Potion Panic: Concoction Crafting for the Chaotically Inclined
Potion Panic: Concoction Crafting for the Chaotically Inclined Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Contenu du Jeu
(Heading printed this way in the English rulebook.)
- 86x Potion Cards
- 10x Red Potion
- 10x Blue Potion
- 10x Yellow Potion
- 10x Green Potion
- 10x Orange Potion
- 10x Purple Potion
- 9x Dualixer
- 2x Funky Punch
- 3x Black Death
- 3x No No Juice
- 2x Ghost Beaker
- 3x Hammer Fuel
- 2x Robgoblin
- 2x Bottled Lightning
- 44x Recipe Cards
- 4x Player Reference Cards
- 40x Crystal Shards
- 1x Philosopher's Stone
- 1x Philosopher's Stone Reference Card
- 1x Rulebook
Game Overview
Players: 2-4 • Duration: 20-30 minutes • Ages: 14+
In Potion Panic, players will prep, smash, and brew powerful potions to create unique recipes and synthesize the all-powerful Philosopher's Stone!
Setting Up
Separate and shuffle the cards into (2) decks: the Recipe deck (consisting of the Recipe cards) and the Main deck (consisting of the Potion cards).
Each player receives (3) Potion cards, (1) Recipe card, and (1) Player Reference card. Players are free to look at their own cards.
Next, place (3) face up Potion cards next to each other in the center of the playing area. From now on, these will be referred to as the Potion Stacks.
Then, place (3) face up Recipe cards somewhere near the Potion Stacks. These are the public recipes and should be viewable to all players.
Lastly, place the acrylic Crystal Shards somewhere accessible to all players. For more detail see Additional Setup Diagram.
Each player has: a main hand (Potion cards), a private recipe (Recipe card), and a Player Reference card.
How To Play
On their turn, players must take (3) actions. Any combination of these actions can be performed in any order. Play then continues clockwise.
Prep!
Place a card from your hand face down onto an open slot of your workbench.
A maximum of (3) Potion cards can occupy your workbench at any time.
Players are free to look at the cards on their own workbenches, but the placement of a Potion card may not be altered and it cannot be returned to the player's hand.
If all (3) spaces of your workbench are occupied, you may prep a new card in place of an old card. Discard the old card to the top of any Potion Stack.
Smash!
Flip a card from your workbench face up.
Resolve the card's effect, then discard it (and any other affected cards) to the top of a single Potion Stack.
Only "Insta" cards may be smashed directly from a player's hand at no action cost.
When a Potion card is activated, it is not discarded to the top of a Potion Stack until the card's effects have been completely resolved.
Note: "Insta" cards that have been prepped on a player's workbench may also be smashed during any player's turn at no action cost.
Brew!
Reveal (3) face down Potion cards from your workbench.
If the revealed cards satisfy the requirement to craft any public Recipe card or one from the player's private Recipe reserve, gain Crystal Shards equal to the amount shown on the completed Recipe card.
Discard the used Potion cards to the top of any single Potion Stack and replace the successfully crafted Recipe card with one from the Recipe deck.
Note: Crafted private Recipe cards are not replaced if the player has additional Recipe cards in their private Recipe reserve.
Reserve!
Take (1) public Recipe card and add it to your private Recipe reserve.
A maximum of (3) Recipe cards may be held in a player's private Recipe reserve.
When a public Recipe card is reserved, replace it with a new card from the Recipe deck.
Note: Recipe cards from a player's private Recipe reserve may be crafted in any order when a player takes the brew action and has the required potion cards prepped in their workbench.
Earning Crystal Shards
Shards earned from successfully completing Recipe Cards are automatically placed in any of the open spaces of a player's Player Reference card.
This helps keep track of a player's progress as they work towards creating the Philosopher's Stone.
The Player Reference card summarizes the turn actions:
- Prep! Place a Potion card from your hand face down onto your workbench.
- Smash! Flip a face down Potion card from your workbench face up, activating its effect.
- Brew! Reveal (3) face down Potion cards from your workbench to craft a Recipe card.
- Reserve! Take (1) public Recipe card and add it to your private Recipe reserve (max 3).
How To Win
A player wins by collecting a total of (10) Crystal Shards and placing them in the open spaces of their Player Reference card.
As soon as a player's tenth shard has been placed, that player earns the Philosopher's Stone and the game is over.
Potion Cards
Potion cards come in a wide variety of colors, but only (6) of the colors are used to craft recipes: Red, Blue, Yellow, Green, Orange, and Purple.
The remaining Potion cards are used to either help or hinder players as they work towards their goals.
Players may have more than (5) Potion cards in their hands during their turn, but at the conclusion of their turn they must discard down to (5) cards.
If at any point a player has no cards in their hand, that player immediately draws (3) Potion cards from the Main deck.
Note: Players do not automatically draw cards at the beginning or end of their turns and cannot willingly discard cards from their hands, unless it is to reach the (5) card hand limit.
Accessibility
In an effort to make Potion Panic be more accessible (especially to those with color-blindness) each type of Potion card has a unique name, shape, and color.
Potion Card Effects
- Red Potion - SMASH - Draw (3) cards from the Main deck, then discard (2) cards from your (text cut off at this point in the printed rulebook; the card itself reads "Draw 3 cards then discard 2 cards")
- Blue Potion - SMASH - Draw (2) cards from the Main deck and add them to your hand.
- Yellow Potion - SMASH - Take the top card from each Potion Stack and add them to your hand.
- Green Potion - SMASH - Take the top (3) cards from a single Potion Stack and add them to your hand.
- Orange Potion - SMASH - Look at another player's hand and take (1) card from their hand to add to your own.
- Purple Potion - SMASH - Swap hands with a target opponent.
- Black Death - SMASH - Select (1) face down card from another player's workbench and discard it.
- Robgoblin - SMASH - Steal (1) Shard from an opponent.
- Hammer Fuel - SMASH - Discard all public Recipe cards, then reveal (3) new Recipe cards.
- Bottled Lightning - SMASH - Reset your action points to 3. A player's action point total may never exceed a maximum of 3 (text ends here in the printed rulebook)
- Funky Punch (Wild) - BREW - Use in place of any (1) Potion card when brewing, then draw (3) cards from the Main deck.
INSTA - Activated directly from a player's hand or workbench during any player's turn at no action point cost.
SMASH - Activated when a player takes the smash action.
BREW - Activated when a player uses this card as part of a brew action.
Potion Stacks
In Potion Panic, there is no standard discard pile for the Potion cards. Instead, there are (3) Potion Stacks that players will add cards to or take cards from throughout the game.
When Potion cards are discarded, they are stacked together and added to the top of any single Potion Stack.
At no point are players allowed to look through the Potion Stacks.
If a Potion Stack is ever empty, add the top card from the Main deck to create a new stack.
If the Main deck is exhausted, simply take all but the top card from each Potion Stack, reshuffle them, and create a new Main deck.
Recipe Cards
At the beginning of the game, all players are dealt (1) face down Recipe card. This is a player's private recipe and should not be shown to other players.
Also available are (3) public Recipe cards that can be crafted by any player.
Once a recipe has been successfully crafted, the Recipe card is discarded, the player that crafted it earns an amount of Crystal Shards, and a new Recipe card is dealt.
The order in which the potions are shown on the Recipe card does not matter as long as the player has the correct amount of required Potion cards on their workbench when the brew action is taken.
The Philosopher's Stone
In Potion Panic, when a player creates the fabled Philosopher's Stone, the game is over and that player is declared the winner.
But at the start of a new game, the previously victorious player receives the stone as well as its reference card. On their turn, that player may discard the stone in order to perform one of the following actions:
- Unlock Hidden Secrets - The player discards their private Recipe card and draws a new one from the top of the Recipe deck.
- Reveal Ancient Knowledge - The player discards all (3) of the public Recipe cards and replaces them with new ones from the top of the Recipe deck.
- Manifest Impossible Colors - The player uses the stone in place of any (1) Potion card color when brewing.
- Amass Unfathomable Riches - The player draws (3) cards from the top of the Main deck.
FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)
Q: Can a No No Juice card be used to cancel the effects of another No No Juice card?
A: Yes. No No Juice cards can be used to negate the SMASH or INSTA effects of any Potion card (including other No No Juice cards).
Q: When using a Dualixer card, do I also get the benefits of the SMASH abilities of the Potion cards of the same color?
A: No. The colors of a Dualixer card only help satisfy the brewing requirements of a Recipe card.
Q: If I use a Ghost Beaker, does the card I choose to take go into my hand or onto my workbench?
A: The taken card gets swapped with your Ghost Beaker, so if it was played from your hand the taken card goes into your hand. If the Ghost Beaker was SMASHED from your workbench then the taken card goes face down into your workbench. The used Ghost Beaker card goes into the other player's hand.
Q: I SMASHED a Purple Potion, but I do not have any cards left in my hand. Do I just give the other player nothing?
A: Draw (3) cards from the Main deck before swapping hands with another player.
Additional Setup Diagram
The diagram shows each player's area (workbench slots, player hand, private recipe reserve) around the table, with the Recipe deck and Recipe discard, the (3) public recipes, the (3) Potion Stacks and the Main deck in the center.