Double Potions

You are all students at a school for witches and wizards.  First and second period is Double Potions.  Will you get into trouble in class?  Will you be sent to the nurse’s office?  Or will you work together to successfully create a magical potion?  You will need to print out the attached cards, and gather a large number of six-sided dice in five colors to play this game.  If you can’t find enough dice, colored counters can be used and you can roll a single die for each one.

1.  Create your characters.  Players should each draw two cards from the character deck.  Each card will grant you a unique ability and give you a roleplaying hint.  Take turns describing your character to the other players.  Make up your name, and any other details about your character that you’d like.  Choose a character to lead your team.

2.  Look up the potion recipe in your textbook.  The team leader should draw a single card from the potions deck.  This is the potion you are all working together to create.  Read it once, carefully, aloud and then replace it in the deck.  Other players should take notes.  Each potion card has three sentences, representing the three stages of making the potion.  You will need to collect dice for each stage of potion making.  At the end of the game, you will roll these dice, using only the highest number of each color.  If you reach the target numbers on the back of the card for each stage, you have succeeded.  Note that potion making is difficult, and the instructions can sometimes be confusing and ambiguous.  Do your best!

The five colors of dice represent:

	White dice: stirring the potion, shiny ingredients
	Red dice: use of fire, dangerous ingredients
	Green dice: watchfulness, pungent ingredients
	Black dice: use of your mortar and pestle, disgusting ingredients
	Blue dice: use of your wand, magical ingredients

3.  Choose the ingredients you will need to make the potion. Players should discuss what ingredients they will need and who will get them.  After you have decided, each character should take their turn, choosing a die of whatever color they wish.  Start with the player to the left of the leader, and proceed clockwise until everyone has chosen ten dice.  (Note: ten dice should be used for a four-player game.)

4.  The class proceeds in three stages of potion making.  During each stage, characters may take one of the actions listed below, starting with the leader, until each character has taken three actions. Your cauldron is the center of the table. There should be three piles of dice at the end of the game, one for each stage. You need not distinguish between dice used for tools and dice used for ingredients.

•	Take the lead in making the potion:  Place all of your dice of any one color into the cauldron.

•	Assist in making the potion:  Place one of your dice into the cauldron.

•	Give advice to another character: Give one of your dice to another player.

After each character has taken their action, they pass play to another character of their choice, by asking that character a question.  The question could have something to do with the potion, or could be any question that you might ask a classmate. Example questions might be:  “How many slugs were we supposed to add?”; “Did you hear what happened in Divination class the other day?”; or “Have you asked anyone to the dance yet?” The character you ask must answer the question before taking their action.

5.  Look up target numbers for your potion card and test out your potion.  On each potion card is a number.  Look up your number in the list provided and find the target numbers for each stage of your potion.  Take the dice that you placed in the cauldron for each stage, and roll them.  Pick only the highest number for each color and compare it to the target numbers for that stage.  If you get equal to or greater than each number in a stage, it is a success.

6.  Determine your results.  Take turns describing how your character reacts to the success or failure of your potion.

•	Success in all three stages:  Complete success, your team did the best!
•	Success in only two stages:  Well done, your potion is simple, but effective.
•	Success in only one stage: Your potion works, but has a nasty side effect.
•	Failure in all three stages:  Your potion goes dangerously out of control!

Sample character cards:

•	Daydreamer: Sometimes you find yourself lost in thought…  If you have not placed any green dice in the cauldron, place any color extra die into the cauldron at the end of each stage.
•	Teacher’s Pet: You take potion-making very seriously, and everyone else should too!  Gain two dice of any single color when another character is too loud or is passing notes.  That character loses one die of their choice.

Sample potion card:  

•	Boil-curing Potion:  “Crush six snake fangs to fine powder and add to water at medium boil, flourishing your wand and chanting.  Continue to brew for thirty-three minutes, watching cauldron carefully, then add four horned slugs. Remove cauldron from flame and add two albino porcupine quills, stirring five times clockwise, while waving your wand above mixture.”

How to interpret this card:

First stage:  “crush” = black dice for mortar; “six snake fangs” = red dice for dangerous ingredients; “medium boil” = red dice for fire; “flourishing your wand” = blue dice for wand

Target numbers: black 2, red 6, blue 3

Second stage: “continue to brew” = red dice for fire; “watching carefully” = green dice for watchfulness; “four horned slugs” = black dice for disgusting ingredients

Target numbers: red 3, green 4, black 3

Third stage:  “remove from flame” = don’t use any red dice; “two albino porcupine quills” = white dice for shiny ingredients; “stirring five times” = white dice for stirring; “waving your wand” = blue dice for wand.

Target numbers: white 5, blue 3, fails if any red dice are present.

Note that stage three is tricky, as porcupine quills could also be dangerous ingredients. However, the instructions say to remove from flame, indicating no red dice should be used.  The potion maker must look to the word “albino” to determine that white dice should be used instead.