Brewing and Ingredient Books
Fortune Teller events, rat tails, push-your-luck brewing, chip effects and ingredient sets.
Start the round
The holder of the Fortune Teller deck reads its top card aloud and resolves it for all players. A purple card happens before brewing; blue cards may last through the round or resolve later, so follow the card’s timing. A bonus that gives a yellow or purple chip cannot be used before that book is revealed.
From round 2 onward, compare score markers. Each trailing player counts the rat-tail symbols between their marker and the leader’s. Place their rat stone that many spaces ahead of their droplet; the leader and a player with no tails between them receive no head start. Then brew.
Brew the potion
Draw one chip at a time without looking inside your bag. Place the first chip after the droplet or rat stone by its value; later chips go that many spaces beyond the last placed chip. Do not fill spaces skipped by a value-2 or value-4 chip. You may stop after any placement. When playing simultaneously, keep bags in front of you after stopping so other players know who is active.
Explosion threshold
Add only the values of white cherry-bomb chips in your pot. If their total goes above 7, the pot explodes. Keep the chip that caused the explosion in the pot and stop drawing. Colored chips do not add to the threshold. Chip and Fortune Teller effects may still resolve; use the book’s timing rules.
Chip effects
The orange pumpkin only advances by its printed value. Blue, red, and yellow effects usually resolve as the chip is drawn; the selected book determines each effect. Green, purple and black effects usually wait until scoring. You may decline an optional effect. See the relevant ingredient books and explosion choices.
Flask
If your last drawn chip is white and did not cause an explosion, you may turn your full flask over to return that chip to your bag. The gap in your pot remains empty and you may continue drawing or stop. You cannot use the flask on the chip that caused an explosion. At turn end, two rubies refill an empty flask.
Ingredient sets
The orange pumpkin and black ingredient book are always used. Choose one matched recipe set for the five colors green, blue, red, yellow, and purple. A set is the book pages marked with the same number of bookmarks; use the front and reverse pages as a coherent set. The rulebook recommends starting with Set 1 and trying Sets 2, 3, then 4 as players learn the different interactions. Yellow enters at the start of round 2 and purple at the start of round 3. Do not mix ingredients from sets casually in a first game: the publisher groups each set to work together.
Starting ingredients
Each bag starts with 4 white 1s, 2 white 2s, 1 white 3, 1 orange 1 and 1 green 1. At the start of round 6, add one more white 1 to every bag. Do not look in your bag during play.
Blue, red and yellow timing
When a blue chip permits extra draws, follow its exact book text about which drawn chip may be placed and which return to the bag. If a red recipe sets a chip aside, it does not take a space until the book says to place it. If a yellow recipe changes the next chip, read whether it refers to the next chip drawn or the next one placed; recipe text differs by set. Red and yellow bonuses may continue after you choose to stop, as their book says.
The last round
In round 9 the starting player calls “Stir!” Players draw simultaneously, continuing until each player stops or explodes. A player can stop by withdrawing their hand from the bag without a chip. Once all pots are resolved, score normally. At the end of the round, trade 5 coins or 2 rubies for 1 point, repeating as often as desired; either resource may be used each time.