Raft & Scupper
Raft & Scupper Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
- 36 ship tiles distinguished by cargo (dark spice or white gold) and sail shape (round rig or square rig)
- 4 pirate figures: 2 round-bellied Yellowbeards and 2 square-jawed Blackbeards
- These instructions
- A pirates' chest
How to Win
Each crew strives to raft up a flotilla of all the remaining ships of their preferred cargo, or all the remaining ships of their shape rig. But beware, pirates also win by destroying: victory belongs to any crew who scuppers 4 ships while their opponents scupper none.
Setup
Decide whether you want to play a long or short game. For a short game, use four tiles of each type; otherwise use all the tiles. Follow the appropriate diagram below.
[Diagram: numbered positions 1 to 36 for the long game, and a smaller layout of positions for the short game.]
Mix the ship tiles face down. Randomly select a tile and place it face up in the position labeled 1. Then turn tiles face up until you find a ship with the other colour and rigging; place it in position 2. Continue placing a randomly drawn ship in each odd-numbered position and a ship of the other colour and rigging in the even-numbered position that follows. Whenever the face down pile is empty, turn all the unplaced tiles face down, mix them, and resume the process. One possible tile arrangement is pictured in the next section.
One player completes the setup by placing the four pirate tokens on unoccupied ships of the pirates' preferred rigging or cargo. Then the other player chooses to play as the Yellowbeards (the light-coloured pirate figures) or the Blackbeards (the dark-coloured pirate figures). The Yellowbeards can occupy only gold-carrying or round-rigged ships. The Blackbeards can occupy only the dark spice laden or square-rigged ships. The Yellowbeards take the first turn.
Flotillas
A flotilla is a ship or connected group of ships that all share the same cargo or rigging. (Ships that touch only at the corners are not connected.) There are gold flotillas, dark spice flotillas, round-rigged flotillas, and square-rigged flotillas. Examine the examples below, and see whether you can count the other flotillas.
[Example: one of four round rigged flotillas.]
[Example: one of six dark spice flotillas.]
Actions
On your turn you must do exactly one of four actions:
- Jump ship
- Set sail
- Scupper
- Pass
At the end of your turn all remaining ships must be connected via their sides—touching corners don't count. An action is not allowed if it would result in an exact repetition of an earlier game position, but it is permissible to pass.
Jump ship
Yellowbeards can jump to any unoccupied ship in their currently occupied gold flotilla or round-rigged flotilla. Blackbeards can do the same within their current dark spice flotilla or square-rigged flotilla. A pirate can jump over other pirates.
[Example: the arrowed pirate can jump to any of the red outlined ships. It cannot move to the ship on its left, since this ship does not belong to the dark spice flotilla nor square-rigged flotilla that the pirate is currently in.]
Scupper
You may scupper (i.e., sink) a ship by removing it from play. The ship must be unoccupied and adjacent to a ship you occupy, and it must have at least one open edge. The scuppered ship may have any cargo and rigging.
[Example: Blackbeard can scupper any of the outlined ships. Yellowbeard cannot scupper any ships.]
Set sail
You may sail a ship occupied by one of your pirates through any number of connected empty spaces. You may sail the ship in any number of directions, but you may not increase the current width or length of the play area, not even in the middle of the turn.
[Example: Pirate A can sail to position X, but Pirate B cannot. Pirate C can sail only to position Y, since any other position would leave the ships disconnected.]
Pass
Say 'pass' and take no other action. A player who cannot perform any other action must pass.
End of the Game
There are three ways to win the game.
Rafting up: You win when either all the remaining ships of your cargo, or all the remaining ships of your rigging, are rafted up in a flotilla.
If all the ships of one cargo or rigging are connected when the play area is first constructed, the player who places the pirates must first switch paired tiles (e.g., 11 and 12 in the first diagram) until this is no longer the case.
[Example: Yellowbeard wins by rafting up all round rig ships.]
Scuppering: If you scupper four ships and meanwhile your opponent has sunk none, you win.
Whenever you scupper a ship, say "Scupperrr!" and announce how many you have sunk since the opponent last sunk one. Keep track by placing the ships you scupper in front of you. Whenever your opponent scuppers a ship, move any ships in front of you to a discard pile. When you have four ships in front of you, you win.
Vengeance: The game ends in any of these situations:
- Both players raft up at the same time.
- Both players pass on consecutive turns.
- One player passes on four of that player's turns in a row.
In each case, the last player to scupper a ship wins. In the unlikely event that no ships have been sunk, the Yellowbeards win.