Jamaica FAQ
86 questions players ask · Updated Nov 12, 2026 · Full rulebook
Game Round
- Does each player finish both their morning and evening actions before the next player starts?
- Must you fully resolve the morning action before doing the evening action?
- How does the Captain set up the dice and action cards each round?
- Do you draw one card to refill your hand to three, or draw a new hand of three?
- When is the discard pile shuffled back into the action deck?
Action Types
- When a card gives two movement actions, do you pay the space cost and fight after each movement?
- If your turn moves you and then loads cargo, when do you pay the landing cost relative to loading?
- Can you load a resource into a hold that already has goods, or empty a full hold to make room when another hold is still free?
- If all your holds already hold one resource, can you load more of it, or empty a hold of it to make room?
- Can the two gold from one action card go into the same hold?
- Can you skip the morning or the evening action on an action card?
Combat
- After losing a battle, do you pay the space's cost, and do you move back or get knocked off the space?
- Do ships already sharing a space fight again if neither moves, or if one of them takes a non-moving action?
- Does landing on a space with another ship always start a battle, even if you just left it or are moving back onto it?
- If a modifier cuts your move to zero, do you still fight an opponent who is on your starting space?
- If several enemy ships share the space you land on, do you fight all of them?
- Who wins a battle that ends in a tie?
- After winning a battle, must you take a treasure or hand over a cursed treasure?
- After winning a battle, can you give the loser any treasure, or only a cursed one?
- In combat, who commits gunpowder first, and can the defender wait until the attacker has rolled?
- If you commit gunpowder and then roll the star, are the gunpowder tokens returned to your hold?
- Can you spend gunpowder from several holds in the same battle?
- Can you battle on Port Royal, including at the end of the game?
- When your movement ends on an occupied space, do you fight before or after paying the space's cost?
Cost of the Spaces
- Do you pay a space's cost again when you move back onto it, and do you pay on a turn you do not move?
- Do you pay the cost of every space you pass through, or only the space where your movement ends?
- When paying a space's cost, can you take goods from several holds, and can you combine them?
- Do you pay coins or food when a movement, or a shortage, leaves you on a Pirate Lair?
Shortage
- Can a shortage cause more than one fight in the same turn?
- If a shortage moves your ship back onto a space holding another ship, do you fight there before paying?
- When a shortage moves you back, do you keep moving until you reach a space you can afford, and is there a limit?
- When a shortage moves you back, do you fight the ships on the spaces you pass through?
- When a shortage moves you back past a fork, can you choose which route to take?
- After a shortage moves you back, do you pay the cost of the space you finally stop on?
- How does the Shortage rule work in the revised 2021/2022 edition?
Treasures
- When Saran's Sabre forces a re-roll, do gunpowder tokens already committed still count?
- Can Saran's Sabre make an opponent re-roll when their die shows the star?
- How many times can Saran's Sabre re-roll in one combat, and can it hit both the attacker and the defender?
- Can Saran's Sabre and Lady Beth both be used in the same combat?
- Must the decision to use the Sabre be made right after the die is rolled?
- When Morgan's Map is stolen, what happens to the thief's hand of action cards?
- After winning a battle, can you choose which treasure to take, and what happens with face-down cards?
- If you steal an opponent's 6th hold, do you also get the goods loaded in it?
- Do treasure cards take up a hold, and can you discard a cursed treasure to free one?
- Which treasure cards must be played face up when received?
- Do you collect a Pirate Lair's treasure when a shortage moves you back onto it?
- If your morning move lands you on a treasure and your evening move takes you off it, do you still get the treasure?
- Can you choose which treasure to take when landing on a Pirate Lair?
- How many treasure cards are in the game, and how many are used each game?
End of the Game
- When a player reaches Port Royal, do they stop and skip their remaining actions, and do the other players finish the round?
- Do you need an exact count to land on Port Royal at the end of the game?
- If the game ends with your ship behind Port Royal, do you score the white number of your space or only the -5 penalty?
- How is the final score calculated?
- Where is the -5 space on the board?
- If two players are tied on points at the end, how is the tie broken?
- If several ships reach Port Royal in the same final round, do they all get the Port Royal points?
- Can you move backwards past Port Royal on your first movement?
Two-player Game
- In a two-player game, can the Ghost Ship end the game by reaching Port Royal first?
- When you win a battle against the Ghost Ship, what can you give it, and what can it take when it wins?
- How is the Ghost Ship moved each turn in a two-player game, and who chooses its direction?
- Where does the Ghost Ship put treasure it wins in combat?
Game Components and Editions
Jamaica: The CrewExpansion
- Does Calypso win the game as soon as you hold all three cursed amulets, before anyone reaches Port Royal?
- How does The Buccaneer attack a ship on an adjacent space, and what can it make the loser give up?
- When you land on an occupied port, does the battle come before the port fee and hiring, and can a Buccaneer attack before you pay?
- In a two-player game with The Crew, does the Ghost Ship still use Lady Beth?
- Can you steal a crew member from an opponent after winning a battle, and can the Ghost Ship take them?
- Can a crew member replace a resource in a hold or another crew member, and can you throw one overboard?
- Can you hire more than one crew member at the same port in a single turn?
- Do the treasure tokens kept for The Bishop move with the treasure cards when those cards are stolen?
- Can you steal the Youkounkoun diamond after winning a battle?
- When a crew re-roll forces you to roll again, do the combat supplies you already allocated still count?
- With Nosey Parker, how many treasure cards are used, and where do the two you do not keep go?
- With Nosey Parker, can you take the 12-point gem after looking at three hidden treasures?
- How does the Shipowner score at game end, and does reaching Port Royal change it?
- Does the Look-out let you take the treasure card as well as the token from an adjacent lair?
- Can a Look-out hired at a port next to a lair collect that lair's treasure token straight away?
- Can you recruit a crew member diagonal to the Rum Bottle?
- Can merchant substitutions be chained and mixed across holds when paying a cost?
- Does the Prussian Merchant let food count as gunpowder in combat, and must you use a merchant's swap when a shortage moves you back?
- Does each player who reaches Port Royal in the final round get the Crew expansion's Port Royal gold bonus?
- How does the Witch's option to use the action dice in either order work, and what if you lose the Witch mid-turn?