Scurvy Dice
Scurvy Dice Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Objective
Scurvy Dice is played over a series of rounds called Treasure Hunts. Players will build their ships to battle and race their opponents to find the best treasure at Parrot Island, all while trying to avoid getting scurvy. Each Treasure Hunt is comprised of a set of phases as detailed below. The first player to reach the X on Monkey Grove wins. If this is your first time playing, we recommend that you play until 10 points, marked by the black spot!
Setup
Place the map on the center of the table. Each player takes 10 ship dice and a ship token. The Treasure Dice Pool is equal to 3 + the number of players. Place any unused dice back into the box.
The player who was most recently on a ship begins the game as the Scurvy Dog. In subsequent rounds, the Scurvy Dog is the player in the lead. In the event of a tie for the leading player, the Scurvy Dog does not change.
Components pictured in the Setup section: Ship Dice and Treasure Dice.
Ship Dice icons (printed key):
- Sails are your ship's speed and determine who goes first in following phases.
- Hull are your ship's defenses and capacity to store Treasure during the Loot phase. A player can never hold more treasure dice on his ship than hull dice.
- Cannons represent the number of shots you fire during the Cannon Phase.
- Crew represent your strength during melee battles and the capacity to carry treasure dice back to the ship during the Loot phase.
- Parrots can be changed to any face during the Ship Building phase. A single parrot can be kept on the ship and may be changed to a Crew or a Cannon permanently at the beginning of Phase 3 or 4. Parrots represent your ship's ability to adapt, use them wisely!
Sails and Hull dice share the same icon.
Ship Building Example (figure): one Parrot, three Sails, one Cannon, two Crew and three Hull.
Treasure Hunts
To start a Treasure Hunt, the Scurvy Dog rolls the Treasure Dice. Place the resulting dice showing coins on Parrot Island. Place any skull and crossbones (Scurvy) Dice on Isla de la Muerta. If there are [the printed text ends here; the sentence is incomplete in the source]
Treasure Dice faces: 1 Coin, 2 Coins, 3 Coins, 4 Coins (skull and crossbones, Scurvy).
Phase #1: Ship Building
Starting with the Scurvy Dog and then continuing clockwise around the table, each player rolls their 10 Ship Dice and builds their ship by arranging their rolled dice in front of them. Each player may re-roll any number of dice during the Ship Building phase once. Sails and Hull dice share the same icon.
Phase #2: Cannon Phase
Players fire their Cannons in order of fastest to slowest (most Sails to least Sails). You must have at least 1 Sail in order to fire your Cannons. The player with the fastest ship assigns each cannon on their ship to a player and then rolls them 1 player at a time. Each icon rolled shows which part of the targeted ship is Destroyed. Destroyed dice are set aside to be used again during the Refit Phase. The attacker chooses whether a sail or hull is destroyed when a ship icon is rolled. If a parrot icon is rolled, the attacker can choose any dice on the enemy ship to destroy. Once fired, cannon dice are considered Destroyed and set aside for the Refit Phase. The next fastest player with Cannons now gets to shoot.
Players tied for speed: Any time 2 or more players have the same amount of sail dice, the tied players pick up their Sails and roll them. The player who rolled the most sails/hull icons is faster. Roll them again if still tied. Once resolved, players put their Sail dice back into their respective ships in their original configuration. This rule is ignored during the Loot phase.
Phase #3: Boarding
In order of fastest to slowest ship, each player can choose to attempt to board another ship. A ship with without crew cannot attempt to board. The player attempting to board (Attacker) and the player being boarded (Defender) must roll their sail dice. If the attacker's roll shows more ship icons than the defender's, the boarding action is successful and the players proceed with a melee battle. (See below for rules on melee battles). Otherwise, the defender escapes and the next fastest ship can attempt to board. This continues until there is a successful boarding or each player has chosen. Sail dice are returned to their original position after each attempt.
After resolving a melee battle during a boarding, the attacker may choose to battle the defender again or withdraw and end the boarding action. If at the end of a melee battle either side has no crew, the boarding action is ended. If the Defender has no crew, the attacker may Steal treasure dice from the Defender up to the amount of crew dice left on the Attacker's ship. You cannot steal more treasure dice than your hull can carry.
Melee Battle: All players involved in a Melee Battle roll their crew dice simultaneously, consult the melee chart and add up their Fight points. The player with the highest amount of Fight points wins that round and the opponent(s) lose 1 of their Crew dice. If there is a tie for the highest total, ALL players in the battle lose 1 Crew die.
Fight points:
| Icon | Fight points |
|---|---|
| Hull (ship) icon | 0 |
| Crew icon | 1 |
| Cannon icon | 2 |
| Parrot icon | 3 |
Phase #4: Loot
The player with the fastest ship gets to loot Parrot Island first. When looting, you may take 1 Treasure die for each Crew on your ship. You cannot take more Treasure dice than your hull can carry. Once you have taken your treasure dice, the next fastest ship gets to loot. If 2 or more players have the same ship speed, they arrive at the island at the same time. Tied players choose between these options:
- Melee Battle: Players fight to the death for the treasure. However, a player may surrender during the melee battle to avoid getting scurvy, thus giving your opponent first choice on the gold. The opposing player may show mercy or can choose to roll 1 melee die and may remove 1 enemy crew member for each Fight point rolled. Dead men tell no tales.
- Parley: A player may allow other players to Loot first.
- Negotiate: Negotiate to split the treasure in whatever ways seems pleasing for both players. Players may 'bribe'/give other players the larger gold dice available on the island by 'promising' to attack/ignore a targeted player during future rounds. Of course, nothing is really set in stone in the world of Piracy and players are not required to follow through with whatever agreements/promises that affect future rounds of play.
Getting Scurvy
If a player has no Crew at the end of the Loot Phase, then they receive all the scurvy dice on Isla de la Muerta. If more than 1 player has no crew, then the Scurvy Dice are split among those players (any odd dice remain on the island).
Dangerous Waters (Optional Rule)
This rule changes the way getting scurvy works. If 1 or more players has no crew at the end of the Loot Phase, those players move back X an amount of spaces equal to how many Scurvy dice are on Isla de la Muerta. This rule is designed to make scurvy dice more difficult. Scurvy dice does not get removed from the board until the next Treasure Hunt round.
Phase #5: Refit
If there are any treasure dice on Parrot Island, then players set aside any treasure dice on their ships. These treasure dice do not count as taking up space in your hull anymore, but can be stolen during the boarding phase. Players refit their ships by rolling the ship dice that were destroyed during previous phases. Players may also re-roll any dice that are still apart of their ship. The rules of building your ship during this phase is the same as the Ship Building phase. Once Refit rolls are made, return to the Cannon Phase.
Phase #6: Scoring
If there are no Treasure Dice on Parrot Island, then everyone gets to bury their treasure and score. For each coin shown on a Treasure die that you have, move your ship token 1 space forward on the map. For each Scurvy die that you have, move back 1 space. Pass all Treasure Dice to the Scurvy Dog (player in the lead) and then start a new Treasure Hunt Round.
Winning the Game
The winner is the Player who reaches the X (or 10 pts. for shorter games) on the map first. If more than 1 player reaches the X during the scoring phase, then the winner is the player who has the most amount of excess gold. If there is a tie for excess gold, then the tied players will perform a Melee Battle each using 5 dice until 1 player emerges victorious. Yelling and taunting at this point is highly encouraged.
Captains (Optional)
Players may choose to take to the high seas with Legendary Captains! Captain cards offer players a special ability that they can use to gain an advantage in the hunt for treasure. Captain powers may not be considered fair when playing shorter game, so we recommend that beginners play without Legendary Captains.
Before the game begins, pass out a single captain card to each player. Players place this card next to your ship dice with the power side face-up. Each Captain card consists of the following:
- Captain Name
- Skill Name
- Limit: This will tell you when each power can be used.
- Type: There are 2 Power types:
- Activation: When used, turn this card upside down to show that the ability has been used. Turn this card over again when you end a round with less points than you began the round with to show that you may use the power again.
- Passive: When used, do not turn this card over. This ability can be used as many times as you wish.
- Description: This will tell you how you can use each Legendary Captain's power.
Example card (figure): Blackboard, For Blood & Plunder. Cannon Phase/Activation. "Steal 1 dice from each ship you hit this phase. Set aside these dice until the refit phase. You may roll these stolen dice and add them to your ship during the refit phase. Once a new Treasure Hunt begins, return the dice to the original players."