All Hands On Deck (2016) Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Setting Up the Game
• Object of the Game
• The Score Sheet
• The Gameplay
  • 1. Looking for Candidates
  • 2. Hiring New Men
  • 3. All Hands on Deck!
• End of Game
• The Score
• Curse Cards
• Variation
• Drawing Pile and Crew Pile Contrasted

Setting Up the Game

1. Deal a Score Sheet to each of the players.

2. When there are 6 players, the complete deck of cards is used. With 5 players, remove the cards with a "6" in the bottom right corner. With 4 or less players the cards marked "5" have to be removed as well.

3. Put the Curse Cards within easy reach.

4. Shuffle the "Pirate Cards", then deal out, face down, the appropriate number of cards to the players as follows:

   • 2 Players: 20 cards per player
   • 3 Players: 17 cards per player
   • 4 - 6 Players: 15 cards per player

   Remaining cards are put aside, they will not be used in the current game.

5. Without looking at their cards or showing them to the others, the players form a personal Drawing Pile in front of them.

6. The Start Player Card is placed in the middle of the table.

7. The first round is opened by the player who manages to grab the Start Player Card before the others do.

Object of the Game

The object of the game is to form as many combinations of cards as possible that will fetch you a high number of Score Points (SP). In every round each player adds one card to his potential combinations. He collects these cards on his personal Drawing Pile in front of him. (So there will be two piles in front of each player as the game advances, the Drawing Pile and the Crew Pile.) [Scan note: the first line of this paragraph is cut off at the top of page 2; the opening words are reconstructed from the visible fragments and the paragraph on page 1.]

When a player has completed a combination, he may put it face up on the table, scoring the points attributed to that particular combination. Some of the combinations allow In-Game Actions that give the player advantages over his competitors.

The player with the highest score wins the game.

The Score Sheet

The Score Sheet has two sides.

Score Points side (the combinations and their values; the card-count maximum is printed under each row):

• Row 1: a combination of five differently illustrated cards, 9 SP. (The sheet prints no card-count maximum and no further wording for this row.)
• Row 2 (Captains): three Captains, 8 SP (max. 5/6/7 cards). A pair of two Captains, 0 SP. A single Captain, -3 SP.
• Row 3 (Captains): three Captains, 7 SP (max. 5/6/7 cards). A pair of two Captains, 0 SP. A single Captain, -2 SP.
• Row 4 (Captains): three Captains, 6 SP (max. 5/6/7 cards). A pair of two Captains, 0 SP. A single Captain, -1 SP.
• Row 5: three cards, 4 SP (max. 10/12/14 cards). (The sheet prints no further wording for this row.)

The Captains are the cards with a black frame, and they are marked on the Score Sheet as "CAPTAINS (black frame)".

In-Game Actions side (each worth 2 SP):

• To be carried out at once: take any one card from any competitor's Crew Pile and put it on your own Crew Pile. (max. 6/7/9 cards)
• In the next round, put two Stock Cards on your Crew Pile instead of one. (max. 6/7/9 cards)
• In the next round, draw two more Stock Cards to choose from after the other players have drawn their cards. (max. 10/12/14 cards)
• A player of your choice is restricted to drawing just one Stock Card in the next round. He must put this card on his Crew Pile. (max. 6/7/9 cards)
• To be carried out at once: you may punish one of your competitors with a Curse Card valued -1. (max. 10/12/14 cards)

Each row's three "MAX." numbers follow the sheet's heading "Maximum number of cards in the game (according to number of players: 2-4/5/6 players)", so they read in the order 2-4 players / 5 players / 6 players.

The Gameplay

The game is played in several rounds, with every round consisting of three distinct phases:

1. Looking for Candidates
2. Hiring New Men
3. All Hands on Deck!

1. Looking for Candidates

The player who has the Start Player Card starts the game. He draws the top card from ANY ONE Drawing Pile and puts it face down before him. He must not look at it at that time. In clockwise rotation all the players draw cards, one at a time, until they have three cards lying in front of them. These cards we call Stock Cards. The Start Player puts the Start Player Card back into the middle of the table.

2. Hiring New Men

This phase calls for the swiftness of the players: they count down from 3 to 0 together, take up their Stock Cards simultaneously, look at them quickly and decide which card of the three will serve them best to start or complete their respective combinations. The card selected is then placed, face down, on the personal Crew Pile.

Warning: To avoid mixing up the two piles in front of each player, it is advisable to use the place provided on the Score Sheet when the Crew Pile is first started with one card in the first round!

The other two Stock Cards are put, face down, on the personal Drawing Pile. The first player who has discarded all his cards picks up the Start Player Card and will thus be able to start the next round. If the first player forgets to take the card, the other players can take their chances.

Hint: Make sure your competitors can't see your cards at any time during this phase.

3. All Hands on Deck!

When all the players have discarded their Stock Cards, they may "go out" with the combinations they have collected in their Crew Pile. A Player who wants to do this must call out "All Hands on Deck!" to announce his intention. The first to call out will be the first to be allowed to display his combinations. He then puts one or more (complete) combinations, face up, on the table before him, where they will remain until the game ends and their values will be added up.

If a combination entitles a player to an in-game action, he may perform it once AT THE INDICATED POINT OF TIME. If he should forget to take advantage of it or does not want to perform it, the action will be forfeited.

When all the players have laid out their combinations, the round ends. The Start Player begins a new round with Phase One.

End of Game

When, at the beginning of a new round, the number of cards in all the Drawing Piles on the table is lower than the number of players, the game ends.

As long as there are enough cards in the Drawing Piles for each player to draw at least one card, the game continues. Even if the players can no longer choose from three Stock Cards, they still need to put one card on top of their Crew Piles in every round.

Here are the steps to prepare the final score:

1. All the remaining cards in the Drawing Piles are put aside. They do not count in any way.
2. Each player lays out ALL the cards in his Crew Pile, forming combinations as usual. In-game actions can no longer be performed; they have turned invalid.
3. Cards that do not match with other cards to form a combination can be put aside. This does not apply to the "Captains", however! They will be attended to in the final score.

The Score

After removing those cards that will not matter for the final score, the players now add up the score points they have acquired during the game.

Note that single Captains (which are not part of a combination) will earn you one or more negative score points as indicated on the Score Sheet. Pairs of two Captains of the same kind do not count (0 SP). Negative score points acquired through a competitor's action or as a penalty (see CURSE CARDS) have to be deducted.

The player with the highest score wins.

In the case of a draw the player with the highest number of Captains wins, even if some of the Captains may have brought him negative score points.

Curse Cards

If a player does not keep to the rules a penalty in the form of a Curse Card with the value of -1 is imposed on him. As the Curse Cards have two faces (-1 and -2), a second negative score point can be easily imposed on the same player by simply turning the card.

Here are some instances of breaking a rule that can often be observed. Watch out for them and try to catch your competitors making a mistake, but don't let yourself be caught if you are making one yourself!

1. Looking at a Stock Card while drawing it.
2. Looking at the Stock Cards before the signal is given ("zero" after the countdown).
3. Drawing a card from a Drawing Pile when it is not your turn.
4. Calling out "All Hands on Deck!" without being able to lay out a complete combination of cards. (This is also counted as a breach of rules in the case of a player who is left with an incomplete combination only because a competitor has snatched a crucial card from his Crew Pile, and will be punished accordingly.)

Variation

If you favour pirate-like actions like raiding, plundering and looting, you may want to try out the following variation of PHASE TWO, HIRING NEW MEN. Instead of hiding your Stock Cards from the others, turn up the faces of your three Stock Cards for everyone to see after the signal. As you are looking at your cards, you may catch a glimpse of your competitors' cards and find out what cards they are putting on which piles. But don't forget: this advantage applies to all the players at the table equally.

Drawing Pile and Crew Pile Contrasted

Drawing Pile

• There is a Drawing Pile on the table in front of each player from the first round. It is composed of the cards dealt out at the beginning of the game.
• Cards in the Drawing Piles are always face down and are NEVER shuffled during the game.
• When drawing Stock Cards in the first phase of a round, the players are free to draw them from ANY Drawing Pile on the table, their own included, in any order whatever. There is no restriction as to how many cards may be drawn from a single Drawing Pile.
• After a player has chosen one of the Stock Cards to add to his Crew Pile, he discards the other two cards on his personal Drawing Pile in front of him.
• If there are two or more players in the same round who are allowed to draw two extra Stock Cards, they will do so in clockwise order, beginning with the Start Player. The two cards must be drawn at once.
• When, in the course of the game, a player's Drawing Pile is empty, he starts a new one in the same place with the two cards he is about to discard.

Crew Pile

• The Crew Pile is built up during the game, starting with one card in the first round.
• Only cards taken from your own Crew Pile can be used in combinations.
• Cards in the Crew Pile are always face down. Only the "owner" of the Crew Pile is allowed to look at the cards; he can do so whenever he pleases.
• Cards in the Crew Pile cannot be exchanged with any other cards. They can only be removed from the Crew Pile when they are used in a combination and placed face up on the table. (Exception: one in-game action allows a competitor to snatch a card from your Crew Pile.)
• A player can choose cards from his Crew Pile freely to form desirable combinations. Once laid out on the table, however, combinations are protected and cannot be altered or supplemented, neither by the owner nor the competitors.
• Crew Cards that are not used in combinations in one round must be returned to the Crew Pile for later use.