Mandragora Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Contents
• Setup
• Playing the Game
  • Send the Assistant to Seek New Magical Items
  • Cast a Spell
  • Black Magic
  • The Curse
  • Mandrakes
• End of the Game
  • Calculating Your Score
  • Example of Final Scoring
• Spell Descriptions
  • Banishment (x4)
  • Transfer (x4)
  • Substitution (x4)
  • Levitation (x3)
  • Replication (x3)
  • Swiftness (x3)
  • Disappearance (x2)
  • Purification (x1)
• Team Variant (4 sorcerers)

Contents

• 10 Shop tiles
• 1 Assistant figurine
• 1 Curse marker
• 1 Endgame Countdown marker
• 106 cards, broken down as follows:
  • 24 Spells of value 1 – 5
  • 82 Magical Items

Breakdown of Magical Items:

• 12 Cursed Scrolls (7 cards give 1 curse, 4 cards give 2 curses, 1 card gives 3 curses)
• 7 Mandrakes ("wild" – can be used as a spellbook or ingredient of any color)
• 21 Spellbooks of value 0 – 3 (in 6 colors)
• 42 Ingredients (in 5 colors)

Breakdown by color (five colors plus black; columns in the rulebook's order):

	Color 1	Color 2	Color 3	Color 4	Color 5	Black
Ingredients	3	6	9	12	12	0
Spellbooks	4	4	4	4	4	1

Setup

• Thoroughly shuffle the 10 Shop tiles, and arrange them randomly in a circle.
• Thoroughly shuffle the Spell cards by value: Make a face-up stack of cards for each Spell value near the Shop tiles. Arrange the stacks in increasing order.
• Place the Assistant figurine on the starting Shop tile (the tile with the curve at the bottom).
• Place the Curse marker and Endgame Countdown marker nearby.
• Magical Items: When playing with only 2 or 3 sorcerers, remove some of the cards, as follows:
  • WITH 4 SORCERERS, play with all of the cards.
  • WITH 3 SORCERERS: remove 5 specific cards (shown in the rulebook illustration), and return them to the box.
  • WITH 2 SORCERERS: remove all 16 of the blue cards, as well as 10 specific cards (shown in the rulebook illustration), and return them to the box.
• Give each sorcerer 1 mandrake.
• Shuffle all of the remaining Magical Item cards to form a face-down deck in the center of the Shop circle.
• Draw and place 1 Magical Item card face up in front of each day Shop tile, except for the one where the Assistant figurine is standing (this will be 6 cards).
• Draw and place 1 Magical Item card face down in front of each of the 3 night Shop tiles.

Playing the Game

Sorcerers play in clockwise order. On your turn, you must perform one of the two following actions:

• Either send the Assistant to seek new magical items
• Or cast a spell

Determine the first player by any method you like (for example, whoever most resembles a sorcerer).

Send the Assistant to Seek New Magical Items

1. MOVE THE ASSISTANT to any of the next 3 Shop tiles clockwise.
2. GAIN ALL OF THE MAGICAL ITEMS present on this Shop tile: Simply add ingredients, mandrakes, and spellbooks to your hand. There is no limit to the number of cards in your hand. If there are cursed scrolls present on this Shop tile, immediately place them in front of you face up, adding them to any you may have already had there.
3. RESTOCK THE SHOPS: On each shop that the assistant passed through (including the one from which he departed), add the top card from the Magical Item deck to the shop (be sure to place cards face down at the night shops, and face up at day shops). This is how there comes to be more than one card per Shop tile.
   • On DAY SHOPS, always place Magical Items face up.
   • On NIGHT SHOPS, always place Magical Items face down.

Example of seeking magical items: The sorcerer decides to advance the Assistant figurine 3 spaces. The sorcerer collects all of the cards from the shop at which the assistant stopped. A card is added to each of the 3 shops that the assistant passed through, placing them face up at the day shops, and face down at the night shops.

Cast a Spell

When you choose to cast a spell, the Assistant figurine stays where it is.

1. PREPARE THE SPELL: From your hand, choose 1 Spellbook and any number of Ingredients of the same color as the Spellbook. Place these cards in front of you in a single stack, face up, so the color of the spell is visible.

   ATTENTION: You can only use one Spellbook in each spell! If you have two or more Spellbooks of the same color, you will need to cast multiple spells of that color.

2. SPELL'S EFFECT: Choose the effect of the spell you have cast as follows:

   • The number of ingredients you used determines the maximum power of the spell you can cast. Thus, with 1 Spellbook + 3 Ingredients of the same color, you can cast a spell of power 1, 2, or 3 — your choice!
   • Take the top Spell card from the stack corresponding to the power you choose, place it atop the stack of Ingredients leaving only the side of the Spellbook visible (i.e. hide the Ingredient cards), then apply the Spell card's effect (see Spell Descriptions).

Example of casting a spell: Using the yellow Spellbook with 3 Ingredients (2 yellow Ingredients + 1 Mandrake), the sorcerer casts a power-3 spell, placing a 3 Spell card on top of them.

Black Magic

The black Spellbook is special: There are no black ingredients in the game. The black Spellbook requires ingredients ALL OF DIFFERENT COLORS.

The Curse

A Cursed Scroll GIVES 1, 2, OR 3 CURSES to its owner.

Each time a sorcerer gains or loses cursed scrolls (at a shop or as the result of a spell), check to see which sorcerer has the most curses.

The sorcerer with the most is cursed, and places the Curse marker in front of them. (If it is a tie, the sorcerer with the marker gives it to one of the other sorcerers who is tied for having the most curses.)

The Curse marker gives a PENALTY OF 2 VICTORY POINTS to the sorcerer who still has it at the end of the game!

Mandrakes

Mandrakes are extremely powerful magical items, which can act as wildcards:

• EITHER to replace an Ingredient.
• OR to replace a Spellbook.

If you use a Mandrake as a Spellbook, you must either use Ingredients all of one color (regular magic), or all of different colors (black magic).

Either way, you can only have ONE MANDRAKE IN EACH SPELL.

End of the Game

When the Magical Item deck is empty, only 3 rounds remain, starting with the next sorcerer.

Place the Endgame Countdown marker in front of this sorcerer, III side up, to remind everyone that there are 3 rounds left in the game. When this sorcerer's turn comes around the next time, flip the marker to its II side (because there are now 2 rounds left). Finally, when this sorcerer's turn comes around again, discard the marker to show that the final round has commenced.

During these 3 final rounds, each sorcerer must either take a normal turn, or drop out, taking no more turns. At the end of these 3 final rounds, or as soon as everyone has dropped out, the game ends, and each sorcerer calculates their own score.

Calculating Your Score

• For each spell you've cast, add the value of the Spell card and the Spellbook (ignore the Ingredient cards).
• Deduct 1 point per color you still have in your hand (Mandrakes are considered white for this penalty).
• Deduct 2 points if you have the Curse marker.

The sorcerer with the most points wins the game. In the event of a tie, the tied player who cast more spells wins.

Example of Final Scoring

• Spell and Spellbook values: 2 + 3 = 5 points; 0 + 2 = 2 points; 3 + 1 = 4 points; 0 + 4 = 4 points; 1 + 1 = 2 points. Spells & Spellbooks = 17 points.
• Curse marker = -2 points.
• 3 colors of card in hand. The Disappearance spell eliminates one; 2 colors remaining = -2 points.
• TOTAL: 12 points (as printed in the rulebook's example).

Spell Descriptions

There are 3 types of Spell cards:

• Lightning-bolt icon: Apply the effect as soon as you take the Spell card.
• Infinity icon: The effect is permanent for the whole game.
• Hourglass icon: The effect applies at the end of the game, before counting the points.

Banishment (x4)

Immediate effect. Remove one Cursed Scroll in your possession from the game.

Transfer (x4)

Immediate effect. Give one of your opponents a Cursed Scroll in your possession.

Substitution (x4)

Immediate effect. Draw a card from an opponent's hand, then give that opponent a card of your choice from your hand. (You can give them the card you took.)

Levitation (x3)

Immediate effect. Take the card of your choice from any shop. Do not replace that card.

Replication (x3)

Immediate effect. You may take another turn immediately. If you do not, the effect goes to waste.

Swiftness (x3)

Permanent effect. Each Spell of this type in your possession increases your movement range by 1.

Disappearance (x2)

End-of-game effect. Choose a color. Discard all cards of this color from your hand. If you have 2 of this spell, remove 2 colors from your hand.

Purification (x1)

End-of-game effect. Discard all of the cards from your hand.

Team Variant (4 sorcerers)

If you are playing with 4 sorcerers, you have the option for each to play for themself according to the normal rules; however, you also have the option to play in teams: 2 versus 2! (We recommend this option.)

The two partners of each team sit across from each other. For the most part, the game plays exactly as usual: Each sorcerer manages their own hand of cards, and their own spells; however, each team also has the opportunity to give and/or exchange cards, as we will now explain.

As soon as you receive one or more new cursed scrolls (picking them up from a shop, or as the result of a spell), you can do ONE of the following:

• GIVE a card of your choice to your partner
• RECEIVE a card of your partner's choice
• EXCHANGE a card with your partner

You are welcome to communicate freely with your partner about the desired cards!

At the end of the game, use each team's combined score to see which team wins.