Cauldron Master Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Overview
• Game Setup
• Sequence of Play
  • 1. Select a Witch
  • 2. Player Order
  • 3. Pick Ingredient Cards
  • 4. Create Potions
    • Scoring Spell Points
    • Recipe Card Bonus Points
  • 5. End of Round
• End of Game

Components

There are 6 types of cards:

1. 20 Witch Cards – of which there are 5 different types. Each Witch determines the player order for each turn.

2. 50 Ingredient Cards. There are 3 different types of Ingredient cards to collect:

   • RED: 3 Bat's Heart, 3 Raven's Head, 3 Cat's Skull
   • ORANGE: 4 Fairy Wings, 4 Toadstools, 4 Snake Skin, 4 Frog's blood
   • GREEN: 5 Crickets, 5 Swamp Moss, 5 Eye of Newt, 5 Pig's foot, 5 Spider Venom.

   Collect sets of Ingredients to score points.

3. 12 Cauldron Cards – to create potions and score points. There are 3 types of Cauldron card, they are varied in their total Ingredient capacity: 2 Ingredients, 3 Ingredients, and 4 Ingredients.

4. 9 Recipe Cards – for bonus points to score specific sets of Ingredients.

5. 1 Favour of Hecate Card – resolves tie break situations.

6. 8 Double-sided Score Cards – a single digit and double digit card to keep track of scores. These are double sided for easier scoring.

Overview

The aim of the game is to use your Witches to collect sets of Ingredient cards. These Ingredients are then placed in your Cauldrons, and when a Cauldron becomes full, you will gain Spell Points. The more cards of the same type you collect, the more potent the potion becomes, and the more Spell Points you receive. Recipe cards provide additional bonuses.

The game ends when the deck of Ingredient cards is empty. The player with the most Spell Points is declared the winner.

Game Setup

• A. WITCH CARDS: Give each player 5 different Witch cards: 1 Apprentice, 1 Shaman, 1 Mage, 1 Herbalist, and 1 Goddess. Players put these cards into their hand. Also included is an extra "Amateur" witch card. Please check our website if you wish to use this card.
• B. CAULDRON CARDS: Give each player a 2 Cauldron card, a 3 Cauldron card and a 4 Cauldron card. These are placed face up in front of the player.
• C. INGREDIENT CARDS: Shuffle the Ingredient cards together to form the Ingredient deck and place it face down in the middle of the table. Reveal 8 Ingredient cards in a 2-player game, 10 in a 3-player game, and 12 in a 4-player game. Place the revealed cards face up next to the Ingredient deck – this is the Ingredient supply.
• D. RECIPE CARDS: Shuffle the Recipe cards and deal one face up to each player. Return any remaining Recipe cards back to the box.
• E. FAVOUR OF HECATE CARD: Give the "Favour of Hecate" card to the player who last watched a horror movie.
• F. SCORE CARDS: Deal 1 of each type to every player.

(Illustration: example setup for 2 players.)

Sequence of Play

The game is played in a series of rounds. Each round consists of the following 5 phases.

1. Select a Witch

Each player secretly chooses a Witch card from their hand to play for that round and places it face down in front of them. Once all players have done this, each player simultaneously reveals their chosen Witch by turning their card face up.

2. Player Order

Turn order is determined by comparing the number in the top left corner of the Witch cards. Players with the lowest numbers go first, while those with the highest go last. If two or more players tie for Initiative, the player with the Favour of Hecate card (or the player sitting nearest them clockwise goes first for that Initiative value).

Example: Sam plays the Shaman (4), Kit plays the Mage (2), Charlie plays the Mage (2), and Paul plays the Shaman (4). Sam has the Favour of Hecate card. Kit and Charlie take the first turns because they have the lowest Initiative, with Kit going first as she is sat to the left of Sam. Then, Paul and Sam both have initiative 4, but Sam goes first because she has the Favor of Hecate card. The turn order is: Kit, Charlie, Sam, Paul.

3. Pick Ingredient Cards

In turn order, each player takes Ingredient cards from the supply as indicated on the Witch card they played this round. Cards taken by a player are placed face up on their Cauldrons however the player chooses. A player can split Ingredients between their Cauldrons, or put all in one.

Notes:

• Each Cauldron only has a limited capacity, shown on the top of the Cauldron card. You may not place cards in the Cauldron in excess of this capacity.
• If the supply does not contain all the Ingredient cards you are eligible to pick up, just pick up the ones you can.
• Once an Ingredient is placed in a Cauldron, it cannot be removed until it is scored.
• Cards in the Ingredient supply pile are not replenished after players' individual turns (only replenish them at the end of the round – see End of Round).

Example 1: Sam plays the Shaman which allows her to pick up 1 Raven's Head and 1 Spider Venom from the Ingredient supply. She places the Raven's Head in one of her Cauldrons which has space for 1 more card and the Spider Venom card in one of her other Cauldrons.

Example 2: Kit plays the Mage and is last to pick up cards. The Ingredient supply only has 2 red cards and 1 green card left. She takes the green card only, since the Mage may not pick up red cards.

(Card callout: The Herbalist allows you to take up to 3 cards in total, any combination of Green and Yellow cards.)

4. Create Potions

Each player looks at each of their Cauldrons. Any that are filled to their maximum capacity with Ingredient cards must now be used to create a potion and score Spell Points.

This phase can be done simultaneously, but for your first games, it should be done in turn order to ensure everyone is scoring correctly.

Once a potion has been created, score the Spell Points using the Score cards and then set the scored Ingredient cards aside, near the player. It is recommended that players keep set aside cards in the groups they were in so that the scores can be checked at the end of the game.

Scoring Spell Points

The Ingredient cards indicate how many Spell Points a player gets based on the total number of cards of that type used to make the potion. The number on the left shows how many points a player gets for having just one of that type of Ingredient, the next number shows how many points for having 2 of that type, etc.

Example 1: Charlie has 2 Spider Venom and 2 Snake Skins in a size 4 Cauldron. He receives 3 points for the two Spider Venom cards and 6 points for 2 Snake Skins, scoring 9 points in total.

Example 2: Zoe receives 12 points for having 3 Frog's Blood in a size 3 Cauldron.

Each player records their score using their two Scoring Cards. The one with the 0-9 on it is placed below the other card, so that the total score can be read. (Examples: "This player's score is 13"; "This player's score is 45".)

Recipe Card Bonus Points

Players may score extra points from Recipe cards. A Recipe card indicates whether a player needs a combination of Ingredient cards (in any order) – indicated by the icons – or specific Ingredient cards indicated by that card's foreground illustration such as the Raven's Head.

For each potion created by a player, if the Ingredients used match the requirements of their Recipe card, they score additional Spell Points according to the Recipe card. Each recipe can be scored multiple times during a game, but only once per potion created. Also, only one recipe listed on the card can be scored for each potion created.

Example: Paul has filled his size 3 cauldron with 2 Spider Venom and 1 Frog's Blood. This would normally score 5 points. However, since he has the Recipe card shown above, he gets an additional 2 points, giving him a total of 7 points.

5. End of Round

Replenish the Ingredients supply to its starting number of cards by drawing more cards from the Ingredient deck and placing them in the supply.

Then, give the "Favour of Hecate" card to the player left of the current holder.

Each player also sets aside (face up) the Witch card they used this round, giving them one fewer card to choose from in the next round. After 5 rounds (when players set aside their final Witch card in this manner), they pick up all 5 cards again to use again in the following round.

End of Game

When replenishing the supply during Phase 5, if there are not enough cards in the Ingredient deck to fully replenish the supply, the game ends.

Incomplete Cauldrons at the end of the game do not score points.

The player with the most Spell Points at the end of the game is declared the winner.