Darwin's Journey: Pirates mini-expansion
Darwin's Journey: Pirates mini-expansion Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
- 1 Wooden Pirate Ship
- 4 Pirate Crew cards
- 9 Silkscreen printed Treasure tokens
- 1 Special Action tile
- 1 Scenario card
Setup
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Place 1 Treasure token onto each Campsite location on the Island and Ocean tracks.
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Shuffle the Pirate Crew cards with the base game Crew cards.
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Optional: Players may choose to use the Pirate Scenario, in which gold is abundant but the threat of Pirate raids is constant. Instead of choosing randomly, players should use the Pirate Scenario card (P1) to set up the Special Action tiles, Correspondence tiles, Beagle Goal tiles, and Pirate Ship location. The Scenario card shows the component numbers that go into each of the associated areas of the board and the Pirate Ship is placed into the Ocean Region shown with the X. Ignore the rest of the Pirate Expansion setup steps.
Transcriber's note: the numbers on the Scenario card are a printed component diagram that does not survive text extraction; they are not transcribed here. Use the physical Scenario card (P1).
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Place the Pirate Ship near the main board.
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During the 'Main Board Setup' step in the base game, only draw 5 random Special Action tiles. Then add the Pirate Special Action tile and shuffle all 6 tiles before placing them on the board.
Optional: For a more interactive game, place the Pirate Special Action tile on one of the top locations of the Special Action Diary so that the Pirate action is unlocked at the start of the game. Then randomly place the other 5 tiles onto the Special Action Diary.
Discovering Treasure
While Navigating and Exploring, Ships/Explorers might discover Treasure tokens at Campsite locations. When a Ship or Explorer lands on or passes a Campsite location, they will either take the Treasure token or move the Pirate Ship, as explained below.
Taking the Treasure
The active player may take the Treasure token from the Campsite location and place it near their personal board. They then gain 3 Coins from the supply. These Coins are gained immediately, which means they may be used to pay the costs later in the current action.
Moving the Pirate Ship
If the active player decides to leave the Treasure token on the board or there is no Treasure token on the Campsite location, they may instead move the Pirate Ship. They take it either from the supply or the board and place it onto an Ocean Region of the active player's choice. An Ocean Region is the area between lagging penalties, not including the area with the Ocean track starting space (pictured below). The Pirate Ship is placed near, but not on, the Ocean track to indicate which Ocean Region it is in.
Figure: the printed page shows the Ocean track with the Pirate Ship placed beside it, in one of the Ocean Regions.
Important: The Pirate Ship only moves when a player leaves a Treasure token on the board, when a Campsite does not have a Treasure token, or when the Pirate Special Action tile is activated. This means the Pirate Ship may raid the same Ocean Region multiple rounds in a row if no player has moved it.
Pirate Raid
After each Reward Phase, every player whose Ship is in the same Ocean Region as the Pirate Ship will be raided. Each player with a raided Ship loses 2 Coins as well as 2 additional Coins for each Treasure token they currently have near their personal board. Players must spend Coins if they have them, and for each Coin a player cannot pay, they instead lose 1 victory point (to a minimum of 0 victory points on the victory point track). Each player whose Ship was raided returns all of their Treasure tokens back to the box.
Pirate Special Action Tile
Figure: the printed Pirate Special Action tile, showing its action icons (Coins, a "+2" Coins reward and the Pirate Ship icon), marked P1.
When performing the Pirate Special Action (P1), the active player gains 2 Coins and may move the Pirate Ship according to the "Moving the Pirate Ship" rules above.
Pirate Crew Cards
This expansion adds 4 new Crew cards:
- P1 - The player may perform two Research Museum Specimen actions, as explained in the base game rules, ignoring any Coin penalties.
- P2 - The player returns any placed worker of their color to any empty worker slot on their personal board. The worker may be placed again later in the current round following normal worker placement rules.
- P3 - The player may gain up to 2 Objective tiles from anywhere in the Objective discard pile.
- P4 - The player gains all the rewards associated with any Campsite on the board. The player ignores all costs and does not place a Tent. A Campsite may be chosen even if all its Tent sites are occupied.
Compatibility
The printed page carries two diagrams, one under the heading "Base Game" and one under "Fireland Expansion". Each is a strip of map sections marked either OK or NO. The page does not state the rule in words; the marks are transcribed here as printed.
- Base Game: the first (leftmost) map section is marked NO; the other five sections are marked OK.
- Fireland Expansion: the leftmost map section is marked NO. In the two middle-right sections, the upper part is marked NO and the lower part is marked OK. The remaining sections are marked OK.