# Pirates — Treasure Island

Rules by Michael Fischer — updated Sep 8, 2012

### I. Introduction

Pirates - Treasure Island is a fast-paced game for 2-6 players that lets you feel some of the thrill of digging up buried treasure, stealing gold from less deserving pirates, and blowing hostile ships out of the water. The game is a free download; all you have to do is print out the cards, provide one or two dice, and prepare for mayhem on the high seas. One round of this game takes half an hour or less.

### II. Preparation

Print the cards and markers on cardstock and cut them out. There are 42 Ship cards, seven Island cards, and an assortment of Gold and Damaged markers. You will also need one or two six-sided dice.

### III. Setting Up for a Game

Ship cards have four attributes: the number of masts (which is just under the national flag), and ratings for Loot, Fight, and Board. Ships are divided into seven fleets:

- Dutch are average in all respects.
- Pirates are good at Boarding, but poor at Fighting.
- English are good at Fighting, but poor at Looting.
- Spanish are good at Looting, but poor at Boarding.
- French are good at Looting, but poor at Fighting.
- Americans are good at Fighting, but poor at Boarding.
- Neptunes (sea monsters) are good at Boarding, but poor at Looting.

Each player chooses a fleet, and picks three Ship cards from that fleet — one 1-masted ship, one 2-master, and one 3-master. Set the unclaimed Ship cards aside. Turn all the Gold markers face-down. Put one Island in front of each player. Put an island in the middle of the play area; this is Treasure Island, which belongs to no one. Roll the dice to see who goes first.

### IV. Game Play

There are three zones where a ship can be: Home (touching your own Island), At Sea (touching no islands), or Treasure Island (touching that island). No ship may touch another player's Island. All ships start the game at Home. Any time you take Gold markers, choose them at random.

When it is your turn, choose one of your ships and give it an order. The orders are:

- Drinking & Wenching: your ship does nothing.
- Move: move your ship from Home or Treasure Island to At Sea, or from At Sea to either of the other zones. If you move to Home, move all Gold from your ship to your Island.
- Loot: if your ship is touching Treasure Island, roll a die and load that many Gold markers onto that ship, subject to how many Gold markers that ship can carry (its Loot number). You may look at your Gold after you've loaded it.
- Fight: choose another player's ship in the same zone. Each of you rolls a die, adds his/her ship's Fight rating, and subtracts 1 if his/her ship has a Damaged marker; high result wins (if the result is a tie, nothing happens). The losing ship gets a Damaged marker. If it was Damaged already, or if the loser's die roll came up 1, it sinks and is out of the game. If it was carrying gold when sunk, the winner may load one Gold marker from the loser, if his/her ship can carry it; the rest of the losing ship's gold goes out of the game.
- Board: choose another player's ship in the same zone. Each of you rolls a die and adds his/her ship's Board rating; high result wins (if the result is a tie, nothing happens). The winner may fill his/her ship with Gold from the losing ship, assuming the winner can carry it.
- Transfer: move some or all of your Gold markers to another of your ships in the same zone.
- Repair: if your ship is Home and has a Damaged marker, remove the marker.
- Gamble: your ship must have Gold on board, but not be full. Choose another player's ship that has Gold but isn't full. Each of you rolls a die; reroll ties. The winning ship takes one Gold from the loser's ship.
- Trust to Luck: roll a die; on a 1-4, your ship does nothing. If it comes up 5-6, choose one of the orders from the list below.
  - No Honor Among Thieves: load one Gold marker from another player's Island to your ship.
  - Run Before the Wind: give two Move orders to your ship, or a Move order to two different ships.
  - Storm at Sea: give a Move order to an enemy ship.
  - Treasure Map: if your ship is At Sea, move it to Treasure Island, and then give it a Loot order in the same turn.
  - False Colors: give your ship a Move order and a Fight order in the same turn.
  - Boat Attack: give your ship a Move order and a Board order in the same turn.
  - Ship's Carpenter: remove a Damaged marker from your ship in any zone.

### V. Winning the Game

A player who has lost all his/her ships is out of the game. If all players but one are out of the game, the one remaining player is the winner. Otherwise, play until someone has 10 or more Gold markers on his/her Island. Each player counts up the total values of the Gold markers in his/her ships and on his/her Island; the high total is the winner.

### VI. Designer's Notes

This game was inspired by the utter non-pirate-ness of NECA's "Pirates of the Spanish Main - Shuffling the Deck" game, released in 2012, which is supposed to be a worthy follow-on to WizKids' Pirates constructable strategy game, but in fact is more like "Clue" played with cards. If a card game is all that we Pirates can hope for, then in the name of Black Bart Roberts, it should be a better game than that! I made sure not to use any of NECA's or WizKids' intellectual property. If there is demand for it, I could make an expansion set or two, with more ships and some variant rules.