Pirates of the 7 Seas Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Components Overview
  • Gameboard
  • Scoreboard and Scoring Markers
  • Character Cards
  • Adventure Cards
  • Booty Cards
  • Adventure Board
  • Black Spot Tiles
  • Corsair Tiles
  • Ritual Tiles and Yin-Yang Tokens
  • Dice
  • Ruler Board
• Setup
• Game Overview
  • Choosing Characters Phase
  • Performing Actions Phase
• Shipwright
• Governor
• Captain
• Aborigine
• Shaman
• Merchant
• Cartographer
• End of the Round
• End of the Game
• Rituals
  • Bargain (3 Yin-Yang Tokens)
  • Double Hold (2 Yin-Yang Tokens)
  • Unsinkable Ship (3 Yin-Yang Tokens)
• Credits
• Curse Cards
  • Kraken
  • Iceberg
  • Sirens
  • Whirlpool
  • Riot
  • Idol
  • Salary
  • Tavern

Components

• Gameboard
• Scoreboard
• 28 Character cards
• 31 Adventure cards
• 60 Booty cards
• 6 Black Spot tiles
• 12 Ritual tiles
• 4 Corsair tiles
• 4 40 Treasure Chest tiles
• 30 Yin-Yang tokens
• Ruler Board
• Adventure Board
• 44 Dice
• 4 Scoring Markers
• First Player marker
• Last Rounds marker

Components Overview

Gameboard

The Gameboard is the inside of the box lid.

Note: Put the sheet with the ocean picture into the lid.

Scoreboard and Scoring Markers

The Scoreboard is the exterior of the box bottom. The Score Track for keeping track of Victory Points (hereafter "VP") is illustrated there. Scoring Markers, Ritual tiles, Black Spot tiles, 40 Treasure Chest tiles, as well as Guard Ships are located on this field.

Character Cards

During the game, players use the characters' specializations in order to perform different actions: Shipwright, Governor, Captain, Aborigine, Shaman, Merchant, and Cartographer. Timely selection of the character you need is one of the main strategies to achieve success and wealth on the 7 seas.

Adventure Cards

The Adventure Card deck consists of three types of cards: Caravan, Port, and Curse, as well as one Last Rounds Card. You will use the Cartographer's action to draw these into your hand. When you want to take the Captain's, Aborigine's, or Shaman's action, you need the corresponding Adventure Card. This allows you to drag the other players along on your adventure.

Preparation of the Adventure Card deck:

• set aside Last Rounds card;
• shuffle the cards face down;
• count four cards, and place Last Rounds card on the top of the cards, place the rest of the Adventure cards on the top – the deck is ready.

Booty Cards

The Booty card deck consists of Goods cards (Rum, Coffee, and Fruit) and Trophy cards (Talisman). Pirates get all these Goods and Trophies by plundering caravans. Goods can be loaded onto ships, and sold at Ports to earn Treasure Chests.

Trophies immediately provide Yin-Yang tokens, and at the end of the game, they provide VP.

Adventure Board

Corresponding cards are located on this board. The first Port, Pirate Bay, is depicted here.

Black Spot Tiles

At the end of the game, Black Spots have a very negative effect on a pirate's VP.

Corsair Tiles

The Corsair tiles depict flags of the four maritime countries: England, Spain, France, and Holland. During the game, a pirate may decide to become a Corsair for any of these countries. If so, the player gets all his ships for free from the Governor, and takes the flag of any available country he wishes; however, the player also gets a Black Spot from the pirate brotherhood.

Ritual Tiles and Yin-Yang Tokens

During the game, players get Yin-Yang tokens by various means, and Yin-Yang tokens are used to perform rituals. Unused Yin-Yang tokens are worth a small amount of VP at the end of the game.

Dice

The Dice represent ships. The four red Dice are the caravan ships of various countries, and the rest are pirate ships (maximum 10 pirate ships for each player). Pirate ships are used to plunder caravans, and also take part in other adventures.

Ruler Board

The Ruler Board depicts the order in which the characters provide actions; the character you select determines when you will take your action this round. The ruler board is also used to resolve disputes during pirates' adventures, by serving as a ruler.

Setup

Place the Gameboard in the middle of the table.

Place the Scoreboard, Ruler Board and Adventure Board near the Gameboard.

Prepared Adventure Cards deck place facedown in the center of the Adventure Board.

Place Yin-Yang tokens nearby.

Shuffle the Booty cards deck, and place it face-down nearby.

Separate the 40 Treasure Chest, Corsair, Black Spot and Ritual tiles by type and place them on the Scoreboard on the corresponding spaces.

Each player chooses a player color, and gets 7 Dice, the Scoring Marker, and 7 character cards of the same color, plus three random adventure cards and 7 treasure chests (place the Scoring Marker on number 7 on the Score Track).

Randomly determine the first player. This player gets the First Player Marker. Set the remaining player Dice and the 4 red Dice near the Gameboard.

If there are fewer than four players in the game, remove the extra Dice and Character Cards; you won't be using them.

Game Overview

The game lasts a variable number of rounds. Each round consists of two phases:

• CHOOSING CHARACTERS
• PERFORMING ACTIONS

Choosing Characters Phase

Each player simultaneously and secretly chooses a Character Card from his hand, whose action he wishes to use this round, and puts it face-down in front of him.

Note: Unless you chose the Captain, Aborigine, or Shaman last round (See "End of the Round"), all Character Cards you had played in previous rounds remain lying in front of you, unavailable for selection this round. These unavailable cards must remain visible to all players.

Once everyone has chosen a character card and put it face-down, you are ready to start the Performing Actions phase.

Performing Actions Phase

Keep your chosen Character Card secret until it is announced. The first player starts announcing the different character roles in the following order:

Shipwright, Governor, Captain, Aborigine, Shaman, Merchant, Cartographer

When a Character is announced whom players selected, those players must reveal their Character Card. Starting with the first player, and going clockwise, players who selected this Character take turns performing the Character's action.

After everyone who selected the Character performs their action, the first player continues announcing roles in this fashion until all seven have been announced.

If only one player chose the Character, the Character offers that player a gift. If that player is also the first player, the Character offers him the gift twice! You cannot accept a gift without performing the Character's action!

Exception: In a 2-player game only the first player can get a Gift and only once per round, for choosing a character different from the character of the second player in the game.

Shipwright

Action – Buy ships

Buy up to 10 of your ships from the reserve, paying 1 Treasure Chest per ship (move your Scoring Marker back the appropriate number of Treasure Chests on the Scoreboard).

Note: Spending Treasure Chests may free up "guard ships" to return to your fleet (See "Merchant").

Example: Olga has 22 treasure chests. Two of her ships are at the island, guarding treasure chests. Olga pays three treasure chests to buy three ships, reducing her total number of treasure chests to 19. One of Olga's guards returns to her active fleet, and now can participate in plundering caravans, and other adventures.

Mistake: Black Spot. If you chose Shipwright, but you have no ships left in the reserve to buy, you cannot perform this action; you must take a Black Spot tile.

Ritual: If you chose Shipwright (even if you did not perform the action) and you have Yin-Yang Tokens, you can perform rituals in additional to your action (See "Rituals").

Gift: You were the only player to select this character, and you performed the action. Get an additional 1 of your ships from the reserve for free.

First Player Gift: (You are the first player, and the only player to select this character, and you performed the action). Get an additional 2 of your ships from the reserve for free, instead of just 1.

Governor

Action – Become a Corsair.

Take a Black Spot tile, a Corsair tile of your choice, and all your ships from the reserve, for free.

As a Corsair for that chosen country, you must remember that every time you plunder caravans from this country (See "Captain"), you will get a Black Spot tile.

Note: There are four Caravan cards for each of the four countries. In order to get fewer Black Spot tiles, try to remember how many caravans of each country have been plundered before you decides to become a Corsair for one of them.

A single player can become a Corsair for several countries. But a Corsair tile for a certain country cannot be selected more than once. E.g. you cannot select England if somebody has already selected it earlier.

Mistake: Black Spot. If you chose Governor, but there aren't any Corsair Tiles available, you cannot perform this character's action; you must take a Black Spot tile.

Ritual: If you chose Governor (even if you did not perform the action) and you have Yin-Yang Tokens, you can perform rituals in additional to your action (See "Rituals").

Gift: You were the only player to select this character, and you performed the action. Discard 1 Black Spot tile.

First Player Gift: (You are the first player, and the only player to select this character, and you performed the action) Discard 2 Black Spot tiles, instead of just 1.

Captain

Action - Plunder the Caravan

To perform this action the player must play a Caravan card face-up on the right from the Adventure deck.

The Caravan card indicates the number of ships in it, and the flag of the country which this caravan belongs to. Starting from the player who chose to plunder the caravan, each player in clockwise order sends as many empty ships from his fleet as he likes to plunder the caravan. Depending on the number of players in the game, the maximum number of ships that each player can send to plunder the caravan is as follows:

• 4 Players – number of ships in the caravan +1
• 3 Players – number of ships in the caravan +2
• 2 Players – number of ships in the caravan +3

Example: In a 3-player game, each player can send no more than four of his ships to plunder a 2-ship caravan.

If you unable or unwilling to send empty ships from your fleet plundering, you must take a Black Spot tile.

If you are a Corsair of the country caravan of which is being plundered you take a Black Spot tile whether you choose to send ships or not.

The player who played this Caravan card picks up the caravan ships and all players' plundering ships, shakes them all, and throws them onto the Gameboard. If any ships escape the Gameboard, pick them all up and throw them again.

To determine the result of the plundering you need to compare firepower of the pirate ship and caravan ship that are closest to each other. Ship firepower is the value showing on the top side of the die. If one ship's firepower is greater than the other's, the ship with lesser firepower sinks – remove the die from the Gameboard, and move it to the reserve. If their firepower is equal, then both sink.

Gain a Yin Yang token for any of your ships that are sunk.

The order that battles are resolved in is always between the pirate die and the caravan die that are closest to one another. If there is a question about which ships are closest use the ruler sheet to measure the distance.

Repeat this procedure until either all the pirate ships or all the caravan ships are sunk. Note that because you are always comparing the closest pair of pirate ship and caravan ship, it is quite possible that the same ship fights several times consecutively.

Each participating player places his plundering ships anywhere on the Gameboard (position doesn't matter: they're about to be rolled). Players can send into the plundering only empty ships that are not loaded with goods and are not guarding chests of gold (See "Merchant").

Clarification: Pirate ships sink caravan ships, and never pirate ships; similarly, caravan ships sink pirate ships, and never their own kind.

Note: The dice are resolved by shortest distance between a Caravan dice and a pirate Dice.

Whenever a pirate ship is sunk, its owner gets a Yin-Yang token.

Mistakes: Black Spot. If you chose Captain, but are unable or unwilling to play a Caravan card, you must take a Black Spot tile.

Example: The dice are rolled with the following results: The closest pair consisted of a red die and any other - this is a red die with a value of "2" and green one with a value of "1". The ship from the Caravan sinks the Pirate Ship - the green pirate's dice is removed. Next two closest become red ship "2" and white ship "2" - both ship's sink and both dice are removed. The next couple - red ship "6" and blue ship "3". Blue die leaves the Gameboard. Red ship "4" and blue ship "6" - red ship is removed in stock. Red ship "6" and white ship "3" - white die leaves the Gameboard. Red ship "6" and blue ship "6" - both dice are removed.

If all the caravan ships are sunk, it's time for the surviving pirates to divide their booty. Starting with the player who played this Caravan card, and going clockwise, each player takes a number of Booty cards from the deck equal to the number of his plundering ships that are still afloat.

Example: Lora sends 4 ships plundering. When the battle is over, only 1 of her ships has sunk, so Lora gets 1 Yin-Yang Token and 3 Booty cards.

Place any Goods cards (Rum, Coffee, Fruit) you wish to keep face-up in front of you, with one of the ships on it to indicate that the ship is loaded with that Good. Remember, only empty ships can go plundering, so you might choose to discard some of your Booty. This is the only time you can discard Booty.

Important! Once you have loaded it onto a ship, you no longer can discard it!

Example: Alexander gets the Goods that are currently cheapest, and decides not to load his ships. He is going to hold out for more valuable Goods.

Place any Talisman cards face-up in front of you; each one immediately grants you a Yin-Yang token. At the end of the game, each Talisman card will give the you one VP (See "End of the Game").

Important! You will repeat this entire procedure for each player who chose Captain.

Mistakes: Black Spot. If you chose Captain, but are unable or unwilling to play a Caravan card, you must take a Black Spot tile.

Gift: You were the only player to select this character, and you performed the action. Get 2 Yin-Yang tokens (even if all of your ships were sunk by caravan ships).

First Player Gift: (You are the first player, and the only player to select this character, and you performed the action) Get 4 Yin-Yang tokens, instead of just 2.

Aborigine

Action – Change the Port

To perform this action, you must play a Port card face-up on the left from the Adventure deck. Port card depicts goods that have an increased demand in this port (see "Merchant").

Mistake: Black Spot. If you chose Aborigine, but are unable or unwilling to play a Port card, you must take a Black Spot tile.

Gift: You were the only player to select this character, and you performed the action. Get 1 Booty card.

First Player Gift: (You are the first player, and the only player to select this character, and you performed the action) Get 2 Booty cards, instead of just 1.

Shaman

Action – Put a Curse on Everyone

To perform this action, you must play a Curse card face-up on the right from the Adventure deck. The curse affects all players, even you (See "Curse Cards").

The Curse cards "Kraken", "Iceberg", "Sirens", "Riot", "Idol", and "Whirlpool" only affect ships in players' fleets, whether empty or loaded.

Ships guarding the island and ships in the reserve are unaffected.

These curses have a chance of making players discard Booty, and if they have to discard Booty they don't have, they will lose ships, instead.

If after playing a Curse card, the number of goods a player has exceeds the number of surviving ships, they will have to discard their choice of goods into the discard pile. At the same time, you can not discard goods if the number of surviving ships is sufficient to hold the goods.

Mistake: Black Spot. If you chose Shaman, but are unable or unwilling to play a Curse card, you must take a Black Spot tile.

Gift: (You were the only player to select this character, and you performed the action) 3 of your ships are safe from the curse you just played, if it was "Kraken", "Iceberg", "Sirens", "Riot", or "Whirlpool".

First Player Gift: (You are the first player, and the only player to select this character, and you performed the action) 6 of your ships (instead of 3) are safe from the curse you just played, if it was "Kraken", "Iceberg", "Sirens", "Riot", or "Whirlpool".

Example: Oleksandr is the first player, and is the only player who chose Shaman; he plays the "Sirens" Curse card. There are 8 ships in his fleet. Because of the First Player Gift, 6 of his ships are safe from the curse, and remain in his fleet. But 2 of his ships are thrown on the Gameboard with the other players' ships. One of his ships rolls a "3", so Oleksandr loses one Rum card.

Merchant

Action – Sell Goods

Sell goods from your ships to earn Treasure Chests.

All goods at any port sell for 1 Treasure Chest each; however, if the good is in demand, and you sell 3 or more of it, you can get 2 or 3 chests per card of that good. Discard the Goods cards you wish to sell to the Booty cards discard pile, and advance your Scoring marker the corresponding number of Treasure Chests on the Scoreboard.

You choose how many of your goods to sell.

Any goods you don't sell must remain on your ships until the next Merchant action or Curse affects them.

Guard Ships: For every 10 Treasure Chests you have, you must send 1 ship (for 10-19 chests - one ship, for 20-29 chests - two ships, etc.) from your fleet to the island depicted on the Scoreboard to guard them. These ships are not considered part of your fleet; however, if the number of Treasure Chests you have goes down enough that you need fewer ships to guard them, the excess "guard ships" immediately return to your fleet.

Example: Garik sells 3 Coffee and 2 Fruit at the port in which Coffee is in highest demand, and he gets 11 (3x3+2x1) Treasure Chests.

Mistake: Black Spot. If you chose Merchant, but you have no Goods Cards, you must take a Black Spot tile.

Note: If you accumulate 40 (or more) Treasure Chests, set a "40/80 Treasure Chests" tile in front of you, 40-side-up.

If you actually manage to accumulate 80 (or more), flip it to the 80 side. Similarly, if you drop below 80 or 40, reverse the process (and remember to send the excess "guard ships" back to your fleet).

Ritual: If you chose Merchant (even if you did not perform the action) and you have Yin-Yang Tokens, you can perform rituals in additional to your action (See "Rituals").

Gift: You were the only player to select this character, and you performed the action. You get 1 Treasure Chest for free.

First Player Gift: (You are the first player, and the only player to select this character, and you performed the action) You get 2 Treasure Chests for free, instead 1.

Cartographer

Action – Get a Card

Draw the top card from the Adventure Deck.

Mistake: Black Spot. If you chose Cartographer, but there are no cards in the Adventure Deck, you must take a Black Spot tile.

Ritual: If you chose Cartographer (even if you did not perform the action) and you have Yin-Yang Tokens, you can perform rituals in additional to your action (See "Rituals").

Gift: You were the only player to select this character, and you performed the action. Draw 1 additional card from the Adventure Deck.

First Player Gift: You are the first player, and the only player to select this character, and you performed the action. Draw 2 additional cards from the Adventure Deck, instead 1.

End of the Round

After resolving all characters' actions, players who chose Captain, Aborigine, or Shaman take all their Character cards back into their hands, including the one they just played. These characters will get back into your hand after playing Captain, Aborigine, or Shaman.

Anyone who chose Shipwright, Governor, Merchant, or Cartographer leaves that Character card (and any others previously played) in front of him; they are not available to choose next round(s).

The current round is over. Pass the First Player marker to the next player clockwise, and start a new round with the Choosing Characters phase.

End of the Game

Once one of the players draws the Last Rounds card, they put aside it and draw another card from the deck. Players will then finish the current round and three more rounds, after which the game will end (use a Last Rounds marker to cover the end of game icons on the card to keep track of turns left).

Sell all your goods at the prices of the current Port card (the "3 or more in-demand goods" pricing rule still applies). You may use Yin-Yang tokens to perform the "Bargain" ritual for this final sale.

For each Adventure Card remaining in your hand, you must take a Black Spot tile.

Each Treasure Chest is worth 1 VP (these are already recorded on the Score Track).

Each Talisman card is worth 1 VP.

Each set of three unused Yin-Yang tokens is worth 1 VP.

Each Black Spot tile is worth – 3 VP (yes, negative three).

The player with the most VP wins the game. In case of a tie, the tied player with fewer Corsair Tiles wins. If there is still a tie, the tied player with fewer Black Spot tiles wins. If there is still a tie, the tied players share the victory (unless one can convince the others to walk the plank).

Rituals

The Shipwright, Governor, Merchant, and Cartographer allow you to perform rituals. To do this, you must pay the required number of Yin-Yang tokens. You can perform as many rituals at once as you can afford.

Bargain (3 Yin-Yang Tokens)

Sell 2 different Goods cards, prices according to the current Port, as if each were part of a set of 3.

This Ritual immediately brings you treasure chests, so there is no appropriate tile for this ritual. If you want to sell two products again in the future, you will have to perform this ritual again and lose three tokens Yin-Yang.

Double Hold (2 Yin-Yang Tokens)

Take Double Hold ritual tile from the Scoreboard (you may have multiple: just upgrade your tile to x2 or x3).

Enable one of your ships to hold 2 Goods cards from now on. You can partially or fully load and unload it (for cargo, it's as if it were 2 ships), and you can exchange goods between it and your other ships whenever you want.

Example: One of Garik's ships was loaded with two Goods cards — Coffee and Fruit — and three other ships were loaded with Coffee, Coffee, and Rum. After choosing the Merchant, he sells all three Coffees, and then moves the Rum to the ship with Fruit. So, Garik now has one ship loaded with Fruit and Rum.

Unsinkable Ship (3 Yin-Yang Tokens)

Take an Unsinkable Ship ritual tile from the Scoreboard (you may have multiple: just upgrade your tile to x2 or x3).

For each Unsinkable Ship you have, when a ship of your sinks while plundering, it returns to your fleet; however, this ship, having not sunk, gives you no Yin-Yang token, and it also does not collect any Booty.

Example: Oleksandr has Unsinkable Ship x2, and three of his ships are sunk while plundering. Two of them return to his fleet with no Booty, and one of them returns to the reserve, for which he gets a Yin-Yang token.

Note: Unsinkable Ship Ritual Effect does not imply ships during the Curses – only during plundering caravans.

Unsinkable Ship or Double Hold rituals have a constant effect on you. Therefore, you get a Ritual tile performing a ritual. During the game, the players can have any number of different and / or identical ritual tiles. After performing the same ritual the second time, the player does not get a new Ritual tile - he turns over his ritual tile with the value "2x" up.

After performing the same ritual the third time, the player replaces his current tile with the ritual tile with the value "3x", etc.

Ritual tiles, Black Spot tiles, and Yin-Yang tokens are not limited to the components in the box; if you run out of any of them, use a suitable substitute.

Credits

Authors: Oleksandr Nevskiy and Oleg Sidorenko

Artists: Denys «CreativeD» Martynets, Leonid «deburger» Androschuk, Pavel «Cynic» Romanov, Dmytro «Trollenko» Kryvonis

Design: Andrew Bordun

Special thanks to Larysa Melnyk, Andrey «Garik» Vlasyuk, as well as all game testers.

All rights reserved. Reprinting and publication of the rules of the game, game components and illustrations without permission is prohibited.

Curse Cards

Kraken

Collect everyone's fleet ships (empty and loaded) and throw them on the Gameboard. For each "1" on a player's ships, he must discard 1 Fruit card to the Booty discard pile; for each Fruit he is short, he must lose a ship to the reserve.

Example: Olga's ships were loaded with Fruit, Fruit, and Coffee. After playing the Kraken, Olga gets "1" on three of her dice, so she loses two Fruit and one ship to the Kraken's hunger.

Iceberg

Collect everyone's fleet ships (empty and loaded) and throw them on the Gameboard. For each "2" on a player's ships, he must discard 1 Coffee card to the Booty discard pile; for each Coffee he is short, he must lose a ship to the reserve.

Sirens

Collect everyone's fleet ships (empty and loaded) and throw them on the Gameboard. For each "3" on a player's ships, he must discard 1 Rum card to the Booty discard pile; for each Rum he is short, he must lose a ship to the reserve.

Whirlpool

Collect one red die and everyone's fleet ships (empty and loaded) and throw them on the Gameboard. The value on the red die determines the number of ships closest to the red die that are affected by the Whirlpool. If any of a player's ships are affected by the Whirlpool, he must discard 1 Talisman card to the Booty discard pile; for each Talisman he is short, he must lose a ship to the reserve.

Riot

Collect everyone's fleet ships (empty and loaded) and throw them on the Gameboard. For each "4" on a player's ships, he must discard 1 Goods card — whichever is in highest demand at the current Port — to the Booty discard pile; for each Goods card of this type he is short, he must lose a ship to the reserve.

Example: Two of Garik's ships were loaded with Rum, and Rum is in highest demand at the current Port. After playing Riot, Garik gets "4" on three of his dice, so he loses two "Rum" and two ships to angry rioters.

Idol

Declare a type of Goods card (Coffee, Rum, or Fruit). Each player must discard 1 card of that type to the Booty discard pile; if he does not have a card of that type, he must lose a ship to the reserve.

Salary

Each player loses 2 Treasure Chests for each of his "guard ships" at the island (move the Score Markers back accordingly).

Remember, this may liberate some "guard ships" to return to your fleet!

Note: Salary and Idol Curse Effects also implies the player who played the corresponding Curse card.

Tavern

Throw one red die (on the Gameboard) per player in the game, and assign one die to each player, however you wish. The effects are as follows:

• get 1 Black Spot tile
• lose 1 Goods card (the owner of the Goods decides which one)
• lose 1 Treasure Chest
• get 1 Treasure Chest
• get 1 Goods card (the top card from the Booty Deck)
• get 3 Yin-Yang tokens