Overview

Poison is a card game where players take turns playing Potion Cards into cauldrons, trying to avoid pushing the total value in any cauldron over 13. If you cause a cauldron to exceed 13, you must collect all previous cards from it. At the end of the round, each collected card is worth negative points, but collecting the most of a single color grants immunity to that color. Poison Cards are wild and worth double penalty points.

Components

• 3 Cauldron boards
• 50 cards:
  • 14 Potion Cards in each of 3 colors (42 total): 2 cards valued at 4, 3 cards each valued at 1, 2, 5, and 7
  • 8 Poison Cards valued at 4 each

Setup

1. Place the 3 cauldron boards in the center of the table.
2. Choose a dealer. The dealer shuffles and deals all 50 cards one at a time to all players. Some players may receive one more card than others.
3. With exactly 3 players, deal 4 hands and remove the extra hand from the game unseen.
4. The dealer rotates to the left each round.

Turn Structure

The player to the left of the dealer goes first. Play proceeds clockwise. On your turn, you must play exactly one card face-up into a cauldron.

Actions

Playing a Potion Card

• Each Potion Card must be played into the cauldron matching its color.
• Potion Cards of the same color may not be in more than one cauldron at a time.

Playing a Poison Card

• Poison Cards (value 4) may be played into any cauldron.
• If a cauldron contains only Poison Cards, its color is not yet determined. The first Potion Card added determines the cauldron’s color, but it must not match any other existing cauldron’s color.

Exceeding 13

• If the card you play causes the total value of cards in a cauldron to exceed 13, you must take all previous cards in that cauldron and place them face-down in front of you. The card you just played remains in the cauldron as the start of a new pile.
• You may not look at your collected cards until the end of the round.

Scoring / Victory Conditions

At the end of a round (when all cards have been played):

1. Each player examines their collected cards.
2. For each of the 3 Potion Card colors, the player who collected the most cards of that color discards all cards of that color (immunity). In case of a tie for most, no one gets immunity for that color.
3. Each remaining Potion Card in your collection scores 1 penalty point.
4. Each Poison Card in your collection scores 2 penalty points.

Play multiple rounds. The player with the fewest total penalty points after the agreed number of rounds wins.

Special Rules & Edge Cases

• With 3 players, always deal a 4th dummy hand that is removed from play.
• Potion Cards of the same color can only exist in one cauldron at a time.
• If a cauldron has only Poison Cards, the next Potion Card played determines its color.
• Ties for most cards of a color mean no player gets immunity for that color.
• You cannot examine your face-down collected cards until the round ends.

Player Reference

Card Type	Count	Value	Penalty
Potion (per color)	14	1, 1, 1, 2, 2, 2, 4, 4, 5, 5, 5, 7, 7, 7	1 point each
Poison	8	4 each	2 points each

Cauldron limit: 13 (exceeding forces pickup of all previous cards)

Immunity: Collect the most of a single Potion color to discard all of that color.