Potion Explosion

1.Setup

• The Dispenser is assembled once and for all and stored assembled in the box.
• The game has 80 Ingredient marbles in four colours (20 per colour), 64 Potion tiles of eight kinds, 4 Desk boards, 21 Little Help tokens, 15 Skill tokens and a First Player token.
• Each player places a Desk in front of them, leaving room above and below it.
• Whoever last made themselves a drink starts; they keep the First Player token for the whole game, as a plain reminder. Play goes clockwise.
• Remove two of the eight kinds of potions, at random or by choice: they stay in the box. When learning, it is best to set aside two trickier potions: the Filter of Lavamancing and the Balm of Uttermost Stickiness.
• From the six remaining kinds, take 2 random starter Potion tiles per player (they bear a symbol), laid out Recipe side up. Each player takes one, from the first player clockwise, then a second one, from the last player counterclockwise.
• Each player sets their two starter tiles, Recipe side showing, on the Bunsen burners of their Desk, which form their Brewing area.
• The other tiles are shuffled and split into 5 stacks, Recipe side up.
• All the marbles go into the Dispenser's tank and fill its 5 slide tracks.
• The Little Help and Skill tokens go near the Dispenser. Make the countdown stack with 4 Skill tokens with 2 players, 5 with 3 and 6 with 4.
• 2 to 4 players, ages 8 and up.

2.How to play

• On your turn, you must take one visible marble from the Dispenser, any one except the ninth, the highest of each track: this is your normal pick.
• When a marble is removed, those above it roll down. As soon as two marbles of one colour meet, they explode, dragging along every marble of that colour stuck to them: you collect those too.
• After an explosion, the marbles roll down again: each new collision of two marbles of the same colour triggers a new explosion, and so on. Marbles of different colours that meet do nothing.
• Removing a marble from the middle of a line of three or more marbles of one colour brings the others together, and they explode.
• Once in your turn, whether before or after the normal pick, the professor can lend you a hand: take a Little Help token and any marble you like, with no explosion at all.
• Whenever you like during your turn, you can drink completed potions for their effect. Each one can be drunk only once: turn it upside down to show it, and it keeps its value. Marbles taken thanks to a potion never trigger an explosion.
• The marbles you take into your hand must, if possible, go on the holes of the same colour of the potions you are brewing. A placed marble never moves until its potion is completed.
• Marbles you cannot place go into your Ingredient Pool, the small flask on your Desk, which holds 3 at most. On your turn, marbles can go back and forth between your pool and your hand as you like.
• A potion is completed when all its holes are filled: its marbles go back into the Dispenser, and the tile is flipped to its Completed side and set below your Desk.
• To return marbles to the Dispenser, drop them at random onto the lid, without aiming at a track, so that every track fills up; a marble left stuck on the lid joins the nearest track with room left.
• End of the turn: if your pool is full and you still have marbles in hand, they go back into the Dispenser. If you have fewer than 2 tiles in your Brewing area, take new ones from the top of any stacks, without placing marbles from your pool on them this turn. Then check for Skill tokens and for the end of the game.

3.Scoring

• Skill token: you earn one when you complete your third potion of the same kind, and one when you complete your fifth different kind of potion. Each of these feats pays only once: nothing more for a sixth potion of the same kind, or for five more kinds.
• Skill tokens are taken from the countdown stack, then from the general supply once it is empty. Each one scores 4 points.
• At the end, each player adds up the value printed on their completed potion tiles, drunk or not, and 4 points per Skill token; each Little Help token then costs 2 points.
• In Marquoir, enter the total value of the potions, then the number of Skill tokens and of Little Help tokens.

4.End of the game

• Two situations announce the end, checked when a player finishes their turn: the countdown stack has just been emptied, or no Potion tile is left to take.
• Play on until the player on the first player's right has had their turn, so that everyone has played equally often; Skill tokens can still be earned, from the general supply.
• The highest total wins.
• In case of a tie, each tied player, starting with the first player, draws a marble from the Dispenser in the hope of an explosion, and may drink their still unused potions to collect more. The biggest haul of marbles wins.

House rules and pitfalls

• With only two tiles brewing at a time, no one can finish more than two potions in one turn.
• The rulebook invites players to agree on a different number of tokens in the countdown stack, to shorten or lengthen the game.
• A single potion can count towards both feats: its kind, and the variety of kinds.

Frequently asked questions

The box

Released

2015

Age

Ages 8+

Designers

Lorenzo Silva, Andrea Crespi, Stefano Castelli

Artwork

Giulia Ghigini

Publisher

IELLO

Mechanics

Set CollectionOpen DraftingPattern RecognitionTake That

Contents

• 1 marble Dispenser to assemble
• 80 Ingredient marbles, 20 in each of the four colours
• 64 Potion tiles of eight kinds
• 4 Desk boards
• 15 Skill tokens and 21 Little Help tokens
• 1 First Player token

Expansions

• Potion Explosion: The 6th Student
• Potion Explosion: The 5th Ingredient

score sheets for this game →

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