Potion-Making: Guild Of Alchemists Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Game Start
• Victory Conditions
• Addendum to Rules 1: Turn Structure
• Addendum to Rules 2: Ingredients
• Great Work Sequence
• Philosopher's Stone
• Elemental Magma
• Elixir of Universality
• Phoenix
• New Spells
• Spell of Transmutation
• Spell of Trismegistus
• Spell of Athanor
• Playing with the University Course
• Great Work Sequence Chart

Game Start

To play Guild of Alchemists you need the base set Potion-Making: Practice. The game is played with two decks at once. The Guild of Alchemists rules are the same as the base game's rules, with the restrictions and additions given below.

The card decks from Practice and Guild of Alchemists are not shuffled together. They are kept on the table as separate piles, so that during play you can choose which deck to draw from.

Before the game begins, each player is dealt 6 cards from the top of the decks: 4 cards from the base deck (Practice) and 2 cards from the additional deck (Guild of Alchemists). Then the top four cards of the Practice deck and the top two cards of the Guild of Alchemists deck are laid out in the Desk of Elements as the starting elements. After that, each player draws face down one of the three Great Work Sequence cards.

Victory Conditions

The game continues until the cards in both decks and in all players' hands have run out, or until one of the players completes a Great Work Sequence by creating the Philosopher's Stone. The player who has the most points at that moment wins.

Addendum to Rules 1: Turn Structure

Each player's turn now consists of three phases.

1. First phase: the player must take a card from one of the decks of their choice. If at the start of the turn the player has fewer than 6 cards in hand, they must take several cards so that they have 7 cards in hand in total. Cards may be taken from one deck or from both. If at the start of the turn the player has 8 or more cards in hand, they do not take a card and skip this phase.
2. Second phase: the player must either take one more card or play a card. The player chooses between taking and playing, except when they already have 8 or more cards in hand: in that case they may not take a new card in this phase and must play a card from their hand.
3. Third phase: the player may not take cards in any case and must play any card.

In other words, the phases of a turn look like this: take – take – play, or take – play – play. A player may not skip any phase, except the first phase (and only if, at the start of that phase, they have 8 or more cards in hand).

Addendum to Rules 2: Ingredients

The Talisman Smaragdium and the Talisman Kibalion may be used as ingredients of the Great Talisman of Magic. The Aqua Regis may be used as an ingredient of the Supreme Elixir.

Great Work Sequence

Each player has access to three variants of the Great Work Sequence, listed on their Sequence card. Each Sequence consists of seven steps (recipes) and ends with the creation of one of the three variants of the Philosopher's Stone.

To collect any Sequence, the player must place into it, in order, all the recipes shown in the matching column of the card, from top to bottom. A player may not skip any step when collecting a Sequence.

A player may place into a Sequence recipes they have collected themselves or recipes collected by other players, and also (note!) cards taken straight from the hand. When a player places cards into a Sequence, this counts as playing a card, and it uses up a whole phase of the turn. For each new step of each Sequence, the player receives the points shown on the Sequence card. If a player places into their own Sequence a recipe collected by another player, the player from whom that recipe was taken also receives points, but half as many as the player collecting the Sequence. When a collected recipe is added to a Sequence, its components (the ingredient cards) are returned to the Desk of Elements.

A player may collect several Sequences from those listed on their Sequence card at once, but may not collect the same Sequence twice.

Step cards of a Sequence are laid on the table in front of the player, face down and turned sideways. Cards for new steps are placed on top of and slightly below the previous ones, so that all the recipes already in the Sequence remain visible (see the illustration on the page).

Recipes in a Sequence count as collected and may be used as ingredients for collecting other recipes, or may be placed into another Sequence. Any player may take cards from a Sequence in the same way. A card that is currently the last step of a Sequence may not be taken from that Sequence.

If another player takes a card from a Sequence and uses it to collect a recipe or to extend their own Sequence, the player from whose Sequence the card was taken also receives points, but half as many as the player who took the card.

Philosopher's Stone

The last step of a Great Work Sequence is the Philosopher's Stone. There are three kinds of Philosopher's Stone. If a player has collected all the steps of some Sequence and has the matching Philosopher's Stone card in hand, they may play that card into the Sequence. The player receives 10 points and the game ends immediately. The Philosopher's Stone does not count as a recipe card.

Elemental Magma

When this element is placed in the Desk of Elements as an element, the player receives no points.

The Elemental Magma may replace any ELEMENT when composing a recipe, but ONLY ONE element in a recipe may be replaced by Elemental Magma. If another player uses a recipe that was collected with the Elemental Magma as an ingredient, the player from whom that recipe was taken receives no points (the rules sheet gives this as "half the points of the recipe collected by the other player"; the translation follows the printed wording, and the sentence is ambiguous in the source).

Elixir of Universality

The Elixir of Universality may be collected by a player from any two ELEMENTS. The Elixir of Universality may be used as an ingredient in place of any simple (two-component) elixir. If ANOTHER PLAYER uses an Elixir of Universality collected by a player as an ingredient for their own recipe, or places it into their own Sequence, the player who collected it receives no points. The Elixir of Universality may not be used when collecting a Sequence.

Phoenix

To collect the recipe "Phoenix", the player must use the "Alkahest", and also, by their choice, either the "Elixir of Nigredo" or the "Elixir of Rubedo".

New Spells

When a player plays any spell card, they show it to the other players, and then the spell's effect is resolved. After that, the spell card is placed in the Desk of Elements.

Spell of Transmutation

Using this spell, a player may skip one of the steps of a Sequence by placing into it the recipe of the step immediately after the skipped one. The player receives points for the recipe played into the Sequence, but not for the skipped step. Resolving this spell and placing the card into the Sequence count as one phase of the turn. A player may not play two such spells in a row, skipping two steps of the Sequence in a row. A player may not use this spell to skip the last step, the Philosopher's Stone.

Spell of Trismegistus

The player takes 5 cards into their hand from the decks. The cards may be taken from one deck or from different decks. The player may take the cards one at a time and look at each one before taking the next. Then the player must return 2 cards from their hand to the decks. These may be the cards just taken by the player, or cards that were already in their hand before. Returned cards go back to the deck matching their card back colour, and then the deck(s) into which cards were returned are shuffled. When this spell is resolved, the player may have more than 8 cards in hand. After playing this spell, the player may play one more card in the same phase of the turn.

Spell of Athanor

Using this spell, a player may take from the Desk of Elements any card that contains a recipe and place it face up on the table in front of them. This recipe counts as collected, but the player receives no points for it. At the same time, the player must place from their hand into the Desk of Elements any one card that contains a recipe.

Playing with the University Course

Potion-Making can be played using both expansions at once: the University Course and Guild of Alchemists. In that case the game is played with three decks. At the start of the game each player takes 4 cards from the Practice deck, 2 cards from the University Course, and 2 cards from the Guild of Alchemists. The same number of cards is laid out in the Desk of Elements before the first turn.

When playing with both expansions, a player may not take cards in the corresponding turn phases (except by means of spells) if they have 10 or more cards in hand. If, in the first phase of a turn, a player has 8 or fewer cards in hand, they must draw cards until they have 9 cards in hand.

In addition, when playing with both expansions:

• The Lesser Talisman of Universality also applies to recipes in the player's Sequences.
• When counting the number of collected recipes for the Lesser Talisman of Income, all recipes in all of the player's Sequences are also counted.
• The Spell of Universal Knowledge may be applied to the Philosopher's Stone card.
• The Spell of the Forbidden Forest may not be applied to creatures that are in the player's Sequences.

Have fun!

Great Work Sequence Chart

The second page of the rules sheet is a chart of the nine Great Work Sequences, three for each Philosopher's Stone. Each row is one Sequence, read from its first step to its last. Each Sequence has seven steps: six recipes followed by the Philosopher's Stone that completes it. The number after each step is the points that step is worth. Rows are listed in the order they appear on the chart.

Sequences completed by the Philosopher's Stone: Panacea of Life

1. Elixir of Knowledge (2), Elixir of Citrinitas (2), Powder of Control (4), Talisman of Teleportation (4), Aqua Regis (6), Basilisk (8), Philosopher's Stone: Panacea of Life (10)
2. Elixir of Invisibility (2), Infusion of Prophecy (2), Elixir of Citrinitas (4), Elixir of the Lord of Plants (4), Great Elixir of Insight (6), Phoenix (8), Philosopher's Stone: Panacea of Life (10)
3. Elixir of Rubedo (2), Elixir of Oblivion (2), Elixir of Strength (4), Elixir of Wisdom (4), Talisman of Kibalion (6), Supreme Elixir (8), Philosopher's Stone: Panacea of Life (10)

Sequences completed by the Philosopher's Stone: Magisterium

4. Elixir of Nigredo (2), Isidas Mortum (2), Elixir of Secret Sight (4), Great Elixir of Eternal Love (4), Invisible Guardian (6), Great Elixir of Transformation (8), Philosopher's Stone: Magisterium (10)
5. Polyglotum Potion (2), Elixir of Rubedo (2), Solution of Eternity (4), Powder of Truth (4), Talisman Smaragdium (6), Great Elixir of Disappearance (8), Philosopher's Stone: Magisterium (10)
6. Ward Solution (2), Elixir of Eternal Youth (2), Great Elixir of Protection (4), Aqua Regis (4), Powder of Atramentum (6), Unicorn (8), Philosopher's Stone: Magisterium (10)

Sequences completed by the Philosopher's Stone: Red Tincture

7. Elixir of Fire (2), Elixir of Fidelity (2), Elixir of Albedo (4), Vermilion Powder (4), Elixir of Flight (6), Great Elixir of Timelessness (8), Philosopher's Stone: Red Tincture (10)
8. Love Potion (2), Potion of Eternal Sleep (2), Alkahest (4), Telepathic Remedy (4), Great Elixir of Might (6), Banshee (8), Philosopher's Stone: Red Tincture (10)
9. Elixir of Albedo (2), Emanation of Authority (2), Elixir of Nigredo (4), Alkahest (4), Great Elixir of Rebirth (6), Talisman of the Lord of Beasts (8), Philosopher's Stone: Red Tincture (10)

Note on the chart: the chart was read from the page image, so check spellings against the printed cards. Names are translated from the Russian card names; "Isidas Mortum" is transliterated as printed. Sequences 4 to 9 are grouped by Philosopher's Stone, as printed on the chart rows.