Skallywaggs
Skallywaggs Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Contents
Skallywaggs contains 120 cards.
30 Event Cards: Call to Arms (1), Overboard, Hard a Stern (1), Davy Jones' Locker (1), Batten the Hatches (1), Press Gang (1), In the Head (1), All Hands On Deck (2), Hurricane (2), Crack Down (2), Parley & Belay (2), Scurvy & Pox (2), Arrest Warrant (2), Swag & Plunder (3), Skallywaggs (8).
90 Crew cards: Crewman Cards (39), Cap'n Wargun (3), Cap'n Starr (3), First Mate (3), Boatswain (3), Waitress (3), Magistrate (3), Ship Surgeon (3), Cursed Sailor (3), Mutineer (3), Ships Cook (3), Inn Keeper (3), Navigator (3), Look Out (3), Specialty Parts Cards (12), Peg Leg, Monkey (1), No Pants (1), Ball'n Chain (1), The Hook (1), Squeeze Box (1), Eye Patch (1), Parrot (1), Crazy Head (1), Dead Head (1), Stab Wounds (2).
Getting Ready
Laying out your crews is going to take a lot of room! Be sure to clear a large space on a table or play on the floor. You may find it helpful to familiarize yourself with the deck and game layout before your first game. There is a layout chart and card diagrams on the back of this sheet to help you get started. You also might want to lay out the crewmen to see how sailors go together and to learn the powers of major and minor characters. Skallywaggs can be played with two, three, or four players, but three player games are ideal.
Object
To match head cards, body cards and leg cards together to "build" enough seaworthy crewmen to set sail.
Start-Up
To determine who goes first and who will deal, each player draws a card, flipping it face up. A Head card beats a Body card, a Body card beats a Leg card, and a Leg card beats an Event card. In case of tie, repeat! The player who chose the "high card" goes first, then the play proceeds to the left. The player on their right is the dealer and gets to shuffle and deal the cards.
Deal ten cards to each player; these are the player's hand. After the hands are dealt, place nine cards face up into the center of the playing area. These are the Commons. Take all remaining cards and stack them in a single pile, face down. This stack is the draw pile or Shipyard. Leave room next to this stack for Davy Jones' Locker, a face up discard pile.
Play
To start your turn, draw 2 cards from the Shipyard, plus any extra cards granted by Specialty Body Parts or Active Characters. Next, remove any pirates or events as called for by the rules. Then you may create pirates, play Events, and/or use the Commons as many times as you like, in any order you wish. You may choose to end your turn at any time or keep playing until you have no more playable cards in your hand. At the end of your turn, you may have no more than ten cards in your hand. If you are over this limit, you must discard cards to Davy Jones' Locker until you are at ten.
Creating Pirates
A pirate is made from any Head, Chest, and Leg card. If you want to build a pirate in your own Crew, place these three cards face up in front of you; if you wish to build a pirate into an opponent's Crew, place them in front of that player. Once on the table, a pirate cannot change Crews or swap parts unless enabled by an Event card, Active Character, or Specialty Body Part.
Simple Pirates
A Simple pirate is the easiest, most commonly made in the game. Any combination of a Head, Chest, and Legs will do. They are very handy to have around, even if they cannot sail. Many Event cards require you to lose pirates. Simple pirates, especially ones that don't sail, are great for this. Also, there are many Event cards that let you swap body parts; use these to make your Simple pirates stronger.
Matched Pirates
A pirate who is made up of three body parts with the same card titles, other than Crewman, is considered Matched. A pirate made up of three Crewman body parts with the same Crewman number is also considered Matched. All Matched Pirates are immune to Skallywaggs.
Active Characters
An Active character is one with abilities that affect the game. There are two types of Active characters, Major characters and Minor characters.
All Major characters' body parts have a red card title and a number 3 as one of their icons. For a Major character to be Active, all three body parts must have the same card title. For example, you need all three cards with the title Ships Surgeon to make an Active Ships Surgeon.
Minor characters have three cards with matching card titles, but only two of them have a red card title and the number 2 as one of the icons. A pirate with both of these cards is Active, regardless of what the third card is, and both of these cards are immune to Skallywaggs, but the third card is not, unless it has a rule that says it is, or it has the same card title making that pirate Matched as well as Active. Active pirates are immune to Press Gang.
Specialty Body Parts
Specialty Body Parts have a star icon. These are single cards whose rules effect any pirate in which they are a part. A pirate can have more than one Specialty Body Part.
Playing Event Cards
During your turn, you can play Events at any time. To use an Event, place the card face up in front of you, and announce it is being played. Follow the rules on that card. Once the Event has been carried out, discard it face up on Davy Jones' Locker.
Some Events have a duration of one round. This means that the event is in effect until the start of the next turn of the player whose turn it was when the Event was played. With these Events you may find it easier to place them on the target character or near the affected player. Most events can only be played on your turn. Those that can be played any time are marked with an hourglass icon.
Using the Commons
During your turn, you may trade for cards in the Commons. First you must discard one card from your hand into Davy Jones' Locker, then swap any one card from your hand with any one card from the Commons. The Commons card goes into your hand, and then can be played as usual.
You may trade with the Commons as many times as you wish during your turn, but each time you do, you must discard an extra card. So the second time you use the Commons on the same turn, you discard 2, and swap one; the third time you discard 3, and swap one; and so on.
Empty Shipyard
When, and only when, the last card has been drawn from the Shipyard, shuffle the cards in Davy Jones' Locker, and place them face down to create a new Shipyard.
Dagger Rules
Some cards have rules that conflict. These rules will have daggers after them. The higher number of daggers indicates the stronger rule. For example: a character is built with both Parrot and Monkey parts. One player has a Captain in their Crew and another player has a Cook. The rule on the Parrot card has three daggers, while the Monkey has one. So you follow the rule on the Parrot card, and the pirate goes to the player with the Captain. Later in the game, if there are no Captains in any Crew, then this pirate would go to the Crew with the Cook.
Note: the dagger symbols are icons on the cards and did not survive the text extraction of the PDF; the dagger counts above are as stated in the printed rules text.
Two Captains, One Crew
If a player ever has two Active Captains in their Crew, they immediately lose half of their Crew, including one of the Captains (rounding down). The mutinous Captain and Crew go off to Davy Jones' Locker.
Winning the Game
When you have built enough seaworthy pirates, you can try to win the game. To do so, you must declare it by saying "I'm Sailing." Other players have one turn to do their worst, but if by the end of your next turn you can get back up to the needed amount of pirates, you WIN. If, however, you do not have enough pirates, the game continues. Each and every attempt to win must first start with the declaration "I'm Sailing." More than one player can try to win the game at the same time, but the first one to succeed is the winner.
With 2 players: 10 sea worthy sailors are needed. With 3 players: 7 sea worthy sailors are needed. With 4 players: 5 sea worthy sailors are needed.
Remember: because of their powers, some characters reduce the number of pirates needed to win, while others increase the necessary number. Characters with any parts marked "can't sail" do not count toward the Crew total (some of these may be made seaworthy by the presence of the Boatswain).
Special Rules
These rules are optional and should be agreed to before the game begins.
The Dutchman: This pirate is created with the Eye Patch, The Hook, and Peg Leg. He is considered a Matched Active character. If The Dutchman is in your crew, you only draw one card at the beginning of your turn, and you do not gain any extra cards from your Crew. The Dutchman is immune to Arrest Warrant, All Hands On Deck, and Skallywaggs.
Saint Elmo: This pirate is created with the Parrot, Squeezebox, and Monkey. He is considered a Matched Active character. If Saint Elmo is in your crew, you may take one Commons card per turn into your hand and replace it with a card from the Shipyard. This action does not count as a use of the Commons. Saint Elmo is immune to Arrest Warrant and Skallywaggs.
Card Diagrams
Crewmember diagram
- A. Mizzen Wizzzen - pirate trivia; Quay Quip - pirate quotes; Yard Yarn - pirate lore. On all Crewman parts and some other parts these have been added. They are not important to the playing of the game.
- B. Pirate's Name: Every pirate has a name it is made up from putting each of these words in order. In this case the pirate's name is Painted Dragoon Erasmus. Their names are fun but not important to the play of the game.
- C. Character Rules: All Major and most Minor Character cards have rules that explain their abilities when complete. Major Characters all have an icon with the number 3 indicating there are 3 parts you need for the rules to take effect. Minor Character parts with rules all have an icon with the number 2 indicating there are 2 parts you need for the rules to take effect. Both of the activating parts of a Minor Character have the icon and rules on them.
- D. Card Title: Titles come in two colors, red and grey. A red title indicates that the card has rules on it. A grey title shows it does not. Also, all of the Major and Minor characters have specific titles, and all of the cards you need to build them will have the same title.
- E. Crew Icons: These help you know at a glance what type of cards you have in your hand. Look at the complete list of Icons if you want to know what they all represent.
Event card diagram
- F. Event Icon: These help you know at a glance what type of cards you have in your hand. Look at the complete list of Icons if you want to know what they all represent.
- G. Event Type: A quick reference of what kind of event you have in your hand.
- H. Event Rules: All Event Cards have their rule printed here on the card.
- I. Sea Shanty: Each Event Card has one verse of the Skallywaggs Sea Shanty. The number indicates its place. You can find the music and more info at www.skallywaggs.com. The shanty is not important to game play.
Game layout diagram
- J. Shipyard (draw pile)
- K. Davy Jones' Locker (discard pile)
- L. The Commons. This diagram shows the position of all cards other than each player's crew, which should go in front of them, and their hand. Also note that the Shipyard is placed face down, while the rest of the cards are face up.