The Quacks of Quedlinburg

Quacks of Quedlinburg is a push-your-luck bag builder. You are a quack doctor brewing potions at a nine-day bazaar. Every turn you pull ingredient chips out of your bag one at a time and lay them along your cauldron’s bubble track — the further you get, the better your score.

The catch is the white chips. Pull too many and your cauldron explodes.

Setup

1. Put the scoreboard in the middle, with the flame marker on the first oil lamp and the seals zero side up.
2. Place the rubies and the bonus die beside the board, and shuffle the fortune teller cards next to it.
3. Put out the orange and black ingredient books and their chips. The black book has an indicator in the bottom left with a 2-player side and a 3–4 player side — use the right one.
4. Black and orange appear in every game. The remaining books come in four pre-balanced sets, marked by the number of bookmarks at the bottom. For your first game, use set 1.
5. Lay out the other colours, but set yellow and purple aside — they get unlocked later in the game.
6. Give each player a cauldron, flask, droplet and rat stone, and put their starting chips in their bag.
7. Everyone begins with one ruby.

How a Turn Works

All nine turns follow the same sequence, and much of it happens simultaneously.

1. Fortune teller card

Someone reveals the top fortune teller card and reads it aloud. It applies to everyone and modifies this turn only.

2. Rats (from round 2 onward)

Every player except the leader counts the rat tails between their position and the leading player, then places their rat stone that many spaces ahead of their droplet. This is the catch-up mechanism, and it can be substantial.

3. Potions phase

All players draw at the same time. Pull one chip from your bag and place it on an empty bubble, moving forward the number of spaces printed on the chip.

Keep drawing until either:

• you choose to stop, laying your bag down in front of you; or
• your cauldron explodes, which happens when your white chips total more than 7.

Chip actions. Some chips do more than move you:

Colour	When it triggers
Blue, red, yellow	Immediately, as you place them
Green, purple, black	At the end of the potions phase

You may always decline a chip action, though there is rarely a reason to.

The flask. If the last chip you drew was white, you may use your flask to put it straight back in the bag. Flip the flask to its empty side; you can refill it later for two rubies.

4. Evaluation phase

Once everyone has stopped or exploded, all players — including those who exploded — find their scoring bubble: the bubble immediately after the last chip they placed.

Then work through six steps in order:

Step	What happens
A — Bonus die	Whoever has the furthest position in an unexploded cauldron rolls the bonus die. All tied players roll. It can give victory points, a ruby, a pumpkin chip, or move your droplet up a bubble.
B — Chip actions	Starting with the start player, resolve any black, green and purple chips in your pot.
C — Rubies	If your scoring bubble shows a ruby, take one — even if you exploded.
D — Victory points	Take the victory points on your scoring bubble. If you reached the end of the track, stop on the last space and take the points on the ladle.
E — Buy	Buy up to two chips of different colours, using the top number on your scoring space as coins. Leftover coins are lost.
F — End of turn	Everything back in the bag, then clean up.

The explosion penalty lives here. If your cauldron exploded, you must choose either step D or step E — victory points or shopping, never both. You still keep the ruby from step C.

At the end of the turn (step F):

• Put all your chips, including new purchases, back in your bag.
• Spend rubies: 2 rubies moves your droplet up a space, or 2 rubies refills your flask. Spend as many as you can afford.
• Remove your rat stone.
• Pass the fortune teller cards clockwise — that player becomes the new start player.
• Move the flame marker to the next space and carry out anything printed there: unlocking the yellow chips, unlocking the purple chips, or adding another level-1 white chip to everyone’s bag.

The final potion phase

On the last turn, the start player calls “stir!” and everyone reaches into their bag and pulls a chip at the same time. To stop, still reach into the bag but pull out nothing, then lay your bag down.

You can play earlier rounds this way too, if you would rather nobody read your decisions before making their own.

How to Win

After the ninth day, add end-game scoring:

• 1 victory point per 5 coins on your final scoring space.
• 1 victory point per 2 leftover rubies.

Most victory points wins. If there is a tie, the player who filled their cauldron furthest wins. Still tied, and you are both the biggest quacks in Quedlinburg.

Strategy Notes

The central tension is dilution. Every white chip you add makes an explosion likelier, so buying other chips is partly about their effects and partly about thinning the odds of drawing white.

Some players buy as many cheap chips as possible to flood the bag; others buy only high-value chips to travel further down the track. Both work. What does not work is ignoring the ratio entirely — you still have to get far along the bubble track, and the further you go the more chips you have drawn.

Variants

• Other ingredient sets. Once you know the game, try ingredient book sets 2, 3 and 4, or mix your own.
• Test tubes. Use the reverse side of the player boards and place an extra droplet at the start of the test tube track. Whenever you may move a droplet up, choose the cauldron or the test tube. Advancing the test tube immediately grants that tube’s bonus — a ruby, victory points, or the chip pictured.

Common Mistakes

• Thinking exactly 7 white explodes. It is more than 7. Seven exactly is safe.
• Taking both points and chips after exploding. Exploded cauldrons pick one or the other. The ruby is separate and you always keep it.
• Missing the scoring bubble rule. You score the bubble after your last chip, not the one your last chip landed on.
• Forgetting the rats. From round two, every trailing player gets a free jump toward the leader — check it every round.
• Wasting the flask. It only works on a white chip, and only the one you just drew.
• Buying two chips of the same colour. You may buy two chips, but they must be different colours.
• Hoarding rubies to the end. Two rubies buys a droplet advance or a flask refill during the game, but only scores 1 point if you sit on them.