The Quacks of Quedlinburg

Overview

A press-your-luck bag-building game. Over 9 turns, players draw ingredient chips from their bags one at a time, filling their potion pots. The further your pot fills, the more coins and victory points you earn — but draw too many white “cherry bomb” chips and your pot explodes, costing you your turn’s rewards. Buy better chips to improve your bag, advance your scoring marker, and win with the most victory points.

Components

Component	Quantity
Pots (player boards, double-sided)	4
Scoring Track with Turn Indicator	1
Flasks	4
Ingredient books (green, blue, red, yellow, purple × 2 each; black × 1; orange × 1)	13
Ingredient chips total (+ 3 replacement)	215
Rubies	20
Scoring markers	4
Bags	4
Rat stones	4
Flame (turn marker)	1
Fortune Teller cards	24
Droplets	8 (4 for variant)
Bonus Die	1
Seal tiles	4
Almanac of Ingredients	1

Ingredient chips: White (cherry bombs), orange (pumpkin), green, blue, red, yellow, purple, black. Values: 1, 2, 3, or 4.

Setup

1. Scoring Track: Place in the middle. Set the Flame on Turn Indicator space 1. Place the 4 seal tiles on their spaces with “0” facing up.
2. Ingredient books: Always lay out the orange and black books. Use the black book page matching your player count. From a single set (1–4), lay out green, blue, and red books only. Yellow comes out before turn 2; purple before turn 3.
3. Ingredient chips: Separate by color and place next to their corresponding books.
4. Fortune Teller cards: The last person to cook something goes first. That player shuffles the Fortune Teller cards and keeps them as a face-down draw pile.
5. Each player takes: one pot (test-tube side down), one bag, one scoring marker (placed on the matching seal tile), one flask (full side up on large trivet), one rat stone (on small trivet).
6. Starting bag contents: 4 white 1-chips, 2 white 2-chips, 1 white 3-chip, 1 orange 1-chip, 1 green 1-chip. Place all in your bag.
7. Droplet: Place on the “0” space in the middle of your pot.

Turn Structure

Each of the 9 turns proceeds through these phases in order:

1. Fortune Teller Card

The current start player reads the top card aloud and places it face-up as a discard. The card’s effect applies to all players for this turn.

• Purple card: Carried out immediately before the turn starts.
• Blue card: Applies for the whole turn or at turn’s end.
• Cards may grant yellow or purple chips — only if that ingredient book is already in play.

2. Rats (starting turn 2)

All players except the leader on the Scoring Track may place their rat stone in their pot. Count the rat-tail icons on the Scoring Track between you and the leading player. Move your rat stone that many spaces past your droplet. The rat stone acts as the new “last placed chip” for the Potions Phase.

Actions

Potions Phase (simultaneous)

All players draw and place chips at the same time — no individual turns. You may never look into your bag.

Drawing: Draw one chip from your bag. Place it on the space directly after the last chip in your pot (or after your rat stone, if present), according to the chip’s value:

• A 1-chip fills 1 space, a 2-chip fills 2 spaces, etc. (gaps in between remain empty).

After placing each chip, decide: stop (lay your bag flat) or draw again.

Explosion: If the sum of all white chip values in your pot exceeds 7, your pot explodes. You must stop immediately. The last chip drawn is still placed. Only white chips count toward explosion — colored chips do not.

Chip actions (immediate): Blue, red, and yellow chips trigger their bonuses as soon as drawn. See ingredient books for details.

Flask: If the last chip you drew was white (and did not cause an explosion), you may use your flask to return it to your bag, then continue drawing. Flip the flask to “empty” — it can only be used once per turn.

Evaluation Phase

Steps A–F are resolved in order after all players have stopped.

A — Bonus Die: Among players whose pot did not explode, the one on the highest scoring space rolls the Bonus Die. Ties: all tied players roll. (Space closest to 33 breaks ties between spaces with equal values.)

B — Chip Actions: Starting with the start player clockwise, each player resolves green, purple, and black chip effects in their pot.

C — Rubies: Every player (including exploded) whose scoring space shows a ruby icon receives 1 ruby.

⚠️ Players whose pot exploded must now choose D or E — not both.

D — Victory Points: Each player advances their scoring marker by the VP value shown on their scoring space. (Exploded players who choose D receive VP but no coins.)

E — Buy Chips: Each player may buy 1 or 2 chips. If buying 2, they must be different colors. Your coin budget equals your scoring space number. (Exploded players who choose E buy chips but skip VP.) Leftover coins are lost. Purchased chips go into your bag.

• Chip costs are listed in their ingredient books (left = 1-chip cost, middle = 2-chip, right = 4-chip).
• Higher-value chips advance you further in your pot and interact with some book effects.
• Supply is limited — if no chips remain, you may not buy that ingredient.

F — End of Turn: Players may spend rubies (multiple times):

• 2 rubies: Move droplet 1 space forward (if a chip occupies the space, move it aside).
• 2 rubies: Refill empty flask (flip to full side).

Then: return rat stones to their trivets; pass the Fortune Teller card pile clockwise to the next start player; advance the Flame to the next Turn Indicator space.

Scoring / Victory Conditions

After 9 turns, the player with the most VP on the Scoring Track wins.

Tiebreaker: The tied player who filled their pot furthest in the final turn wins. If still tied, all share victory.

Pot space 33 (maximum): If your pot reaches or passes space 33, place the chip on 33 and immediately receive 15 VP and 35 coins for shopping. All players at space 33 roll the Bonus Die (unless exploded).

Special Rules & Edge Cases

• Turn 6: Before the turn begins, each player adds 1 white 1-chip to their bag.
• Turn 9 (last turn) — Potions Phase: The start player calls “Stir!” and all active players draw simultaneously each round (reaching into bags at the same time).
• Turn 9 — End of Turn: After the Evaluation Phase, each player may spend 5 coins or 2 rubies to gain 1 VP, repeatable as many times as they like.
• Yellow book is revealed before turn 2; purple book before turn 3. Players may not buy those chips before their books are out.
• Explosion and rubies: Exploded players still receive rubies from Evaluation Phase C.
• Explosion and bonus die: Exploded players may not roll the Bonus Die.
• Chip actions (end-of-phase only): Green, purple, and black chip effects are resolved in Phase B, not when drawn.
• Blue chips (Set 1): When drawn, draw extra chips from your bag per the blue chip’s value; keep 1 (or none) and return the rest. If the kept chip also has a bonus, resolve it immediately.
• Multiple blue chips: If a blue chip’s “safety” effect (Set 2) is still active when another blue chip is placed, apply the better of the two effects — they do not stack.

Player Reference

Starting bag: 4 white 1s · 2 white 2s · 1 white 3 · 1 orange 1 · 1 green 1

Explosion threshold: white chip total > 7

Evaluation order: A (Bonus Die) → B (Chip actions) → C (Rubies) → D or E if exploded → D and E if not exploded → F (End of turn)

Rubies: 2 = move droplet forward; 2 = refill flask; 2 = (turn 9 end) buy 1 VP

Coins: equal to your scoring space number; 5 coins = 1 VP on turn 9 only