The quick version
Give each player a cauldron, bag, full bottle, drop and rat markers, score marker and one ruby. Start each bag with four white 1s, two white 2s, one white 3, one orange 1 and one green 1. Read the round's event, then draw and place chips by their values. Stop whenever you choose; a white total above 7 explodes. The first empty space after your last chip gives your rewards. An intact potion earns points and buying power; an explosion makes you choose one. Return ingredients to your bag, prepare the next round and play nine rounds.
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Prepare one bag and cauldron per player
Use Schmidt Spiele’s English base game of The Quacks of Quedlinburg, with its ordinary pot side and Set 1 ingredient books, for two to four individual players. This guide follows the publisher’s English rulebook linked below. Other editions and expansions can change components or timing; keep their extra equipment out of this game.
Use one cauldron board, opaque ingredient bag, bottle/flask tile, drop marker, rat marker and score marker per player. Also bring the shared score/round board and its round marker, the four 0/50 seal tiles, event-card deck, ruby supply, special bonus die, all seven base ingredient supplies and their printed books. Set the round marker to 1, place the seal tiles on their matching spaces with 0 facing up, and put each score marker on its matching seal. Each player begins with one ruby, a full bottle, a drop at the cauldron's central 0 and a rat waiting beside the board. A table needs space for every cauldron, bags, shared scoring board and ingredient market; bowls for sorting supplies are optional.
Put exactly nine ingredients in each bag: four white cherry-bomb 1s, two white 2s, one white 3, one orange pumpkin 1 and one green 1. White values start with a total of 11, but only the white chips you actually put into this round's potion count toward an explosion. The cauldron stays empty until play begins. Shuffle the event deck. The last person to cook something reads the first event and leads the shared scoring steps; pass that job clockwise after each round.
For the ingredient effects explained below, select the Set 1 books marked with one bookmark: blue offers a choice from extra draws, red gains distance from pumpkins, yellow returns a preceding white chip, green rewards a late position and purple rewards its count. Put out orange and the black book appropriate to your player count as well. Initially keep yellow and purple unavailable: yellow enters at the start of round 2, purple at the start of round 3. Keep the chosen books visible and use their printed prices. Their artwork, effects and prices identify the book; do not mix several effects for one color.
Draw, place, then decide again
Read the event first
At the start of round 2 reveal the yellow book; at round 3 reveal purple. At the start of round 6 every player adds one extra white 1 to their bag. Then the round reader turns over one event and reads it for everyone. Apply immediate instructions now and keep any round-long or scoring instruction visible. A specific event overrides the ordinary rule it changes. Do not take a yellow or purple ingredient before that color is available. Starting in round 2, after the event is resolved, count rat-tail symbols between your score and the leader. Place your rat that many spaces beyond your drop; leaders and players with no intervening tails receive no rat advance. Brew from the rat when it is ahead of the drop.
Draw one ingredient blindly
In rounds 1–8, players brew concurrently at their own pace. Mix your bag and draw without looking or selecting a chip by its markings. Place your first chip its printed value in spaces beyond your drop, or beyond your rat if it is farther ahead. Each later chip advances from the previous placed chip: a 2 skips one empty space and lands on the next. Leave skipped spaces empty; never slide earlier chips together. Resolve that color's immediate effect, then decide whether to draw again.
Watch the white total
Only white cherry-bomb values count toward the usual explosion limit. A total of exactly 7 is safe; 8 or more explodes. Place the chip that causes the explosion, announce it and stop drawing. Colored chips do not add to the white total. If your bottle is full, you may return your most recently drawn white chip to the bag before drawing again, but only if that chip has NOT already caused an explosion. Turn the bottle empty and remove that chip from the cauldron; its old space stays empty. You may continue or stop. The bottle cannot undo an explosion.
Make stopping definite
When you stop voluntarily, put your bag down and announce that you are done; you cannot restart that potion after seeing someone else's finish. An empty bag also ends your brewing. Wait until everyone has stopped or exploded before evaluating rewards. In this edition, round 9 requires shared reveals: on the reader's cue, all active players reveal a chip together, or reveal an empty hand to stop permanently. Resolve each reveal and any ingredient choices before the next cue. This prevents waiting to copy another player’s final decision.
Before the real first event, demonstrate an orange 1 at space 1, then a white 2 at space 3. Point to the next empty space as the eventual reward space. For a separate example, imagine the white chips already in your cauldron total 6. Drawing another white 2 makes 8 and explodes. Return the demonstration chips, restore the empty board and mix the original nine-chip bag before scoring begins.
Use the selected books' effects
Ingredient actions are optional; you may decline an effect.
Orange and white: orange simply advances by its value; white also adds its value to the explosion total. Blue: place it, then draw as many extra chips as the blue chip's value. You may choose one as your next placed ingredient, or place none. Return all unchosen chips to the bag. A chosen chip uses its normal placement and effect; choosing another blue can start another blue action.
Red: count the orange chips already in your potion. With none, place red by its printed value; with one or two pumpkins, add one extra space; with three or more, add two. Count pumpkins, not their values, and apply the extra distance only to that red placement. Yellow: place it normally. If the immediately preceding placed chip was white, you may put that white chip back into the bag. Yellow stays where it landed, the white total falls accordingly, and the removed chip's space remains empty. You cannot draw yellow after an explosion to repair it.
Green, at evaluation: earn one ruby for each green among the last two placed ingredients, regardless of its value. These are the last two chips in placement order, not two adjacent printed spaces. Purple, at evaluation: one purple earns one point; two earn one point and one ruby; three or more earn two points and one drop advance. This is one reward tier, not all tiers added together; you may choose a lower tier.
Black, at evaluation: count black chips, not their values. At three or four players, compare with the immediate neighbors on your left and right. More than at least one neighbor earns one drop advance; more than both also earns one ruby. At two players, a player who brewed black compares with the sole opponent: equal counts earn one drop advance; more earns one drop advance and one ruby. Brewing no black gives no black reward. Each eligible player receives their own comparison reward; a potion explosion does not cancel these end-of-brewing ingredient effects.
Evaluate together, then shop
If a chip reaches or passes the end of the base cauldron, stop at its terminal position and use the spoon's maximum reward: 35 buying power and 15 points. An explosion still requires choosing one; it still excludes you from the die. Do not invent an overflow track for the base game.
Find the reward space and bonus die winner
Your reward space is the first empty space immediately after your last placed chip, including an exploding chip. Use the money number, point value and ruby icon on THAT space, not the space under your last chip. If you placed nothing, use the space after your current starting marker. Among only the players who did not explode, compare how far each reached along the spiral. The farthest rolls the bonus die once; tied farthest players each roll once. Equal money numbers on different spaces do not make a tie. If everyone exploded, nobody rolls. Take the indicated points, ruby, orange 1 or drop advance.
Resolve ingredients and rubies
Starting with the round reader, resolve black, green and purple rewards clockwise. A drop advance affects the next potion's start, not the current potion's reward space. Everyone whose reward space has a ruby icon takes one ruby, including players whose potions exploded. Follow the visible event card for any changed reward.
Take points, buying power, or both
An intact potion receives the point value AND its money number as this round's buying power. An exploded potion chooses either those points or that buying power. This choice does not remove rubies or ingredient rewards already earned. Move score markers for points; flip your matching seal to 50 when passing 50 points. Money is a temporary allowance, not saved coins.
Buy at most two different colors
Beginning with the reader and going clockwise, an eligible shopper may buy zero, one or two available ingredients. Two purchases must be different colors. Their combined printed book prices must fit that player's allowance. Take the actual chips from the supply; sold-out chips cannot be bought. White explosive chips are not for sale. Unspent buying power disappears. Put new ingredients into your bag for the NEXT round, not into the potion you just finished.
Reset and prepare the next start
At round end, each pair of rubies may buy one drop advance or refill an empty bottle. You may spend several pairs; bottle refilling takes effect for the next round. Return all brewed ingredients to their owner's bag, including the chip that exploded it, and return each rat beside its pot. Keep permanent drops and scores. Pass the reader role, move the round marker and mix your bag. Calculate new rat assistance only after the next round's event has been resolved.
Convert the last rewards and compare scores
After round 9, perform the bonus die, ingredient and ruby steps. Take the normal potion points if eligible. Instead of buying new ingredients, an eligible shopper converts each full five buying power into one point; an exploded potion still chooses ordinary potion points OR this buying-power conversion. Unused buying power below five is lost. Everyone may convert each pair of remaining rubies into one point, whether or not they exploded. Do not count buying power you chose to forgo.
The highest final point total wins. If totals tie, the tied player whose final potion reached farthest along the cauldron wins, including an exploded potion's final chip. If those positions also tie, share the win. Preserve the final potion layouts until scoring and ties are settled. For another game, return each bag to the exact starting nine chips, reset scores, drops, rats, bottles and rubies, and reshuffle the event deck.
Keep the draw honest and the table welcoming
Before playing, have everyone identify white cherry-bomb chips by their berry picture and value, not color alone. Compare a sample of every selected ingredient with its book under the room's actual lighting. Ask whether the small print, chip pictures and bag opening work for everyone; seated play is not a promise of universal access. Offer to read books aloud or help move a chip at its owner's instruction. Talk quietly if that suits the room; shouting or speed is not required.
Show the reward space and explosion choice before the first scored round. In ordinary concurrent rounds, watching another cauldron does not by itself undo your right to continue, but announcing a stop is final. If the group dislikes wait-and-see decisions, agree before round 1 to the synchronized variation. Never criticize someone for stopping early. A strong bag can still draw badly, and rat assistance does not guarantee a comeback.
Use the actual selected book and event card to resolve an effect dispute. Pause before another draw when a chip lands ambiguously. Buying and end-of-brewing effects go clockwise so limited supplies and score changes remain traceable. If a chip is accidentally dropped, this guide suggests a house remedy: return it to its owner's bag, mix, and make the draw again if it was not already identified; if everyone saw it, use that revealed chip. Apply the same remedy to everyone. Never quietly discard an unwanted white chip.
After each reset, sweep the table for an ingredient left outside its owner's bag. If a missing chip is discovered only after later draws, pause and agree a remedy openly; do not pretend the original probabilities can be reconstructed. The demonstration, dropped-chip remedy and team variation are host suggestions. Keep the supplied rulebook and books at the table for card-specific exceptions.
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Ideas & Twists
Choose a variation together before you start.
Quacks · See main rules
Publisher timing optionSynchronized brewing throughout
Use the final-round reveal method in all nine rounds: the reader cues each draw; every active player reveals a chip or an empty hand at the same time. An empty hand stops that player permanently for the round. Resolve all immediate effects, including extra blue choices, before giving the next cue. Nobody waits to see another revealed result before deciding whether to participate in that draw. Ingredient powers, explosions, scoring, shopping and finish stay unchanged. This trades some pace for shared suspense; do not require fast responses.
Quacks · See main rules
House format for exactly four peopleTwo-player teaching teams
Make two teams of two, each controlling ONE cauldron, bag, score, bottle, drop, rat and ruby supply. Use the two-player black book and all other main rules unchanged. One teammate draws and places for a whole round while the other reads books and discusses whether to continue; swap these jobs after every round. Decisions belong to the pair, and an announced stop is final. Shopping is one shared allowance and at most two differently colored purchases per TEAM. After nine rounds, compare the two team scores with the same final conversions and ties. You need only two player component sets, not four independent bags; there is no separate individual winner.
Quacks · See main rules
Publisher reverse-board optionChoose the test-tube route
Use each cauldron's test-tube side and add a second drop to the leftmost test tube. Whenever a die, ingredient, event or two-ruby purchase grants one drop advance, choose either to advance your cauldron drop one space OR the test-tube drop one tube to the right. Claim the newly entered tube's printed bonus immediately: its indicated ruby, points or ingredient added to your bag. Decide separately for each granted advance. The test-tube drop never sets your potion's starting space or rat position; those still use the cauldron drop. No further tube advance is available beyond the last tube. Keep nine rounds, explosion limits, purchasing and finish unchanged. Use only the printed test-tube rewards; this does not add Witches or Alchemists.
About this guide
Main game: Schmidt Spiele’s English base game, ordinary pot side and Set 1 ingredient books, for 2–4. Rules and ingredient effects follow the linked publisher rulebook and almanac. Synchronized drawing in all rounds and test tubes are publisher options; teaching teams and repair suggestions are house variations.
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