Hook! Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Goal of the game
• Setup
• Free-for-all or Teamplay?
• Flow of play
  • Symbols
• End of the game

Components

• 6 Hit cards: 3 Pirates and 3 Sailors. Every Hit card displays a Pirate or a Sailor in one of three different colors. During the course of the game, you will place Cannonball tiles on the 9 Cannonball spaces of your Hit card to indicate your hits. (On their reverse side you can see your character without obstruction. You can play with this side but make sure you space out your Cannonballs so the other players can always see your life totals at a glance.)
• 18 Sight tiles: There are 3 Sight tiles for each Pirate and Sailor. Every Sight tile has 3 round holes in different places that need to be punched out carefully before your first game (Do not throw them away - you will need them). The holes will be used to aim at the symbols on the Target cards. Place them in front of you on the table. They can only ever be placed with their black backside facing the table.
• 96 Target cards: The depicted symbols on these cards are what this game is about.
• 1 Compass card: The Compass indicates whose turn it is to issue to start command.
• 54 Cannonball tiles: The round card board pieces that you have punched out off the Sight tiles will be used to indicate your hits.
• 5 Overview cards: They explain what the various Target card symbols mean.

Goal of the game

You will either play a pirate or a sailor. Every round, you will use one of your 3 Sight tiles to catch as many parrots as possible, hit other pirates and sailors, take cover behind barrels and bird cages to avoid hits, or drink rum to get oblivious to the pain. If you get hit too many times, you will be eliminated from the game early. Among the remaining players, the player with the most parrots will win the game.

Setup

1. Put the Cannonball tiles in the middle of the table.
2. Each of you take a random Hit card and place it in front of you. Return the remaining Hit cards to the game box. Ideally, place it so that the Cannonball spaces side is facing up.
3. Take the 3 Sight tiles matching your character and color. Place them side by side next to the right of your Hit card.
4. Shuffle the Target cards and distribute them evenly among the players (each player has to get the same number of cards). Place your Target cards face-down in a stack to the left of your Hit card. (Return the one remaining card to the game box when playing with 5 players.)
5. Put an Overview card between players for easy reference.
6. Then give the Compass card to the player who is the most directionless.

(The setup diagram in the rulebook shows each player's area: a "Room for collected Target cards" space, a "Room for revealed Target card" space, the face-down Target card stack, the Hit card and the Sight tiles, arranged around the middle of the table.)

Free-for-all or Teamplay?

Usually, you will play against one another. If you are 4 or 6 players, you may play in teams instead (same color or pirates vs. sailors). When playing in teams, at the end of the game, add up the parrots of all team members that have not been eliminated to determine your final score. The Gameplay stays the same.

Flow of play

Every round the player with the Compass card will call the starting signal: "On your planks, get set, go!" Then all players will carry out their action at the same time. Keep in mind: Being the quickest is not everything, but the early pirate/sailor catches the parrot…

This is how you carry out your action:

1. Before the starting signal, take the topmost card from your face-down stack of Target cards in your hand without looking at it.

2. After the starting signal, turn your Target card face-up and place it in the middle of the table. (The orientation should loosely resemble a circle around the Cannonball tiles.) All players do this at the same time. The symbols on all of these cards have to be clearly visible to all players.

3. Decide which of your 3 Sight tiles you want to use. Then place it in an orientation of your choice on one of the Target cards before another player beats you to it. Abide by the following rules:

   • a. Touch – move. Decide which Sight tile to use. Once you have touched a Sight tile, you have to use it – even if this might be to your disadvantage.
   • b. No undo. You can rotate your Sight tile a few centimeters above a Target card to adjust its orientation. (While doing so, you may not obstruct your opponents of placing their Sight tile on the card before you do.) Once you have placed your Sight tile on a Target card, you may not take it back or change its orientation.
   • c. Place your Sight tile on a Target card of your choice. The Sight tile must overlap the Target card completely. Only one Sight tile may be placed on each Target card.

   (Illustrations: a Sight tile lying on the Target card rotated, and a Sight tile that does not cover the Target card completely, are both marked as incorrect.)

After you have placed the Sight tiles, resolve the Target cards. Begin with the Sight tile of the player with the Compass and then resolve players' Sight tiles in clockwise order. When your Sight tile is being resolved, carry out the symbols that are visible through the holes of your Sight tile (max. 3) in any order.

Symbols

Pirate/Sailor: Strike! For each visible Pirate/Sailor symbol of his color, the corresponding player has to place a Cannonball tile on the empty space of their Hit card with the highest still visible number starting with the 9 space. The 9 spaces on each Hit card keep track of the number of hits you can take. The highest number that is visible will always tell you how many hits you can take until you are knocked out.

Of course, you can also hit yourself. (Cannonballs are quite heavy and may easily slip through your hands and hit your feet…)

As soon as all of the 9 spaces of your Hit card are occupied by Cannonball tiles and your Target card has been resolved, you will be eliminated from the game (and return, pissed off, to your cabin). When this happens, place all of your collected Target cards as well as the remaining face down stack in front of you back into the box.

Black pirate: Nobody is safe! If he is in your sight: Choose any player. This player gets hit and has to place a Cannonball on one's Hit card.

Bottle of rum: A hefty gulp from the bottle of rum lets you forget the pain. For each bottle of rum visible through your Sight tile, remove 1 Cannonball tile from your Hit card (if any) and return it to the pile in the middle. Special case: If a player is about to be eliminated from the game whose life-saving bottle of rum has not been resolved yet (due to turn order), he or she will not be eliminated. Always check for unresolved bottles of rum before eliminating a player.

Barrels and bird cages: Take cover behind barrels and bird cages. You cannot be hit by other players this round. However, even barrels and bird cages cannot prevent you from hitting yourself. Also, they cannot protect you from dynamite. Barrels and bird cages do not prevent you from hitting other players.

Bomb: Boom! A bomb affects all players and neither barrels nor bird cages can protect you from it. All players get hit and have to place a Cannonball tile on their Hit cards. At the end of the round, the Target card has to be discarded even if a parrot was visible.

Parrot: Parrots are the only reason why pirates and sailors are playing this game. If there is a parrot visible through your Sight tile, you may take this Target tile at the end of the round and collect it in a face-up stack to the left of your face-down stack of Target cards. At the end of the game, all of the parrots on this card count towards your score.

Tip for a quicker resolution: To save time, resolve all of the symbols at the same time. Apply hits and bottles of rum against each other. Only when resolving more than one Black pirate symbol, you will have to do it in turn order.

If a parrot is visible through your Sight tile, you may take the Target card after you have finished resolving all of them. Place the remaining Target cards that have not been claimed back into the box. Take back your Sight tiles so that you have all 3 of them available for the next round. Then the next player in clockwise order gets the Compass card and will initiate a new round by calling the starting signal.

Example (from the rulebook): The blue pirate has a bomb visible and so all players receive 1 Hit. Because the bomb was visible the Target card also has to be discarded even though parrots were visible. The yellow Sailor has a red Pirate visible but the Pirate does not get hit because the red Pirate hides behind a Barrel. The yellow Sailor uses his Black Pirate to hit the blue Pirate. A blue Sailor would also receive 1 Hit but that player is not in the game. The red Pirate would have to leave the game – blue's bomb would mean he has 9 Hits! But he has two bottles of rum visible, uses these to take two hefty gulps and removes (after totaling Hits and Bottles) 1 Cannonball tile from his Hit card.

End of the game

The game ends when either of the following situations arises:

• All players or teams but one have been eliminated. This player or team wins. Eliminated players of the winning team may consider themselves winners, though a little less maybe. Their sacrifice was not for nothing. Note: In the rare event that the last remaining players are eliminated at the same time, go and treat your maltreated bodies; then come back and play again to determine the winner.
• You have gone through all of the cards of your Target card stack. Count the parrots on all of your collected Target cards unless you have been eliminated. The player or team with the most parrots wins. (Eliminated members of the winning team win as well, see above.) In case of a tie the player or team that has collected the most Target cards wins the game.