Potion Explosion: The Fifth Ingredient
Potion Explosion: The Fifth Ingredient Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
New Rules
In addition to the new Potion tiles that you can use along with the ones from the base game (see page 4), this Expansion also introduces some new game mechanics. The Scolding tokens and Reward tokens (see page 2) offer you new ways to gain bonus or penalty points. The Ghastly Cauldron board and the Wild Ingredient marbles (see page 2) allow you to change the composition of the Ingredients in the Dispenser, triggering bigger chain reactions and completing more Potions. Finally, the Professor tiles (see pages 3-4) tweak the core rules of the game, adding even greater variety.
Components
- 7 Professor tiles
- 32 Potion tiles of 4 kinds (Potions of the same kind have the same power icon)
- 1 Ghastly Cauldron board
- 12 Wild Ingredient marbles
- 15 Reward tokens
- 15 Scolding tokens
Scoldings and Rewards
(Even pluribus cartonis tokenorum)
The Ghastly Cauldron (see below), some of the Professor tiles (see pages 3-4), and some of the Potion tiles (see page 4) can make you gain Scolding or Reward tokens. Place these tokens next to the Little Help tokens during the game's Setup.
Each Reward token you have at end of the game is worth 1 point. But, for each Scolding token you have at the end of the game, you lose 1 point.
Note: If you run out of tokens, you can use any other means to keep track of the number of tokens each player has.
The Ghastly Cauldron
(Whoius are you gonna callibus?)
Some of the Professor tiles and some of the Potion tiles ask you to use the Ghastly Cauldron. If you are using any of these, place the Ghastly Cauldron in the front of the Dispenser at the beginning of the game so that it is easily visible and accessible to all players, and place all of the Wild Ingredient marbles on the holes of the Ghastly Cauldron board.
Whenever a Potion or a Professor tells you to Exchange a marble, you must take 1 Wild Ingredient marble from the Ghastly Cauldron (if available) and place the marble you are Exchanging in its place (see image below). If there are no more Wild Ingredient marble, you can take any marble from the Ghastly Cauldron instead.
[Diagrams omitted: two small illustrations of the Ghastly Cauldron board showing a Wild Ingredient marble being taken out and the exchanged marble being placed in its position.]
Whenever you Exchange a marble, you receive 1 Reward token (see "Scoldings and Rewards", above).
The Fifth Ingredient
(Plus coloribus, major explosionibus)
This expansion introduces you to a new kind of Ingredient—a white-colored, Wild Ingredient marble: Ghost Ectoplasm. This ghastly substance has the peculiar ability to absorb the essence of the other kinds of Ingredient it comes into contact with. To put it in simpler terms: they act as wild cards. At any point during the game, you can treat Wild Ingredient marbles as being any color of your choice. This also means that, when you have Wild Ingredient marbles in your hand, you can freely place them on any holes in your Potion tiles, regardless of their color. When a Potion is completed, Ghost Ectoplasm is discarded into the Dispenser just like a normal Ingredient.
Example: Heiko needs to collect 3 yellow and 3 blue marbles to complete his Potions. He chooses the column shown and takes the black marble.
A blue and a wild marble collide. By treating that wild marble as blue, he triggers an Explosion.
Heiko could consider the second wild marble to be blue as well, and take 2 more marbles with the same Explosion (1 wild, 1 blue), but he does not need any more blue marbles.
He still needs 3 yellow ones, though. So, he decides to leave the second wild marble on the slide and proceed with the next step of the chain reaction.
When the second wild marble and the yellow marbles collide, he can treat that wild marble as yellow, triggering another Explosion, and he takes all 3 marbles.
After this, a blue marble reaches the bottom of the slide track, and the chain reaction stops. Heiko now has 1 black, 2 yellow, 2 blue, and 2 wild marbles (which he could use as any color he likes). Using 1 of the wild marbles as blue and the other as yellow, he can complete his Potions.
[Diagrams omitted: a series of slide-track illustrations accompanying the example above.]
Professor Tiles
(To each unus his ownibus rules)
At the beginning of the game, you can choose, either randomly or deliberately, 1 of the Professor tiles to play with. Place the tile you choose in front of the Dispenser, in a position easily visible for all players.
Each Professor has their own ideas about how to "properly" brew potions, so they can slightly tweak the rules to their own taste.
The effect of a Professor tile lasts through the whole game. However, some effects are ongoing and directly affect the core rules of the game, while others are triggered only under certain specific conditions.
We strongly suggest you play with only 1 Professor tile, at least for your first few games. Once you feel you are familiar enough with them, you can decide to play with 2 Professor tiles at the same time, and apply all of their effects. You'll have a more challenging, but fun and different brewing experience!
Albedus Humblescore
You can discard 2 Ingredient marbles of the same color from your hand to discard 1 of your Little Help tokens.
I'm feeling super-generous today, students! But you won't take advantage of your silly, old headmaster, right?
Gideon Prissymann
If you let one or more of your Ingredient marbles touch the table during your turn, you receive 1 Scolding token.
Don't you dare shed one single drop of liquid on my spotless desks, class. Magic-proof detergent is extremely expensive, you know!
Antiqua Thriftymind (uses the Ghastly Cauldron)
If your Ingredient Pool is full at the end of your turn, you may Exchange 1 of those Ingredients with the Ghastly Cauldron.
Here's my wise advise, dear pupils: always keep something aside for rainy days. You'll thank me someday.
Overwhilma Explosiwa (uses the Ghastly Cauldron)
If you collect 8 or more Ingredient marbles with your regular pick, you may Exchange 1 of those Ingredients with the Ghastly Cauldron.
There's no such thing as "enough Ingredients," dearies. The more, the better! Don't fear the noise. Ka-boom! Bam! Boom!
Gravitha Tidygall
When you place Ingredients on your Potion tiles, you have to start with the lowest layer and proceed upwards. The first time you place a marble in an upper layer of a Potion with 1 or more holes still empty in the lower layers, place a Scolding token on that Potion tile. You will be punished only once, though. There can only be a maximum of 1 Scolding token on each Potion tile. When that Potion is completed, add the Scolding token to your token pool.
It would be scientifically, magically, and ethically inappropriate to pour your Ingredients in the incorrect order. Rude, I'd say. Besides, it's terribly annoying to ME.
Shi Zan Shuimo
Whenever you take a Little Help token, you may choose to take 1 marble from the dispenser as normal OR activate the effect of a Potion you have already used.
Study the past if you would define the future.
Anxiogenous O'Clockitt
You have 90 seconds to complete your turn. If the time runs out before you have completed your turn, you receive 1 Scolding token, then start the timer again. You receive 1 Scolding token each time you let the timer run out.
Note: You'll need to provide your own timer. If you want an even bigger challenge, limit turns to 60 (or even 45) seconds!
C'mon, c'mon, c'mon! Keep the pace! Pick! Pour! Brew! Drink! Pick! Pour! Bre… what? There's no time to ask questions, you'll clean your desks later. Hurry up!
New Potions
(Obvious addendum)
During step 3 of the Game Setup (see page 6 of the base game rulebook), when you choose the 6 Potion to play with, you can freely mix the 8 from the base game and the 4 from this expansion, either randomly or deliberately. Put all the unused Potions back into their respective boxes. Then follow the regular Setup procedure.
Brew of Feather Touch
Take 2 or more adjacent Ingredients of the same color from the same row of the Dispenser (not slide track). You can only take 1 Ingredient from each slide track. No explosions are triggered.
Smart as a wizard, light as an eagle.
Chameleonic Varnish
Choose a color. All Ingredients of that color in your hand are now treated as being a single other color of your choice (you cannot choose "wild" as your color).
Some calls this cheating. I call it creativity.
Ghastly Concoction (uses Ghastly Cauldron)
Exchange an Ingredient in your hand with the Ghastly Cauldron.
Less color, more power!
Dram of Poltergeist Sweat (uses Ghastly Cauldron)
Steal 1 Ingredient from 1 opponent's Pool, then Exchange it with the Ghastly Cauldron.
A stinky liquid for a stinker move.