And so that's our white glove demo for Alchemist. We hope that you have enjoyed. No, I know it is really the beginning of the video, but Alchemist is a game that you could say is played backwards. No, not that kind of backwards. In many games you start off with just a little control over what you can do and how to do it and you score points faster and faster as you get more things to do. With Alchemist you start out with a huge variety of options and you score points as you narrow your choices down.
Alchemist puts you into the middle of a contest of the Alchemist's. The five schools of magic have sent their best adepts to compete in the creation and copying of potions. At the beginning of the game you place cubes in the bag corresponding to five ingredients available in the game, bird legs, mushrooms, dragon's blood, troll eyes and spiders. You draw cubes out of the bag to represent your starting ingredients. Place these behind your player screen. You also get six seal stones one of which is used to keep track of your score.
Finally you receive a secret ingredient tile. This is the ingredient that your school prefers and you will score points at the end of the game if your ingredient is used the most. The remaining ingredient cubes are set next to the board. It is important to check the rules to use right number of cubes for the number of players you have. On your turn you can do one of three things, take ingredients, make a potion or copy a potion. If you take ingredients you may either take two random cubes from the bag until they run out or one cube of your choice from the supply.
The second type of turn that you can take is to create a potion. On the border ten potion cauldrons showing ten different sets of two cubes that a formula can create. To create a potion you have to assign cubes to it and set a point value for it. you may use one to five cubes for your potion with the exception that you can't use any of the output ingredients, you can't use any ingredient more than twice and you can't copy an existing potion. You also get to assign a point value for completing the potion from one to ten by placing the corresponding tile on the cauldron. Future potions will choose from the remaining point tiles.
Place a seal stone on the cauldron to show that you made the potion. You may create as many as five potions during the game. Finally whenever you make a potion, you score as many points as the point tile shows and receive the 2 output cubes shown from the ingredient display. There is a catch though after you create a formula, you can't use the formula again, but your opponents can use them as often as they like. That's the third type of turn, copying a potion. To copy another player's potion you will discard the ingredient shown in the formula, score the points shown and receive the output ingredients from the supply.
However in tribute to the original creator you give the person who created the potion anyone cube from the formula of the cubes that you spent. Note that the cubes used in copying a formula do not go back in the supply; they are removed from the game except for the one tribute cube. Sometimes players can be intimidated at the wide range of formulas and points that can be assigned to potions. Here is a handy trick to how to create a potion.
We are going to show you two example formulas at each extreme of the spectrum. In order to do this, you also need to know that every two unused ingredient cubes you have at the end of the game is worth one fame point. Consider a five cube formula worth ten fame points. You also receive one point in output cubes. This earns a player 2.2 fame points per cube used in the potion. Now consider a one cube formula worth 1 point. You still get two cubes giving you another point. This player receives 2 fame points per cube used.
So if your formula goes beyond 2 points per cube used, you should have a reason for making that formula extra attractive or unattractive. You might want someone to use a formula with your secret ingredient or you might want to make it harder to get a certain ingredient in play. You continue to take turns until there are two or fewer ingredient types left in the supply, keep going until everyone has had an equal number of turns.
There are several steps to final scoring. First reveal any cubes that you still have behind your screen. Each 2 cubes is worth 1 point rounding down. Next add these cubes to the remaining ingredient supply, do not discard them out of the game. Count the number of cubes remaining for each ingredient in the ingredient supply. Do not include cubes on the board and don't include any cubes remaining in the bag. The secret ingredients are now revealed. You score more points if there is less of your secret ingredient than others. If you have the most fame points you are the supreme adept and the winner and that really is our white glove demo for Alchemist. It is a game that challenges you to cleverly create potions that score you points and uses up your ingredients. Spiders.
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