Alchemistry
Alchemistry Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Goal of the Game
Alchemistry is a resource optimization and tile placement game, where you collect various ingredients, discover new potion formulas, trade with gem merchants, transmute your materials, and improve your brewing skills to collect Victory Points (★). Each time you score during the game, advance your pawn along the scoreboard immediately.
In a nutshell, this is the basic mechanism of Alchemistry:
- You collect resources (cubes) and store them on your player board.
- You use those resources to brew potions or trade with merchants (referred to as "completing a potion card" or "completing a gem card" henceforth).
- Cards require different kinds of resources to complete. Once you complete a card, you collect it and a new card appears.
- Collected cards will be worth ★ at the end of the game. Various other actions can also grant players ★. The player with most ★ at the end of the game will be the winner.
Resources
The game uses cubes to represent the four kinds of resources in the game: Gems, Common Ingredients, Rare Ingredients and Æther. Cubes are placed into the pouch at the start of the game, with exception of Rare Ingredients which are placed on the table.
As the game progresses, you put the cubes you collect on your player board, placing them into their respective places so that you and your opponents can easily count how many cubes you have of each type at any time.
Gems
Gems (Emerald, Amethyst, Sapphire, Ruby) are bright-transparent cubes which are never found in potion formulas, but they can be sold directly to gem merchants to make some quick cash (i.e. accumulate ★).
The gem merchant cards determine the current demand in the market, and you can complete a Gem card by paying the exact amount of resources as depicted on that card.
At the start of the game, all the Gems will be in the pouch, but they are never returned to the pouch after usage. Instead, put them somewhere on the table (easily accessible by everyone) where they slowly accumulate as the game progresses and become a pile. This pile is referred as "the Gem Pile" henceforth. You will sometimes pull gems from the pouch but some actions will let you take them directly from the Gem Pile.
Common Ingredients
Common Ingredients are opaque cubes which are used to brew potions. Brewing potions is the core mechanic of the game: The potion cards on the board depict which resources are required to complete them.
There are two types of ingredients, Metals (Silver and Copper) and Chemicals (Oil and Sulfur). These ingredients can be transmuted to rare versions of their types (Silver and Copper transmute into Gold, Oil and Sulfur transmutes into Sal Ammoniac).
Common Ingredients are found in the pouch at the start of the game and are always returned to the pouch after usage. Many actions will let you pull cubes randomly from the pouch.
Rare Ingredients
Gold (Rare Metal) and Sal Ammoniac (Rare Chemical) are rare versions of metals and chemicals that are also used to brew potions but are not found in the pouch, thus must be acquired by special actions.
Rare ingredients can be used to increase your mastery over the type of materials (Using Gold increases your Metals mastery, using Sal Ammoniac does the same for Chemicals).
Rare ingredients are placed in a pile on the table (easily accessible by everyone) at the start of the game - referred as "the Rare Pile" henceforth. Rare cubes are returned to the Rare Pile after usage. There are some actions in the game that let you take cubes directly from this pile.
Rare ingredients are never placed into the pouch - if it happens by mistake during setup or during the game itself, pour out all cubes from the pouch, remove all rare ingredients, then put the rest back into the pouch.
Æther
Æthers are transparent cubes, a special resource that can be used instead of any common or rare ingredient while completing a potion. It cannot be used in place of gems or while transmuting materials.
Using Æther instead of a rare ingredient when completing a potion does not increase your mastery level in that material.
Æther is always found in the pouch, and will return to the pouch after usage, thus the only way to acquire it is to draw it from the pouch.
Cube Limit
Players can only hold a maximum of three cubes of each type (two for rare ingredients). At the end of a player's turn, that player returns any excess cubes back to their proper places: To the pouch if they are Common Ingredients or Æther, to the Gem Pile if they are Gems, and to the Rare Pile if they are Rare Ingredients. Note that since this happens at the end of turn, players can temporarily breach this limit during their turn.
Setup
- Shuffle the Potion deck and put it face-down near the game board. Draw the top 2 Potion cards and place them in an L shape near the board, putting a random corner square of the first one on top of the second one.
- Shuffle both decks (5★ and 7★ worth respectively, as seen on cards) of Gem Merchant cards separately and put both decks face-up near the game board. This way, the top card of each of the two decks is visible to players, and when a Gem Merchant card is collected, the next card beneath it will be revealed immediately.
- Put all common ingredients, Æther and gems cubes (except Gold and Sal Ammoniac, 81 in total) into the pouch and shake it a bit so that they become shuffled.
- Place the Rare Ingredients (Gold and Sal Ammoniac) in a pile somewhere near the table (this is referred as the Rare Pile). Remember that Rare Ingredients are never supposed to be inside the pouch, at any point during the game (Counting the rare cubes as you place them on the table during setup might help to notice if there are any in the pouch).
- Give each player a player board and 3 resources randomly drawn from the pouch.
- The player who had the worst grade in his/her most recent exam is the starting player (or randomly determine if all of you are/were equally bad students). The game proceeds in clockwise order. Give the last player the Æther Reservoir card.
- Put all player pawns on the first spot on Scoring Board and two mastery trackers (Metals and Chemicals) and put all Alchemistry Tickets (cards worth 20 ★) aside near the Scoring Board (they will only be used to facilitate counting during final scoring).
Game Rules
The core mechanic of the game is collecting resource cubes, and using them to complete Gem Merchant cards or Potion cards. When you complete a Potion or Gem Merchant card, you collect that card and place it face up in front of you. These cards will award you ★ at the end of the game. There will always be 2 Gem Merchant cards and 2 Potion cards on the board that you can complete (unless you run out of cards).
To complete a card, put cubes from your player board on top of the (potion or gem) card you intend to complete so everyone can clearly see you have the required cubes. After placing the cubes, you are allowed to change your mind and take back your move (if you lack enough resource cubes, or simply decided otherwise).
You can complete one or both Gem cards or both Potion cards at same time, but you can never complete one Gem and one Potion card in one action.
Finishing Gem Cards
Completing Gem Trader cards is easy enough, you must pay the exact amount of Gem resources as depicted on the card. These cubes are put into the Gem Pile. Æther cannot be used when completing Gem cards. When a Gem card is completed, collect the completed card and place it in front of you so that the next card is revealed.
If you wish, you can complete both the card worth 5★ and the one worth 7★ simultaneously - but you may not complete one card, collect it, and immediately complete the one underneath it in one action.
Finishing Potion Cards
Potion cards are a bit trickier. The potion card deck is placed face down near the game board. When a Potion card is collected, the player completing the Potion must draw and place a new Potion on the board, overlapping the other potion card, as described below.
At the start of the game and throughout, there must always be two cards on the table placed in an overlapping manner. One of the cards is placed on top so that it covers at least one ingredient of the card below.
When players complete and collect a potion card, they must draw a new one from the deck and place it in any way they wish, covering as many ingredients as they want on either of the cards. You can rotate the cards in any way and can decide which card will stay on top or bottom. Absolutely everything is allowed with two exceptions:
- Cards can never be placed directly on top of the other card overlapping all the 6 ingredients.
- Cards must be placed horizontally or vertically (you cannot place a card at 45°, for instance).
If a player completes both Potions in one action, they draw 2 cards and place them in any way they wish, using the same rules as above.
Completing a Potion requires paying all the ingredients shown on its formula, but a formula can change if it is placed as the bottom card: The ingredients on the top card override the ingredients of the bottom card.
Example: Normally, a potion's formula is 3 Silver, 2 Copper, 1 Sal Ammoniac. If placed on the bottom of another card in the illustrated manner, that potion's formula becomes 2 Copper, 2 Sulfur, 1 Gold, 1 Sal Ammoniac.
You can complete the top potion card or the bottom potion card. Alternatively, you can complete both cards at once with one action: You need to pay all the ingredients in both cards if you do so (you don't need to pay the ingredients twice for the overlapping spaces). In the example, to complete both cards at once, you need to pay 3 Silver, 1 Copper, 3 Oil, 3 Gold.
If you don't use any Æther when completing a Potion, you get an extra 3★ as bonus (or extra 6★ if you complete both potions without Æther, which is a difficult trick to pull off successfully!).
After completing a Potion, you return the ingredients to their proper places (Common Ingredients and Æther go back into the pouch, Rare Ingredients return to the Rare Pile). Be careful not to put Rare Ingredients into the pouch by mistake - if you do so you will need to pour out the contents of the pouch and remove all Rare Ingredients.
After completing a Potion, players advance on the mastery tracks for each rare ingredient they used to complete the potion(s) (Æther used instead of a Rare Ingredient does not count). For instance, if they used 2 Gold and 1 Sal Ammoniac to complete the potion(s), they advance 2 spaces on the Metals Mastery track, and 1 space on the Chemicals Mastery track.
There can be only one Master in each type of material. The player who reaches the final space of a mastery track becomes the master in that material for the rest of the game as no other players can overtake him - other players can have maximum 15 points from that track. Furthermore, the Master scores 3★ each time he uses that material.
For instance, if a player is at 15 points on the Metals track, and completed a potion by using 3 Gold, that player will advance to 20 (locking the other players from reaching 20 in Gold track), become Master, then score 6★ (as he used Gold 2 more times after becoming the Master).
Game Flow
The first player takes the pouch and completes his turn, then gives the pouch to the next player. The game proceeds in clockwise order until the end game trigger (see below).
During a turn, a player must take his Primary Action (left side of the Player Card), then must take a Secondary Action (right side of the Player Card). Taking both actions in this order is mandatory. Players are NOT permitted to take two Primary or two Secondary Actions.
The players must do so in this particular order; they cannot first take their Secondary action. They cannot take two Primary or two Secondary Actions either.
1- Primary Actions
These are the actions on the left side of the Player Card:
- Collect: Haggle, barter and preferably steal from other shop owners around the fair to collect ingredients for your potions. You can never know which bargains you will stumble upon in this manner. Pull 2 cubes randomly from the pouch.
- Shop: Spend your time to find a specific precious material and buy it - on College of Magic's account, of course! Choose and take any 1 Rare Ingredient from the Rare Pile.
- Trade in Gems: Engage in price arbitrage through the Dwarven and Gnomish gem exchanges, short sell GDS's (Gem Default Swaps), and generally buy high sell low (or was it the other way around?). Gets better if you have had previous dealings with Gem Merchants as you can use your insider knowledge to generate enormous profits. Turn one of your face up Gem Merchant cards (which you collected from previous turns) face down to choose and take any 2 gems from the Gem Pile. Note that when you turn a gem card face down, it stays that way until the end of the game and cannot be used again to take this action. You need to collect a different gem card to take this action again. Cards give same ★ whether they are face up or down during final scoring. Alternatively, you can exchange exactly 2 gems for any other 2 gems in the Gem Pile. You score 1★ regardless of which option you choose in this action.
2- Secondary Actions
These are the actions on the right side of the Player Card:
- Complete: Complete one/both Potions OR one/both Gem Merchant cards. Rules described above.
- Transmute: Transmute your ingredients into a more precious and rare form of its type. This generally involves long, precise, and generally nonsensical mathematical formulas, arcane ritualistic mumbo jumbo and guaranteed fireworks whether you succeed or not, thus is a surefire way to impress the jury. Give 3 Silver or Copper in any combination to take one Gold from Rare Pile and score 3★. Alternatively, give 3 Oil or Sulfur in any combination to take one Sal Ammoniac from Rare Pile and score 3★. You can create exactly one rare material with this action. Æther cannot be used for this action in any way. Common ingredients are returned to pouch as usual.
- Scavenge: Wander around the fair, looking for leftovers from the previous fair to collect some extra ingredients. Every extra bit helps! Pull two cubes randomly from the pouch. Keep one and return the other to the pouch.
Æther Reservoir
The Æther Reservoir is the marvel of cutting edge technology, a machine which generates Æther out of thin air. The College of Magic owns the patents, but it is still in an experimental phase and prone to breakdowns, not to mention its cost of several billion $DD (Dwarf Dollars). Naturally, the dean allows only limited use of the machine.
Only the player holding the Æther Reservoir card has the privilege of using this machine, represented by the Æther Reservoir card. After use, the card must be passed to the player on the right (counter-clockwise).
Whenever you are about to complete a Potion, you can use Æther Reservoir by passing it to the player on your right. It counts as two Æthers for the purpose of completing a Potion (in 2 player games, it only counts as one Æther - don't forget to flip the card to its proper side for 2 or 3-4 player games). The Æther Reservoir can only be used as you complete a Potion and is a free action (you don't spend any of your Primary or Secondary actions for using it).
Note that you do not actually take any Æther cubes from anywhere by using this card, you just pay less resources to complete the potion(s) as if you had extra Æther.
This card also determines the last player. (See the end game rules below.)
End Game
The game end triggers when any two of the following happen:
- A player reaches 15★ in the Victory Point track (bubbling cauldron).
- A player reaches the end space in the Metals Mastery tracker.
- A player reaches the end space in the Chemicals Mastery tracker.
- There are no more Gem Trader cards left (both 5★ and 7★ decks must be empty).
- The Potion deck is empty (when the last Potion card is placed on the board).
When the game end triggers, play continues until the player holding the Æther Reservoir card completes his turn. Note that if this player uses the card on his last turn, the game does not end at that point, and the player on his right becomes the new last player. The game can continue in this manner, as long as the last players keep using the Æther Reservoir card.
Final Scoring
- Unused rare ingredients the players have on their player board are worth 1★ each.
- Completed Potion cards are 5★ each.
- Completed Gem Merchant cards are worth 5★ or 7★ each as depicted on cards (it does not matter whether the card is face up or face down).
- Players score extra ★ for both Metals and Chemicals masteries as shown on the tracks.
When counting your points and advancing your pawn on scoreboard, do not forget to collect one Alchemistry Ticket (worth 20★) each time you cross the starting point (makes it easier to count in the end).
The player with most ★ wins the game. In case of a tie, players share the victory.
Solo Game
In this variant, the game is a race against time. Remove the Æther Reservoir from the game. End game triggers are not used. Put a pawn of another color than yours on the starting space. During the game, after each of your turns, move that Pawn one space backwards (first moves to 19, then 18 etc.). When the pawn reaches 0, the game ends immediately (This means that you have 20 turns total). If you are beginner, or played really badly, or "tried something different this time", or "almost beat hard difficulty this time!" then you are allowed to cheat and play the round where the marker reached 0 as well. The rules were "confusing", see? Was it before or after your turn that you move the pawn? Rulebook wasn't so clear!!! - Jokes aside, you can play 1 more round to lower the difficulty further.
To beat the game, you need to score at least:
- 80★ for easy difficulty,
- 100★ for normal difficulty,
- 120★ for hard difficulty.