Black Skull Island
Black Skull Island Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Game Components
Your copy of Black Skull Island should contain:
- 19 Character Cards (please note that there are multiples of some characters)
- 72 Booty Cards, including:
- 28 Treasure Cards
- 44 Coin Cards
- 18 Info Cards
- This rulebook
Character Card (Layout)
Each Character Card shows an Activation Number, a Player Count, a Name and an Ability.
Game Setup
- Place the Coin Cards in a face-up pile within easy reach of all players. Each player should now take 1 Coin Card and place it face down in front of them.
- Shuffle the Treasure Cards, and place them in a face-down pile within easy reach of all players.
- Find all of the Character Cards with a printed Player Count equal to or lower than the number of players you will be playing with. Return the rest to the game box, as you will not be using them during this game. Example: You are playing with 5 players, so you should remove all cards with player numbers 6+, 7+, 8+ and 9+.
- Shuffle the Character Cards and deal 2 to each player. If you are playing a 2-player game, deal each player 3 face-down Character Cards instead. You can look at your Character Cards, but keep them secret from other players!
- Place the final Character Card face up to the side of the play area. This is the removed card.
- Give each player a set of 2 different Info Cards with a summary of Character abilities. You are now ready to play Black Skull Island!
Game Overview
Black Skull Island is played over a number of rounds. Every round, each player will play a Character Card (or two, if you are playing a 2-player game) face down on the table. When everyone has chosen which Characters to play, all Character Cards are flipped face-up, and their special abilities are resolved in the order of their respective Activation Numbers (the lowest numbered card is resolved first). After resolving all Character abilities, each player takes back the Character or Characters still in front of them. If at that point any player has 7 or more Booty Cards in front of them, the game ends, and Booty is counted to see who wins.
Game Round
Each game round is played in 5 following steps:
1. Choose Characters
The players should simultaneously choose 1 of the Character Cards in their hand and place it face-down in front of them. If you are playing a 2-player game, each player will instead choose 2 Characters.
2. Reveal
When all players have chosen their cards, reveal all Characters by flipping them face up.
3. Resolve
Starting with the lowest Activation Number, resolve the abilities of the face-up Characters in front of players. Completely resolve each Character ability before proceeding to another Character. After a Character ability has been resolved, the Character remains face-up on the table (unless a special ability says otherwise).
4. Retreat Characters
All players return all Characters in front of them to their hands.
5. Check Booty
If any player has 7 or more Booty Cards in front of them, the game ends immediately. Those cards can be any combination of Coin Cards and Treasure Cards. If no player has 7 or more Booty Cards, play another game round.
Resolving Character Abilities
Character abilities are always resolved in the order of their Activation Number, from lowest to highest. Some Character abilities may change the position of cards on the table. As a result, some players may get to activate Character abilities more than once in a round, while others do not get a chance to resolve a Character ability at all. Only face-up Characters resolve their abilities. If a Character Card is flipped face-down before it resolves, it is skipped this round.
In a 2-player game, each player will have 2 Character Cards in front of them. All Characters are activated in order of their Activation Number, just like in games with 3+ players.
The Golden Rule
Many Character abilities break the rules of the game. That is fine, as any card rules trump the rulebook.
Receiving Booty
Some Character abilities allow players to take Coins or Treasure Cards. Coins are taken from the face-up pile. Even though each of the Coin Cards has a value of 1, you should still flip them face down when you place them in front of you. When taking a Treasure Card, always draw it from the top of the Treasure pile.
Treasure Cards range in value from 0 to 4. You may look at your own Booty Cards at any time, but you are not allowed to look at face-down Booty belonging to other players, unless a special ability allows you to do so.
Final Scoring
The game ends at the end of a round when at least one player has 7 or more Booty Cards (Coins and Treasures in any combination and regardless of value) in front of them. Each player flips all of their Booty Cards face up, and counts their total value. The player with the highest total value wins the game.
In the event of a tie, the player holding the Character with the lowest Activation Number is the winner!