Pirates: Quest for Davy Jones' Gold Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Contents
• Deckplate Cards
• Set Up the Game
  • Choose Your Captain and Ships
  • Punch Out Card Tokens and Markers
  • Set Up the Playmat
• Playing the Game
  • Move
  • Shoot
  • Defeating a Ship
  • Defeating a Sea Monster
  • Parley
  • Explore
  • Repair
• Encounters
  • Sea Monsters
  • Attacking with Sea Monsters
  • Attacking Sea Monsters
• Curses
  • General Cursed Zone Rules
  • General Sea Monster Curse Rules
• Davy Jones
  • Davy Jones on a Home Island
• Winning the Game
• Three-Player Game Option
• Two-Player Game Option
• Curse Rules

Contents

• 4 four-mast ships (assembly required)
• 4 three-mast ships (assembly required)
• 1 Kraken (assembly required)
• 1 Sea Serpent (assembly required)
• 4 captain markers
• 28 gold tokens
• 4 Davy Jones encounter tokens
• 4 sea monster encounter tokens
• 1 Davy Jones marker
• 4 Davy Jones treasure tokens
• 6 curse tokens
• 1 playmat
• 1 rulebook
• 2 dice

Deckplate Cards

A ship's or sea monster's deckplate card is printed with information you'll need to play that piece, so keep that card handy while you play. The deckplate lists the cargo capacity, number of masts, base move, and cannon ranges.

Ships and sea monsters are each assembled from more than one card, so make sure you're using the correct cards to assemble them.

Set Up the Game

This setup describes playing the game with four players. Setup for three- and two-player games is described on pages 17 and 18.

Choose Your Captain and Ships

Each captain has a unique special ability that you can use once on each of your turns, as well as a sword bonus that represents how good that captain is at fighting Davy Jones. Each captain also comes with two ships: a 4-mast ship and a 3-mast ship. You'll know which ships go with which captain because their cards share the same background color.

To begin, each player rolls one die; reroll ties. The player who rolls highest is the first player, and he or she chooses a captain card and that captain's ship cards first.

The player to the left of the first player chooses his or her captain and ships next. These selections proceed clockwise around the table until everyone has a captain and two ships.

Punch Out Card Tokens and Markers

If you haven't already, assemble the ships and sea monsters as shown on the inside front cover of this rulebook.

Captain Cards. Each captain card also contains one square captain marker, seven round gold tokens, one round sea monster encounter token, and one round Davy Jones encounter token. Players punch out their markers and tokens.

Davy Jones Cards. Davy Jones has two cards. The one printed with his portrait contains his square Davy Jones marker. The other contains six round curse tokens and four round Davy Jones treasure tokens. Punch out these tokens and marker.

The Treasure Pile. Each round token has a picture of gold printed on one side. Mix all the round tokens (except the round Davy Jones treasure tokens) into a pile, called the treasure pile, face down so that only gold pictures are showing. Place the square Davy Jones marker and the four round Davy Jones treasure tokens on Davy Jones' portrait card to start.

Set Up the Playmat

(Illustration 1: Setting Up the Playmat.)

Choose Your Home Island. Starting with the first player and proceeding clockwise around the table, each player chooses a home island (illustration 1). Your home island is where your ships begin the game, where you drop off gold you have collected, and where you repair your ships that have been damaged. Place your captain marker on the island and place your ships so that one end of each ship is touching the island.

Place Treasure on Wild Islands. From the treasure pile, players randomly choose and distribute 14 tokens face down on each of the three wild islands.

Cursed Zones. Davy Jones might banish your ships into a cursed zone.

Sea Monsters. The sea monster symbol indicates where sea monsters might appear.

Place Davy Jones Cards and Sea Monsters. Place Davy Jones' cards and the sea monsters as shown to start.

Player's Cards. Depending on where you're sitting around the playmat, place your cards as shown.

Playing the Game

The game is played in a series of turns. The player who chose his or her captain last goes first. On your turn you give each one of your ships ONE of four actions:

• Move
• Shoot
• Explore
• Repair

Move

When you give a ship a move action, she can move up to the length of the red (long) edge of a card. Place the red edge of the card on the table and then move the ship in a straight line along the edge. A ship can move in any direction, but only one direction each turn.

A ship can't move through an island, another ship, a sea monster, or a cursed zone. At the end of her move, a ship can't touch another ship. Sea monsters can't be given move actions.

Be sure to measure from bow to bow! Be sure to end your movement at the bow!

Docking. You can automatically dock your ship at your home island or a wild island, but not another player's home island, by moving your ship so that she touches that island. You can move your ship away from an island by giving her a move action; just turn her around and move away.

Shoot

If your ship is in range of another player's ship or a sea monster, that ship can shoot her cannons at that ship or sea monster. Cannons shoot from a ship's masts, so when you give your ship a shoot action, she can shoot a number of times equal to the number of masts she currently has. Ships docked at their home islands can't shoot or be shot at.

To determine if a cannon is within range, use the white (short) edge of a card to measure from the center of the mast to the target ship or sea monster. If the card touches any part of the target ship or sea monster (including the base) the cannon is in range.

Front cannon in range. Center cannon in range. Rear cannon out of range. (Diagram showing the three cannon positions of a ship.)

The die printed on a mast tells you the cannon's rank. When you shoot from that cannon, roll a die. You must roll HIGHER than this number to hit.

If a cannon hits a target, the target's player chooses and removes a mast or part from the target (see below).

Take Your Shots. Roll the die once for each cannon in range, and compare each result to the rank of that cannon. If you roll higher, you hit! If you don't, you missed with that cannon.

Note: A shoot action allows you to shoot ALL of a ship's cannons that are in range of a target.

Defeating a Ship

Do Your Damage. When you hit an enemy ship, your opponent has to remove one mast, but he or she gets to choose which one. When a mast is removed, that cannon can no longer shoot!

When a ship has no more masts, she is defeated; automatically dock her at her player's home island. She can't move again until she has been given a repair action (p. 12).

If a ship carrying gold was defeated from a cannon shot, the attacking player looks at the gold tokens on that ship and puts one face down on his or her home island. Put the rest face down on the nearest wild island.

If a ship carrying gold wasn't defeated from a cannon shot, put all the gold tokens on her face down on the nearest wild island.

Defeating a Sea Monster

When a ship hits a sea monster, remove one of the sea monster's parts (head, segment, tentacle, etc.). When a sea monster has no more parts, it is defeated; remove it from the playmat and replace its parts. It can reenter the game if another of its tokens is chosen.

Parley

If a ship is given a shoot action to shoot at a target ship, before any dice are rolled the target's player can parley for safe passage. In order to parley, the target must be carrying gold tokens or her player must have gold tokens on his or her home island. If so, the attacking player can't shoot at the target. In return the attacking player receives one gold token at random from either the target or her player's home island (chosen by the target's player). The gold token is automatically placed on the attacking player's home island, and the target can't be attacked the remainder of that turn.

You can't parley with sea monsters!

Explore

A ship docked at a wild island can be given an action to explore it. Sea monsters can't be given explore actions.

When one of your ships explores an island, choose one gold token at a time and look at it (but don't show anyone). If it has a numerical gold value, place it face down on the exploring ship's deckplate card. Once your ship has a number of tokens aboard equal to her cargo capacity, she can't explore anymore until you unload the tokens at your home island.

If the token you choose is a sea monster encounter token, curse token, or Davy Jones encounter token, you've uncovered an encounter (see "Encounters," p. 12)! You must show the token to all players, and that ship can't choose any more tokens from that island that turn.

Unloading Gold at Your Home Island. As soon as one of your ships docks at your home island, put any gold tokens on that ship's deckplate card face down on your home island.

Repair

If you give your ship a repair action when she is docked at your home island, replace all of her missing masts. Sea monsters can't be given repair actions.

Encounters

There are three kinds of encounters:

Sea Monsters

If you choose a "place" Kraken or Sea Serpent encounter token, roll a die. Match the result to the sea monster symbol on the board that has the same number.

Place the indicated sea monster so that its base completely covers the symbol, facing in any direction. If the sea monster is placed so that it touches a ship, the ship is defeated; remove all her masts and dock her at her player's home island. (Put any gold tokens on that ship face down on the wild island nearest the sea monster.)

If the indicated sea monster is already on the board when the token is chosen, roll a die and move the monster to its new location and replace all parts it might have lost. If another sea monster is in the location you roll, reroll until you roll an open location.

Attacking with Sea Monsters

At the beginning of each player's turn, before that player gives any actions to his or her ships, any sea monster on the playmat attacks any ships within its range. All attack choices are made by the player whose turn it is.

A sea monster can make a number of attacks each turn equal to the number of parts it currently has. A sea monster "shoots" just like ships do, as described in "Shoot" on page 9, except that a "shot" is measured from the sea monster part it came from (instead of mast).

Attacking Sea Monsters

A sea monster is defeated when all of its parts have been removed as a result of cannon shots. Remove it from the playmat.

The player who defeated it randomly chooses two tokens from any wild island. Choose them one at a time, as when exploring. If you choose a gold token, place it face down on your home island. If you choose an encounter token, resolve it per the rules for that encounter.

Curses

When exploring an island, if you choose a curse token, Davy Jones curses your ships! See a list of all curses and their specific rules on page 19 of this rulebook.

While your ships are cursed, you can't unload treasure at your home island, can't explore any wild island, and can't choose any tokens from a wild island after defeating a sea monster. You can, however, still gain gold tokens via parley.

General Cursed Zone Rules

When you choose a token for a cursed zone, place both your ships into that cursed zone. There are four cursed zones, each located in one corner of the playmat.

Escaping a cursed zone. Escaping a cursed zone requires a die roll; see page 19 of this rulebook for details. If your ship succeeds at the die roll to escape a cursed zone, automatically move that ship one red length from the cursed zone's exit point. If both of your ships escape the cursed zone without one of them being defeated, place the curse token face up on your home island; it is worth 5 gold.

Each time your ship fails the die roll to escape a cursed zone, she loses a mast. If one of your ships is defeated in a cursed zone, remove that curse token from the game (no one gains gold for it) and automatically dock that ship at your home island. Any treasure she had aboard is placed face down on the wild island nearest that cursed zone. If your other ship is still in the zone, she automatically escapes, as described above.

If you have one ship in a cursed zone and one not in a cursed zone, you can give the "free" ship actions as allowed by the curse.

General Sea Monster Curse Rules

When you choose a "defeat" Kraken or Sea Serpent curse token, follow the standard rules for placing the sea monster and fighting it, as described on page 13, and consult the specific curse rules for that monster. Your ships must move to the sea monster; they are not automatically sent to fight it.

If a sea monster is already on the board when the curse to defeat it is chosen, replace all parts it might have lost.

Davy Jones

When you choose a Davy Jones encounter token, remove that token from the game and then place the Davy Jones marker on the island where the token was chosen. If Davy Jones was already on another island, move him to this new island.

Your captain and Davy Jones immediately square off in a swordfight. A swordfight is fought by rolling a die for both the captain and Davy Jones and adding the sword bonus of each to the result. The player to the right of the player who encountered Davy Jones rolls his die.

The highest total wins the swordfight. If the results tie, the captain wins the fight.

If Davy Jones wins, remove a mast from the losing captain's ship that chose the encounter token. In addition, if that ship is carrying gold tokens, randomly remove one token and place it face down on the island with Davy Jones. If that ship has no gold, use one gold token from the home island of that captain's player instead. If that home island has no gold, then no gold is taken. On the next turn, the ship's captain can choose to leave the island or fight Davy Jones again. As long as Davy Jones remains on an island, no treasure can be removed from it.

If the captain wins, its player gets one of Davy Jones' treasure tokens from Davy Jones' portrait card. Place it face up on that player's home island; it is worth 6 gold.

Davy Jones runs away each time he is defeated. The player who defeated him rolls a die and moves Davy Jones clockwise a number of islands equal to the result (starting with the next island).

If the result is a 6, place Davy Jones on the center island. If Davy Jones is defeated when he is on the center island, begin counting with the home island of the player who defeated him.

Davy Jones on a Home Island

If Davy Jones moves to a player's home island, any ship can dock there to fight him, but the home island can't be explored. The player of that home island can't unload any gold while Davy Jones is there. If a player loses a swordfight against Davy Jones on a home island, he or she randomly chooses one gold token from that home island (if applicable) and places it on a wild island of his or her choice.

Winning the Game

The game ends when the fourth Davy Jones treasure token is won. Each player immediately reveals and adds up the value of the tokens on his or her home island. Gold tokens on a ship's deckplate card are not counted. The winner is the player with the highest total.

Token Type	Value
Gold Token	As printed (1–4 gold)
Sea Monster or Curse Token	5 gold
Davy Jones Treasure Token	6 gold

When the game ends, you can put all the tokens and markers back into their corresponding cards for storage until you play again.

Three-Player Game Option

Set up the three-player game based on the four-player setup, with the following modifications:

In addition to Davy Jones and his treasure tokens and curses, use only the tokens and markers from the three captains chosen. The fourth captain is not used.

Place nine tokens from the treasure pile on the center wild island and eight tokens from the treasure pile on each other wild island (illustration 2).

(Illustration 2: Setting Up the Playmat for Three Players.)

Two-Player Game Option

Set up the two-player game based on the four-player setup, with the following modifications:

Each player chooses two captains and their four ships. Players choose two home islands and can drop off and repair their ships at either island. Players can use only one of their captain abilities on each of their turns. When a curse is chosen, that curse affects only two of that player's ships, as chosen by that player. This means that a player can be under the effect of two curses at one time.

(Illustration 3: Setting Up the Playmat for Two Players.)

Curse Rules

Until you defeat the Kraken, you can't explore wild islands and no other player can attack the Kraken. If you defeat the Kraken because of this curse, don't choose two tokens from a wild island.

Until you defeat the Sea Serpent, you can't explore wild islands and no other player can attack the Sea Serpent. If you defeat the Sea Serpent because of this curse, don't choose two tokens from a wild island.

Place your ships in the Sargasso Sea. On your turn, roll a die for each of your ships in the Sargasso Sea, one at a time. If the result is EQUAL TO or LESS THAN the current number of masts on that ship, you can move that ship out of the Sargasso Sea this turn.

Place your ships in the Reef. On your turn, roll a die for each of your ships in the Reef, one at a time. If the result is EQUAL TO or GREATER THAN the current number of masts on that ship, you can move that ship out of the Reef this turn.

Place your ships in the Storm. On each of your turns that one of your ships is in the Storm, choose a player. That player calls out a number between 1 and 6, and then you roll a die. If the called number and the die result match, that ship can move out of the Storm this turn. Repeat for each ship in the Storm.

Place your ships in the Fog Bank. On each of your turns that your ships are in the Fog Bank, roll two dice. If you roll doubles, both ships can move out of the Fog Bank this turn.