random. The second Player to act is the Player sitting to the left of the starting Player.

Object of the Game

The winner is the first Player to collect 20 Fame points (see 5. End of turn).

Course of Play

Players take turns in order, starting with the first Player. Each turn consists of the following phases:

1. Draw a card.
2. Move your pawn.
3. Perform the action associated with the space.
4. Possibly play a Fame card.
5. End of turn.

Figure 1 (original): game board.

1. Draw a Card

The Player draws one card from the draw pile of Game cards.

Cards that a Player holds in hand serve two purposes. The first is as described below, according to the text and symbols on each card. The second is that every card held in hand is a unit of currency in the game. By discarding one card of your choice, you pay a cost of one unit of currency.

Buildings (they function only once built)

• Horten (Garden): during Acquisition, if there is room on it, place a card of the raw material herbs on it.
• Metalle (Mine): during Acquisition, if there is room on it, place a card of the raw material metal ore on it.
• Alembic (Alembic): during Transmutation, transforms herbs into tinctures.
• Fornax (Foundry): during Transmutation, transforms ore into metals.
• Labrium (Laboratory): during Transmutation, transforms tinctures and metals (both are needed at the same time) into gold.
  • While there is gold in the Labrium, no further portions of tincture or metals may be moved into it.
• Pergula (Stall): allows, during Sale, the discarding of 1 raw material card in exchange for a specified number of cards to hand, or for Fame points:
  • for 1 card of herbs or ore: 1 card to hand;
  • for 1 card of tincture or metals: 3 cards to hand;
  • for 1 card of gold: 5 cards to hand or 1 Fame point.
• Taberna (Shop): allows, during Sale, the discarding of up to 3 raw material cards in exchange for cards to hand or Fame points:
  • for 1 card of herbs or ore: 1 card to hand;

Fame Card

• Gloria (Fame): a Fame card may be played only at the end of your turn, regardless of which space your pawn is on. To play it, you must first pay its cost, i.e. discard 5 cards from hand. The Player immediately gains 1 Fame point. Fame cards, unlike all other cards, are not laid out in front of the Player; they are placed on the discard pile. Only one Fame card may be played per turn.

Figure 2 (original): a Game card, showing its name, its cost, and its functions.

2. Move Your Pawn

The Player moves their pawn 1, 2 or 3 spaces along the outer Alchemical Ring, clockwise. The Player may also move their pawn 4 or 5 spaces. For such intense effort, the Player is forced to pay 1 Fame point (by paying 1 Fame point, the Player may move their pawn either 4 or 5 spaces).

During the Player's first turn of the game, instead of moving, the Player places their pawn on any Alchemical Ring space of their choice.

3. Perform the Action Associated with the Space

The Player places their pawn on one of the eight spaces of the Alchemical Ring. The Player may then perform the action assigned to that space, but this is not mandatory (except for the space of the Spirit of Transmutation). Depending on the space, the Player may perform one of the actions listed below.

3.1. Building

The Player may build a building by laying in front of themselves a chosen card from hand and paying the cost shown in its upper right corner. Payment consists of discarding the appropriate number of cards from hand to the discard pile.

Example: A Player wishes to build an Alembic by laying the appropriate card in front of themselves. The cost of building it is 3 units, so the Player must discard 3 other cards from hand.

During a Building action, the Player may lay in front of themselves any number of cards from hand, provided they can pay for them.

A Player may have at most 12 buildings laid out in front of them. If they wish to build a building that would exceed this limit, they must demolish one of their previously built buildings (discarding the card that represents it to the discard pile).

There is no limit on the number of identical buildings a Player may have (all 12 buildings may be of one type).

3.2. Spirit of Transmutation

The Spirit of Transmutation is jealous and usually does not allow anyone to create gold, but sometimes it likes to play tricks: it spoils the results of reactions in Alembics, or the smelting of ore in Foundries, and can even cause a failed herb harvest, contamination of metal ore, or sickness of workers. The Spirit of Transmutation pawn indicates which type of building is under its influence and, at that moment, is not fulfilling its functions. Buildings indicated by the Spirit of Transmutation pawn do not perform their functions for any Player.

• When the Spirit of Transmutation pawn stands on the space marked Mines, the Mines do not extract ore during Acquisition. Similarly, Gardens do not produce herbs.
• When the pawn stands on an Alembic, Alembics do not transform the herbs in them into tinctures, and blocked Foundries do not smelt metal from ore.
• When the pawn stands on the Laboratory, the transformation of metals and tinctures into gold is impossible.
• When the Spirit's pawn stands on the central point of the inner ring of the Spirit of Transmutation, the function of Workshops is blocked, meaning no Player holding Workshops receives extra cards to hand.

Additionally, by moving the Spirit's pawn onto this point, the Player may take a randomly chosen card from one of the other Players, but only from those who own at least one Workshop.

When the next Player moves the Spirit's pawn from the central point onto a space that blocks another building (e.g. an Alembic), that Player receives no card for it, and the Workshops start functioning again.

Moving the Spirit of Transmutation pawn is mandatory.

Figure 3 (original): the inner ring of the Spirit of Transmutation and the moves permitted on it. Its legend reads:

• Figure 3 legend:
  • Skip the Spirit of Transmutation space;
  • Move left or right by 1 space;
  • Move to any other space; to do this you must discard all cards from hand;
  • Move from outside onto the Domo space;
  • Move from the Domo space to any outer space.

When a Player's pawn passes over the space of the Spirit of Transmutation without stopping on it, the Player draws one card from the draw pile to hand. This is a reward from the Spirit of Transmutation for the Player not having disturbed it during that turn.

When a Player places their pawn on the Spirit of Transmutation space, they may:

• move the Spirit of Transmutation pawn one space left or right on the inner ring of transmutation;
• discard all cards they hold in hand, and then move the Spirit of Transmutation pawn to any space;
• move the Spirit of Transmutation pawn from any outer space to the central point;
• move the Spirit of Transmutation pawn from the central point to any outer space.

Only one Player's pawn may stand on the Spirit of Transmutation space at a time. If another Player's pawn is already on the Spirit of Transmutation space, no other Player may place their pawn there.

3.3. Acquisition

All of a Player's Gardens and Mines acquire raw materials simultaneously. This is possible only if the given Mine or Garden does not yet contain a raw material, and if the Spirit of Transmutation is not blocking the operation of that type of building.

To acquire a raw material, take a card from the draw pile and place it face down on the Mine or Garden card, in the orientation matching the picture on the card, i.e. vertically.

3.4. Transport

During a Transport action, the Player may move their processed or acquired goods. Transport is carried out as follows: herbs from the Garden (Horten) to the Alembic (Alembic); ore from the Mine (Metalle) to the Foundry (Fornax); tinctures from the Alembic (Alembic) to the Laboratory (Labrium); metals from the Foundry (Fornax) to the Laboratory (Labrium).

For something to be transported, the destination building must be empty. In the destination building, place the raw material card in the orientation matching the picture on the destination card. The order of transport is optional.

Example: A Player has mined ore in their Mine, a smelted metal in their Foundry, and an empty Laboratory. The Player decides first to transport the metal from the Foundry to the Laboratory, which frees the space in the Foundry so that the ore can be transported from the Mine to the Foundry.

Figure 4 (original): possible transport options for raw materials (as shown on the board at the Transport space).

3.5. Transmutation

During Transmutation, the Player activates their Alembics (Alembic), Foundries (Fornax) and Laboratories (Labrium), transforming the items placed in them into other items. An Alembic transforms herbs into tinctures, a Foundry smelts metal from ore, and a Laboratory transforms metals and tinctures into gold.

For a transmutation to take place, the given building must not be blocked by the Spirit of Transmutation (the Spirit's pawn must not stand on it), and all the raw materials required for the process must be present there (a Laboratory will not produce gold unless it holds both metal and tincture).

Figure 5 (original): possible transmutations (as shown on the board at the Transmutation space).

3.6. Sale

When a Player places their pawn on the Sale space, they may sell their goods using Stalls, Shops and Treasuries. Each of these buildings allows the sale of a specified number of goods. Each Stall allows the sale of only one item of any goods, a Shop allows three items, and a Treasury allows the sale of only one item of gold.

The price list is shown on the card of the building used for sale, and according to it the Player determines the price of goods when selling. When selling certain types of goods using a Stall or a Shop, the Player may choose between selling for a specified number of cards or for Fame points.

Goods intended for sale may be located in any of the Player's buildings.

Example: It does not matter whether herbs are in the Garden or in the Alembic; their price is the same.

It is not necessary to place goods in a Shop, Stall or Treasury in order to perform a sale action. These buildings do not store goods.

Example: A Player has built 1 Stall (Pergula) and 1 Shop (Taberna). The Player also has herbs in their Garden (Horten), herbs in their Alembic (Alembic), ore in their Mine (Metalle), and metals in their Foundry (Fornax). The Player decides to sell everything and makes these choices: in the Shop, sells the metals from the Foundry for 1 Fame point, sells the ore from the Mine for 1 card of Game cards, and sells the herbs from the Alembic for 1 card of Game cards; at the Stall, sells the herbs from the Garden for 1 card of Game cards.

Note: the manual's worked example spells this building "Tawerna" (Tavern) in one place; it is the same building as the Taberna (Shop) listed in the card list.

3.7. Gifts

If a Player decides to place their pawn on the Gifts space, they may discard 5 cards of their choice from hand in order to automatically receive 1 Fame point in exchange. This may be done only once during each visit to the Gifts space.

4. Playing a Fame Card

If a Player holds a Fame card in hand, they may play it at the end of their turn. The cost of playing a Fame card is 5 Game cards, which the Player must discard (analogously to building). If a Player plays a Fame card, they immediately receive 1 Fame point for it.

5. End of Turn

At the end of their turn, a Player may not hold more than 10 cards in hand. If a Player has more than 10 cards in hand, they discard the excess to the discard pile. At any other moment of the game, a Player may hold any number of cards in hand. The 10-card limit is checked only at the end of the Player's turn.

Check whether the Player has collected 20 Fame points. If not, the turn passes to the Player sitting to their left.

If a Player has collected 20 Fame points, the last round of the game follows. In this round, only those Players take turns who, over the whole game, have taken fewer turns than the Player who first collected 20 Fame points. After the round is finished, points are totalled. The winner is the Player with the most Fame points. If there is a tie, the sum of the prices of the buildings built by the Players decides. If this does not determine a winner, the result is a draw.

Other Rules

When the draw pile runs out at any point in the game, shuffle the discard pile thoroughly and place the cards face down as a new draw pile.

Fame points held by Players are open information, so that every Player knows how many Fame points their opponents have scored.

Optional Advanced Rules

Players may also play the advanced version of the game. In this case, the following additional rules apply. Use one or all of them, as you choose.

Card Bank (recommended rule)

During setup, lay five face-up cards on the table. These form the card bank. During the draw phase, instead of drawing a random card from the draw pile, a Player may decide to take one card from the card bank. In exchange for this privilege, the Player gives up the normal draw and must additionally discard one card from hand to the discard pile.

A Player may take only one card from the card bank in their turn in this way.

After taking a card from the card bank, the Player places a new face-up card from the draw pile in the vacated spot.

When the draw pile runs out during the game, the cards of the card bank are also added to it, and after shuffling, 5 new random cards are laid out as the new card bank.

Advanced Raw Material Sale

During a Sale action, when a Player chooses to sell one of their goods for cards (but not for Fame), another Player, starting with the Player sitting to the left of the seller, may buy that goods. They may do this only if they have a free space in one of their buildings, so that they can place the goods there legally.

The cost of buying such raw material is discarding a number of cards equal to the number of cards the selling Player received from the sale, plus one.

Example: A Player sells a Tincture from their Alembic using a Shop. They choose to receive cards for their Tincture and so receive 3 cards. The Player sitting to their left declares a wish to buy this Tincture. They therefore discard 4 cards (the 3 received by the selling Player, plus 1), and then place the Tincture on an empty space for tinctures in their Laboratory.