Gameplay

Round order, dice drafting and turn structure for Trismegistus (2026).

Round order

The game lasts three rounds. Each round has Preparation followed by an Action phase.

1. Ready each exhausted Battery and Artifact. Refresh the Experiment and Artifact offers as shown by the current round. Roll all available dice and assign them by face to the matching pools; a question mark may be assigned to a pool of your choice. If any pool has six or more dice, reroll every die in that pool, repeating until no pool has six.
2. With the Events module, reveal an Event for a pool after dice are assigned. A pool may have at most one Event; discard a duplicate and reveal another.
3. Take turns in turn order. If you do not have an active die, draft one from any pool, collect the unrefined Metal shown on its face (a question mark grants no Metal), and place it at Potency equal to the pool’s size including that die.
4. Resolve one Main action, spending at least one Potency, and eligible Free actions. Move the die down one space per Potency spent. When it leaves space 1, it is exhausted.
5. At the start of your turn, if three dice on your board are exhausted, pass for this round. You may still resolve available Free actions before passing.

Die color and face

A die’s color selects the matching Experiment and Artifact offers and determines which pool it came from. Its face determines the unrefined Metal gained when drafted and can affect other rules. Aqua Regia may change the active die’s color or face for the rest of the turn.

Free actions

Each Free action may be used once per turn, at a legal point before, between or after spending Potency. You still need to spend at least one Potency on your Main action. Extra Potency is spent before the Main action and cannot pay for taking an Experiment. Aqua Regia used for an Experiment lowers its Mastery requirement by one per token spent. A Battery resolves its printed Transmutation(s), paying normal Essence/Mercury costs, or refreshes one Artifact.

A performed Experiment may be resolved between Potency spends. A Board&Dice representative clarified that a Free action may be used before or after each Potency spent, including between Transmutations in one turn (official ruling on BGG).

Refresh and next round

When everyone has passed, begin the next round’s Preparation. Refresh exhausted pieces and refill offers as directed by the round and component rules. After round three, proceed to final scoring.