Board Game The Quacks of Quedlinburg

Alchemical bag building with luck checking mechanics

The participants of the game are invited to become quack healers at a fair in medieval Quedlinburg. Over the course of nine days-rounds, they will brew healing potions and sell them to the suffering. The player with the most victory points will become the main quack healer of Quedlinburg.

The game uses the mechanics of bag building and luck checking. Before the game starts, orange and black recipe books are always laid out on the table. Next, players choose a set of books with the same numbers on the bookmarks. The green, blue and red books are laid out immediately, the yellow one is postponed until the second round, and the purple one until the third.

Each participant receives a cauldron tablet (the drop token is placed on the zero division), places the vessel with the full side and sends the rat token into the bowl. A ruby ​​is placed to the left of the cauldron. Starting ingredient tokens are thrown into the bag. You can start!

How to play?

The game lasts exactly 9 rounds. At the beginning of each round, the first player opens and reads the prediction card. The effect of the prediction card applies to all players. From the second round, you can throw rat tails into the cauldron to move the rat token and increase the volume of the potion. The rat token advances by as many divisions as the player is behind the leader on the victory point track.

In the potion-brewing phase, all participants brew a potion at the same time. The player draws a random ingredient token from the bag and places it on the spiral track of the cauldron after the drop, rat, or the last placed token. The value of the token determines the distance from the previous token/chip: 1 - the next division, 2 - through one, etc.

The properties of the blue, red, and yellow tokens are triggered immediately. They are listed in the corresponding recipe books.

There is a risk that the potion will explode. This happens when the sum of the values ​​of the drawn white tokens becomes greater than 7. Players with an exploded potion are eliminated until the end of the round, do not participate in the fight for the bonus die, and lose either money or victory points at the end of the round. To prevent this from happening, you need to be able to stop early. Not wanting to test your luck any further, the player passes and puts the bag aside.

The vessel allows you to return the last drawn white token to the bag, if it did not lead to an explosion. After that, the vessel is turned over with the empty side up.

Potion Evaluation

It takes place in six stages:

1. The player who got further along the cauldron spiral rolls a bonus die. This can only be the player whose potion did not explode. The bonus depends on the result of the die: victory points, a ruby, an orange ingredient token, or moving the drop one division.
2. Players with black, green, and purple ingredient tokens in the cauldron apply their properties and receive rewards according to the booklets.
3. Players receive rubies indicated on the completed distributions.
4. Players receive victory points indicated on the final distribution (the next to the last one achieved). Having reached the last, 33rd division of the cauldron spiral, the player receives 15 victory points, 35 coins to buy ingredients, and also rolls a bonus die.
5. Players buy one or two tokens of different colors. As many coins are allocated for the purchase as the value of the final distribution. The cost of the ingredient tokens is listed in the recipe books.
6. For each pair of rubies spent, the drop counter advances one space. For another 2 rubies, you can fill the vessel by turning its token over.

End of the round and end of the game

The rats are returned to the bowls. All purchased tokens, all ingredient tokens from the cauldron, and any tokens set aside are sent to the bag. The next player in clockwise order becomes the first player. A new round begins.

The game ends after the ninth round. The player with the most points wins.

Publisher: Yellowbox

Language: Ukrainian

Players: 2-4

Play time: 45 m

Age: 10+

• 4 Cauldron Tablets
• 4 Flask Tokens
• 4 Sacks
• 8 Drop Tokens
• 4 Rat Tokens
• Victory Point Track Tablet
• 4 Victory Point Tokens
• Fire Token
• 24 Divination Cards
• 20 Rubies
• 4 Seals
• 12 Ingredient Book Tokens
• 219 Ingredient Chips
• Bonus Cube
• Rules Booklet
• Ingredient Almanac