Magnum Opus Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Card Iconography
• Components
• Object
• Setup
  • Setup Diagram Notes
• Game Play
• Tradeskill Phase
• Table Phase
• Experiment Phase
• Pause and Consider
• Game End
• Attempting a Basic Transmutation
• Gaining Magnum Opus Clue Cards
• Using Experience Tokens
• Using Effect Cards in Transmutations
• Sample Basic Transmutation Attempt
• Philosophers' Stone Transmutation Attempt
• Additional Rules
• Card Reference

Card Iconography

• Volatility (red flask)
• Modifier (blue flask)
• Transmute Master Tradeskill (orange flask)
• Cost (tag)
• Gold Coins (gold coin)
• Cards (green cards)
• Experience (purple triangle)
• Table Allowed (stamp/seal icon)

Components

50 Tradeskill cards 48 Mystic Components Reagent cards 48 Effect cards 48 Alchemical Compounds Reagent cards 29 Research cards 24 Attempt Transmutation Action cards 21 Discovery cards 6 Rubedo Clue cards 6 Putrefactio Clue cards 6 Albedo Clue cards 1 Research deck underlay card 1 Reagent Search deck underlay card 50 Gold coin tokens 25 Experience tokens 4 Quick-reference cards 4 Eight-sided Transmutation dice (d8)

Object

The first player to discover the three clues to the process for completing the Magnum Opus, and then transmute those ingredients to create the Philosophers' Stone will achieve victory.

Setup

The setup process is more detailed than you may be used to from playing other card games. Refer to the detailed setup diagram to assist you in this process.

Separate all of the Reagent Cards (Mystic Components and Alchemical Compounds) into their separate piles and arrange them, face-up in a row and column according to the Setup Diagram. Place Mystic Components on one axis and Alchemical Compounds on the other axis. You may order the stacks randomly or arrange them in any order you choose.

Create the Reagent Search Deck by taking 3 cards of each Reagent type (three of each Alchemical Compound and three of each Mystic Component) and shuffling them together. Place this deck face down at the intersection of the row and column of Reagent cards. Place the appropriate underlay card beneath the deck so that you can see the deck name.

Shuffle all the Research cards and deal out 16 cards face-down into a 4x4 grid to fill in the area bounded by the Reagent cards. Place the remaining Research cards face-down on their underlay card to form the Research Deck.

Gather the Alchemical Discovery cards (Green Back) and separate the three Magnum Opus Clue discoveries (Albedo, Rubedo, and Putrefactio) from the rest of the Discovery cards. Shuffle the remaining Discovery cards and randomly select thirteen of them. Return the left-overs to the box, they will not be used for this game. Shuffle together the three clue Discovery cards and the thirteen selected Discovery cards, then deal them out face-down on top of the 4x4 grid of Research cards. This grid is called the Discovery Matrix.

Separate the Tradeskill Cards into separate piles and arrange them, face-up, below the Discovery Matrix.

Separate all of the Magnum Opus Clue Cards into separate piles based on their card back colors. Shuffle each pile separately then place the piles face-down above the Discovery Matrix.

Separate the various Effect cards (Action, Artifact and Knowledge) into individual stacks and line them up to the right of the Discovery Matrix (if you find it easier to leave these cards all in one stack and sort through it when needed, you may certainly do so).

Give each player 3 Gold coins.

Give each player 4 Prepare Herbs/Apprentice Tradeskill cards, and 6 Attempt Transmutation/Action cards to use as their starting deck. Players shuffle their starting deck and place it face-down in front of them. This forms the player's draw pile. Each player draws a starting hand of 5 cards.

Players roll the 8-sided Transmutation die to determine who goes first.

Setup Diagram Notes

• 6 Cards in each Clue Pile
• 8 Cards in each Reagent Pile
• 13 Cards in the Research Pile
• 8 Cards in each Artifact Pile
• Each Player Starts with 3 Gold
• 10 Cards in each Player's Starting Deck
• A Hand is 5 Cards
• 6 Cards in each Tradeskill Pile (Apprentice Tradeskills and Master Tradeskills)
• 1 Discovery Card sits atop 1 Research Card in each of the Discovery Matrix positions.

Game Play

Magnum Opus is played in a series of turns. Each turn is made up of four Phases:

Tradeskill Phase (choose one, both, or none)

• Play 1st Tradeskill card for Gold Coins or Cards.
• Play 2nd Tradeskill card for other resource.
• Master Tradeskills require a Transmutation roll to obtain their Gold Coins.

Table Phase (choose one or none)

• Place 1 or 2 cards on my table
• Remove 1 or 2 cards from my table to my hand
• Place 1 card and discard 1 card

Experimentation Phase (choose one or none)

• Play an Action card
• Draw the top card from the Reagent Search deck
• Buy up to 2 total Reagents / Journeyman Tradeskills
• Sell up to 2 total Reagents / Journeyman Tradeskills for 1 Gold Coin each or 0 Gold Coins if card cost was 0 Gold Coins.
• Buy 1 then Sell 1 Reagent / Journeyman Tradeskill
• Pay an assistant to automatically* perform a previously Discovered formula. You may use Experience as needed, but gain no Experience for failure. *For Clue formulae, Difficulty must be rolled after payment is made.

Pause and Consider

• Discard hand and draw five new cards.
• Your turn is over and play passes left.

Tradeskill Phase

In order to continue practicing Alchemy and ultimately achieve the goals of the Magnum Opus, one must have a reliable source of income to fund their experimentation. Thus, one must utilize their abilities for mundane purposes to gather money and knowledge on a regular basis to fuel the Great Work.

Discard a Tradeskill card to earn the Gold Coins or Card Draws noted on the card. Then discard a second Tradeskill card to earn the resource NOT gained from the first card.

Performing the Tradeskill Phase is optional. Whether you discard one or two cards is also optional.

Special notes regarding Tradeskill cards:

Card Draws come from your deck of cards.

To collect Gold Coins from a Master Tradeskill card, you must successfully roll the difficulty shown on the card's Flask icon. You may not use Experience tokens to adjust your roll, and if you fail, you do not gain Experience tokens from the attempt.

A transmutation roll is not needed to collect the card draws from a Master Tradeskill card.

Table Phase

Your Table holds your ingredients and is your place to prepare techniques and experiments ahead of time to make later Transmutation attempts easier.

Any cards with the Table Allowed icon may be placed on your Table.

During the Table phase you may take one of the following Table actions:

• Place up to two allowed cards onto your Table from your hand
• Return up to two cards to your Hand from your Table,
• Place one allowed card onto your Table from your Hand and return one card from your Table to your Hand.
• Pass

Experiment Phase

The mundane tasks of earning money and obtaining materials are a necessity if one is to enjoy the true heart of alchemy—transmuting rare and common elements and applying the results to the creation of your Magnum Opus.

During the Experimental Phase, you may perform only one of the following actions:

Use an Action Card: Play an action card from your hand and follow the procedures on the card. This may allow you to attempt a Transmutation. (See Attempting a Transmutation below)

Search for Reagents: Draw the top card of the Reagent Search Deck at no cost and place it in your discard pile.

Purchase Cards: Purchase up to two total Reagents (Alchemical Compounds and/or Mystic Components) and/or Journeyman Tradeskill cards from the Supply. You may buy two Reagents of either or both types or two Journeyman Tradeskill cards, or one of each. NOTE: Master Tradeskill cards cannot be purchased. They must be acquired via the Discovery Matrix.

Sell Cards: Sell up to two Reagent cards or Apprentice/Journeyman Tradeskill cards from your hand to the supply. Reagents and Journeyman Tradeskill cards earn 1 Gold Coin each. Apprentice Tradeskill cards earn 0 Gold Coins but selling them thins your deck.

Buy and Sell: Buy one Reagent or Journeyman Tradeskill from the supply, and sell one Reagent or Tradeskill card from your hand back to the supply. Reagents and Journeyman Tradeskill cards earn 1 Gold Coin each. Apprentice Tradeskill cards earn 0 Gold Coins but selling them thins your deck.

Pay an Assistant: You're a famous and very busy Alchemist; you can't be expected to conduct every experiment yourself. Luckily, there is a pool of talented assistants available for hire.

• Pay Gold Coins equal to the total price of the two ingredients in a previously discovered (face-up) formula in the Discovery Matrix. With an assistant, you do not need to personally have, play, or discard the actual Reagents, themselves.
• An Assistant cannot claim a Research card located in the Discovery Matrix.
• If the focus of the transmutation IS NOT a Magnum Opus Clue Discovery, then your assistant automatically succeeds and you acquire the reward for a successful transmutation without making a transmutation roll.
• If the focus of the transmutation IS a Magnum Opus Clue Discovery then you must pay the necessary gold to hire the assistant AND make a successful transmutation roll. Experience tokens may be applied to your roll, but other transmutation bonuses may NOT be applied.
• An Experience token is NOT gained if you fail the transmutation roll.

Pass: Do nothing and move to the next phase.

Pause and Consider

As the sun sets, it is time to pause and consider the progress you have made toward achieving your goal.

Discard the remaining cards in your hand and draw 5 new cards.

If you exhaust your draw deck, shuffle your discard pile to create a new draw deck and continue drawing to your hand of 5 cards.

Your turn is over. Play passes to the left.

Game End

The first player to discover the three clues to the process for completing the Magnum Opus, and then transmute those ingredients to create the Philosophers' Stone triggers the end-of-game round. Each other player gets one additional turn to create their own Philosophers' Stone and then the game is over.

If that first player was the only one able to complete a Magnum Opus, then that player wins the game!

If more than one player succeeded, the successful player with the most Research Cards is the winner. If a tie results, successful players first compare their Gold Coins and then their Experience Tokens to determine the winner.

Attempting a Basic Transmutation

During the Experiment phase, you may combine Reagents through Transmutation and determine the results via the Discovery Matrix.

Before you play an Attempt Transmutation action card (or any other card that states it may be used to attempt a transmutation), you must first have your Table in order.

• All cards that will not or cannot be part of your experiment must have been removed during the Table Phase, prior to the Transmutation attempt.
• Cards may be played from your hand during the Transmutation Attempt if the cards are necessary or helpful to the experiment. However, everything present on your Table MUST be used and usable in the formula.

A Basic Transmutation requires exactly one Alchemical Reagent and one Mystic Reagent. The two ingredients are cross-referenced on the Discovery Matrix, indicating the focus of your experimentation.

Every Reagent card has a Volatility rating (indicated with a red flask). This number represents how difficult it is to get the reagent to react with other reagents. Other cards can provide knowledge or tools to ease the transmutation and show a Modifier rating (indicated with a blue flask).

Add together the Volatility of the two reagents you are attempting to transmute then subtract the Modifiers for any other cards involved in the transmutation attempt. The resulting number is the difficulty of this particular transmutation.

Roll the transmutation die. You may then spend available Experience tokens to increase the roll result at a rate of 1 point per token spent. If the final result of your roll is equal to or greater than the difficulty, your transmutation is a success. If not, then it failed.

Failure: Locate the focus of the experiment.

• If the Discovery card is face-down, turn it face-up but do nothing else.
• If the Discovery card is already face-up, then do nothing at all.
• If you have fewer than 5 Experience tokens, take an Experience token.
• Discard all cards from your Table except those that specifically say they remain on the table even after a failed transmutation attempt.
• Your Experiment phase is over.

Success: Locate the focus of your experiment.

• If there is a Research card under the Discovery card, take the Research card and add it to your discard pile.
• Read the Discovery card, follow the directions, then return the Discovery card to the matrix face-up.
• Discard all cards from your Table except those that specifically say they remain on the Table after a transmutation attempt.
• Your Experiment phase is over.

Knowledge cards may be included in your Transmutation to reduce the difficulty rating, but only if they are on your table beforehand you begin the transmutation. As an additional bonus, they are not automatically removed from your Table after every Transmutation attempt. They remain on your Table even after a failed Transmutation roll.

Preparation cards may be included in your Transmutation from your hand or Table to reduce the difficulty rating. As an added bonus, if you fail your Transmutation roll, you may take an extra Experience token in addition to the one you automatically get for a failed roll.

Tool cards must also be on your Table prior to the transmutation attempt. When you place a Tool card on your Table, it may remain there after a successful Transmutation. If your Transmutation fails however, you must discard all Tool cards from your table. At this time, you may pay 1 Gold Coin for each Tool card to keep it on your Table.

Gaining Magnum Opus Clue Cards

Magnum Opus Clue cards are NOT added to your deck or discard pile when you acquire them. They are kept face-down in front of you so every player can see which clues you have but not which Reagent is shown on the Magnum Opus Clue cards you've collected.

You may never have more than one of each type of Magnum Opus clue card.

Using Experience Tokens

Failing a transmutation attempt earns you one Experience token. You may not have more than five Experience tokens at any time.

After rolling your transmutation die, Experience tokens may be spent to increase the value of your transmutation die roll at the rate of 1 point per token spent.

Experience tokens may not be used or gained when attempting to get Gold Coins from the Transmute Lead to Silver or Transmute Lead to Gold Master Tradeskill cards.

Using Effect Cards in Transmutations

There are some Effect cards that will reduce the difficulty rating of each transmutation. (These will typically have a negative number shown inside a blue flask icon) You may use more than one of each type, but never more than one sharing the same name (unless otherwise specified on a particular card) These cards are Knowledge, Preparation Techniques, and Tools.

Sample Basic Transmutation Attempt

As his Experiment Phase begins, the cards in Adam's hand are: Attempt Transmutation, Quicksilver, Lead, and Heartstone. On his Table, Adam has Serpentscale and a Purified Vessels Research/Preparation card.

Adam decides to Attempt a Transmutation and plays the Attempt Transmutation card as his action card for this Experiment Phase. When attempting a Transmutation, the Table can only have cards that will be part of the transmutation, so Adam removed an Aqua Regia card from his table earlier, during the Table Phase.

Adam may now play cards from his hand as part of his experiment, so he plays the Quicksilver card as his second Reagent and the Heartstone card for its ability to make a second transmutation roll. The Lead card is not needed for this experiment, so Adam will just discard it at the end of his turn.

The Volatility of Serpentscale is 2 and the Volatility of Quicksilver is 3, making a difficulty of 5, but the Purified Vessels card reduces the difficulty by 1, making the difficulty rating a 4.

Adam rolls the transmutation die and gets a 3. If he had an experience token, Adam could spend it now to raise the roll to a 4 and get a successful transmutation, but he does not have any experience tokens.

However, Adam does have the Heartstone card in play, allowing him to re-roll a transmutation attempt. Adam elects to use the Heartstone's re-roll power and returns the card to the supply (it is one-use only). He picks up the Transmutation die and rolls a 7! A solid success.

Adam locates the focus of his experiment on the Discovery Matrix and finds a face-down Discovery card and a face-down Research card. Excellent! Adam is the first person to attempt this formula. He adds the Research card to his discard pile because his transmutation was a success, then Adam reads the Discovery card to find out what his experiment has revealed.

Philosophers' Stone Transmutation Attempt

As you successfully transmute more formulae, the Discovery Matrix will slowly open up to you and clues to the secret of the Philosophers' Stone will be revealed. When you have collected all three clues––Albedo, Rubedo, and Putrefactio––you will know the Reagents you need to create your Magnum Opus.

Remember, the Magnum Opus Clue cards are just that––clues; they are not the actual Reagents. You will need to get the actual Reagent cards to your Table and/or hand to attempt a transmutation.

The transmutation process for creating the Philosophers' Stone is fundamentally the same as the basic transmutation, except that there are three Reagents needed, instead of two.

Reveal your Magnum Opus Clue cards before you roll the die so that the other players can confirm that you have the right Reagents in your experiment.

If your transmutation fails, take an Experience token and clean up your table as usual. Better luck on your next attempt.

If you are successful, each other player takes one more turn to see if they can get their Clues and Reagents together to make their own attempt at the Philosopher's stone.

If they all fail, you are declared the winner and go on to publish your journals and found an Alchemical University bearing your name.

If one or more of your opponents succeed, however, a fierce debate arises and the player with the most Research cards is declared the winner. A bitter rivalry grows between the winner and the pretenders, of course, and the Alchemical community is divided and contentious for decades to come.

Additional Rules

In the event that you must draw a card but no longer have any left in your deck to do so (this will happen often) simply shuffle your discard pile and turn it face-down to create a new draw deck for yourself. Do not shuffle your deck at any other time unless a card instructs you to do so. Do not "pre-shuffle" your deck, even if you have only one or two cards remaining to draw from.

A roll of 8 on the die is always a success, even if your Difficulty Rating for your Transmutation attempt is greater than 8.

The Reagent Search Deck is meant to be a limited supply. If at any time the cards in this pile are exhausted, do not create a new one; they are gone for the remainder of the game.

The Supply of Items and Effects cards are meant to be a limited supply. Once all of any particular card is taken, it is no longer available for the remainder of the game unless any of those cards should be returned to the supply.

The Transmutation rolls you make for Master Tradeskill cards are unlike Transmutations that require Reagents. No modifiers may be applied and no experience tokens may be used or gained in your attempt to Transmute silver or gold.

If you see something written on a card that contradicts what you see in the rules, follow the instructions on the card.

Players may only have a maximum of 5 Experience tokens at any time.

Your starting "Attempt Transmutation" Action cards cannot be lost, stolen, or otherwise removed from your deck in any way. They cannot be chosen to return to the supply and if any effect would target one to be returned to the supply, that effect does not occur.

Card Reference

Special notes that may help if questions arise about certain cards.

Compound Synthesis – [Discovery] Performing this Transmutation allows you to take up to two Reagent cards into your discard pile for free. You cannot choose either of the two ingredients that comprise the formula for Compound Synthesis, however you may take any other Reagent card(s), and two of the same Reagent card if you wish.

Heartstone – [Effect/Artifact] This card may be used from your hand or placed on your Table and used from there. After rolling the die for a Transmutation attempt on the same turn that Heartstone is being used, you may reroll the die by returning this card to the Supply. If you do not wish to reroll the die, this card is discarded as normal and offers no other bonus.

Incomplete Philosophers' Stone – [Effect/Artifact] This card may be used to initiate a Transmutation attempt in the same way an "Attempt Transmutation" card would. In addition to this effect, it also reduces the difficulty of your Transmutation attempt by 2. This card may be placed on your table and used from there, or played from your hand.

Incinerate – [Discovery] If your Discard pile is empty, this card has no effect. Attempt Transmutation Action cards cannot be targeted by this effect.

Inexplicable Yield – [Discovery] This card's effect for revealing a second Discovery card on the board only occurs when a player actually performs the Transmutation successfully, if this card is revealed in the Discovery Matrix in any other way, it is considered a "dead" formula that cannot be performed again, even if there is a Research card underneath.

Magnum Opus Research – [Research] When you receive this card, you may gain any Magnum Opus Clue card that you do not have already and has already been discovered (is revealed on the board). If there are no Magnum Opus Clue cards available that meet these conditions, you may not take one, but may instead reveal (flip face-up) any undiscovered (face-down) Discovery Card on the board, but you do not gain the effects or any other reward from that Discovery. If there are no facedown Discovery cards left in the game, or you choose not to reveal one, you may instead take an Experience token. Then, place this card off to the side, but still in your play area. It does not go in your deck, but must still be available in case of a tie game, in which the tiebreaker becomes whoever possesses the most Research cards.

Metastone – [Effect/Artifact] The Metastone card may be used in any Transmutation attempt to represent any Reagent that has been available during the game. It copies all aspects of what it represents, including the Volatility value. Metastones may even be used in an attempt to create the Philosophers' Stone, but they may not be sold for any Gold Coins.

Mindstone – [Effect/Artifact] This card may be used from your hand or placed on your Table and used from there. This card reduces Transmutation Attempt difficulty by 1. In addition to this, you may choose to return this card to the Supply if the Transmutation you attempt would grant you a Research Card for any reason; you may then draw 1 additional Research Card, choose one to keep, and return the other to the bottom of the Research card pile. This card is not returned to the supply if you do not wish to use this secondary effect and choose only to take advantage of the -1 difficulty bonus.

Powerstone – [Effect/Artifact] This card may be used from you hand or placed on your Table and used from there. Reduce the difficulty of your Transmutation Attempt by 1 when using this card. This card also supersedes the normal rules in that you may have more than one copy of this card in use at the same time. You are not limited to how many Powerstone cards you may use in a single Transmutation, or in how many can be placed on your table... except by the inherent limitation of how many copies of the card are available to you.

Shelf – [Research] When drawn, this card is placed near your table but is not actually part of your table. During your turn, you may move any single card on your table to a Shelf (place it underneath) to keep that card separate and unaffected from any Transmutation attempt you may be about to make (this allows you to have an 'extra' or 'leftover' card on your table for later use). If you do not have a card on your Shelf at the beginning of your turn and do not move one to your shelf at any point during your turn, you may use one additional Tradeskill card for either Gold Coins or Card-drawing instead.

The Truth – [Effect/Knowledge] This card must be added to your Table for it to have any effect. If this card is on your table, the difficulty of any Transmutation you attempt is reduced by 1. Unlike most other cards, once this card is added to your table, it cannot be removed by any other effects.

Transmute: Lead to Gold – [Master Tradeskill] Transmute: Lead to Silver – [Master Tradeskill] These cards may be played during the Tradeskills Phase to gain either Gold Coins or additional cards from your deck. If you choose to use an Master Tradeskill card for its card value, draw the noted number of cards as usual. If you choose to use one to gain Gold Coins, however, you must roll the Transmutation die to meet or beat the difficulty noted on the card's Flask icon. You may not use Experience tokens or card bonuses to modify your roll and you gain no Experience if your roll fails. But if you succeed, you gain the Gold Coins noted on the card and may return a Lead Reagent card to the supply from your hand or Table to earn an additional 2 or 3 Gold Coins, depending on which card you're using.