Aye Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• The Game
• Goal of the Game
• Beginner or Expert?
• Set-up
  • Setup diagram (components)
• Reputation
  • Captain's reputation track (diagram notes)
• The captain's reputation
• The game phase
  • Phase 1: The captain
  • Issuing commands
  • Aye! or Argh!
  • Phase 2: Free actions
  • Phase 3: Repairing Command
  • Phase 4: Giving the hook
  • Phases 5 to 8: Mission commands
  • Damage the ship
  • Fail and Success
  • Phase 9: Mutiny
  • Changing the Captain
  • Sending dice to the plank
• Pirate goal cards
  • Card abilities
• About the cards
• End of game
• Components

The Game

"Kraken! Set sails, change course, prepare the cannons, to arms!" In Aye, the players are the crew of a pirate ship under attack by a Kraken. The ship's captain will give orders to its crew to try and escape from danger, but in times of crisis, things don't run smoothly… Will the captain be able to save its crew? Then a mutiny should take place…

Goal of the Game

The players must complete 5 goals before the ship is sunk: change course, set sails, fire the cannons and attack with swords, and complete some pirate goal cards (half the players rounded down plus one). If the players manage to complete all 5 goals before the ship's integrity reaches 0, the crew will win the game, on the contrary, the Kraken will feast on the pirates.

Beginner or Expert?

If this is your first time playing a board game like this one, players can decide to skip through the rules in blue. This will help you understand the basic mechanics of the game. When you are ready for a more challenging game, you can include the missing rules.

Set-up

The player should place the main board in the center of the table and place the captain's reputation, the 4 mission and the ship's integrity pieces in their respective squares. Then they should place the 4 Argh! dice in the corresponding Argh! squares. Each player will then take: 1 pirate tile and 2 voting tokens (1 Argh! and 1 Aye!). The pirate tile should be placed in front of the player with the number 2 facing upward. Finally, each player must take 3 pirate goal cards and discard one of them. The selected cards should be kept secret and must not be discussed (if a player doesn't understand a card, he can change it immediately).

Select by any means the player that will assume the role of the captain (it is recommended that the player that read this rules begin as captain). The captain should flip his pirate tile, take the command tokens, 24 doubloons and the mission dice. The remaining doubloons (4) must be placed in Poseidon's offerings.

The captain should now give one doubloon to each member of his crew (including himself) and then deal the remaining coins as his pirate heart desires among all the players, also including himself. Doubloons must be made public at all times.

Setup diagram (components)

• 24 doubloons, and 1 Captain (captain's pirate tile)
• 7 Commands (command tokens)
• 2 voting tokens (1 Argh! and 1 Aye!) and 2 pirate goal cards, per player
• 4 Missions (mission pieces) and 4 Argh! dice on the main board
• 4 doubloons (Poseidon's offerings)
• Pirate tile, Ship (ship's integrity track) and captain's reputation track on the main board

Reputation

In this pirate ship, reputation is of utmost importance. If a crew member gains one point of reputation, he rotates his tile counter-clockwise; if he loses reputation, he rotates the tile clockwise. The captain's reputation is kept in the game board and begins completely high, but will be lost over time.

The crew's reputation cannot fall beneath 1. In that case, a die will be thrown overboard (see Throwind Dice Overboard), but his reputation will remain in 1. On the other hand, if a pirate has 6 of reputation and gains one point, he can decide to lower it to 1 and gain a doubloon (stealing from Poseidon's offerings), or leave it at 6.

• If he gains 1 point, turn the tile clockwise.
• If he loses 1 point, turn the tile counter-clockwise.
• A pirate can decide to lower his reputation to 1 and gain a doubloon, or leave it at 6.
• Captain's reputation: the captain's reputation track on the main board.

Captain's reputation track (diagram notes)

• Top square (captain icon): each time a new captain is chosen, the reputation resets to the top.
• Kraken square: from this square, the ship will take 1 damage every change of round.
• Square marked with the double-kraken icon: from this square, each Kraken's hit counts double.
• Square marked with the mutiny icon (crossed swords, at the bottom): if the captain's reputation reaches this square, there will be an automatic mutiny.

The captain's reputation

If the captain's reputation is on or beneath the square marked with a Kraken, the ship will receive 1 point of damage in the captain's phase. If it is on or beneath the square marked with the double-kraken icon, each kraken result in a die will count as two damages. If it falls to the last square marked by the mutiny icon, the crew member with the most reputation becomes the captain (in case of a tie, the previous captain breaks the tie).

The game phase

Each game round is played in 9 phases (shown in the top of the main board). Once the nine phases, a new round begins. The game keeps going this way until the pirates have escaped the Kraken or the ship is destroyed.

Phase 1: The captain

Resolution

During this phase, the captain has to perform these actions in the following order:

1. He checks if his reputation is on or beneath the Kraken icon. If it is, the ship must take one point of damage.
2. He checks the ships' damage. If the damage is below a square that has a pirate flag, an unlocked die must be locked by placing it over the flag. All flags from that one to the right must have a locked die. These dice can only be retrieved by repairing the ship.
3. He checks if the captain must be replaced because of an automatic mutiny. In this case, the captain must pass to the player with the highest reputation. In case of a tie, the previous captain decides among the tied players.
4. The captain takes the unlocked dice and the dice in the waiting space in the board. Then, move the dice from the Kraken space to the waiting space, if any. If there are dice on the plank, the captain may pay 2 doubloons to unlock them immediately.

Diagram notes for Phase 1: (1) check if the ship must be damaged because of the captain's reputation; (2) if the ship damage piece passed by a pirate flag, lock one unlocked die placing it over the flag; (3) check for an automatic mutiny; (4) after recovering the dice, move the dice locked by the Kraken to the waiting space; the captain moves the dice in the Kraken space to the waiting space after recovering the dice; the captain may pay 2 doubloons to unlock the plank's dice.

Issuing commands

Issuing Commands

The captain takes the command tokens and the dice, and deals them among his crew. The strategy used by the captain is chosen freely (asking his crew, deciding alone, randomly, etc.). Each pirate can receive maximum one command (not receiving a command means his order is to do nothing), but can receive 0 dice or more. The captain may not deal all the dice, but dice not dealt cannot be used this round. The captain will decide when he is happy with the distribution of commands and dice and may change commands to his crew as long as he's still on the Captain's phase. Once this phase is over, commands and dice are final for this round.

Command tokens dealt by the captain should be placed on the center of the pirate's tile of the receiver, so every one can see them easily.

• The captain deals the dice as he deems right.
• Each player places the command token dealt by the captain over their tile.

Aye! or Argh!

Aye! or Argh!

Once the Captain's phase is over, the crew members will vote secretly if they agree or not with their command token. A pirate will place the Aye! token face-down over his command token if he agrees, or the Argh! token if he does not. When everyone is ready, they will reveal simultaneously their votes yelling "Argh!" or "Aye!" in accordance with their selected vote.

• The pirate vote is placed over the command token face down.

• Aye!: the player will obey the order of his captain.

• Argh!: The player will disobey and do what his pirate heart decides.

If all players vote Aye!, the captain can pay doubloons to raise his captain's reputation +1 per doubloon spent.

Voting Aye! and then deciding to not do the action will lower the pirate's reputation -1.

Voting Argh! will always lower the captain's reputation -1. Each Argh! will lower one point of reputation to the captain.

Phase 2: Free actions

Players that have the free action (bottle of rum) or that vote "Argh!" will now select the action they will do (repair, give the hook or any of the 4 mission actions). Once this phase is over they can't change their mind. A player can select to do nothing.

• The pirate doesn't need to take a different command token, just declare it.

Phase 3: Repairing Command

Players that were assign or have chosen the repair action will be able to spend 1 to 3 doubloons repairing the ship. Each doubloon spent will repair one ship integrity point.

Each doubloon spent repairing the ship will raise the pirate's reputation +1.

If repairing the ship unlocks a die from a pirate flag, this die must immediately be placed on the waiting space on the board.

• Each doubloon payed repairs the ship by 1 point.
• Each doubloon spent raises de reputation by one.
• If the ship piece surpasses a pirate flag then the locked die is moved to the waiting space.

Phase 4: Giving the hook

Players that were assigned or have chosen the giving the hook action (the pirate equivalent of giving the hand), will take one of their doubloons and will give it to another player that will (or may) throw dice this round. This doubloon will be placed over the pirate tile of the receiving player. No player can receive more than one doubloon this way per round. See Spending Hook Doubloons below.

Giving the hook to another player will raise the pirate's reputation +1.

• The doubloon will be placed over the pirate tile of the receiving player.

Phases 5 to 8: Mission commands

The mission commands (setting sails, navigate, fire cannons, attack with swords, in that order) are resolved by rolling the dice. Each phase is resolved like this:

1. Unite or divide

If more than one player has the same action (i.e. set sails), players will have to decide if they'll roll together or separately. If they decide to roll together, they will roll (and re-roll) their dice simultaneously, and successes and Krakens from both players should be added. In case of rolling separately, they will have to decide who goes first and who goes then.

Each mission step must be accomplished one at a time, so if two players unite to resolve a mission that needs 3 successes and they get 6, 3 successes will be lost. If they roll separately and the first player fails the mission, the second can reattempt it from scratch, ignoring the other pirate's successes. Each player must pay for his own tridents.

2. Taking Argh! dice

If a player voted Argh! and selected a mission action, he can take 1 to 4 Argh! dice to help him accomplish the mission. Watch out! These dice have an addition Kraken! It is mandatory for a player that voted Argh! to at least pick one Argh! die. If two or more players voted Argh! and are uniting, then they must divide the 4 dice between them.

3. Attempt to accomplish the mission

Each one of the four objectives have several mission steps that must be accomplished in order. Each mission step is marked on the board with the quantity of successes needed to move the mission piece one step further. To accomplish a mission the players must:

• Roll the dice

The player(s) that will attempt the mission will roll their dealt dice, and Argh! dice if they can take them. The goal is to get at least the number of icons shown in the mission step on the board.

• Get at least the number of icons shown in the mission step on the board.

• Poseidon's Trident

If a player gets a trident in the roll, he will be able to pay 1 doubloon to Poseidon's offerings to convert it into a success if he wishes.

• Trident: Poseidon's Trident.

• Reroll dice twice

If, after rolling, he doesn't get enough successes, he can reroll all or some of his dice. This can be done up to two times, but is optional.

• Dice can be rerolled 2 times.

• Kraken!

If the pirate rolls one or more Krakens, these dice are locked and cannot be rerolled. The player must place them aside where everyone can see them.

• Dice with the kraken face cannot be rerolled. If the player has no further rolls, the mission is over (see Fail and Success below).

• Spend Hook Doubloons

If a player has a doubloon over his player tile as a result of a "Giving the Hook" action, he may spend it at any time to change a die result, even a Kraken, to a success. If the player doesn't use this ability, after finishing his action he will keep the doubloon for himself.

• A player can spend the received doubloon to change a die to a success.

Damage the ship

After finishing rolling, each Kraken result will reduce the ship's integrity by 1 point. Then, all dice with Kraken results will be blocked by placing them in the Kraken space in the board: these dice can't be used the next round.

Remember: dice that are blocked for ship damage on the pirate flags are placed over the flag in the captain's phase.

• Each Kraken deals a hit to the ship.

Fail and Success

If the mission was accomplished, move the mission step marker one square further.

A. If the mission was accomplished, the pirate or pirates involved raise +1 reputation.

B. If the mission fails, the pirate or pirates involved loses -1 reputation. The captain loses -1 reputation also if any of the pirates involved voted Aye!

Phase 9: Mutiny

If a pirate has reputation between 4 and 6, he can declare a mutiny (crossed swords icon). In this case he:

1. Will postulate a new captain. The nominated captain can have any reputation or he can nominate himself. He cannot nominate the current captain.
2. Will take a new pirate goal card and will discard one (new or old).

Then, all pirates, except the one that declared the mutiny, will place their closed fists over the center of the table and will simultaneously vote with thumbs up or down whether to change the captain or not. If there's a tie or there are more thumbs down, the mutiny is unsuccessful. If there are more thumbs up, the captain will change.

The pirate that declares mutiny will lower his pirate's reputation to 1.

Changing the Captain

The current captain will flip his tile and will set his reputation to 1. The new captain will flip his tile so the captain side becomes visible. Then, he will raise the captain's reputation to the maximum.

• The captain's reputation is raised to the maximum.
• The reputation of the former captain begins in 1.

Sending dice to the plank

If a pirate needs to lose 1 point of reputation, but it's at the minimum already (1), instead of losing his reputation, he will send an unlocked die to the plank by placing it in one of the empty plank die spaces on the board. These dice will be kept blocked until the captain pays 2 doubloons in the captain's phase. If the plank spaces are all filled out, instead of losing a die, the pirate will pay 1 doubloon to the Poseidon's Offerings. If the pirate has no doubloons, nothing happens.

Pirate goal cards

For the players to win the game they need to collectively complete a number of pirate cards (half the players rounded down plus 1):

• 4-5 players: 3 cards
• 6-7 players: 4 cards
• 8-9 players: 5 cards
• 10 players: 6 cards

A pirate goal card is completed immediately when the condition in the card is met, regardless of the game phase. If completed, the player will reveal the card on the table face-up, will take two new cards from the deck and discard one (new or old).

Completing a pirate goal card will raise the pirate's reputation +1.

Card abilities

Once a pirate goal card has been revealed, the cards ability can be activated at any time, but, by doing so, the card will be discarded and no longer will count as a completed goal card to win the game. The possible abilities, as marked by the icon in the lower section of the card, are:

• Kraken: allows the pirate to reroll all Krakens in a roll.
• Doubloon: allows the pirate to take a doubloon for Poseidon's Offerings.
• Trident: the pirate can activate all tridents rolled without spending doubloons.
• Captain: the captain's reputation is raised to the maximum.
• Traitor: if a pirate ends the game with the traitor card, he must finish the game as the captain of the ship and let it sunk to win. In this case, he is the only winner of the game. If these conditions are not met, he is the sole loser of the game.

About the cards

Convince: if a card asks the pirate to convince another player of something, it is important that the player really influences the decision. If the other player was already planning to make the action described on the card, this doesn't count. If the pirate reveals a convince card and the group doesn't agree, he loses his pirate's reputation -1 and must replace this card with a new one from the deck.

Get a result in the dice: to complete these pirate's goals, the pirate must roll the described result and not reroll these dice afterwards (even if this means failing a mission).

End of game

As soon as the 4 main mission objectives are completed (set sails, navigate, swords and cannons), the game ends. Then, players will verify the number of pirate goal cards completed. If the conditions are met, the player will have escaped the Kraken and will win the game. If, otherwise, the ship is destroyed or the needed pirate goal cards are not completed, the Kraken will feast in the pirates and the players will lose.

Components

• 20 voting tokens
• 4 Argh! dice
• 1 Ship
• 28 Doubloons
• 10 pirate tiles
• 1 captain's reputation piece
• 8 mission dice
• 4 mission pieces
• 36 pirate goal cards
• 1 central board