Mad-Alchemist - 1st Edition

A roguelike board game for 1+ players.

The players are junior alchemists who must enter the cellar of the alchemists' guild to find the philosopher's stone and bring it back for the ultimate prize. In the cellar they must fight undead and rely on potions they carry or find to perform their task. Somewhere in the cellar lurks the Mad Alchemist who will throw random potions at players who he sees.

Players spend action points to move a pawn over tiles. They can move horizontally or vertically into a tile without a wall in the way for 1 Action Point (AP). All pawns start on the centre tile (the stairs) of the starting board. The cellar is revealed as the pawns walk through it. Pawns must reveal any tile they could spend 1 AP to walk into. If a player has more than one tile to reveal they can choose where to place the tile and at what rotation - provided they can walk into the tile. If a "!" is on the tile the player must take a card from the encounter deck. If it is a barrier card they place a die with the same shield score on that tile. If it is a gold card then gold is placed on the tile for pawns to collect. If it is a potion card then a potion is placed on the tile to collect. Somewhere in the deck is the Philosopher's Stone and the Mad Alchemist.

Players can also spend action points to drink / throw potions, attack barriers, steal from one another and other things. The potions have powerful effects but their effects are hidden at the beginning of the game.

How To Play

Before play:
* Place down the starting tile with the stairs. All player's pawns start on the centre stairs tile. The player who most recently played a roguelike goes first.
* Remove the Mad Alchemist and the Philosopher's Stone from the encounter deck. Shuffle the deck, then cut it into three equal piles. Put the Philosopher's stone on the right-most pile and the Mad Alchemist on the middle pile. Then put the left-most pile on top of the middle pile and that pile on top of the right-most pile.
* Shuffle the effects cards and place them all face down. Then place a different potion card on top of each one. When a potion is used the effect of the potion will be revealed for the rest of the game.
* Players each choose two potion cards to start the game with. They may choose any potions they wish, even two of the same type. But they do not get to know what the effects of the potions are until they are used in the game. Players should take turns to choose one potion at a time - it might be wise to choose a potion the same as another player in case they use theirs first.
* Players start with a shield score of 3 and 4 hit points. They have no experience points and 2 action points per turn.

On each player's turn: The player may spend some or all of their action points to perform the following (each costs one AP to perform):

* Drink a potion / Throw a potion at a player or barrier that they can see. The player discards the potion card they have used, if its effect is unknown, the effect card for that potion is revealed after the action has been chosen.
* Attack an adjacent barrier by rolling over its shield. The barrier is removed if successful and experience points are awarded to the player. Players cannot attack each other - it is against the rules of the guild. But it is perfectly alright for them to throw potions at each other, even if they result in death.
* Move one tile - players cannot move through other players (unless standing on the stairs), barriers or walls. If the tile moved into has a side without a wall or adjacent tile, an adjacent tile must be placed in that space - the new tile must allow the player to step into it from the tile they are on. Tiles may be revealed in any order, but if they have a "!" on them a card must be taken from the encounter deck to see what item / trap / barrier is on that tile before revealing any more tiles. The encounter card must be drawn after the tile has been placed. If a trap is revealed, all players that the tile can see must roll a die - if it goes over their shield score they lose a hit point. If the player steps on to a tile with gold on it the gold is removed and they receive an experience point. If the player steps on to a tile with a potion on it the potion is removed and they take a card from the potion deck. If there are no more tiles in the cellar tiles deck then the cellar is complete and pawns can only be moved over tiles that are revealed.
* Swap places with an adjacent player - they may only perform the swap if the target is willing or they roll over their shield.
* Steal: Players may steal potions or the Philosopher's Stone from an adjacent player by rolling over their shield.

At the end of each player's turn: The player must take a die for every skeleton that is in a tile adjacent, and a die for every lich that can see them. They roll those dice and for every one that goes over their shield score, they lose one hit point. If the player can be seen by the Mad Alchemist they must draw a card from the potion deck and apply the effect to themselves. If the potion is unidentified then its effects will be revealed.

The game continues until a player with the Philosopher's Stone steps on to the stairs tile.

Contents

1 3 x 3 tile starting board - walls on all outer sides except one side
64 cellar tiles (16 no wall tiles, 16 one wall tiles, 16 tunnel tiles, 16 corner tiles, half of all tiles are encounter tiles "!") (I used 3cm x 3cm size tiles)
32 encounter cards (5 gold, 5 potions, 5 rocks (shields:2,2,2,1,3), 5 skeletons (shields:3,3,3,2,4), 5 liches (shields:4,4,4,3,5), 5 traps, 1 Mad Alchemist, 1 Philosopher's Stone)
6 effect cards (strength, weaken, haste, slow, fire, teleport)
6 effect symbol cards (look like potion cards, keep separate)
18 potion cards (3 x 6 of each symbol)
3 character sheets
3 xp markers
3 hp markers
3 ap markers
3 player pawns
3 shield markers (I used a die per player)
1 Mad Alchemist marker
1 Philosopher's Stone marker

markers for barriers (rocks, skeletons and liches) - I used coloured dice
markers for gold and potions

Potion Effects

* Strength: Add one to the shield score of the target. If the target has a shield score of 5 the potion has no effect.
* Weaken: Remove one from the shield score of the target. If the target has a shield score of 1 the potion has no effect.
* Haste: Players targeted receive 2 extra action points to spend during their turn (or if it is not currently their turn, on their next turn). Monsters targeted attack twice. Rocks are unaffected.
* Slow: Players targeted must take the potion card - it now represents the slowing effect of the potion. They must spend 1 action point to discard the card before they can spend action points on anything else. Monsters targeted cannot attack at the end of the current player's turn. Rocks are unaffected.
* Fire: The target loses one hit point. Barriers have only one hit point and therefore are removed. Experience is awarded to whoever used the potion.
* Teleport: Whoever activated the effect of the potion can move the target of the potion to any revealed tile not more than 5 tiles away (this area describes an 11x11 square around the player). The destination must not be blocked by another pawn or barrier. If a player is moved to a location that would reveal more cellar tiles then those tiles are revealed and any encounter cards are played at that time. A trap would attack the player during the reveal, however a monster can still only attack at the end of a player's turn.

Experience Table

Players receive extra action points to spend for gaining experience. Players gain 1 extra AP at 3, 5, 9 and 17 experience points (a maximum of 6). If a player gains experience during their turn that puts them into the next AP threshold then they gain an extra action point for that turn (acting as if they started the turn with the correct amount of action points for their current experience).

Experience rewards:

* Gold: 1
* Rock: 1
* Skeleton: 2
* Lich: 3
* Mad Alchemist: 4

Terminology:

* Pawn: The marker showing where the Player is in the cellar.
* Character Sheet: Each player has a character sheet on which they can record their hit points, experience points and read reminders of available actions.
* Action Points (AP): On each player's turn they can spend none or all of their AP on performing actions. Players can receive more AP per turn by harvesting Experience Points.
* Hit Points (HP): Each player has a limited amount of HP. If they lose them all they can no longer play.
* Experience Points (XP): A player receives XP for collecting gold and removing barriers.
* Rolling Over Shield: Each player, task or barrier has a shield score. To perform a roll-over-shield action the player must roll a number higher than the shield score.
* Stairs: The stairs tile is special. Any number of pawns can stand on the stairs tile, it is never considered blocked. Not even by barriers teleported there.
* Adjacent: A player or barrier is adjacent if they are in a tile horizontally or vertically next to them without any walls in the way. Two players both on the stairs tile are considered adjacent.
* Seeing: A player or barrier can "see" something if they could walk to that tile vertically or horizontally with no barriers, players or walls in the way. One cannot see through tiles that have not yet been revealed.
* Barrier: This occupies a tile and blocks seeing and movement through the tile until an adjacent player rolls over the barrier's shield score. Rocks, skeletons and liches are barriers.
* Monster: Barriers that attack a player at the end of their turn. Monsters do not move, the guild has chained them to the spot to stop them wandering out of the cellar.
* Trap: Whenever a trap card is drawn, any player that can be seen from the tile that drew the trap must roll a die. If it is over their shield they lose a hit point.
* Stairs: All players start on the stairs and must land on the stairs with the philosopher's stone to win the game. Unlike other tiles in the game, the stairs cannot be blocked by a player or barrier being on it.
* Potions: Potions are represented by cards with symbols on. These are the names of the potions - but unfortunately no one knows the effects. When a potion is used, its effects are identified (turn over the effects card that has the same potion symbol on it). The effects of a potion happen instantly. When there is only one potion left to identify, turn its effect card over anyway - expert players will already know what it is. Potions can be used on oneself or other players or barriers that one can see in the cellar. Some potions may have no effect, for example a haste potion has no effect on a rock because a rock cannot attack.
* Dead: In a multiplayer game a dead player that has potions or the Philosopher's Stone places their pawn on its side. Any other player that steps on to the tile where they died removes the pawn from the board and collects all of their potions / the Stone.