Finger Pirates
Finger Pirates Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
- 38 Cards
- 5 Gun tokens (front and back)
- Summary cards
- This rule sheet
Card Description and Icon Effects
Front
- Control: Tied players take turns in descending order of this number!
- Ghost icon: At scoring, whoever has the most of this is eliminated!
- Jar icon: At scoring, reduce each ghost by this!
- Key, paper and torch icons: At scoring, get 5 pt × the fewest icons among these 3 types.
- Treasure bag icon: Get the points on the icon!
Back
- 4 players: Upper limit of fingers everyone can raise without busting.
- 5 players: Upper limit of fingers everyone can raise without busting.
- Limit: Upper limit of all raised fingers.
Setup
Deal the Cards
Deal 1 summary card per player. Return any remaining summary into the box. Shuffle the cards into a deck and deal 3 cards face down to each player.
Select the First Ship
Each player chooses one of the cards dealt to them and places it face down in front of themselves. Return the remaining 2 cards face down to the deck. At the count of 3, everyone flips to reveal their chosen card and places it in front of themselves, making it visible to everyone. This is each player's initial acquired card.
Play Area Card Setup
Shuffle the returned cards and the deck face down to form a new face-down deck. From the deck, draw cards equal to the player count minus one, and line them up face up.
Gun tokens are used only in the advanced rules. If playing with the standard rules, return the Guns into the box! For experienced players, we recommend playing with the advanced rules and Guns from the start!
Setup completed (for 4 players) — the illustration shows the initial acquired cards placed in front of each player (In front), the deck (Deck), and the play area of face-up cards (Play area).
How to Play
On the count of 3, raise your fingers. If the total raised fingers are:
- Less than or equal to the number on the deck: Not busted! Take ships in descending order of raised fingers. Tied players take ships in descending order of the numbers on the ships in their hands.
- Higher than the number on the deck: Busted! Penalty on the greedy one! The player who raised the most fingers gets last pick!
1. Collusive Order
Determine the turn order for card selection. On the count of 3, everyone simultaneously extends a hand to the play area with their chosen number of fingers raised.
- You can raise 1 to 5 fingers, but not 0 fingers!
Decide how many fingers to raise based on visible information and your memory! Once you decide how many fingers to raise, extend your fist to indicate it!
Limit Check: Compare the number of all fingers raised and the limit number on the top card of the deck. If the number of raised fingers is...
- Not busted: Less than or equal to the limit. Choose cards in descending order of fingers raised.
- Busted: Higher than the limit. The player who raised the most fingers goes last! Other players choose cards in descending order of fingers raised.
If tied at the top, move these tied players to the back. Then compare their ship control.
- In case of a tie, compare the tied players' ship control.
Comparing Ship Control: Compare the ship control numbers on the cards on top of the piles of the tied players' acquired cards. The players choose cards in descending order of the ship control number.
Example (limit 13): The printed example shows a row of raise outcomes with the limit 13. Raises of 12 and 8 fingers are "Not busted" and take turn order by fingers raised. Raises above the limit are "Busted" and go last. Where players are "Tied!", ship control decides: the ship control number "11" is "Earlier" and "7" is "Later".
2. Card Acquisition
Players each pick a card from the play area in the determined collusive order. The number of cards in the play area is one less than the number of players, so the player last in the order cannot get a card. If any card is remaining in the play area on your turn to pick a card, you must take one.
Place your acquired card on top of your pile of acquired cards in front of you. Only the top of the pile of acquired cards is visible. The cards stacked underneath remain concealed until the scoring... Pirates don't look back. Live for today!!!
Newly acquired card: place it on top of your pile.
3. Card Replenishment
Draw cards face up from the deck and line them up, one fewer than the number of players.
- One card will remain at the end. This card cannot be acquired by anyone.
Repeat Steps 1 to 3 until the cards for replenishment run out.
Game End and Scoring
The game ends when the cards for replenishment run out. Each player places their acquired cards face up in line and proceeds to scoring.
Scoring
First, subtract the number of ghosts from the jars and announce the resulting number of your ghosts. The player with the most ghosts is abducted by the ghosts and eliminated. Once eliminated, the player loses regardless of their collected treasure!
- If tied at the top in the number of ghosts, all of these tied players are eliminated!
- If everyone is eliminated, everyone loses. It's too bad, but share the defeat!
Players who survived each calculate their score from their collected cards. Then the player with the highest total score wins. In case of a tie, tied players share the victory!
Score Calculation
Scoring = The fewest among 3 icons (key, paper, torch) × 5 pt + The total sum of the numbers on the treasure bag icons.
Scoring Example
Keys ×2, papers ×3, torches ×4: the fewest is 2, so 2 × 5 pt = 10 pt. Treasure bags: 3, 3, 2, 5, 3, 3 = 19 pt. Total: 10 pt + 19 pt = 29 pt.
Advanced Rules
Thrilling gameplay with guns!? Try it once you're familiar with the standard rules. Apply the following changes to the standard rules.
- During setup, each player receives 1 Gun token and places it face up (Undamaged Gun side face up) in front of them.
- You can use the Gun action once during the game.
- When you use it, during your turn, instead of raising your fingers, gesture a finger gun and say "Bang!" Then flip your Gun token face down (gray side face up) to show it's been used.
Gun Action Effect
- If any player uses a Gun, ignore the limit number.
- The player who used their Gun goes first for picks of the cards. If multiple players used their Guns, these players compete for the first and later picks by comparing their "Ship Control".
- Players who did not use their Guns then choose cards in descending order of their fingers raised. If any players who did not use their Guns raised the same number of fingers, they compare their "Ship Control" as usual.
Players who did not use their Guns and had their Gun tokens face up until the scoring acquire 2 pt each at scoring.