Today I invented a new card game. (Actually woke up with the idea, and have just been refining and play testing till now). It uses a standard poker deck of cards, and can be played by one or more players. (Add an extra deck for every 4 players). Jokers are optional, but they make the game more interesting.
Premise: Each of the players are 2nd in command of their respective vessels. While docked in a neutral town, their captains get into a huge bar brawl and are arrested. The winner is the first player to complete three missions, thus raising enough money to bail out their captain.
Start of Game: Ship Card Deal each player one card face up. This is their ship card. The value of the card (Ace is 1, Face cards and Joker are worth 10) is the size of the ship. The suit is the allegiance of the ship and crew. Hearts, Diamonds, Clubs, and Spades represent English, Spanish, French and Dutch respectively. It's not really important though to remember that. Anything but a non-numeric ship card carries a special ability.
Card
Meaning
Description
Jack
Man-o-War
Players sailing a man-o-war can add a bonus point to any of their combat tests
Queen
Well Trimmed Ship
Players sailing such a ship can add or remove one point to any of their navigation tests
King
Has the Kings Favour
When visiting a magistrate, the player draws two mission cards, picks one and discards the other.
Joker
No Allegiance
Can enter any town and visit any magistrate. Can be friendly or attack any vessel (but not both)
Mission Card Each player is then dealt a second card, face down. This is their Mission Card. It was what the captain had been tasked to do prior to being arrested. Each player keeps their Mission Cards hidden from the other players until completed.
Card
Mission
Description
Numeric Card
Delivery
Deliver a number of units equal to or greater than the value of this card to a neighbouring town of your allegiance. The suit of the card is the type of thing that needs delivering.
Jack
Prisoner of War
This prisoner must be delivered to a town of the allegiance specified on the card by its suit
Queen
Expand the Empire
Conquer an enemy town for your country
King
Writ from the King
Sink an enemy vessel of the allegiance specified by suit. Note, this could be your own suit!
Joker
Spread the Word
Meet any friendly vessel at sea to pass along important information about the empire.
Once a mission is completed, you turn it over for all to see. First one with three completed missions wins.
Crew Cards Finally, each player is dealt two cards to hold in their hand. This represents the current and accounted for crew. The face value on each card is the number of members. You can not hold more crew cards than the size of your ship, and must discard extraneous cards. (Note: This means if your ship is size 1, you must discard a crew card at the start of the game) If you are ever at sail and run out of crew, you're dead in the water and lose the game!
Cargo The size of your ship determines how many cargo cards it can hold. At the beginning of the game, your ship is empty. Cargo cards are placed face up on the table, below (but not covered by) your ship card. Any and all cargo may be dumped at any point prior to surrendering or losing a battle. During navigation tests, each cargo card dumped gives you a one point bonus. Dumped cargo is placed on the discard pile.
The Deck The remaining unused cards are placed in the centre of the table face down.
Basic Turn Structure 1) Player declares action 2) Player draws a card from the deck (to determine outcome) 3) Resolve action
Winning Complete 3 missions
Losing You run out of crew while sailing
Things to do While in Town Gather Crew Draw a card from the deck and place it in your hand. If your hand now exceeds the maximum number for you ship size, you must discard until you are holding the proper amount.
Quoted Text
Joker Bonus: A joker is a valid crew card, and may be played at any point instead of drawing from the deck.
Visit the Magistrate If this town is the same nationality as yours (as indicated by the suit of your ship), you may meet with the magistrate. This allows you to draw a card from the deck and keep it face down as a new mission. If you already have an unfinished mission, you may not request additional missions from the magistrate.
Trade for Goods You may discard any number of crew cards to purchase goods. You then draw cards from the deck, until the total number of units meets or exceeds the number of relieved crew members. Face cards are worth 10. Note: You may dump cargo to make room for the next card. Dumped cargo is not subtracted from the owed amount. Example: Let's say you have a ship of size 2. You discard 2 crew cards. A 3 and a 4. This will buy you at least 7 of something. Draw cards from the deck and place them in your ship's holds until the ship is full or the total value is at least 7. The first card you draw is an ace. Place it in the ship's hold. The next card you draw is a 5. Place it in the ship's hold. Now your ship is full, but you are still owed one more unit. You can either stop now, or dump some cargo to find out what that next card is. You dump the ace, thus freeing up one hold. Now you may draw the next card. Oh, it's a king! That's worth 10. You can place it in your ship's hold where the ace used to be.
Alternatively, you may trade cargo for different cargo. Discard one cargo card from your hold, and then draw a new cargo card from the deck. This is the "best deal" your quarter master could bargain. Note: You can not combine exchanging crew for cargo, and cargo for cargo, in the same turn.
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Joker Bonus: If the joker turns up while trading for goods, all the ships holds may be selectively filled from the discard pile.
Attack the Town (while moored) Your crew rushes in and attacks the local militia. Follow hand-to-hand combat rules with one exception: The town will not give up until all its "crew" are killed. If you win, you may draw cargo cards until your ship's holds are full, and this town counts as a friendly town until you disembark.
Disembark Draw a card from the deck. If the suit matches your ship, you may set sail next turn with all the crew cards you're currently holding. Otherwise, only the number on the card actually showed up. If you discard down to that many crew cards, you may set sail next turn. If you decided to stay in port, discard the number of crew cards that showed up. They are now disgruntled and refuse to be part of your crew.
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Joker Bonus: Eager crew! Draw cards to your maximum number of crew cards for your ship size, and set sail this turn!
Things to do While Sailing Find a Ship to Attack Draw a card from the deck to determine the ship you discover. The suit represents its nationality. If another player shares the same nationality as the discovered ship, you can elect to attack that player. This is true even if you are allies! Otherwise, if you share allegiance with the discovered ship, they are friendly. You may draw a crew card from the deck and place it in your hand. This represents a transfer of crew. Discard if you're over the maximum number of crew cards for your ship size. If the ship is of another nationality, it engages you in combat. Follow the combat rules to resolve the conflict. If the ship is an Ace, you must pick another player at sail as your opponent. If no other player exists or is at sail, you must've spotted a ghost ship. Discard it.
Quoted Text
Joker Bonus: You found the treasure fleet! Draw another ship card to represent the escort you have to fight. If you win this battle, it counts as a mission success.
Head for the Nearest Town Draw a card from the deck. This represents the town you approach. The suit is its nationality, and the number is its size. Note: By the time you're close enough to determine the town, they are within cannon range. You must now choose to dock, attack or flee. If you dock in an enemy town, your cargo will be confiscated, and the magistrate and merchants will refuse to talk to you. You can still gather crew however. If you choose combat (either attack or flee), normal ship-to-ship combat rules apply with the exception that the town will not give up until all its militia is dead.
Quoted Text
Joker Bonus: You found a pirate cove! You may either: a) draw up to your maximum number of crew cards b) draw two ship cards. You may trade your ship and cargo for one of these. Discard the rest. c) draw a mission card (even if you already have unfinished missions) and one cargo.
Combat Combat Order 1) Attacking Player 2) Defending Player (or persona) 3) Additional ships in order of appearance
Steps in Combat 1) Player (if any) declares action 2) Draw a card from the deck (to determine outcome) 3) Resolve action
Ship-to-Ship Combat Actions Flee Draw a card. If the value is greater than the size of the ship, flee succeeds. Discard this card. Combat ends. If everyone involved in combat attempts to flee, combat ends.
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Joker Bonus: Another ship appears, covers your escape, then resupplies your crew to its maximum size
Shoot Cannon Play a crew card. This is how many of your crew are working the cannons. Note: You must always have at least one crew card in your hand to sail the ship. Draw a card from the deck. If the suit matches your crew card, it's a hit! The face value is how many enemy crew is killed, up to a maximum of the number of crew you assigned to the cannons. Your opponent must immediately discard crew cards until the total value matches at least that number. Return the crew card manning the cannons to your hand, and discard the drawn card.
Board the Enemy Subtract your ship size from the enemy ship size. If the result is less than three, consider it three. Draw a card. If the value on that card is less than or equal to the result, you successfully tie up the enemy ship and begin boarding it. Switch to hand-to-hand combat actions.
Hand-to-Hand Combat Actions Attack If 2 players are involved in combat, each player selects a crew card and holds it ready to reveal. Simultaneously, the players show their single crew card. The face value is how many crew are committed to the effort. If the suit matches the ship, add 1. Winner is the one with the largest value. Winner discards their played crew card and takes the losing card into their hand.
Retreat Discard a crew card. These crew give their lives disentangling your ship. Return to ship-to-ship combat rules.
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Combat Joker Bonus: If a joker is drawn at any point during combat, another ship arrives. Draw a card and add it as another combatant fighting on the side of the one that drew the card
Surrender Any party in combat (except a town) may surrender at any time. Any cargo and unfinished missions are forfeited to the victor. Surrendering ships are allowed to leave with 1 crew card. The rest join the victor. (Discard if over limit)
Single Player Combat Draw enough crew cards, face down, for the opponent. Any time the opponent loses crew, the necessary amount is drawn randomly from this pile. At the end of combat, any cards remaining in this pile are discarded. Instead of declaring actions for the opponent, a card is drawn from the deck.
Card
Ship-to-Ship Action
Hand-to-Hand Action
Description
Spades
Attempt to Flee
Retreat
If the value on the card is greater than ship size, it succeeds
Diamonds
Surrender
Surrender
Add this card to your hand, and Player may keep either the enemy ship or their own, and whatever combination of cargo fits. The rest is discarded
Hearts
Shoots Cannon
Attack
The value on the card represents the number of crew committed to the action
Clubs
Attempt to Board
Attack
The value on the card represents the navigation test / number of crew committed
If you surrender as a single player, you must discard your cargo and unfinished missions, and all but one of your crew cards.
Here's an example card layout for a single player:
Why don't you put that ipad of yours to work and design a specific card deck for the game?
Well, 2 reasons actually. Although specially designed cards would look nice,
1) The game was designed specifically for a poker deck so everyone could play at any time
2) I don't want to draw all those cards!
In order to use specially designed cards, we'd have to split the deck you draw from into all the different types of things you could be pulling (ship deck, town deck, crew deck, combat deck, cargo deck, decision deck, etc). The key "ingredient" that inspired this game was that the reason for drawing a card defined how to interpret the card. That's what makes it work.
If we drew special cards, they'd probably all have to be "multi-purpose" cards, depicting every possible interpretation. Might get rather cluttered.
After play testing this game with Hawkeye (quite some time ago), we discovered the biggest problem is single player combat. It's too long and other players will get bored while one guy finishes his combat against a non-player ship. In that regard, I present the revised single-player combat rules:
Single Player Combat Winning Combat or Fleeing Combat are automatic, but you must pass certain conditions to achieve either. Otherwise your opponent defeats you, takes all your cargo and missions, and leaves you with your smallest crew-card.
Attacking If you wish to attack the enemy ship, you must put "at risk" as many crew as the size of the enemy vessel plus one. For example, if your opponent is of size 7, you must put at least 8 crew members from your hand "at risk". Count and discard these crew cards. Draw one less as many crew cards from the deck (to a minimum of one) and add them to your hand. These are your "survivors". Draw another card. This was the enemy cargo. You may keep it or discard it. You may also swap ships if you like theirs better.
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Man o' War bonus: Man o' War ships get to draw as many "survivor" crew cards as they put "at risk".
Fleeing If you wish to flee from an enemy ship, you must pass a navigation test against their size. If your ship is smaller, you succeed. If your ship is equal in size or bigger, you must dump cargo till your ship size minus the number of cargo holds emptied (minus any ship bonus) is less than the enemy vessel size. Dumped cargo gets placed in the discard pile.
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Well Trimmed Ship bonus: A well trimmed ship automatically counts for one less than its actual size in navigation tests.
Following Hawkeye's advice, I've started thinking about a design for a custom deck of cards for this game. I've attached a possible 5 of Hearts, for example.
The goal is to keep the poker deck attributes (suit and value) while presenting the applicable meanings specific to this game.
In this way, if you play the 5 of hearts as your ship type, it's clearly an English Corvette with 5 crew cards, 5 cannons, and - oops - would need to mention the 5 cargo holds somewhere too. If played as a town card, it'd be the English colony of St. Kitts. If played as a mission card, it's a delivery of 5 tons of spices to a neighbouring English colony. etc. etc.
Then you don't have to look up the meanings of cards while playing, and if done well should look pretty smart.
Using software called nanDeck, I was able to generate a deck of cards. Here's a sample of the design I settled on for this first version. You can get a low-res zip of the entire deck here: http://darkshade.homeip.net/stuff/pirate-deck.zip
I've submitted an order for a custom deck from printerstudio.ca. Maybe some game night we'll give it a try!
While play-testing, Chicky suggested that new players could find it hard to remember which cards represented different things. To mitigate that, I've designed (and printed a few) playmats. I've attached a printable pdf and thumbnail here.
Thanks to some great suggestions from my play-testers, I've started applying some of the ideas.
First off, I've tackled the appearance of the cards. Danmick mentioned the fonts were hard to read, and he had trouble seeing the rows of icons. I've made the icons bigger, and rather than have rows of them, just included their count.
Hawkeye raised the issue that playing as a tiny vessel puts you at a real disadvantage. To alleviate that, I'm working on a rule to give bonuses to the smaller ships in a game. The idea is if you don't have the biggest ship, you get a random bonus to make it interesting. Some of these bonuses are single use (and then discarded) while others are persistent and stay as long as you keep your ship. Hopefully this also satisfies the common request for some kind of "Captain Bonus".
Finally, I wasn't entirely happy with the appearance of the cards. I always felt a solid background would look smarter. So I've made that change too.
Since I'm still working on the rule changes for these and other ideas, all I'll post here is a sample card for the next design.
I like the new design! Considering the background was changed to look like old parchment, what if it had an image looking like an unrolled piece of old parchment? Dunno if that would work or not but thought I'd suggest it at least for consideration...
Thanks Shabadu. I'll keep it in mind if I make any more changes to the design, but as it stands, I think that might be too much curling paper effect, given the titles already curl at the ends.
I've been giving a lot of thought to the idea of having two types of game-play: a short game, which is mostly what you guys played; and a long game, which requires starting small and building up your ship (or maybe even a fleet) to some bigger purpose.
At the moment, I think the short game will be the single deck as I've been showing. The long game, I think, could require two different decks. I have to think more on what is in that second deck, but it saves me from trying to cram more into the single deck used also for short games. At the moment I'm thinking the 4 suits could be different things. 13 captains, 13 grand schemes, 13 "AI" for enemy ships, 13 weather effects. I dunno. Just thinking "aloud". Please share any ideas this triggers for the game.
I'm sure this is what you meant but in case it isn't, consider using the same deck for both the long and short game and the long game simply has a secondary deck (or possibly various expansion decks). But as the expansion deck(s) are created be sure to make them easier to distinguish in case the players want to quickly separate them for quick play (i.e. a completely different look or at least background).
There's 2 decks. The first one is the same deck used in the short game. The second deck, I'm calling the Sea deck. It contains: 4 - Reputation and Riches trackers 15 - Captains from history 20 - Open Sea cards 7 - Islands 4 - Corner Islands (One for each nation) 4 - Storms
Pull out the 4 Corner islands, Captains, and trackers. Give a tracker to each player. Deal each player a random captain, and a small ship from the regular deck. Shuffle the remaining captains back into the Sea deck and lay out a 5x5 grid face down. At each corner, instead of a face down card, you'll put a Corner island. This is where players of each nationality start.
The captains are more than just a face for your character. I've included a snippet of their actual history, and a FLAW. This flaw must factor into how you play. So if it says you can't dock in a Spanish Port, you can't dock in a Spanish port!
Each turn, you can move your ship 1 card. I'll need to come up with tokens for each of the 15 captains. If you move into an unknown area, you flip it over. If it's not an island or open sea, you'll need to keep drawing and adding sea cards to this area until an island or open sea appears. Anything else you found is there too, a storm, an enemy captain, or some combination. Storms can even combine to become more powerful storms, and have nastier effects.
Draw a card from the regular deck to find out what town or port is on an island. It will likely be so for the rest of the game.
Draw a card from the regular deck to find out what ship an enemy captain is sailing.
Open water and Island cards have wind compasses on them. Storms and enemy captains will move from space to space according to the wind. Players can move in any direction except against a wind.
The goal of the game is to reach the greatest reputation. As you gain reputation you move your captain card to uncover a star on your tracker. Similarly, as you gain riches, you move your ship card to uncover doubloons. Doubloons may be spent in any port for goodies and can be flaunted to increase your reputation.
Here's some sample cards I've drawn up. This 2nd deck is 54 cards, just like the regular deck, but does not map to the different suits or values. The long game only works with these custom cards.
New cards have been ordered. I fixed the wind indicators to just a single arrow (from a weather vane). Maybe they'll be here by the next game night!
Oh, and I realised a solution to the need for tokens. If we use paper clips to track reputation and riches, like in Forbidden Desert, we can then just move the captain card around the play area.
Here's the full set of rules (Short Game, Short Game using Poker Deck, and Long Game). I played a couple games by importing the cards to Card Warden for the iPad. I think it's turning into a very interesting game!
Copy and paste error in the Long Game combat section. Ignore the rule "If for any reason you run out of crew cards....". Obviously that will happen if you are taken hostage. If you have any influence (reputation or money) you will still be in the game.
The cards have arrived! I played a few rounds of a sample game and have decided some kind of tokens would be better for moving the pirates around. I've found a template for printable images that I can glue to poker chips, and have inserted the faces of each of the 15 pirate captains. One side will include the word "DOCKED", which you can flip to indicate sailing or docked.
Diddly and I (and for a short while Danmick) played a long version of the game last night and I quite enjoyed it. We discussed some possible improvements mid-game and even gave some in game time to test a few of them, but as my second time playing, this game much more engaging and fun - without feeling like I need to constantly keep track of deep and involved strategies (some people might like planning and plotting those outer for hours on end, but that's too taxing on my mind during my downtime .
Of the two major changes Diddles took in to consideration, one was allowing for possible faster movements using the winds, essentially having a trade route. While my initial suggestion was only allowing 2 moves, after further thought, I wanted to suggest that on a give turn the player can use their move to go one space and IF they moved in the direction the wind was pointing in the square they started in, they could continue moving indefinitely following the winds/currents until they wished to stop or came in to contact with a square that had no wind/current. I definitely I feel creating some rule that had the potential to change winds would be important so the person who began the game with a lucky trade route may have that luck torn from them at any point...
The second change we discussed was allowing players to be able to take 2 actions in a port (for instance, enter the port = first action, add crew = second action... or add crew = first action! get mission = second action, etc). Diddles and I even were allowing 2 similar actions (for instance add crew x2 = both actions), which mDe recrewing a big ship much easier and less time consuming. After considering more I thought maybe another "bonus" could be "add an extra action in port", basically your bonus means you are more time efficient in ports and can beat things done more effectively Ina shorter period of time. Something for Diddles to consider in any case.
Lastly, because I couldn't fall asleep and had the time to think about it before finally drifting off last night, I thought about the possibility of adding random sea encounters into the mix. I know, I know, there are already plenty of things to keep track of, and I won't be offended if this goes nowhere, but I thought I'd offer it up for consideration anyhow. Random things such as scurvy, coral reefs or shoals, broken mast could all be random occurrences that crop up from time to time. My idea would be to add a "random event" icon to some of the wave cards (thinking maybe in the form of a skull and crossbones icon somewhere on every forth wave card?). In the rule book there could be a list of 10 random encounters and when that card surfaces as the end of a turn occurs, anyone at sea has a random encounter and must role a die to determine what theirs will be. I think the list could have half good encounters and half bad encounters (examples of good encounters could include "come across ship wrecked crew - add (or upgrade) 1 crew card" or "capture small merchant ship - gain one gold/random load of tradable merchandise"). If you wanted to be really involved, you could have 30 or 40 different encounters and make each captain have a list on the back side of their card. While many encounters would overlap, each captain would have their own unique list of 10 random encounters. I would suggest including a couple spot so the list that say "no random encounter happens to you this round" (or you could simply say no encounter can be duplicated per captain... but I prefer just having some blank myself). I would be happy helping you create these encounters... One possibility I wanted to suggest was "encounter the kraken (or sea monster, or sea yeti? ... in this encounter you have a 50-50 chance of having your boat sunk or gaining 2 reputation once you get to your next port and brag about surviving an encounter...
This idea could go on and on but it's already getting too long... In any case... the idea of is that a simple change to some wave cards is all it takes, along with a section in the rule book noting "additional advanced rule play" because this is completely and totally removable by simply ignoring the icon on this cards and not using these rules. Food fore thought... Let me know if you wanted to discuss together some time though and I'd be happy to chat (maybe at lunch sometime soon).
Keep on working on this, as I noted above, I really like the game!
Yes, the first two changes are already in the next rule set. Referring to the multi-actions while docked, and faster moves with the wind. I'd like to try letting you move as far as the wind will carry you (across explored locations) in a single move.
This random encounter idea reminds me very much of Star Trek Fleet Captains, where you roll the die to see if something happens as you enter a space. I'm not sure about it yet, but if there are any "events" you want to submit prior to adopting the idea, just add 'em to this thread.
One thing you've been very keen on is the concept of switching winds. I've been reluctant because I don't like the idea of players controlling the winds, but an occasional randomization of wind direction could work. My current thinking is that when you finish the sea deck (and have to reshuffle), any explored locations adjacent to a storm switch wind direction.
Right - I forgot about the fleeing rule, but I think it is good to have something in the rules to make it harder to attach and flee another ship constantly.
You should include a note in the wind movement about what happens if you go through a tile with another ship.. can you simply fly past them? I'm included to say if there is another ship in the square you can't go through it (evading takes more time and effort and if you weigh more you'd never evade anyhow, right)? Plus it adds a potential brake to an established trade route if a PC or NPC ship happens along the route.
I think having something in the game to change the winds is a good idea - the rule you suggested sounds like a good way to do this. Is it the 8 surrounding tiles or just the 2 up/down & 2 left/right?
As for the random events, I think adding something like could help "turn the tides" in the game, which means if you started out badly you might still be able to catch up! Or it could escalate an early lead into a quick victory! Plus open seas always create unexpected events (more often bad than good, but that wouldn't be entirely fun). The nice thing is that fits in the game easily but can be ignored just as easily if it feels like too much.
My "event" ideas currently include: Bad Events - Scurvy (lose your highest crew card) - Shoals (spend up to 3 turns getting yourself unstuck - draw a card each time and if you happen to draw your nationality, you manage to get free next turn) - Coral Reef (your hull was breached and you lost all your cargo - transport quests must be turned in for failure to deliver) - Broken Mast (ignore wind/trade routes until you visit a port for repairs) Good Events - Shipwrecked Island (find an island with shipwrecked pirates - gain (or upgrade) 1 crew card) - Merchant Ship (gain 2 cargo cards & expend 1 crew to sail ship to port for 1 gold) - Political Prisoner (capture a Viscount or Dutchess (draw a card for nationality) - return to nearest port of same nationality & gain 2 gold) - Secret Mission (you meet someone at sea who offers you an additional mission Good or Bad Events - Sea Creature (name 2 nationalities & draw a card.. if you chose correctly get 2 reputation for fighting the kraken until it flees (collected at the next port), but if you chose incorrectly lose your ship to the kraken) - optionally the "bad" result could be "lose 2 reputation" for fleeing the kraken and looking craven in front of your men
I'm sure I can think of more, but those were the ones I initially thought might be good to include.
Over lunch today, I mentioned to Shabadu I wanted a super-quick version of the game.. something that is just played with the sunset deck, and doesn't involve a lot of rules but is still interesting, novel, and fun. Going for something around 10 minutes of play time, with little or no setup.
I started with the concept of players vs pirates, instead of a directly competitive game. We talked about some ideas and here's what it is shaping up to be:
Goal: Each player controls a port. Be the first to ship one of each type of cargo to or from your port. Other players get one more turn after this happens. If during the next turn someone else accomplishes the goal, the one with the most tonnage of goods shipped wins.
Setup: 1) Shuffle the sunset deck 2) Deal a port, face up, to each player (any number of players). a) The last nation to be dealt can not go to a player. Put any card of that allegiance in the middle as part of the Pirate blockade, and deal the next card to the player. The same goes for jokers. 3) Reveal the next card. This is a ship. Place it next to the weakest player with the same allegiance, or if none put it in the middle as part of the Pirate blockade. 4) Repeat step 3 until every player and the pirate blockade has at least one ship 5) Compare the maximum single ship size between players. Deal the difference in number of cards face down for the smaller players' hands.
Turns: 1) The player left of the dealer starts by drawing a card into their hand. 2) The player chooses one of the following actions:
Pass
Place a ship from their hand of the same allegiance as their port, to join their defensive fleet.
Move a ship from their port to another player's port, to add to that player's defensive fleet.
Assign a crew card from their hand to one of the ships in their fleet, and attack a ship in the blockade. Note: If there's only 1 pirate left in the blockade, the player can assign a second card from their hand as cargo before the combat so that if they win, the ship carrying their cargo will sail away to make the delivery. This second card is not counted in the combat, but will be lost if the pirate wins.
If there's no blockade, assign a crew card from their hand to one of the ships in their fleet. This vessel sails away carrying the assigned crew and cargo.
3) That player's turn is ended. Repeat the process for each player in a clockwise fashion until everyone has had a turn. 4) Draw a card for the Pirate Blockade. If no player's port matches this nationality, add the card to the blockade as another ship. Otherwise:
Assign this card as crew to the smallest pirate ship. It attacks the visibly weakest player (by fleet tonnage).
If there is no blockade, this card is a shipment from a friendly port. It goes to the visibly weakest player (by fleet tonnage).
5) Return to step 1 until someone wins.
Pirates Win: If any port is captured / destroyed, or the deck (and discard) runs out of cards.
Combat: 1) Combat is between two single ships only 2) If a pirate ship has no crew assigned, draw a card. This is their crew. 3) If not already chosen by their action, the player chooses a ship from their fleet and assigns a crew from their hand. Note, you can not pull a ship from your hand for combat. It must already be out. a) If the port is attacked and there are no ships defending, the port itself counts as a ship in this case. 4) Multiply the ship (or port) cannon size by the crew cannon size. Whomever is higher wins and gets to keep their ship. All other cards involved are discarded. This includes the winner's crew, as their cannons are "spent". a) In the case of a tie, it's mutual destruction. All cards involved in the combat are discarded.
Shipping Cargo: If you manage to get a ship with cargo through the blockade, discard the ship and add the cargo to your shipped cargo pile. If cargo comes to you (while the blockade is gone), add it to your shipped cargo pile. The game ends one turn after someone gets all three types of cargo in their pile.
I played a 6-player game with these rules, and it worked quite well. The winner wasn't even the first one to ship all three types of cargo.
Then I tried a 1-player game. Ouch! Assuming it was even winnable, there was no way it was happening in 10 minutes. What I discovered was that I was very slowly sorting the high cards from the low cards. Low cards accumulated into my hand, high cards into the pirate blockade.
In the 1-player game, the pirate blockade gets as many turns as you, which is hugely unfair (since their pool of ships comes from 3 nations, and yours from just 1). I think a 1-player game should designate only a single nationality for the pirate blockade, or to "earn their place" in the blockade, a pirate of differing allegiance must displace a smaller pirate ship. Otherwise they themselves get discarded.
There are 27 locations in the sea deck (not including storms, pirates, or corner islands). I've been thinking about the random effects, and think there's actually 3 opportunities for such a thing: 1) Exploration - If the revealed location has an Exploration effect, it happens once and only to the pirate(s) in that location. 2) Passage - If a location has a Passage effect, it happens to any pirate passing through (or stopping at) that location (including if it was just explored) 3) Event - If this card is turned over as part of the End-of-Round event, the effect described occurs across the entire map.
My thought is that each of the locations could have either a Exploration, Passage, or Event effect. No more than one though. And if the card is revealed in a manner not in accordance with the listed effect, there is no effect. For example, exploring a new location can not trigger it's Event effect if it has one. End-of-Round Events can't trigger a Passage effect. etc.
Sample Effects (borrowing heavily from Shabadu's list)
Exploration - Coral Reef - Lose your cargo
Exploration - Broken Mast - No bonus moves from wind
Exploration - Stranded Pirate - Take an unused Captain hostage
Exploration - Survivors - Pick up two crew cards
Exploration - Treasure Map - You find a treasure map!
Exploration - Evidence of El Dorado - +2 Riches and +1 Reputation
Exploration - Inspired Navigator - Your navigator can return you to your Home Port in a single move
Passage - Rough Waters - Lose a crew card
Passage - Shoals - Move at tacking speed
Passage - Sea Monster - Sacrifice a crew card or risk 1/4 chance of losing them all
Passage - Strong Wind - +1 Move this turn
Event - El Nino - Storms include adjacent locations for next round
Event - Native Uprising - Random nation has all ports replaced
Event - Prosperity - +1 Riches for every player
Event - Mutiny - Most infamous captain loses half his crew
I've gotten lots of great feedback from you guys when we've played, and among the most requested features were:
More exciting combat
Better ship upgrades
Ability to command a fleet
Better pacing
A Pirate Hunter
For the past while, off and on, I've been revising the rules and cards to achieve these goals. I think some of the changes will make for a much different game!
Probably the biggest change is ditching the poker deck restriction. I think people were getting confused by the same card meaning six different things. Well, now each card has only one purpose. Instead of a poker deck, we have these smaller decks:
Ships - Each base ship is its own card, with stats and a story (see samples attached)
Captains - We already had these, but now you place the captain on one of your ships. Also, I think I'll be getting rid of the flaws.
Bonuses - These are for your hand, to be played on your ships. They include custom ship upgrades, officers with special skills, or just plain luck.
Locations - Same as before: islands, seas, etc.
Damage - Each time a ship takes damage, you draw one of these cards and place it on that ship. Every ship has its own maximum number of these cards before it sinks. Damage cards can come with random negative effects.
Crew and money are tracked with tokens (using coloured cubes like Lords of Waterdeep). Each ship shows the maximum number of crew tokens it can carry, and the ship is derelict if it runs out. Crew are lost in combat or special events, and hired at ports using money tokens (1:1 exchange).
Between battles you can move your crew, officers, and captain between ships in your fleet. You can also move damage cards around (by cannibalizing one ship to fix another). Damage cards can be removed in port using money tokens. The price will be on the card.
There's still a lot to nail down, but I think these are some positive changes. I've had a few different ideas about how to implement the Pirate Hunter. My favourite thus far is if the Pirate Hunter is chasing you, you can "spend" one of your luck cards to give him the slip and set him upon another captain of equal or higher infamy.
Here's what you can do to help! Attached is a spreadsheet I used to generate these new ship cards. If you're feeling creative, please download and edit the names of ships, and write a little history for them in their blurb column. You can make suggestions for special abilities, but be aware I expect that to be pretty rare. It's harder to balance, and everyone will be playing their own special cards on the ships anyway.
The numbers are all designed to be relative, but generally, 1 cannon = roughly 5 physical cannons per side, and 1 crew token = roughly 40 people. You don't need to change the numbers, but it might help you get a feel for the size of the ship.
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