Scurvy Dogs Make the Cut

These numbers work the exact same way. Whenever you take on a Booty Challenge, the Spanish Armada, Special Challenges or other Pirates, you roll two dice and add them to either the Land or the Sea number.

 

Each Booty Challenge has a Land and Sea number as well, though they are much higher than a Pirate’s number. The rewards vary on the difficulty of the challenge, and almost every challenge will be noticeably stronger at Sea or at Land.

 

Special Challenges will be either At Sea only (The Kraken) or At Land only (The Fortress).

Attacking other pirates use either the Land or the Sea number, depending on where you attack said pirates.

 

 

The smaller ships get you there faster, but you’ll be limited in how much cargo and crew you can carry on board. However, you’ll also be able to out-run more heavily armed ships.

 

 

Initially, competing in Booty Challenges will be very difficult. On the map, there’s three shipwrecks conspicuously close to the starting area. Players can “salvage” the wrecks with really simple challenges, and get up to one crew card and one equipment card fairly cheaply. This should equip the ships with enough firepower to then take on the Booty Challenges.

 

 

As ship’s crew and equipment improve, completing Booty Challenges will be their main source of treasure. Challenges will either be simple dice-checks the moment they’re encountered, or secret challenges that involve goals that other players can interrupt.

 

The main goal of the game is to gather up gold. Even though pirates traded in all sorts of treasure, the worth was always assigned as a value in gold first.

 

Treasure is gained by completing Booty card challenges, stealing from other pirates, slaying the kraken, or sacking The Fortress.

 

Treasure is lost by spending money on crew members and the shipyard, losing certain Booty Challenges, and buying Letters of Marque from the Governor.

 

The secondary goal is to not die, which is where Letters of Marque come into play.

 

Being a pirate was illegal, even for the British “sailors” in Port Royal. But in a simple stroke of politics, there was a loophole – being a privateer. The key difference between the two were Letters of Marque. And getting them was quite simple. All you had to do was attack only the Spanish, and then give lots and lots of money to the British Government.

 

Some pirates, like Sir Francis Drake, were very good at doing this (note that “Sir” title, he bought it fair and square). Other pirates were not so good at playing by these rules, and they got their necks stretched.

 

At the end of the game, you count two things: your gold and your Letters of Marque. You have to have enough Letters to not die, and you have to have the most gold to win. How many letters are enough is affected by how many players are playing the game. But if you have the fewest, you’re automatically dead.

 

Third, there’s a secret ending. In the booty challenges, there’s four corners to a treasure map. If a pirate is able to collect all four pieces of the map then reach a secret location, they can surprise everyone by ending the game early.