Theme/Style: Pirate themed adventure game
Number of players: 2
Suggested age range: 8+
Components:
12 Sea Deck cards
• 10 Journey cards
• 1 Pirate's Peak card (halfway point in the race, where the players round Pirate's Peak,
choose a treasure and head back to the dock)
• 1 Starting Dock card
2 Captain pieces
8 Crewman pieces (crewmen help you fight and dig for buried treasure)
6 cannon balls (used for attacking, and to interrupt your opponent's gold search)
Pirate's Peak treasures - Golden cutlass, Steel cannon, Mighty sail
10 life point markers (5 per player)
2 pirate ship pieces (brown and black)
1 ghost ship piece (white)
100 gold pieces (in total value) - (current prototype uses: pennies = 1 gold, nickel = 5 etc.)
instruction booklet
1 die
Instructions:
Objective:
You and your opponent sail through the treacherous seas to Pirate's Peak and back!
Your journey unfolds a unique path you must take as you attempt to gain as much
gold as possible. You will race, battle, and encounter many surprises along the way.
Whoever returns to the dock with the most gold wins, and the other player is banished
from the land!
Setup:
Place the Starting Dock Card face up between you and your opponent. Choose a ship
color and its corresponding Ship Card and Captain Piece. Place the Ship Card in front
of you and place the Captain Piece in his spot. Then, place your ship on the first dash
alongside one of the docks. Shuffle the Sea Cards, and place them face down on the
shore side of the Starting Dock Card.
The Starting Dock Card:
If you are on the starting dock card:
• You can not fire a cannonball
• You can not be hit by a cannonball
• The Mighty Sail has no affect
Each player starts with 10 gold for resources.
Before setting sail, you might want to spend a little gold.
• Cannonballs sell for 2 gold a piece. Note: Ships can hold 3 Cannonballs.
• Crewmen sell for 3 gold a piece. Note: Ships can carry 4 Crewmen. Your
captain does not count as a crewman.
Setting Sail:
• Both players roll to see who goes first. The player with the higher number goes first.
◦ In the case of a tie, roll again.
• Before each turn, you must declare how you are going to spend your turn - either
sailing, searching for treasure, or firing a cannon.
Sailing:
• Ships move one space on the cards, equivalent to the number on the die roll.
◦ You may stop your ship early on an "X", and island, or the castaway space.
◦ There may be some sea encounters you must stop early on.
• Ships can only move forward, and must stay on their own path.
• If your ship reaches the last space on a card and could continue on, flip over the top
card of the Sea Deck, and place it face up at the end of the board.
◦ Example diagram in future instructions
◦ Note: Sea Cards must be played in the direction they are flipped, with the
exception of the Pirate's Peak card.
◦ Note: If the Pirate's Peak Card is drawn as one of the first five cards, return
it to the Sea Deck, shuffle, and flip over a new Sea Card.
◦ Note: If you roll a 1, see the "Ghost Ship" section for instructions.
Searching for Treasure:
• Buried Treasure spots: (an X)
taken you past it, but you cannot search for treasure until your next turn.
• If your roll lands you directly on an X, you may roll to search for buried
treasure immediately.
After you have declared you are searching for treasure, roll the die.
Double the number on the die and then add the number of crewmen you
have in your ship. This equals the amount of gold you just found. Add it
to your stash (example: with a dice roll of 3, and 4 crewmen)
[3, doubled = 6, plus 4 crewmen, is 6+4, which equals 10 hold pieces]
Note: You can't search for treasure on the same spot two turns in a row.
Firing a Cannon:
• If you have a cannonball and are on the same card, or on the card next to your
opponent, you are in range to fire your cannon. There are two types of attacks
you can make:
• Interrupting a treasure search:
• Attacking the ship:
◦ You can fire your cannon at your opponent at any point in an attempt to take
off a life point
Note: Firing a cannon always counts as a turn.
Note: Defending a cannon attack does not count as a turn.
The Treasures of Pirate's Peak:
The first player to stop at Pirate's Peak gets to choose from 3 Treasures. The second ship to
arrive chooses from the remaining 2. They are:
Sea Encounters: (Explained below are the different encounters you will see in the game)
Colliding with a ship:
• If two ships (player or Ghost Ship) would cross paths or land on the same spot, they
stop before they do so, and attack.
• The crewmen on each ship fight each other for gold.
◦ You and your opponent take turns rolling the die for each one-on-one crewman
fight.
• The winner of each fight wins the difference in gold from the other player
(example: player1 rolls a 5, player2 rolls a 3. player1 takes 2 gold from
player2's stash.)
◦ If the roll is a tie, no gold is exchanged for that flight.
• If any crewmen have no opponents to fight, they roll to see how many
pieces of gold they steal from their opponent's stash.
• example: diagram in instructions
• Note: A Ghost Ship always has the same amount of crewmen as the
attacking ship, and always rolls a 6 for each crewman.
◦ The player who won the most gold during the fight must advance to the next
open spot on his path, clearing the way for the ships to continue on.
Islands:
• You can decide to stop early at an island and purchase more crewmen and
cannonballs. If you do so, you must count the island as a space. If you do not want to
buy resources, you may bypass the island completely.
• You may buy resources immediately after you land on an island.
Note: Ship paths do not cross islands, they stay on the same side.
Note: You can not attack or be attacked while on an island.
Note: You can not make a Ghost Ship appear if you are on an island.
Ghost Ship:
• Summoning a Ghost Ship:
summoned to that new spot.
• If your second roll is anything other than a 1, move your ship that many
spaces.
◦ You cannot summon a Ghost Ship if you are on an island, in a whirl pool or on
the Giant Squid space.
• Fighting a Ghost Ship:
◦ The same rules apply as fighting an opponent's ship, with the exception that a
Ghost Ship always has the same amount of crewmen as the attacking ship,
and always rolls a 6 for each of its crewmen.
◦ Any gold you lose while fighting a Ghost Ship is put in the Sea Bank.
◦ Once a Ghost Ship is fought it is removed from the board, until it is summoned
again.
Whirlpool: (Trap)
• All ships get sucked into the whirlpool, regardless if their roll would land them past it.
A 6 must be rolled on the die before the ship can overpower it.
• No fighting occurs in a whirlpool
• Ghost Ships can not be summoned to the whirlpool space.
Mermaids: (Trap)
• If you land directly on this space, a mermaid lures one crewman away from your ship,
and he does not return.
Giant Squid: (Trap)
damage from the fight and you lose one ship life point.
◦ If after 3 attempts you have not defeated the Giant Squid, you may choose to
sacrifice one of your crewmen to him, and move ahead on your next turn, or
continue rolling.
Fog: (Trap)
• If you encounter this space, you must stop on it.
◦ On your next turn, you must close your eyes and roll the die. Before opening
your eyes, you must call out a number, 1 through 6. If your guess is within 1
number of your roll, you've navigated out of the fog. Move as many spaces
forward as the die reads. Otherwise, you must stay there and try again on
your next turn.
Note: You can not fire or be hit by a cannon if you are in fog.
Castaway: (Bonus)
• You may decide to stop early at this space. If you choose to stop, you rescue a
castaway from the sea and put him to work! For this, you gain one crewman, if you
have room on your ship.
Gust of Wind: (Bonus)
• When you land directly on this space, you feel a strong gust of wind approaching. For
your next turn, you more twice as far as you normally would.
Short Cut: (Bonus)
• If you land directly on a shortcut space, you may take the shorter route on your next
turn.
Note: You don't have to take the short cut.
Winning the game:
• As soon as one ship docks, no more sailing or searching for treasure can be done.
◦ Ships have to land perfectly at the dock with an exact roll.
• The first ship back is able to sell back his crewmen for 1 gold each.
• Each player counts their gold, and the player with the most gold at the end wins!
• If at any point in the game your opponent's ship loses all 5 of it's life points, you
automatically win the game.
Unique features:
When I started thinking about designing Pirate's Peak, I wanted there to be a variable that
would make the adventure different each time you played. As the board is unveiled along the
journey it gives the players an element of surprise that otherwise is difficult to find in a standard
board game. This also makes the decisions of how/when you should spend your gold on
resources more strategic.
Each of the sea encounters require you to do something different. I feel that giving unique
challenges and results based on the event that takes place, makes for a more interesting
journey. Also, I love pirates, and I wanted to make an experience where you could do pretty
much anything a pirate does.
Play test results: (overall notes based on many play tests)
One of the areas that players commented on most is the fact that the "board" that is created by flipping over the cards makes the game different every time you play. This also made them want to play a second time because they wanted revenge, which is great cause pirates are all about revenge.
They loved the interaction and impact they felt they had on the other player, and felt like their actions were important at all times. Even the players who were losing for the majority of the game still felt like there was a chance for them to sink the other player's ship, and win. (This was a difficult thing to balance. I wanted to make it hard enough to sink a ship that it would be considered a last ditch effort and extremely risky early on in the game. Also, not too easy that players would just go for that dominant strategy from the start.)
Players did mention that it felt like there were a lot of rules, but after they played the game once, it became familiar. (The current instruction booklet breaks up the main game play and the sea encounters so that the players can refer to the sea encounters section when one arises. Organizing it from general to specific helped with the overwhelming feeling they were experiencing.)
• 1 Starting Dock card
2 Captain pieces
8 Crewman pieces (crewmen help you fight and dig for buried treasure)
6 cannon balls (used for attacking, and to interrupt your opponent's gold search)
Pirate's Peak treasures - Golden cutlass, Steel cannon, Mighty sail
10 life point markers (5 per player)
2 pirate ship pieces (brown and black)
1 ghost ship piece (white)
100 gold pieces (in total value) - (current prototype uses: pennies = 1 gold, nickel = 5 etc.)
instruction booklet
1 die
Instructions:
Objective:
You and your opponent sail through the treacherous seas to Pirate's Peak and back!
Your journey unfolds a unique path you must take as you attempt to gain as much
gold as possible. You will race, battle, and encounter many surprises along the way.
Whoever returns to the dock with the most gold wins, and the other player is banished
from the land!
Setup:
Place the Starting Dock Card face up between you and your opponent. Choose a ship
color and its corresponding Ship Card and Captain Piece. Place the Ship Card in front
of you and place the Captain Piece in his spot. Then, place your ship on the first dash
alongside one of the docks. Shuffle the Sea Cards, and place them face down on the
shore side of the Starting Dock Card.
The Starting Dock Card:
If you are on the starting dock card:
• You can not fire a cannonball
• You can not be hit by a cannonball
• The Mighty Sail has no affect
Each player starts with 10 gold for resources.
Before setting sail, you might want to spend a little gold.
• Cannonballs sell for 2 gold a piece. Note: Ships can hold 3 Cannonballs.
• Crewmen sell for 3 gold a piece. Note: Ships can carry 4 Crewmen. Your
captain does not count as a crewman.
• Both players roll to see who goes first. The player with the higher number goes first.
◦ In the case of a tie, roll again.
• Before each turn, you must declare how you are going to spend your turn - either
sailing, searching for treasure, or firing a cannon.
Sailing:
• Ships move one space on the cards, equivalent to the number on the die roll.
◦ You may stop your ship early on an "X", and island, or the castaway space.
◦ There may be some sea encounters you must stop early on.
• Ships can only move forward, and must stay on their own path.
• If your ship reaches the last space on a card and could continue on, flip over the top
card of the Sea Deck, and place it face up at the end of the board.
◦ Example diagram in future instructions
◦ Note: Sea Cards must be played in the direction they are flipped, with the
exception of the Pirate's Peak card.
◦ Note: If the Pirate's Peak Card is drawn as one of the first five cards, return
it to the Sea Deck, shuffle, and flip over a new Sea Card.
◦ Note: If you roll a 1, see the "Ghost Ship" section for instructions.
Searching for Treasure:
• Buried Treasure spots: (an X)
- Some Sea Cards have Buried Treasure Spots. On these spaces you can search for buried treasure
taken you past it, but you cannot search for treasure until your next turn.
• If your roll lands you directly on an X, you may roll to search for buried
treasure immediately.
After you have declared you are searching for treasure, roll the die.
Double the number on the die and then add the number of crewmen you
have in your ship. This equals the amount of gold you just found. Add it
to your stash (example: with a dice roll of 3, and 4 crewmen)
[3, doubled = 6, plus 4 crewmen, is 6+4, which equals 10 hold pieces]
Note: You can't search for treasure on the same spot two turns in a row.
Firing a Cannon:
• If you have a cannonball and are on the same card, or on the card next to your
opponent, you are in range to fire your cannon. There are two types of attacks
you can make:
• Interrupting a treasure search:
- If your opponent declares they are searching for treasure, you can declare you are firing your cannon to try to interrupt their treasure search.
- The Player who is searching for gold (searcher) rolls first, and notes the number on the die. Then, the Player who is firing (attacker) rolls the die and notes that number.
- If the attacker's roll is equal to the searcher's roll, the attacker full interrupted the search, and the searcher gets no gold.
- if the attacker's roll is greater than the searcher's roll, the attacker fully interrupted the search, the searcher gets no gold and loses one ship life point.
- if the attacker's roll is less than the searcher's roll, the attacker partially interrupted the search, The attacker's roll is subtracted from the searcher's roll, and this new dice value is doubled. This is the amount of gold the searcher adds to his stash.
• Attacking the ship:
◦ You can fire your cannon at your opponent at any point in an attempt to take
off a life point
- The Player who is attacking rolls first (attacker), and notes the number on the die. Then the Player who is defending (defender) toll the die and notes that number.
- If the attacker's roll is greater than the defender's, the defender loses one life point.
- If the attacker's roll is less than or equal to the defender's the defender is safe, and loses no life points
Note: Firing a cannon always counts as a turn.
Note: Defending a cannon attack does not count as a turn.
The Treasures of Pirate's Peak:
The first player to stop at Pirate's Peak gets to choose from 3 Treasures. The second ship to
arrive chooses from the remaining 2. They are:
- The Mighty Sail: This sail makes your ship move an additional space when sailing. It has no affect if your ship is on the Starting Dock Card.
- The Golden Cutlass: This sword adds 1 to each of your crewmen's dice rolls during a fight.
- The Steel Cannon: This cannon does not have a range restriction like a regular cannon. It can be fired from any number of cards away from your opponent. However, it can not be fired while on the Starting Dock Card, or at an opponent if they are on the Starting Dock Card.
Sea Encounters: (Explained below are the different encounters you will see in the game)
Colliding with a ship:
• If two ships (player or Ghost Ship) would cross paths or land on the same spot, they
stop before they do so, and attack.
• The crewmen on each ship fight each other for gold.
◦ You and your opponent take turns rolling the die for each one-on-one crewman
fight.
• The winner of each fight wins the difference in gold from the other player
(example: player1 rolls a 5, player2 rolls a 3. player1 takes 2 gold from
player2's stash.)
◦ If the roll is a tie, no gold is exchanged for that flight.
• If any crewmen have no opponents to fight, they roll to see how many
pieces of gold they steal from their opponent's stash.
• example: diagram in instructions
• Note: A Ghost Ship always has the same amount of crewmen as the
attacking ship, and always rolls a 6 for each crewman.
◦ The player who won the most gold during the fight must advance to the next
open spot on his path, clearing the way for the ships to continue on.
Islands:
• You can decide to stop early at an island and purchase more crewmen and
cannonballs. If you do so, you must count the island as a space. If you do not want to
buy resources, you may bypass the island completely.
• You may buy resources immediately after you land on an island.
Note: Ship paths do not cross islands, they stay on the same side.
Note: You can not attack or be attacked while on an island.
Note: You can not make a Ghost Ship appear if you are on an island.
Ghost Ship:
• Summoning a Ghost Ship:
- During play, if you roll a 1, you may move 1 space, or roll again and try to summon the Ghost Ship
- If another 1 is rolled, a Ghost Ship appears on your spot. Roll a third time and move that many spaces. The Ghost Ship stays behind to fight your opponent later in the game, unless it is summoned again.
summoned to that new spot.
• If your second roll is anything other than a 1, move your ship that many
spaces.
◦ You cannot summon a Ghost Ship if you are on an island, in a whirl pool or on
the Giant Squid space.
• Fighting a Ghost Ship:
◦ The same rules apply as fighting an opponent's ship, with the exception that a
Ghost Ship always has the same amount of crewmen as the attacking ship,
and always rolls a 6 for each of its crewmen.
◦ Any gold you lose while fighting a Ghost Ship is put in the Sea Bank.
◦ Once a Ghost Ship is fought it is removed from the board, until it is summoned
again.
Whirlpool: (Trap)
• All ships get sucked into the whirlpool, regardless if their roll would land them past it.
A 6 must be rolled on the die before the ship can overpower it.
- Once a 6 is rolled, the ship is moved 6 spaces away from the whirlpool on their path.
- if after 5 attempts you have not rolled a 6, you are spit out one space away from the whirlpool, and your ship loses a life point.
• No fighting occurs in a whirlpool
• Ghost Ships can not be summoned to the whirlpool space.
Mermaids: (Trap)
• If you land directly on this space, a mermaid lures one crewman away from your ship,
and he does not return.
Giant Squid: (Trap)
- You can not pass this space without a fight. Roll the die three times. If your total is 12 or greater, you have escaped it's grasp and may continue sailing ahead on your next turn.
- If your total is 18, you move 6 spaces forward right away.
damage from the fight and you lose one ship life point.
◦ If after 3 attempts you have not defeated the Giant Squid, you may choose to
sacrifice one of your crewmen to him, and move ahead on your next turn, or
continue rolling.
Fog: (Trap)
• If you encounter this space, you must stop on it.
◦ On your next turn, you must close your eyes and roll the die. Before opening
your eyes, you must call out a number, 1 through 6. If your guess is within 1
number of your roll, you've navigated out of the fog. Move as many spaces
forward as the die reads. Otherwise, you must stay there and try again on
your next turn.
Note: You can not fire or be hit by a cannon if you are in fog.
Castaway: (Bonus)
• You may decide to stop early at this space. If you choose to stop, you rescue a
castaway from the sea and put him to work! For this, you gain one crewman, if you
have room on your ship.
Gust of Wind: (Bonus)
• When you land directly on this space, you feel a strong gust of wind approaching. For
your next turn, you more twice as far as you normally would.
Short Cut: (Bonus)
• If you land directly on a shortcut space, you may take the shorter route on your next
turn.
Note: You don't have to take the short cut.
Winning the game:
• As soon as one ship docks, no more sailing or searching for treasure can be done.
◦ Ships have to land perfectly at the dock with an exact roll.
• The first ship back is able to sell back his crewmen for 1 gold each.
• Each player counts their gold, and the player with the most gold at the end wins!
• If at any point in the game your opponent's ship loses all 5 of it's life points, you
automatically win the game.
Unique features:
When I started thinking about designing Pirate's Peak, I wanted there to be a variable that
would make the adventure different each time you played. As the board is unveiled along the
journey it gives the players an element of surprise that otherwise is difficult to find in a standard
board game. This also makes the decisions of how/when you should spend your gold on
resources more strategic.
Each of the sea encounters require you to do something different. I feel that giving unique
challenges and results based on the event that takes place, makes for a more interesting
journey. Also, I love pirates, and I wanted to make an experience where you could do pretty
much anything a pirate does.
Play test results: (overall notes based on many play tests)
One of the areas that players commented on most is the fact that the "board" that is created by flipping over the cards makes the game different every time you play. This also made them want to play a second time because they wanted revenge, which is great cause pirates are all about revenge.
They loved the interaction and impact they felt they had on the other player, and felt like their actions were important at all times. Even the players who were losing for the majority of the game still felt like there was a chance for them to sink the other player's ship, and win. (This was a difficult thing to balance. I wanted to make it hard enough to sink a ship that it would be considered a last ditch effort and extremely risky early on in the game. Also, not too easy that players would just go for that dominant strategy from the start.)
Players did mention that it felt like there were a lot of rules, but after they played the game once, it became familiar. (The current instruction booklet breaks up the main game play and the sea encounters so that the players can refer to the sea encounters section when one arises. Organizing it from general to specific helped with the overwhelming feeling they were experiencing.)
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