Pirates

The year is 1667 and you are a pirate sailing the waters of the Caribbean. A Spanish Galleon floats nearby, and you’ve talked your crewmates into working together to steal all of its treasure. What you haven’t told your fellow pirates is that you have no intentions on sharing the treasure once you have it. Your crewmates have told you that they share your loyalty and that they’ll help you maroon the greedy pirates on your ship to the rocky island of Tortuga. But you’ve seen your friends’ loaded pistols and heard their whisperings of a mutiny. You know that nobody can be trusted.

Tortuga is all about the interactions you have with the other players. In some cases, such as when you and your shipmates are attacking the Spanish Galleon, you need to rely on your enemies in order to succeed. In the very next turn, however, your shipmates might stab you in the back with a mutiny in order to keep all the treasure for themselves.

Since nobody holds a "hand" of cards, this game is also about knowledge and communication regarding the community Event cards. Unless you are in desperation mode, it is not wise to reveal Event cards at random. Almost half of the Event cards can hurt your team drastically. It's often in your best interest to use an action to view the cards first, or to rely on the knowledge of a trusted ally. Knowing where harmful Event cards are located allows you to force an enemy to reveal those cards and suffer the consequences. The most successful players are the ones who are able to discern who is on their team and then share vital information with them at opportune moments.

Vote cards also play a key role in the game. Each Vote card has three sections - one each for Attacks, Mutinies, and Brawls. Players must put themselves in the best position to use their Vote cards, since their hand of Vote cards may not always be ideal based on their pawn location. For example, sometimes it may be worth putting in Water, causing an attack to fail, in order to save a Crossbones card for when you want to Mutiny against your captain.

For 2-9 Players. 20-40 minutes. Ages 12+.

In Sea of Clouds, as captain of a flying pirate ship, recruit a cutthroat crew, collect relics and unearth the best rum by gathering shares of Loot. Then send your pirates aboard enemy ships to plunder their treasure!

In each round of the game, players take turns divvying up shares of Loot to gain Rum, Relics, Objects, and Pirates. In some rounds, when ships are flying close together, they will also clash in a Boarding action, using the effects of any Pirates they picked up to gain Doubloons and plunder Loot.

On your turn, take the first of the three shares of Loot on the table, and look at it secretly. You must decide to either take all the cards in the Share then add the top card from the deck face-down to this Loot space, or to leave the Share and look at the next one. If you choose to do the latter, add the top card from the deck to the Share you declined (or a Doubloon, if there's already three cards), thus increasing its value for the next player. If no shares interest you, blindly take the top card of the deck.

The card backs give you a hint about what’s in the next Shares: Pirates to board other ships, legendary Relics to collect, Rum to be scored at the end of the game, and Items with permanent, immediate, or secret effects.

Every 4 or 5 rounds (depending on the number of players), Boarding action will occur! Add the strength of your Captain and your Pirates, apply any bonuses or penalties, and face your two neighbors! For each victory, your Pirates will gain Doubloons or steal some Loot! After the fight, all Pirates are discarded.

The game ends after 12 (or 15) rounds. Players then add the value of their Doubloons and their Loot cards to determine who’s the winner.

A ship full of scallywags and a hold full of loot... it’s time to divvy up the booty. Keep an eye on the crew though, because everyone knows pirates be cheaters! Try to keep the best loot for yourself while giving the worst to your mates! Once all pirates have five treasures, the pirate with the most valuable loot wins.

Me Booty! is a card game for 3 to 6 scallywags. On your turn you must decide to take treasure for yourself, give it to another pirate, or use some sneaky back-stabbing to sabotage your mates.

Eric M. Lang and Bruno Faidutti have joined forces to create the ultimate prisoner's dilemma game. Do you cooperate and risk getting outsmarted by a greedy player? Or do you compete and risk losing everything?

You are pirates who just looted a ship and must negotiate how to split the treasure. There are seven types of loot with values from 1 to 3. At the end of the game, you only score the treasure types you have the most and least of.

On each turn, open four new treasures: two in front of you and two in front of your neighbour. Simultaneously decide how to split them. Choices:

Peace (I want the 2 in front of me)
War (I want them all)
First pick (I want just one, pick first)

If both players choose peace, split the loot evenly. If both choose war, lose all treasure. If both choose first pick, lose all treasure.

The game continues until the Dawn Card is drawn. 15 minutes!

Dead Man's Draw is a simple and strategic card game of risk and reward for 2 to 4 players. Players take turns drawing cards and combining their special abilities to plunder the most loot without busting their entire hands.

The core of your turn in Dead Man’s Draw is all in the flip: pulling the top card off the deck and using its special ability. Your turn isn’t over until you say it is, though. You can keep pulling cards as long as you like – until you play a card of a suit already seen, at which point you lose everything. Knowing when to stop and "bank" your cards is the biggest decision you make in Dead Man’s Draw, but being too timid lets braver opponents pass you up with bigger, more profitable turns.

The cards’ special abilities are key to success in Dead Man’s Draw, and they build off of each other. Each suit in DMD has an effect that the player can target when they flip a card of that suit.

Anchor – Keep everything you drew before the Anchor even if you bust.

Cannon – Destroy one card an opponent has previously banked.

Chest – Double your haul by banking as many cards directly from the discard pile as are in the river when you bank the Chest – but only if you also bank a Key.

Hook – Play one of your previously banked cards.

Key – Enables the Chest special.

Kraken – Oh no! You’re forced to draw at least two more cards.

Map – Draw three cards from the discard pile and play one.

Mermaid – No ability, but worth more points (Mermaids are numbered 4-9 instead of 2-7).

Oracle – Look at the next card before deciding if you want to play it.

Sword – Steal an opponent’s previously banked card and play it.

Many of these work well together, like using a Hook to re-play a Sword from your hand to steal an opponent’s Chest to go with your Key – racking up huge points by playing abilities well and not solely through the luck of the draw.

As soon as the deck is depleted, players total up the value of the highest card they’ve banked from each suit. High score wins.