Sorcerer & Stones

Sorcerer & Stones Rulebook

Table of Contents

Components

44 Magic Cards (11 for each player)
14 Artifact Cards
7 Objective Cards
4 Player Aids/Reference Cards
9 Alchemy/Element Zones (Alchemy on the front side and Element on the back side)
56 Qi Refining Stones (point markers)
16 Elemental Runes (3 for metal, wood, water, and fire and 4 for earth)
1 Spirit Stone Refill Marker
40 Spirit Stones
8 Player Markers (2 for red, blue, yellow, and green)
2 Rulebooks (Mandarin and English)

Game Elements

Magic Cards: Used to cast magic, manipulate the Alchemy Zones, or move the Taoists.
Artifact Card: Pay the elements to craft the artifact.
Objective Cards: The rules and bonus of current game.
Alchemy Zone: Has slots for Spirit Stones, and a Taoist stands on it.
Element Zone: Move the Spirit according to the element shown on the Alchemy Zones to complete missions and obtain the runes.
Reference Cards: Show the Starting Rune, the personal Spirit Stone reservoir, and a reminder: when you receive a spirit stone of your own color, receive an extra Qi Refining Stone.
Spirit Stone Supply: One end of the Spirit Stone Refill Marker is the start; the other is the end.

Symbols

Move the Taoist to...
Move Spirit one space.
Move the Alchemy Zone...
Gain Qi Refining Stones.
Flip the Alchemy Zone...
Exchange the Spirit Stones...
Elements: Wood element (green Spirit Stone), Fire element (red Spirit Stone), Water element (blue Spirit Stone), Metal element (yellow Spirit Stone), Earth element (brown Spirit Stone).
Refill the Spirit Stones on the Alchemy Zone from...

Goal of the Game

In Sorcerer and Stone, players take on the role of a Taoist who attempts to achieve enlightenment through the means of collecting Spirit Stones and Qi Refining Stones, crafting artifacts, and utilizing magic cards to manipulate the Alchemy Zones.

By manipulating the Alchemy Zone, players can then move the Spirit on the Elemental Zone and obtain the Elemental Runes.

Once a player manages to collect all types of runes, or the supply of the Qi Refining Stones is depleted, the game will end and whoever has the highest amount of victory points will be the winner!

Game Setup

Place the 5 Alchemy Zone tiles (front side up) in the shape of a cross on the middle of the table. Place the 4 remaining Element Zone tiles (back side up) in the shape of a square on the side of the table, forming the Element Zone.
Shuffle all 14 Artifact Cards, place the deck face up, draw 3 cards and place face up beside the deck. The 4 face up cards form the Artifact Cards Supply.
Randomly take 4 Spirit Stones of different colors and place them on the slots of 1 of the Alchemy Zone tiles. Repeat this process for the other Alchemy Zone tiles as well.
Each player chooses a color, and takes the 2 matching player markers as well as the 11 Magic Cards. Choose a starting player randomly.
Starting with the player sitting to the right of the starting player, going counterclockwise, each player takes one of their markers and places it in the center of the Alchemy Zone, as the Taoist. (Order of placement in a 4 player game: Yellow > Blue > Green > Red.)
- Note: During Game Setup only, each Alchemy Zone may only contain 1 Taoist.
Each player shuffles their own 11 Magic Cards face down and places them in front of them, forming the personal deck. Then, each player draws the top 4 cards from their personal deck and places them face up beside the deck.
Arrange the remaining Spirit Stones into a straight line at random, and place the Spirit Stone Refill Marker at one end of the line, forming the Spirit Stone Supply.
- Note: During Game Setup, 2 Spirit Stones of the same color may not be adjacent to one another in the Spirit Stone Supply.
Depending on the number of players, take out a number of Qi Refining Stones to form the Qi Refining Stone Supply. Use 30/42/56 Qi Refining Stones for 2/3/4 players.
Randomly remove 1 Elemental Rune of each type, and separate the remaining runes by their types into stacks of decreasing order of their point values from top to bottom. Place the metal, wood, water and the fire rune stacks on each of the corners of the Element Zone. Finally, place the earth rune stack in the center of the Element Zone.

For your very first game, we recommend skipping steps 8 through 11, and play a modified game instead. See the variant: Novice Taoist.

Turn order (4 players): starting player, then clockwise (second, third, fourth).

Gameplay

The game will take several rounds. The starting player begins the game, and play proceeds clockwise.

During a player's turn, he or she must take actions in the following order:

Play 1 or 2 cards
Activate the Alchemy Zone to obtain Spirit Stones
Moving Spirit in the Element Zone
Gain the rewards on the Objective Cards
Refill the Spirit Stones in order
Craft an artifact and end the turn

Details for each step are as follows.

1. Play 1 or 2 cards

The player must cast 1 or 2 of the 4 Magic Cards in front of him or her to manipulate the Alchemy Zones or move the Taoist. After a Magic Card has been cast, place it next to the personal deck, forming the discard pile.

Then flip out cards from the top of the personal deck to refill the Magic Cards back to 4. About Magic Cards, please see "Abilities of Magic Cards".

2. Activate the Alchemy Zone to obtain Spirit Stones

Activate the Alchemy Zone where the player's Taoist is currently located. Take any Spirit Stones on the activated tile that (a) share the same color with an adjacent Spirit Stone on another tile, or (b) form a straight line of 3 Spirit Stones of identical colors (take only 1 of them if 2 stones on the same tile form the same chain).

Note: Player may only take Spirit Stones from the Alchemy Zone where her or his Taoist is located.
Note: When a player receives a spirit stone that matches the player's color, she or he receives an extra Qi Refining Stone.

Example a: 2 adjacent stones of the same color

In Green player's turn, the Alchemy Zone in which Green Player is on has a Red Spirit Stone that is connected to another Red Spirit Stone on the adjacent Alchemy Zone. The Green Player gains 1 Red Spirit Stone and places it on the Personal Spirit Stone Reservoir. (Player does not receive Yellow Spirit Stone.)
In Green Player's turn, the Alchemy Zone in which Green Player is on, the Red, Blue and Yellow stones are all connected to adjacent Alchemy Zones. Player receives 1 Red, 1 Blue and 1 Yellow Spirit Stone, and places the stones on the Reservoir. (Only receive the stones on the player's Alchemy Zone, therefore only 1 Red Spirit Stone.)

Example b: 3 of the same color in a line

In Green Player's turn, on the Alchemy Zone that she or he is on, the Yellow Spirit Stone forms a line of 3. Green Player receives 1 Yellow Spirit Stone and places it on the reservoir. (Player may choose one of the two Yellow Spirit Stones on the Alchemy Zone that the player is on.)
In Blue Player's turn, on the Alchemy Zone that she or he is on, the Blue Spirit Stone forms a line of 3 (diagonally). The Blue player receives 2 Blue Spirit Stones, and places them in the reservoir.

3. Moving Spirit in the Element Zone

Skip this step if playing with any variants.

According to the color of the Spirit Stones she or he gained this turn, the player immediately moves her or his Spirit onto the symbol with the matching color on the Element Zone.

Note: Do not need to spend Spirit Stones for this action.

The Spirit must only move orthogonally, never diagonally, and the Spirit may only be moved on an empty slot. After movement, the player may gain the Elemental Rune orthogonally adjacent to her or his Spirit.

Player may only gain 1 Elemental Rune of each type (a player may no longer take the Elemental Rune of a type she or he already has, including the Starting Rune on the player Reference card).

Example: Receive Spirit Stone, and move your Spirit

In Green Player's turn, she or he receives 1 Red Spirit Stone and 1 Yellow Spirit Stone. When Green Player is moving the Spirit, player may move to Yellow and Red spaces.
In Blue Player's turn, she or he receives 1 Green Spirit Stone and 1 Brown Spirit Stone. When Blue player is moving the Spirit, player may move to Green and Brown spaces. When the Spirit stops, player receives an Earth Rune.

4. Gain the rewards on the Objective Cards

Skip this step if playing with any variants.

Gain or execute the rewards listed on the revealed Objective Cards of this game if the prerequisites are met. About Objective Cards, please see "Abilities of Objective Cards".

5. Refill the Spirit Stones in order

Beginning with the start of the Spirit Stone Supply (where the Spirit Stone Refill Marker is located), take a number of Spirit Stones equal to the number of empty slots in the Alchemy Zone and refill them.

Using the Spirit Stone Refill Marker as a reference point, refill the empty slots from top to bottom and going from right to left (on each Alchemy Zone the refill order is: 1 right, 2 down, 3 left/top as shown on the refill diagram). After the refill is complete, adjust the Spirit Stone Refill Marker accordingly so that it is at the start again.

6. Craft an artifact and end the turn

The player may end her or his turn by paying Spirit Stones to craft an artifact. When the turn is finished, play passes to the next player in clockwise order, who then begins his or her turn.

Place the paid Spirit Stones at the end of the Spirit Stone Supply. The order in which the Spirit Stones are returned to the supply is determined by the player who spent them.

Players may choose to craft any 1 of the revealed Artifact Cards (including the 1 on the top of the deck), then refill the Artifact Card Supply back to 4 revealed cards if necessary.

Example: At the end of Green Player's turn, she or he chooses to pay 1 Brown and 2 Yellow Spirit Stones to complete an Artifact Card (Nu Wa Rock). Then places the 3 stones at the end of the Spirit Stones Supply and replenishes the Artifact cards to 4.

End of the Game

There are 3 ways to end the game:

When a player obtains 5 Elemental Runes of different types, the game will end after the player sitting to the right of the start player gets to finish his or her turn (each player will take an equal number of turns).
When the Artifact Card Supply is depleted, the game will end immediately.
When the Qi Refining Stone Supply is depleted, the game will end immediately (record the excess amount). Use 30/42/56 Qi Refining Stones for 2/3/4 players.

Scoring

Each player records his or her score on paper according to the following:

Points on the Elemental Runes.
Points on the Artifact Cards.
Each Qi Refining Stone is worth 1 point.
Each Elemental Rune may reward bonus points:
1. Elemental symbols on the Artifact Cards: each symbol that matches the color of an Elemental Rune that player owns is worth 1 point.
2. Remaining Spirit Stones: each stone that matches the color of an Elemental Rune that player owns is worth 1 point.

Total up the points above, and whoever has the highest amount of victory points is the winner!

Example: at the end of the game, Green player scores the items in front of him or her: 5 points for Elemental Runes, 6 points for Artifact Cards, 8 points for Qi Refining Stones, 3 points for the remaining Spirit Stones and 4 points for Elemental Runes bonus points.

Variants

If you are using a variant, skip steps 8 through 11 during Game Setup.

Novice Taoist

The goal of the game changes to whoever crafts 4 Artifact Cards first will win the game!

Cooperative Game

Cooperative game can be carried out by 1-4 players. The following rules are changed if the players desire to work together and play a cooperative game:

When a Magic Card is cast, remove that card from the game. When all players lose all of their Magic Cards, the game ends. If a player loses all of her or his Magic Cards, she or he simply skips "Step 1: Play 1 or 2 Cards" during his or her turn, and the game will continue until the condition is met.

Whenever players receive Spirit Stones, they must place them on the leftmost Artifact Cards going from left to right. (If a stone does not match the required stone of the Artifact card, it must be discarded.) When the cost has been fulfilled, that Artifact Card will be crafted, and remove all of the Spirit Stones on that Artifact. Replenish the Artifact supply to 4 cards. (The order of cards may not be changed.)

At the end of the game, player receives title according to the number of Artifact Cards crafted:

6 Artifact Cards: Apprentice Xian
7 Artifact Cards: Novice Xian
8 Artifact Cards: Expert Xian
9 Artifact Cards: Master Xian

Abilities of Magic Cards

SPIN: Choose any one of the Alchemy Zones and turn it 90 degrees clockwise or counterclockwise.
FLY: Move the Taoist that belongs to you to any Alchemy Zone. Note: Player may occupy the same Alchemy Zone as other Players or stay on current Alchemy Zone.
QUAKE: Choose an Alchemy Zone and move it to another place or switch it with another Alchemy Zone. Note: When swapping or moving Alchemy Zones, you may not rotate the Alchemy Zone, or isolate any Alchemy Zone.
SHIFT: Choose a Spirit Stone of designated colors and switch its location with a Spirit Stone of a different color. Note: There are 5 designated colors: Metal Element, Wood Element, Water Element, Fire Element and Earth Element.

Abilities of Objective Cards

Spirit Stones in a line...

3 Spirit Stones in a line: Gain a Qi Refining Stone.
4 Spirit Stones in a line: Gain a Qi Refining Stone and move the Spirit 1 step. (Spirit may move to Element Symbol with any color.)
5 Spirit Stones in a line: Gain 4 Qi Refining Stones and move the Spirit 1 step. (Spirit may move to Element Symbol with any color.)

Gain Spirit Stones...

When you gain 2 Spirit Stones in a turn: Gain a Qi Refining Stone.
When you gain 3 Spirit Stones in a turn: Gain 2 Qi Refining Stones.
When you gain 4 Spirit Stones in a turn: Gain 4 Qi Refining Stones.

Gain Spirit Stones of the same color...

When you gain 2 Spirit Stones of the same color in a turn: Gain 3 Qi Refining Stones.

Three Spirit Stones in a straight line...

When you have 2 lines of 3 Spirit Stones in a straight line: Move the Spirit 1 step (Spirit may move to Element Symbol with any color).
When you have 3 lines of 3 Spirit Stones in a straight line: Move the Spirit 1 step (Spirit may move to Element Symbol with any color).

Craft an Artifact Card...

When you craft an Artifact Card this game: Move the Spirit 1 additional step (Spirit may move to Element Symbol with any color). Or execute the "Fly" action once.

Move the Spirit...

During this game, you may spend an additional Spirit Stone to move the Spirit 1 additional step (the Spirit may still only move onto the symbol with the matching color as the spent Spirit Stone).

Spend Spirit Stones...

During this game, you may spend 2 Spirit Stones as any 1 Spirit Stone.