Potion Commotion

Potion Commotion

Rules v2.0

Introduction

A board game for something like 3–6 players: although, who knows, it might work with more or fewer.

You are a tight-fisted magician, constantly scouring the lands for ingredients for potions, and seeking to bring them in ever more cheaply than your rivals. And you are not above using the magical effects of these potions to disrupt the local geography for your benefit and your rivals’ detriment…

Materials

Board – with a layout of cities, and routes between them, marked upon it.

Supplier cards – each card has the name of a magical-goods supplier and a list of the ingredients that they supply.

Potion recipe cards – each describes the recipe and the effects of a different potion.

[Assuming at the moment that the above are all mixed up together in one big deck, but it might make more sense to have them in two separate decks.]

Basic potion recipe cards – these are similar to the ordinary potion cards, but are distinguished somehow (different coloured back or something). They are the initial recipes with which each player starts the game.

Route markers – (n) for each player, colour-coded. For players to mark which routes they have opened up. In a selection of values from 1 to 5.

Setup

Give each player a set of basic potion recipe cards, and their route markers.

Shuffle the deck.

Turn sequence

Each player, starting with [is it an advantage, or a disadvantage?] and then proceeding to the left as normal, does any or all of the following, in any sequence:

· may draw 1 card from the deck, although taking their hand only to a maximum of 3 cards;

· may play any combination of cards and / or route markers, in any sequence, up to a total of no more than 2 (see below for how to play cards and place route markers);

· may discard 1 card;

· may make 1 potion whose card is on the table in front of them (see below for how to make a potion), scoring Gold if they do so.

Playing cards and route markers

You can play cards and route markers in whatever combination and sequence you like, as long as you play no more than two in your turn. The options are:

· play a supplier card from your hand onto a city on the board that doesn’t already have a supplier card on it, and that is on at least one opened-up route (unless there aren’t any opened-up routes yet);

· or, play one of your route markers onto the map – it must be onto a route where you don’t already have a marker, and it must adjoin one or more cities that already have supplier cards, and you must pay the cost if one is required (see below for how this is calculated);

· or, play a potion card from your hand out onto the table in front of you;

· or, play a ‘completed’ potion card (see below for what this means) from the table in front of you and enact its effect, then discarding it. [Maybe this should be called “using” it, to avoid confusion?]

(In the early game while the board’s being opened up, I expect most people will play Route (to a new city) + Supplier (at the new city) – that allows them to dictate both what ingredients are available at the new city, and how difficult it’s going to be for other players to get there. Once they have some completed potions that they want to use, it becomes more difficult to prioritize.)

Cost of routes

Each route on the board links two cities. They may be of varying lengths as drawn on the actual board, but that’s not important. Any route marker can be used to open up any route.

The first player to place a route marker on a route (to ‘open it up’) can place whatever value marker they like (that they have remaining unused), from 1 to 5. Subsequent players who want to place markers on that route must place one of higher value than the highest currently on the route. If they don’t have one such remaining, they can instead place their highest and pay the difference in Gold.

Making potions

The potion card will list the ingredients required to make that potion. If on the, map of cards, it is possible to trace a continuous linked route between cities that have supplier cards that supply all the required ingredients, via routes with your own marker on them, then you can make the potion.

[Extra rule: each city can only supply one ingredient to the potion, even if it has more than one listed? See how this works first.]

You can only make one potion per turn, so if you have more than one that is makeable, you must choose which one you want. There are two factors which might influence this: the amount of Gold you earn for making it (see below for how this is calculated), and the fact that the one you make is now ‘completed’ (and should be turned sideways to indicate this) – this means that on a later turn you can play it and use its effects.

[In the old rules you could make a potion several times and score the points for it repeatedly. I now don’t think that’s such a good idea, although I’m not 100% sure.]

[Maybe having to make potions one turn and not use them until the next is going to be too frustrating / not reactive enough. Could move potion-making up the turn sequence if so. Try it allowing any turn sequence first.]

Scoring

When you make a potion, you earn Gold according to the value printed on the card.

Ending the game

There are a few options here:

· end by giving everyone one more turn after deck is exhausted;

· ditto, only recycle discards into deck one or more times;

· end with first person to X Gold is the winner, recycling discards into deck as required.

Have to playtest to see which is best.

Supplier cards

Sarantil the Apothecary
Eye of frog
Toe of newt / Witch Velmion
Toe of newt
Nuts and bolts
Elecampane / Etc…

Potion cards

Potion of Shifting Hues
4 VPs
Eye of newt
Nuts and bolts
Use this potion to exchange supplier cards between any two cities / Potion of Malefic Odour
9 VPs
Nuts and bolts
Elecampane
Spider silk
Use this potion to exchange any player’s route marker on the map for one of your own of the same value / Etc…