The Last Bottle of Rum
The Last Bottle of Rum Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Game Elements
30 Island tiles on which players move. An Island tile is unexplored (face down) before being revealed (face up).
The Pirates' Hideout, where the adventure begins, is the central hex of this board. This is where players may trade their Treasures to earn Loot Points.
24 Treasure cards with a value equal to the number of Loot Points earned when the Treasure is traded. The bonus or penalty is active as soon as the treasure is on your player board.
20 Map cards show the location of buried Treasures.
20 Bounty cards, challenges you may achieve to earn a few Loot points.
The Loot & Curse tracker shows the progress of each player's Loot Points and Curses.
As soon as a player reaches 10 Loot Points, he or she wins the game. As soon as a player reaches 5 Curses, the Kraken attack is unleashed.
8 Captain player boards with slots for Treasure cards and Damage tokens.
Each Captain also has a unique ability you can use throughout the game.
86 Action cards played to determine the actions players may take on their turn.
A dice that you're going to love... or curse.
4 Aid cards for new sailors.
2 Shell tokens for Captain Krabby Jones.
25 Damage tokens that represent the damage caused to your ship.
34 Doubloons tokens to pay the cost of effects and attacks.
4 Location markers to locate buried Treasures.
16 Captain markers and 9 ships for your Captains.
The Ghost board, a cursed rabbit that will come to haunt your 2-player games (see p11).
2 Maelström tokens.
Setup
Set the Pirates' Hideout in the center of the table, then place all the Island tiles face down randomly around it.
Shuffle the Map cards to make a face down draw pile. Do the same with the Treasure cards. Then draw 3 Map cards and match each one with a Treasure card, all face up.
For 4 or 5 players, reveal an extra pair of cards.
Shuffle the Action cards and make a face down draw pile. Shuffle the Bounty cards as well.
Each player chooses a Captain and places the corresponding playerboard in front of them.
Place the Loot & Curse tracker next to the game area. Each player places a marker of his Captain's color on the 0 of each track.
Set the Damage tokens in the bag and place the other items in a common area within reach of all players.
Once these steps have been completed, everyone draws 4 Action cards (5 for Humbolt). If a player draws a Kraken card in their starting hand, they must discard it and draw another one. Discarded Kraken cards are shuffled back into the deck.
The player with the longest beard is the first player (otherwise, toss a coin).
Each player places their ship on the Pirates' Hideout and prepares to raise anchor!
Gameplay
The game is played in clockwise order.
At the beginning of your turn, draw Action cards until you have 4 in your hand (5 for Humbolt).
If you draw a Kraken card, immediately resolve the attack (see The Kraken) and then draw a new card. If there are no cards left, make a new pile by shuffling the cards from the discard pile.
Then choose 2 cards from your hand, and play them simultaneously. During this turn, you may play the actions and effects of your cards in any order.
The different actions are sail, gain doubloon(s), attack and repair.
At any time, you may also exchange 3 unused actions for one of your choice. For example, you can change 2 attack actions and 1 repair action for 1 sail action.
The effect of a card can only be used if you pay its cost. To do so, discard as many Doubloons as shown and increase your Curse if indicated by an icon.
When you have played your actions and effects as you like, your turn ends. Put all the cards played on your turn in the discard pile.
It is then the next player's turn.
Sail
Quickly exploring the archipelago to get your hands on the most highly valued treasures is the key to success.
The sail action allows you to move your ship onto an adjacent tile. If this tile is unexplored (face down), flip it over and then move your ship onto it.
If you reveal a tile with an icon, gain a Doubloon. If your ship sails on a Reef tile, take 1 Damage token.
During your turn, if you are on a tile that matches one of the Map cards currently displayed, you may take the corresponding Treasure card. This does not count as an action and can be done more than once in one turn. You cannot remove a Treasure from your ship on your own.
If you do take the Treasure, discard the attached Map card and reveal a new pair of cards.
When you sail onto the Pirate's Hideout, you can trade all your Treasures for Loot Points. If you do, move your marker on the Loot track as much as the value of the Treasures.
Treasure cards are then discarded.
Gain a Doubloon
Collecting Doubloons will be very useful to use the effects of your cards and attack enemy ships that get too close...
Take as many Doubloon tokens as the number on the card indicates.
Attack a Ship
Firing a burst of cannon balls is a great way to slow down your opponents and make them lose their precious cargo!
The attack action allows you to target a ship on your tile or an adjacent tile. You may spend one extra per tile to target a farther away opponent. You can target the same player only once in a turn, but you may attack different targets.
Each attack will also cost you 1 Doubloon, gunpowder is expensive nowadays...
To know the result of your attack, roll the die:
- Missed... your cannonball falls into the water...
- The targeted opponent draws 1 Damage token.
- Boom! The targeted opponent draws 2 Damage tokens.
The Damage tokens are placed on the corresponding slots on the target opponent's player board. Multiple of the same type of tokens can be accumulated, but not their effect. A player can only suffer a maximum of 5 Damages on his board.
Remember, the Pirate's Hideout is protected under the Pirate Code: no attacks can be made from or to this place!
With 2 attack actions, Archie (Green) could either target Humbolt (Purple) and Grog (Cyan) paying 2 Doubloons, or shoot Von Croakington (Red) paying 1 Doubloon.
Repair a Damage
It's no good letting a boat leak for too long...
With a repair action, you may put a Damage token of your choice back in the bag.
As soon as you remove the last Damage token from a slot of your boat, you no longer suffer its negative effect.
Here are the different types of Damage:
- Torn sail — Your movement is limited to 1 tile.
- Cabin on fire — You are limited to 1 Treasure (2 for Archie). If you have too many, remove one Treasure.
- Cannons wrecked — You can't attack your opponents anymore.
- Hole in the hull — You can't gain any more Doubloons.
- Broken bowsprit — Your hand is limited to 3 cards (4 for Humbolt).
The Kraken
The sticky tentacles of the beast gushed out of the water, dragging your ship into the depths of the abyss...
Each time you use the effect of a card with a tentacle icon, move your marker one space forward on the Curse track.
As soon as a player draws a Kraken card, or reaches 5 Curses, the Kraken appears and immediately attacks the player(s) in the lead on the Curse track. Each player involved then rolls the dice and loses as many Loot and Curse Points as the dice shows. If they don't have enough Loot Points, they draw as many Damage tokens instead.
Expansions
Bounty Quests
Any self-respecting pirate loves to face challenges, even more when there's loot at stake!
Each time you visit one of the two Outpost tiles, draw 2 Bounty cards.
Keep one face down and put the other on top of the deck. You can only take one Bounty card per turn.
When you meet the condition indicated on a Bounty card in one turn, reveal it to the other players and earn 1 Loot Point. The card is then discarded.
Weather Events
Suddenly, the sky darkens on the horizon and the waves become threatening, leaving you at the mercy of the elements...
Weather cards give one or two free actions, but also have a powerful effect that must be applied during your turn.
Maelstrom tokens can be placed on any tile except the Pirate's Hideout, and create a passage between 2 tiles. At the cost of one Sail action, any player may cross a Maelstrom to get to the other side, but this chaotic journey results in 1 Damage.
The tokens stay in place until the end of the game. They can be moved with a new Maelstrom card.
The Ghost
The Ghost is a cursed rabbit, condemned to haunt the oceans forever aboard his ghost ship. To escape boredom, he sails from island to island in search of relics to collect...
This variant is an alternative game mode for 2 players.
Setup
The game is set up following the steps of a regular game, with the exception of the following points:
Reveal all tiles face up during the map creation. Place only 2 pairs of Island cards and Treasure cards (instead of 3). Place 1 Doubloon on each tile with an icon, which will go to the first player to sail on it. Finally, place the Ghost board in third position and put its ship (white) on the Cave tile.
Turn
When both players have completed their turn, it's time for the Ghost to play. Reveal the first 2 Action cards from the deck, and play each action in this order:
Gain Doubloon(s). As soon as it has 5, its power is triggered immediately. Discard the Doubloons used.
Repair the Ghost ship. Remove 1 Damage token from the Ghost's board.
Hunt. The Ghost moves to the location of the most valuable Treasure in play, either on an Island tile or on a ship. If multiple Treasures have the same value, it will hunt the nearest one.
The Ghost takes the shortest path but can't sail through the Pirates' Hideout and ends its move, if possible, within range of players.
If the Ghost arrives on the same tile as the most valuable Treasure, it takes it, places the card on the corresponding slot... and goes hunting again.
The Ghost never gets the effect of a stolen Treasure card. It may also sail on the Reef tiles without danger.
Attack. At the end of its turn, the Spectre deals 1 Damage to all players within its range (equal to the number of Attack actions).
The turn of the Ghost is then over. Discard the 2 Action cards.
Fight the Ghost
During the game, players may deal Damage to the Ghost with attacks or cards. For each Damage suffered, place a token face down on its board.
When a player deals the Ghost its third Damage, he or she sinks its ship and gets the last stolen Treasure. But the Ghost is doomed to haunt the archipelago over and over: discard the 3 Damages and return the Ghost ship to the Cave tile.