Witchdom Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Contents
• Game Setup
• Goal of the Game
• Witches and Potions
  • Potion Cards
  • Witch Cards
• On Your Turn
  • Collect Action
• Brewing a Potion
• Tools
• Alternative Payment
• Rest Action
• Objectives and Game End
• Final Scoring
• Animals
• Solo Game
  • Solo Game Setup
  • Solo Game Difficulty Levels
  • End of the Game

Contents

• 1 Game Board
• 50 Witch Cards
• 50 Potion Cards
• 5 Starting Potion Cards
• 10 Novice Cards (5 pairs)
• 6 Clan Cards (1 for solo game)
• 15 Objective Tokens
• 65 Resource Tokens
• 9 Solo Game Tokens

Game Setup

1. Pick the first player. It will be the one who last saw a black cat.
2. Place one clan card in front of each player, with the Starting Potion (with the letter S at the bottom right) to the right of it, depending on the order in which they will play (see the number in the triangle).
3. Give everyone two novice Cards, both with the same symbol in the bottom right, in their hand.
4. Place the game board in the middle among the players.
5. Place the pouch with resource tokens at the top of the game plan.
6. The game plan is divided into three locations – (from the top) mountains, a forest and a lake. Place three random resource tokens from the pouch on each of them.
7. Place the potion card deck face down on the left next to the resource tokens. Place one potion card face up next to each location.
8. Place the witch card deck face down to the right next to the pouch with resource tokens. Place one witch card face up next to each location.
9. When playing with 3 or more players, put 5 random potion cards and 5 random witch cards in the box.
10. Place the objective tokens at the bottom of the game plan according to the number of players. Each objective token has a light side (easy) and a dark side (hard). Draw random tokens until you have the following quantities:
    • 5 players: 8 objectives, 4 hard and 4 easy
    • 4 players: 7 objectives 4 hard and 3 easy
    • 3 players: 6 objectives 4 hard and 2 easy
    • 2 players: 5 objectives 3 hard and 2 easy

If you are playing the game for the first time, ignore the animal sides of the tokens entirely. See the rules on Page 7.

If you fancy a bit longer game, you can experiment with the number of objectives per game. To make the game longer, we recommend adding one more hard objective.

Goal of the Game

Players take turns in a clockwise direction until the players have completed the penultimate objective under the game board or used up a deck with the witch cards or the potion cards. This triggers the end phase of the game.

Players try to get as many victory points as possible for the witches in their clan, for potions brewed and for magical tools acquired. Once a witch has brewed any potion, she and the potion become part of the player's clan, and the player receives victory points for them at the end of the game.

Witches and Potions

There are two basic types of cards in the game, namely Witches and Potions. Throughout the game, you will receive several cards of each kind and try to transfer as many of them as possible to your clan.

Potion Cards

Your goal will be to brew as many magic potions as possible. In order to do this, you need to collect a certain combination of resources and tools, and at the same time play a witch who can brew the potion.

A potion card shows: the potion color, the points for a brewed potion, the resources needed to brew the potion, the tools needed to prepare the potion, and a tool on the back of the card that you can get instead of the potion.

There are five types of tools on the back of the potion cards. You will need some of the tools to brew specific potions.

Witch Cards

Witches gather resources, tools and potions during the game. In one turn, every witch shall procure as many items from the game plan as she has Action Points. Witches also brew potions. Each of them can brew potions of one or more colors.

A witch card shows: the colors of the potions the witch can brew (secondary color and primary color), the points for the witch in your clan, the Action points that you can use during your turn, and an animal on the back of the card that you can get instead of the witch.

There are five kinds of animals on the back of the witch cards. If you play the animal variant (see rules on Page 7), you can acquire them during your turn instead of the witch.

On Your Turn

You can take one of two actions on your turn: Collect or Rest.

Collect Action

When collecting items, you always play a witch card from your hand and resolve her action points. Then you may brew one potion.

Play a witch card from your hand and lay it on the table in front of you. If you already have witch cards from previous rounds on the table, place the witch card you just played over them so that the one you just played is on top. Let's call that one the active card.

Every witch card has three location symbols on the left in the same order as the locations on the game board (from the top: mountains, forest, lake). When you send a witch out to collect items, use all of her action points (refer to the numbers on the location icons). When evaluating a collection action, proceed from top to bottom. For each item collected, replenish a new one in its place. In one turn, you can even take the items you just replenished in this way.

During a collect action, for each action point of the witch card played, you can get one of the following:

• Resource – Take one of the three resources in the location and place it on the table in front of you.
• Potion – Take a potion card and place it on the right side of your clan card.
• Tool – Take a potion card, turn it to the side with the tool and place it on the right side of your clan card.
• Witch – Take a witch card and add it to your hand to any other witch cards you have not played yet.
• Animal – Take a witch card, turn it over to the side with the animal and place it on the right side of your clan card. (See Page 7 for the rules of the animal variant.)

Some witch cards have a restoration symbol above their action points. If you play such a witch card, you can refresh either all laid out witch cards, potion cards, or resources at one location before collecting items. Refresh the laid out cards by returning the three face-up cards to the bottom of the relevant deck and laying out three new ones from top to bottom. Refresh the resources by returning the three tokens from one location to the pouch and placing three new ones in their place. Only when the available cards and tokens have been refreshed can you use the action points of the witch card that you played.

Example: The player has sent out this Witch and placed the card on top of his previously played cards. He or she has three action points: two in the forest and one at the lake. In the forest, the player first took a leaf token and replenished it with a berry token. The player immediately takes the replenished resource in exchange for the second action point in the forest and again replenishes it with a new random resource.

For the last action point, the player takes a potion card from the lake and flips it to the side with the flask. The player has thus obtained the flask tool, which should then be placed to the right of the player's clan card.

Brewing a Potion

If, at the end of your action, you have collected all the necessary resources and possibly the tools to brew one of your potions and, at the same time, your active witch can brew a potion of that color (having a banner of the same color), you may brew the potion at this time. At the end of each turn, you may brew only one potion.

Return to the pouch all the resources required to brew the potion. Then move the card with the finished potion and the card with the witch who brewed it to your clan by placing them to the left of your clan card. Note the clan token, which indicates any cards that are already part of your clan. If you have brewed a potion that required a tool to brew it, move that tool to your clan as well.

After brewing a potion, check if you met the condition of the objective tokens under the game board. Objective tokens are explained on the next page.

• Once a Witch becomes part of your clan, you can no longer play her card during the collection action. She remains in your clan until the game ends.
• Novices cannot brew potions (they must reach the appropriate age).

Example: The player sent out a red witch to collect items. In the mountains the player picked up a new potion and herbs; he or she places both items to the right of their clan card. In the forest, the player chooses a blue witch, which he or she keeps in their hand.

The player now has the necessary resources and a crystal, allowing him or her to brew a red potion. So the player takes their active witch with a red banner and moves her and the brewed potion to the left of his clan card. The player also moves the ring that was used to brew the potion to the same position.

Tools

Once you have used a tool to brew a potion, it becomes part of your clan. From then on, you may use it to brew other potions that require the tool. So you can think of tools in your clan as a discount for brewing other potions.

At the end of the game, you will receive points for the various tools in your clan as indicated on the clan card below.

You will find this symbol as a requirement on some potion cards. You can use any tool to brew such a potion. So you can consider whether to use one of the ones you already have in your clan, or whether to use a new tool that will then be transferred to your clan, and you will get extra points for it at the end of the game.

The potion and the witch cards have four colored banners that indicate the type of potion and whether the witch can brew it. Starting potions and some others have a light banner with a question mark. Such a potion can be brewed by a witch with any banner. However, these potions earn fewer points as it is easy to brew them.

Alternative Payment

If you cannot find a specific resource or tool, you may replace any resource or tool with any pair of tokens of the same resource when brewing a potion. Do not physically exchange the tokens, just pay with them directly when brewing a potion. Place the used resource tokens back into the pouch.

Rest Action

Play the Rest action when you do not want to play another witch card from your hand and, at the same time, you have already played at least one. If, however, you have no which card in your hand, you have to play the Rest action.

Take all your played witch cards in your hand. Then get any two resource cards from the game board. Since Novices to the game cannot become part of a clan, they always return to your hand during Rest action.

Objectives and Game End

There are fifteen objective tokens in the game; for each game you will use a different combination of them (see Page 2 for quantities).

These tokens determine what you should acquire for your clan to get extra points. They depict specific witch tools, potions or witches of a certain color. In addition to their shape, you can also identify them by their colored banner.

Once any player has met a given condition, they immediately receive the relevant token and add points indicated on that chip at the end of the game. No other player can earn bonus points from that token in a given game.

The objective tokens have a light (easy) side and a dark (hard) side.

Once any player acquires the last but one objective token, the game end phase is triggered. Finish the current round and then play one more round. Then tally the points to determine the winner of the game. The last unfulfilled objective can still be completed.

If the deck runs out: If the witch or the potion card deck runs out before the penultimate objective is met, finish the current round and play one more. For the rest of the game, use the cards placed in the box at the beginning of the game.

Final Scoring

Add up your victory points for:

1. Brewed potions in the clan
2. Witches in the clan
3. Various tools in the clan: The maximum gain is 15 points for 5 different tools.
4. Objective tokens earned
5. You get 1 point for every different resource type that you have left (max. 5 points for 5 different resources)
6. Clan animals (if you play the animal variant): The maximum gain is 25 points for 5 different animals in the clan.

Tip: To keep your clan in order, place the same types of cards in columns.

Animals

Once you are familiar enough with the game, try the animal variant. Every witch card has an animal on the back, which you can get by taking that card and placing it face up in front of you during the Collection action.

At the end of your turn, if you are not brewing a potion, have an active witch as well as the required resource, you may acquire one animal for your clan. Each animal has one resource attached to it that you must pay with.

If you make effort to gather animals, you can get up to 25 points at the end of the game if you collect all five species. You must never have two cards of the same animal in your clan. You can find a summary of rules for the animal variant on the back of your Clan card.

ATTENTION! Novices cannot tame an animal; only witches have the ability to tame an animal to the point that it becomes part of your clan.

Example: The player played a red witch card and used her action points. Since the player does not have enough resources for any potion, no potion can be brewed. Instead, he or she can acquire a snake for the clan. The player pays for it with one herb token and adds the snake to their clan.

There are some objective tokens associated with the animal variant – you may add them to the game at any time. Since it is fairly easy to acquire animals, we recommend adding one or two animal objectives to the game beyond the number of objectives indicated in the Game Preparation section.

Solo Game

The solo game lasts exactly 15 rounds and is divided into three stages of five actions each. During the game you will take turns with the powerful witch Ostara as in a two-player game. On each of her turns, you reveal and evaluate the top token. Ostara always collects items and when she has all the required resources, she brews a potion.

She does not need tools for any of them; she just needs to collect the resources needed and have a witch with a suitable banner. Ostara may pay a pair of the same resources for another resource she needs!

Ostara plays first. Once five rounds have been played, shuffle all of Ostara's tokens to create a new stack for the next stage. Always place Ostara's witch cards next to each other as they are all active.

Solo Game Setup

Place Ostara's clan card on the table. Place a stack of her tokens below it. Ostara gains one random starting potion. Arrange the objective tokens in a row from easy to hard from left to right.

If you do not want to play the animal variant, return these two Ostara tokens to the box.

Ostara's tokens contain objects of her interest, but also the criteria by which she chooses them.

The first line determines what Ostara gains on her turn:

• Either a witch or a potion – If she has fewer Witch cards, she gets a potion card and vice versa. If she has an equal number of both card types, she gets whichever comes first in the row.
• A witch and a potion.
• Animal – Ostara acquires either an animal or resources if she already has animals on hand. She always takes the first animal from the top and places it directly in the clan.
• One or two resources (separately or together with cards or resources).

The next lines determine the priority criteria:

• Ostara receives a card that can be used to complete an objective.
• Ostara obtains a card whose banner matches another card of her opposite type (a witch with a potion and vice versa).
• Ostara obtains a card that has the highest point value.
• Whenever the criteria are not enough, take the first object from the top (in the case of resources the first one in the row).

Example of resolving an Ostara token: Ostara acquires a witch or a potion. She has the same number of both card types, and therefore gets the witch (the hat is shown first in line).

Next, she wants the witch needed to accomplish the objective. She always completes objectives from left to right from easy to hard. First, she would choose a yellow witch, but since she is not available, Ostara gets a green one. Since there are two available, their point value is the deciding factor. Ostara takes the bottom green witch with eight points.

In the end she obtains two resources. Follow the rows top down to find which resources she can use. In this case, she will get a berry from the forest and a leaf from the lake, allowing her to conjure a red potion with the red witch.

Ostara collects resources according to the following:

1. A potion for which she has a witch with the same banner
2. A potion with the lowest number of resources for brewing
3. A potion with the highest points
4. The leftmost potion (the one acquired the earliest)

Solo Game Difficulty Levels

New apprentice: Ostara does not complete objectives at all.

Skilled witch: Play with five hard objectives.

Clan Grandmistress: Play with five hard objectives. Those not completed at the end of the game will be awarded to Ostara.

End of the Game

The game ends after fifteen rounds. Add up the points as usual. Ostara always gets points for witches, potions and leftover resources. She never gets points for tools.

Ostara only scores points for completing objectives if you play on harder difficulty. Ostara only scores points for animals if you choose to include them in the game.