- Score sheets
- Board games
- The Quacks of Quedlinburg
How to score The Quacks of Quedlinburg
Each round you score the space just past your last ingredient: its VP, its coins and sometimes a ruby. Explode, and you choose the VP or the shopping. After round 9, rubies (and, if your pot held, coins) buy VP, and the most VP wins. Keep the rounds on the free score sheet below, or in the Scorepad.
- 2 to 4 players
- About 45 minutes
- Ends after round 9
- Most VP wins
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This is the real Scorepad, live: nine rounds, one hand each. Tap any round to change it.
The Quacks of Quedlinburg
- BGG #81
- 45 min
A push-your-luck bag builder: each round you draw ingredients into your pot and go as far as you dare before the cherry bombs blow it up. The further you get, the more you score and the more you can buy.
Year, players, time and rank from BoardGameGeek.
How to play Quacks of Quedlinburg, in brief
You brew potions in The Quacks of Quedlinburg by drawing ingredient chips from a bag. The further a potion gets, the more it pays, but too many cherry bombs make it explode.
- Start with a bag of chipsEach player gets a pot board and a bag of starting chips: mostly white cherry bombs, plus an orange and a green.
- Draw into your potEveryone draws at once, one chip at a time, moving each along their pot’s spiral as many spaces as its number. Stop when you like, but white chips adding up past 7 explode the pot.
- Score and shopThe space after your last chip pays victory points (VP) and coins; coins buy new ingredients.
- Play 9 roundsA fortune card tweaks each round. After round 9, the furthest along the VP track wins.
Your last chip decides the round.
Each round scores the space just after your last chip. The VP go straight onto the board’s track, so the running score is always there; the last round adds a trade.
What a round pays
| When | You get |
|---|---|
| Your scoring space, pot intactThe space just after your last chip | VP, coins, ruby |
| Your scoring space, pot explodedWhite cherry bombs adding up to more than 7 | VP or coins, and the ruby |
| For example: spaces 15, 19 and 23As the rulebook’s own examples show them | 3, 5, 7 VP |
| Reaching space 33And 35 coins | 15 VP |
| Furthest pot that did not explodeTied players all roll | Bonus die |
| After round 9: every 5 coinsOnly if your pot did not explode | 1 VP |
| After round 9: every 2 rubiesLeftover coins and a single ruby score nothing | 1 VP |
- Find your scoring spaceIt is the space just after your last chip, even if your pot exploded. A pot explodes when its white cherry bombs add up to more than 7.
- Take what it paysYou always get its ruby. With an intact pot, take the VP and shop with the coins; with an exploded pot, choose the VP or the shopping, not both.
- Roll the bonus dieThe player furthest along whose pot did not explode rolls the bonus die. Tied players all roll.
- Trade after round 9An intact pot buys 1 VP for every 5 coins, and everyone trades 2 rubies for 1 VP.
- Most VP winsThe player furthest along the VP track wins. A tie goes to whoever got their pot fullest in round 9; if that is level too, they share it.
Round 9: Jonas cashes in and wins.
Three players going into round 9: Jonas 64, Mara 63, You 58. Mara’s pot explodes; Jonas and You stop in time. The bonus die is left out here. This is round 9, hand 9 on the Scorepad above.
| Player | VP, then the trade | VP |
|---|---|---|
| Jonas | Pot intact on space 23 · 23 coins, 3 rubies7 VP, 20 coins buy 4, 2 rubies buy 1: 7 + 4 + 1 | 12 |
| Mara | Pot exploded on space 19 · 4 rubies5 VP; an exploded pot cannot buy VP with coins, but 4 rubies buy 2: 5 + 2 | 7 |
| You | Pot intact on space 15 · 15 coins, 1 ruby3 VP, 15 coins buy 3, and one ruby buys nothing: 3 + 3 | 6 |
The board keeps the track. Tabletales keeps the rounds.
Tabletales is a scorepad and scrapbook for game night. For Quacks, leave the game on Highest wins, where every new game starts. Switch to By hand to type each round’s VP, or stay in Totals and type each player’s final VP from the track.
- Nine rounds, nine handsSwitch to By hand and each round is a numbered hand. The TOTAL line should match the track. If it does not, someone missed a move.
- Trade first, then typeThe keypad adds but cannot divide, so work out the coins and rubies first (23 coins buy 4 VP), then type 7 + 4 + 1 and Tabletales adds it up. Typing the total straight in works too.
- Ties share the trophyTied players share the trophy. Quacks breaks a tie on the fullest pot in round 9.
- And the night is keptSave it with who played and a photo of the pots. Quacks gets its own page: how often you play it, who with, and who holds the high score.
- Everyone who was there
- Photos from the table
- The Quacks of Quedlinburg, with its scores
Common Quacks of Quedlinburg scoring mistakes
- Taking the VP and the shopping after an explosionAn exploded pot gets one or the other, never both.
- Skipping the ruby after an explosionIf your scoring space shows a ruby, you get it either way.
- Buying VP with coins from an exploded pot in round 9Only an intact pot can, at 5 coins per VP. Rubies trade 2 for 1 either way.
- Breaking a tie on the last round’s VPThe tie goes to whoever got their pot fullest in round 9.
Quacks of Quedlinburg scoring, answered
- How do you score The Quacks of Quedlinburg?
- Each round you score the space just after your last ingredient: its VP go on the track and its coins buy new ingredients. After round 9, an intact pot buys 1 VP for every 5 coins, everyone trades 2 rubies for 1 VP, and the most VP wins.
- What happens when your pot explodes in Quacks?
- You still score your space, but you choose its VP or its coins for shopping, not both, and you keep its ruby either way. The bonus die goes to the furthest pot that did not explode.
- How many rounds are in The Quacks of Quedlinburg?
- Nine. After the ninth round everyone trades coins and rubies for VP, and the player furthest along the track wins.
Quacks of Quedlinburg score sheet
Print one for the table: four players and nine rounds, the VP each round and a running total, with the last round’s trade at the bottom.
Score another game
North Star Games’ English rulebook could not be opened, so the last round and the tiebreak follow Schmidt Spiele’s German rulebook. UltraBoardGames does not say that only a pot that did not explode may buy VP with coins at the end; Schmidt’s rules do, and this page follows them. Rules checked on 19 October 2026 against Schmidt Spiele’s rulebook (German), UltraBoardGames and Wikipedia. The Quacks of Quedlinburg is a trademark of Schmidt Spiele, published in English by North Star Games. Tabletales is not affiliated with them.
Keep score tonight. Keep the night for good.
Tabletales adds up every hand, then saves the whole night: the games, the scores, the photos and who was there.
