Description

From BGN:

Alchymia - La Quête du Cristal Noir (The Quest for the Black Crystal) is a small print (500) game, self-published by Swiss designer Frank Schwab. The game accommodates 2-5 players and plays in roughly 30-60 min (my best guess). Images and rules (in French) are available at the Alchymia website.

Each player is given a personal board and 3 potion cards and 8 atomic element tokens in 5 colors are placed in the central reserve. Each potion card depicts 1-4 atomic elements used to create the 5 Elemental Crystals (Fire, Water, Earth, Air and Time). Players attempt to collect and place the atomic element tokens on their board in such a way as to mimic the current configuration of one of the 5 crystals. They do this, in turn, by playing a potion card to retrieve an atomic element token of one of the types shown on the card from the central reserve and place it on their game board. They can also choose to remove an element token from their game board by playing a potion card with that element type. Alternatively, players can pass their turn by wiping their board clean of tokens.

Once a player has matched a crystal configuration, they wipe their board of tokens, collect the crystal structure card they matched, reveal a new crystal configuration card and begin collecting beads for another type of crystal. The twist is that each type of crystal confers upon its owner an additional special power (for example, the Time Crystal allows you to rearrange your board during your turn, instead of taking or removing an element token). The first person to collect each of the 5 crystals becomes the master alchemist who can create the coveted Black Crystal.