The Alchemist's Crucible
A cooperative, push-your-luck trick-taking game for 3–5 Master Alchemists.
Together you are trying to brew the legendary Elixir of Life, but the
ingredients are volatile: apply too much energy to the cauldron at once and the
mixture boils over, and enough boil-overs destroy your laboratory. You win or
lose as a team.
Objective
Each mission the team drafts a set of Condition Task cards — personal
objectives such as "win at least one Salt" or "cause exactly one Boil Over."
You win the mission only when every drafted task has been completed (plus any
mission-specific extra goal). You lose immediately if any drafted task
becomes mathematically impossible, or if the cauldron suffers too many Boil
Overs.
Components
•
54 Dual-Nature Ingredient cards — six suits (Brimstone, Quicksilver,
Salt, Mandrake, Aether, Lodestone), each numbered 1–9. Every card is
dual-natured: it has an active (top) face you play with and an
inactive (bottom) face it becomes when Transmuted. The deck is built so
that a card's inactive face is the active face of exactly one sibling card
(opposite suit, value 10 − rank).
•
4 Catalyst cards — the volatile trump suit, numbered 1–4.
Single-natured (they never flip).
•
40 Condition Task cards — personal objectives drafted at the start of each
mission (see below).
•
Slag Tokens — track Boil Overs; reaching the mission's slag cap loses.
Card Types & Symbols
Every card face carries a suit symbol, and numbered cards also show a
rank glyph (1–9). Learn the six ingredient suits and the Catalyst trump at
a glance — these same symbols appear on the Condition Task cards, so a task such
as "Win at least one Aether" is tagged with the matching emblem.
Dual-Nature Ingredient cards (54)
The heart of the deck. Each card is double-ended and shows two faces at
once:
•
The active (top) face — upright — is the suit and value you play with
right now (its symbol and rank glyph).
•
The transmuted (bottom) face — printed upside-down — is what the card
becomes if it is Transmuted: the opposite suit on the wheel
(Brimstone↔Mandrake, Quicksilver↔Aether, Salt↔Lodestone) at value
10 − rank. Rotate the card 180° and that face is now upright and active.
The deck is built so a card's transmuted face is the active face of exactly one
sibling card, so the 54 cards are closed under flipping.
Catalyst cards (4)
The volatile
trump suit (values 1–4), marked with the
symbol. Catalysts are
single-natured —
they show one face only and
never flip, even on a successful Transmute.
Condition Task cards (40)
Personal objectives drafted at the start of each mission. Each task shows a
category badge, its objective text, and the suit symbol(s) the
objective involves. A task is self-checking — it watches its owner's score
pile and completes (or becomes impossible) on its own.
Character discipline cards (10)
Each alchemist drafts one discipline per mission (deal two, keep one). A
character card shows its portrait, name, and its ability text — a
passive or once-per-mission power (see the disciplines listed under Digital
Adaptation Notes).
Setup
Pick a mission from the logbook (1–12). The 58-card deck is shuffled and dealt
out evenly (any remainder is left undealt and out of play). The Alchemist
holding Catalyst 4 is the Lead Alchemist and leads the first reaction.
Drafting the Tasks
At the start of the mission the specified number of Task cards is revealed face
up. Starting with the Lead Alchemist, alchemists take turns claiming one Task
card at a time until all revealed tasks are claimed. A claimed task belongs to
that alchemist and only their play can satisfy it.
Two Critical Numbers
•
Cauldron Limit (default 22): the maximum sum allowed when Catalyzing.
•
Transmutation Target (default 18): the minimum sum required when
Transmuting.
Playing a Reaction (a "trick")
At the start of each reaction, the Lead Alchemist declares its intent —
Catalyze or Transmute — and plays a card. Moving clockwise, every other
alchemist plays one card. You must follow the lead suit (by the card's
active suit) if you have one; otherwise you may play any card.
Action A — Catalyze (stabilize ingredients)
The active values of the played cards are added as they enter the cauldron.
•
Safe: if the total stays ≤ the Cauldron Limit once everyone has
played, the highest card of the lead suit (or the highest Catalyst) wins
the reaction and collects the cards into their score pile. Only Catalyze
tricks count toward trick-volume tasks.
•
Boil Over: the moment the running total exceeds the Cauldron Limit,
an explosion occurs. The alchemist who pushed it over takes a Slag Token,
the cards are discarded to the Slag Pile (no one wins them), and that
alchemist leads the next reaction. Reaching the slag cap = the lab is
destroyed and the team loses.
Action B — Transmute (alter your ingredients)
Bleed off energy to change the physical nature of the ingredients. Transmute
reactions never cause Boil Overs, no matter how high the total.
•
Success: if the total is ≥ the Transmutation Target, the reaction
succeeds. Every player takes the card they just played, flips it 180°
(its inactive face becomes active — a new suit and value), and returns it to
their hand. Catalysts do not flip.
•
Failure: if the total is < the Transmutation Target, the reaction
fizzles and those cards are destroyed (removed from play for the rest of
the mission).
Either way, the highest card of the lead suit (or highest Catalyst) leads the
next reaction, even though no cards were "won".
The 40 Condition Task cards
Each drafted task is self-checking: it knows whose play satisfies it and
watches that alchemist's score pile and record. Categories:
•
Trick Volume (×6): win exactly 0 / 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5+ Catalyze tricks.
•
Suit Specifics (×12): win at least one — or ZERO — of each of the six
suits.
•
Rank Specifics (×4): win a 9, a 1, at least one Catalyst, or ZERO
Catalysts.
•
Reactions & Transmutes (×6): win a Catalyze trick summing exactly 22;
cause exactly one Boil Over; play the highest / lowest card in a successful
Transmute; play a card that fizzles a Transmute; lead exactly one Transmute.
•
Timing & Order (×4): win the first trick, the last trick, none of the
first three, or the trick immediately after a Boil Over.
•
Comparisons (×4): win more / fewer tricks than the Lead Alchemist, the
most tricks outright, or the same number as the alchemist to your left.
•
Combos (×4): win a trick with two Mandrake, three of one suit, two
Catalysts, or no card higher than 5.
Winning and Losing
•
Win: when the last ingredient leaves play, if every drafted task is
complete (and any mission extra is satisfied), the elixir is brewed —
everyone wins.
•
Lose: immediately when a drafted task becomes mathematically
impossible, immediately upon reaching the slag cap, or at mission end if
the tasks were not all completed.
Communication — Whisper Tokens
Alchemists can't discuss their hands. Once per mission, before a trick begins,
a holder may spend their Whisper Token to reveal one card from their hand
with a hint — Top (highest of that suit), Bottom (lowest), or
Middle (only card of that suit). Before each new reaction the table is
offered the chance to whisper in turn; anyone may pass. On Mission 9 (Blind
Brewing) no Whisper Tokens may be used.
Mission Logbook
Play through the missions in order. Default Cauldron Limit 22, Transmutation
Target 18, slag cap 3.
Team must also complete one Transmute
Tasks must be completed in draft order
Cauldron Limit 25, but one Slag Token loses
Transmutation Target 14, Cauldron Limit 18
Catalysts count as 10 toward both totals
No Whisper Tokens may be used
Also need a 22-Catalyze and an 18-Transmute
A "Sponge" wins no Catalyze trick, leads no Transmute
Limit 20, Target 20, slag cap 2
Strategy
Catalyze is safe points but risks a boil-over as the total climbs — play low to
stay under the limit, or dump high cards early. Transmute reshapes a bad hand
into a useful one (and some tasks require it), but a weak transmute destroys
cards forever. Because you can't freely discuss your hands, reading which suits
your fellow alchemists are void in — from what they play — is the heart of the
game, and drafting tasks you can actually see a path to completing is half the
battle.
Digital Adaptation Notes
This implementation realizes the game's core engine, the full 40-card
Condition Task system (drafted per mission, self-checking win/loss, immediate
math-fail loss), and the complete 12-mission logbook — each mission's
Cauldron Limit, Transmutation Target, task count and slag cap, plus every
special rule that fits the turn model: Mission 2's required Transmute, Mission
3's sequential task order, Mission 5's zero-boil cap, Mission 7's Heavy Metals,
Mission 10's equilibrium, Mission 11's Sponge (wins no Catalyze trick, leads no
Transmute), and Mission 12's caps.
The Whisper communication tokens are modelled on top of the engine's
generic response-window (interrupt) primitive: before each new reaction a
window offers each token-holder the chance to whisper or pass, in turn.
All 10 Character disciplines are drafted at the start of each mission (deal
two, keep one) and modelled:
•
Passive (always on): Void Weaver (your Catalysts count 0 toward both
totals and cannot win a trick) and Apprentice (your Whisper also announces
the inactive half's Odd/Even parity).
•
Activated on your own turn as a button (no reactive pop-ups), each
committing a per-trick modifier that the resolver reads and clears when the
reaction resolves:
•
Purifier — ignore the Cauldron Limit for a Catalyze trick.
•
Metallurgist — lower the Transmutation Target by 5.
•
Pyromancer — your Brimstone counts 0 in a Catalyze trick.
•
Stabilizer — raise the Cauldron Limit by 3 for a Catalyze trick.
•
Transmuter — force a Transmute to succeed.
•
Hoarder — claim a safe Catalyze trick's cards for your pile.
•
Anchor — keep your card upright on a successful Transmute.
•
Seer — swap one of your Tasks with another alchemist's.
Every exhaustible discipline spends a once-per-mission use. Each single-tap
discipline is activated through an outcome-first confirmation — the button
names what the ability will do this reaction, and you confirm or cancel before
the use is spent. The Seer's task swap has a dedicated two-step picker (pick
one of your Tasks, then an opponent's) since it targets two Task cards. All ten
disciplines are therefore fully playable in the app.