Teach the Game
A quick spoken introduction to Tinctura: plan a five-day pharmacy week, compete for patients and turn plants into medicine.
How you win
“You run a small town pharmacy through five workdays. Behind your screen, plan which hours you’ll spend in the village, forest or pharmacy. Then collect ingredients, improve your skills, serve patients on time and earn the most recovery points.”
Most points come from treating patients. You also score for your skills, trained Journeymen and position on the Tea track. The game lasts Monday through Friday, with nine working hours each day.
The boards
- Recovery point track — record your points.
- Bonus tracks — furnishings give points and ongoing benefits.
- Day track — five workdays.
- Merchant opening hours — determine when shopping is allowed.
- Patient display — take new orders here.
- Apprentice display — hire workers to train.
- Training display — two-hour courses improve skills.
- Tea track — decides who acts first each hour.
- Forest — collect plants.
- Merchant items — buy furnishings and mortars.
Each player also has a skill board and a screened time-management board. The skill board tracks Botany, four medicine skills and Mortars. The time board records your secret nine-hour plan.
A day
Each of the five days has a planning phase and nine work hours. See the full day sequence.
- Behind your screen, assign a location marker to each hour: white Pharmacy, blue Village or green Forest. You choose the exact action later.
- Reveal plans and resolve each hour in Tea-track order. Ties go to the marker stacked highest.
- At your planned location, choose an available action. Experiment can use any location marker, twice per day across the whole table.
- After 4 p.m., refill the forest and displays, turn the day marker, and prepare tomorrow’s training and merchant.
How the game ends
After everyone finishes Friday at 4 p.m., players may make medicines for patients still on their boards. Then total patient rewards, remaining patients, Tea-track rewards, Botany, Journeymen and the least-developed skill. The most recovery points wins; the player further along the Tea track breaks a tie. Details are in Game End and Scoring.
Ways to score
| Source | When and how |
|---|---|
| Patient medicine | Earn the reward shown on a patient card when you produce its required medicine before the deadline. |
| Unserved patient | Lose 1 RP when a deadline passes or you decline an active patient. |
| Tea track | At game end score 10, 6 and 3 RP for the first three positions, then RP equal to your space. |
| Botany | Score 8 RP if your marker reaches the end of the Botany track. |
| Journeymen | Score 0/4/9/18 RP for 1/2/3/4 trained Journeymen. |
| Least-developed skill | Score 3/6/10/14/19/24/30/36 RP for your lowest eligible level 2–9. |
| Furnishings and goals | Gain immediate RP from bonus tracks and, if used, completed Private or Open Goals. |
What each resource is for
| Resource | Why you need it | How you get it | How you use it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Berries, roots, herbs, mushrooms | Medicine ingredients and payment | Forest, some bonuses, or plant exchanges | Pay recipes and shopping; mushrooms can raise tincture quality at an RP cost |
| Skill levels | Determine whether a medicine can be made and its quality | Training, experiments, Botany collection and bonuses | Meet patient requirements and earn medicine rewards |
| Furnishings | Improve a colour bonus track | Buy them from the merchant | Move its marker and gain the printed benefit |
| Mortars | Set how much tea one action can make | Buy from the merchant | Increase maximum cups per Tea action |
| Time and location markers | Plan where each hour is spent | Starting supply or additional training tokens | Schedule the nine work hours |
| Tea marker | Control action order and endgame points | Brew tea | Move ahead on the Tea track |
| Patients | Provide orders and rewards | Accept from the display | Produce the matching medicine before the deadline |
| Apprentices | Unlock one-time or permanent Journeyman benefits | Hire in the village | Train automatically by producing their medicine type |
Teaching tips
- Explain the three locations first, then the secret plan and Tea-track order.
- For the first game, leave Personality cards out as the rulebook recommends.
- Remind players that a plan locks in the location, not the action.
- Watch the 24-hour patient deadline and keep plants needed for a recipe in mind.