Arrr!!!

Arrr!!! Rulebook

Table of Contents

What's in my pocket?

Game components

The Arrr!!! game box includes:

39 CREW cards: with red card back, these cards represent the resources that a player has to build up their crew to sail the Seven Seas.
39 EVENT cards: with blue card back, these cards are used to interact with the game and with other players.
23 EXPLORATION cards: with orange card back, these cards represent the available encounters in the Seven Seas. Some of them are also considered COLLECTIONS.
9 CAPTAIN cards: with purple back, these cards represent the character interpreted by the players.
42 Pieces of Eight: this is the game currency.
6 dice: used to settle disputes without coming to blows.

Don't be hasty! Read up the entire manual before you start playing.

What are you even talking about, stranger?

Game terminology

The terminology diagram carries these printed labels: Decks, discarded cards, Seven Seas, Player area, Treasure chest, Crew, Captin (sic, as printed). The printed text under the diagram reads: "The SEVEN SEAS are the area of the table between the players."

Players will position the exploration cards in the SEVEN SEAS. Each player will have in front of them their own player area, which contains their resources and includes treasure chest, pack cards and a Captain card. The most important thing for each Pirate is gathering as many Pieces of Eight as possible, usually as a reward from vanquished exploration cards. Pieces of Eight are extremely handy when it comes to cheating but they can be stolen by other players as well. As soon as a player wins Pieces of Eight, they will store them in their treasure chest, the table area where the Pieces and the exploration cards are collected. The exploration cards are always positioned face down, unless they are collections, in which case their symbol must always be visible at all times. The Reserve is the area where the game components that are not currently in use are stored.

If the text on a card contradicts the rulebook, the card takes supersedes the rulebook.

Where do we start?

How to set up the game

In order to set up a game, first you must prepare the exploration deck. To do this, shuffle a number of cards proportional to the number of players, to ensure a balanced game. The diagram here will ensure 5 turns for each player. During the setup, shuffle into the exploration deck an entire collection for each player, among the four possible collections.

Players	Exploration cards
2	11
3	17
4	23

Place the deck on the table, the draw and place face-up in the SEVEN SEAS a number of cards equal to the number of players, in a horizontal row. The first drawn card will be the furthest away from the deck. At no point during the game there can be more than number of players + 2 exploration cards in the Seven Seas. When a card that would exceed this number comes in play, the furthest card from the deck is discarded to ensure the right number.

After this, shuffle the crew deck and each player draws 6 cards. Then shuffle the event deck and each player draws 2 cards. Finally, distribute from the reserve two Pieces of Eight for each player.

Now you're ready to grog & roll!

Each thing in time

The game flow

In order to select the starting player, everyone throw the dice and whoever scores the most Jolly symbols will go first. Alternatively, you can decide that whoever looks more like a pirate can go first!

Players will act in turns. Each player in their turn will pass through 4 phases:

1 Recruitment

As their first action, the player can choose to discard from their hand any number of event or crew cards. Then, if the player has less than 6 cards in their hand, they MUST draw from the EVENT and/or CREW decks to get to 6. If they decide to draw from the event deck, at the end of the drawing they cannot have in their hand more than 3 event cards. If they decide to draw from the crew deck, at the end of the drawing they cannot have in their hand more than 3 crew cards.

E.G. at the start of its turn, Gozer the Destructor has in its hand 4 event cards and 4 crew cards. It decides not to discard anything from its hand and since it has more than 6 cards in its hand, he does not draw anything.

E.G. Inigo Montoya has 6 cards in his hand at the start of his turn, 4 crew cards and 2 event cards. He discards a crew card and now, having less than 6 cards, he must draw one to get to six. He draws one and he must draw an event card because if it was a crew card he would have 4 crew cards in his hand.

2 Equipment

The player choose from their hand a maximum of 4 crew cards and he places them in front of them to create their crew, knowing that they cannot have more than one First Mate nor more than one Pack and there is no limit on the number of Items.

3 Action

The player in turn declares and carries out one action.

4 Explore new horizons

The player shifts the exploration cards away from the deck to make room for a new card. Then they draw that card from the top of the exploration deck and they place this card face up between the deck and the other cards. Then he will pass to the player on their left.

Set sail! Crew cards

Now we know what's waiting for us in the Seven Seas. But how do we prepare for the adventure?

During the Equipment phase the player chooses from their hand up to 4 crew cards and uncovers them in front of their player area. These cards are considered equipped. Crew cards are divided into First Mate cards, Item cards and Pack cards. In a player area there may never be more than one First Mate card and/or one Pack card. The number of Item cards is unlimited. Players may equip less than 4 cards and may have only items equipped. Without equipped cards you may not sail the Seven Seas and face exploration cards nor may a player challenge someone or be challenged. A player without equipped cards can Pillage as their only action.

On the left side of the card the four game stats are represented: attack, navigation, wits and courage. The numbers above them represent the value of that stat. If no number is given, the stat is zero. When a player faces a test or a challenge, they will add the total amount of the specific stat from all their equipped cards. The total amount is the number of dice that the player will throw to overcome the adversities.

Items and First Mate cards have abilities that may be activated once per turn. These abilities are introduced by the Deplete the card symbol and in order to activate that effect they must be depleted i.e. rotated. A depleted card is automatically prepared (i.e. put back horizontally) at the beginning of the next turn of the player. A depleted card still maintains all its stats active. Unless otherwise specified on the card, a crew card may be depleted by a player only if that player is in turn and in their Action phase or if they take part in a Challenge. Depleting a card is part of the ability itself.

The source shows a depleted card and a prepared card side by side, captioned "Depleted card" and "Prepared card".

If the player starts their equipment phase with crew cards in front of them, they may choose to discard one or more to make room for the cards they want to place from their hand.

Exploring is only half the fun! Event cards

The Seven Seas have many surprises in store in addition to the exploration cards: unforeseeable events described in the event cards may occur. Event cards are part of the hand of a player and –unless otherwise specified in the card- they may be played by any players, in any number, during the Action phase only and only the player in turn and only their cards on the table may be targeted.

Event cards block the regular flow of the game and they are normally resolved as soon as they are played. However, it is possible to respond to an event card with another event card or with a crew card. If the event card reduces the number of dice for a throw, then it must be played before the dice are thrown. If the event card increases the number of dice, then it can be played after.

NOTE: any effect that increases or lowers the amount of dice follows these rules

When more than one event is played or if an event is answered with abilities, the effects are "piled up" and resolved in the opposite order: the last effect that was played is resolved first and the first effect that was played (that is not cancelled or nullified by previous events) is resolved last.

Some cards may have symbols that indicate special effects:

Permanent (anchor symbol): Once this card this effect has been played, the card remains in play for the entirety of the game and its effects are permanent.
Flash (lightning symbol): These cards must be played as soon as the player in turn declares their action, but before they do anything to act upon it.

NOTE: crew card abilities, the effect of event cards and the penalties of exploration cards are all piled up in the same temporal line. The last effect played is resolved first.

NOTE: depleting a card in order to use its ability is part of the ability itself. Therefore, an event card that is played as an answer to an ability is resolved before the card is depleted.

What would you like to do today?

Actions

During the action phase, the player can choose one between 3 possible actions:

Sail the Seven Seas. the player chooses an exploration card in the Seven Seas and he tackles it, with the modalities shown in the card itself.
Pillage. the player takes two Pieces of Eight from the reserve and places them in their Treasure Chest. This end their action.
Challenge. the player in turn challenges another player of their choice on any of the game stats. They will also state what they are going to steal in case they win: either a maximum of 4 Pieces of Eight or one collection card from their Treasure Chest. In order to challenge someone you must at least have one Piece or one collection card in your treasure chest. The challenged player can choose to accept the challenge or reject it. If they reject it, the challenger chooses 2 equipped cards in the player area of the challenged player and they may add them to their hand. Additionally the challenger may choose to receive one Piece from the reserve and the action is then over. If the challenged player accepts the challenge, they decided what they are going to steal from their opponent in case they win (up to a maximum of 4 Pieces of Eight or a collection card). The stake for the challenge is put aside. The Pieces of Eight at stake may not be used by either players until the end of the challenge. During the challenge, both players are considered to be in turn and they may therefore be targeted by EVENT cards and both can use the abilities of their crew or Captains. Players then proceed to throw a number of dice equal to the amount of the stat chosen by the challenger. The player who obtains more successes wins the challenge. In case of draw, no player wins and each takes back their wager. During a challenge, you may cheat if you have available Pieces of Eight and you can use event cards.

Cheating

Each time a player throws dice, they can decide to discard a Piece from their Treasure Chest and throw 2 more dice before the throw is considered over. As long as the player has Pieces of Eight they can keep on doing this.

Cartography

Exploration cards

As a pirate, you set sail to conquer fame and Piece. The main way to achieve this is by facing and conquering exploration cards, usually by winning a test. Some exploration cards may have more than one test, in which case they are resolved as they are indicated on the card, from the top test to the bottom. If any test is not won you may not pass the next one and the card has conquered the player.

Fame is indicated at the bottom, over the Fame (flag) symbol, while the Pieces of Eight are indicated over the Pieces of Eight (coin) symbol. Fame may not be stolen while Pieces of Eight can. Some exploration cards do not have number that indicates fame, but have a symbol instead. These are collection cards. The more cards with the same symbol are collected, the higher will be the score at the end of the game. In the base game, there are 4 collections, each with 3 cards each. Conquered cards that give fame are stored face down in the Treasure Chest, while collection cards are stored face up. The other players must know at any time if you have a collection card.

The example card in the source is labelled: 1 Pieces, 2 Influence, 3 Collection.

Other cards may have rewards that are neither fame nor Pieces of Eight, and they are indicated with the In case of success symbol (check mark). Some cards envisage a penalty in case of failed test, and this is indicated with the In case of failure symbol (cross). The Causes damage symbol (burst) indicates that a player is damaged and must discard in their player area a number of equipped cards equal to the value indicated near the symbol.

The Note symbol (exclamation mark) indicates a necessary condition to face or conquer that exploration card. You may declare an action against that card only if you meet that condition. If during the action phase that condition are no longer met, the player may still continue that action.

The order of the exploration cards in the Seven Seas is very important. Many of them have an influence on bottom. If the 2 adjacent cards establish a test on the stat indicated by the influence, then the difficulty of that test is modified by the value of the influence. The Piece influence is applied even when the Piece value of the card is not there.

The source shows three example cards under the heading "Influence", with these captions:

Kraken (creature): Test of the attack stat is not influenced.
Wreakage (encounter): Difficulty of test of the wits stat raised to 3. Difficulty of test of the attack stat raised to 3.
Norns (creature): Test of the wits stat stays at 1 difficulty because difficulty may never be lower than 1.

NOTE: under no circumstances can the difficulty of a test be lowered below 1

I like thw way you move it

Carry out tests

The test is the main way to resolve the endeavors of the Seven Seas and it is indicated as a series of 3 elements. There is the symbol of one of the 4 stats of the game, a number representing the difficulty and possible penalties or rewards in case of success or defeat.

The four stats of the game are: Attack, Navigation, Wits and Courage.

In order to overcome a test, the player will throw a number of dice equal to the sum of the values of the stat under test in each of their crew cards in their player area. Each die that results in the symbol of the stat or in the Jolly symbol is a success. In order to win a test you must score as many successes as the difficulty of the test before the end of the throw, otherwise you fail.

The source shows an example of equipped cards (four crew cards) with these total dice: Attack 3, Navigation 1, Wits 5, Courage 4.

Examples of tests

Wits test, difficulty 3
Navigation test, difficulty 5

To err is human but to arr is pirate!

Captain cards

At the start of each game, each player will pick or choose randomly a Captain. This is a special card that represents the character played by the player. A Captain does not possess stats but they have one or more specific abilities, which are described in the card text. These cards are not part of the Crew cards and for all intents and purposes are not considered cards. They may not be discarded in case of damage nor they can be stolen during challenges and they cannot be targeted by abilities or Events.

End of a game and counting the points

The game ends when it is no longer possible to draw exploration cards. At that moment, count each player points as follows:

1 for each piece in the treasure chest
1 for each fame point from exploration cards
1 for each single card collection
4 for each two card collection
8 for each three card collection

In case of draw, the player with higher fame wins. If the draw continues, the player with the most Pieces of Eight wins. If the draw continues even then, the player who most resembles a pirate wins. ARRRRR!!!

Game modes

In order to simplify the understanding of the game, we'll now introduce some modes that simplify the rules. The easiest mode is Swabber and the most complete and complex mode is ARRR!!!.

Swabber (easy mode)

Explore the seven seas with your crew! Players use only exploration and crew decks. Each player starts with an initial hand of 6 crew cards and two Pieces of Eight. The only available actions are Sail the Seven Seas and Pillage. At the start of their turn, each player draws only crew cards to get to a maximum of 4 cards in their hands.

Avast ye! (intermediate mode)

Explore the seven seas with your crew and interact with the events that you can cast on players in turn! Players use exploration, crew and event decks. Each player starts with an initial hand of 6 crew cards and 2 event cards. The only available actions are Sail the Seven Seas and Pillage.

Game turn (summary box)

Recruitment. discard and draw up to the hand limit.
Equipment. Put in play a maximum of 4 crew cards.
Action. Carry out one of the following actions:
- Sail the Seven Seas
- Challenge a player
- Pillage
Explore new horizons. Turn a new exploration card.

ARRR!! Mode (full mode)

Explore the seven seas with your crew and interact with events, challenge other players and pillage Pieces of Eight, using the special ability of your Captain! Players use all the game cards.

Teams

With 4 players, you may choose to play as 2 teams of 2 players each. At the end of the game, Pieces of Eight, fame and collections of players in the same team are added and the team with the most points wins.

Key

Attack
Navigation
Wits
Courage
Jolly
Die
Flash
Permanent
Deplete the card to activate the ability
Fame points
Pieces of Eight
In case of failure
In case of success
Note
Causes damage
Draw a card from the CREW deck
Draw a card from the EVENT deck
Draw a card from either the CREW or the EVENT deck, at your choice