Meuterer Rulebook

Table of Contents

Components
Objective
Basic Rules
Setup
The Game
End of Game
Pirate Variant
Example of Play (4 Players)

Components

2 Captain cards (values 0/1 and 2/3)
12 Island cards
2 Ship cards (merchant ship, pirate ship)
37 Goods cards: 4 rubies, 5 salt, 6 wine, 7 cloth, 8 grain, 6 battle, 1 pirate
5 Character cards: mutineer, sailor, boatswain, merchant, stevedore
2 Destination cards: one for the captain, one for the mutineer

Objective

Earn as many victory points as possible by selling goods.

Basic Rules

The captain cards show who among the players is the captain, and how many victory points he offers the boatswain for his help.

The island cards make up the game board. Each one shows which goods can be sold on that island, and how many victory points the players who sold the most goods there will receive. The ship symbol shows how many victory points the captain — or the mutineer who becomes captain — receives for bringing the ship to that island. Each island card has an active (color) side and a passive (black-and-white) side. Goods can only be sold on active islands.

All island cards are shuffled and laid out in a circle, passive side up. The Mountain Island card is turned to its color side — the merchant ship's voyage begins from this island, and the ship card is placed on it. The player closest to this island becomes the captain.

The goods cards are needed to earn victory points when sold. 6 of them are battle cards, and they determine the outcome of mutinies.

Setup

Shuffle the goods cards and place them face down in a deck next to the circle of island cards.

Each player draws 5 goods cards from the deck.

The 5 character cards are placed face down in the center of the circle of islands. The different characters let players gain different additional abilities, and only the captain keeps his post and may not take a character card.

Mutineer — organizes the mutiny. If the mutiny succeeds, the mutineer becomes the new captain.
Sailor — helps the mutineer in the mutiny. If the mutiny succeeds, the sailor gets 2 victory points.
Boatswain — helps the captain during a mutiny, giving him 1 battle point. If the captain keeps his post (even if there was no mutiny), the boatswain gets 1 victory point plus the points the captain offered on his captain card.
Merchant — always takes first place in a sale in case of a tie in the number of goods with another player.
Stevedore — gets 3 additional goods cards and chooses which of the cards received he will keep.

The destination cards show the ship's course, as set by the captain and the mutineer.

The Game

The game lasts 9 rounds, each of which consists of 10 phases. The main phases in each round are the sale of goods and the mutiny.

Phase 1: Choosing the Captain's Card

The captain decides how many of his victory points he will give the boatswain for his support. He picks one of the captain cards and places it in front of himself, face up on the corresponding side.

Phase 2: Offering Goods

Goods cards may be played on active islands.

Note: Battle cards may also be played during this phase, but players do not receive points for doing so.

The goods depicted on the cards (rubies, salt, wine, cloth, and grain) can only be sold on the islands where they are needed (the corresponding symbols are shown there). The exceptions are the Mountain Island and the Pirate's Nest — any goods can be sold on these islands.

Only the players who offered the largest number of goods for sale receive victory points for them. If several players offer the same number of goods, they split the points between them. Each player may sell only one kind of good on each island.

The captain is the first to begin offering goods. Then the turn passes clockwise to the next players, and each time they choose whether to play another goods card or to pass and choose a character card for themselves.

a) Playing a goods card. The player places one of his goods cards in front of himself, face up. It is permitted to also play goods cards that cannot be sold. Then the turn passes to the next player.

Important: Players may play cards for any number of rounds. If a player has no cards left, he must pass (see item b). Although battle cards cannot be sold, they may also be played.

b) Passing and choosing a character card. The player decides not to play any more cards. He places the cards remaining in his hand on the table in front of himself, face down. The number of cards he placed down must be visible to all players.

The player may no longer play cards for the rest of the phase.

If the captain passes, then the island the ship will travel to (if the captain keeps his post) is determined by the number of cards he placed on the table. Starting from the current island and counting clockwise by that number of cards, the island is found on which the captain's destination card is placed. If the captain has no cards left in hand, the destination card is placed on the same island the ship is currently on.

If a player other than the captain passes, that player chooses one of the character cards for himself. He takes all the remaining character cards into his hand, chooses one of them, and places it in front of himself face down, returning the rest to the center of the table.

When all players have passed, the goods-offering phase ends.

Phase 3: Revealing Character Cards

All players reveal their character cards.

If someone chose the mutineer, he places the mutineer's destination card, counting the island according to the number of cards he still has left, laid out on the table by him — clockwise, starting from the island where the ship is located. If the mutineer has no cards left in hand, the mutineer's destination card is placed on the same island the ship is currently on.

Note: The captain's and the mutineer's destination cards may point to the same island.

Phase 4: Mutiny

Note: This phase only occurs if one of the players chose the mutineer card for himself.

Starting with the captain, clockwise, each player taking part in the mutiny (the merchant and the stevedore do not take part) may play battle cards to support or suppress the mutiny:

The captain and the boatswain play their cards in defense of the captain.
The mutineer and the sailor play cards against the captain, in favor of the mutineer.

The merchant and the stevedore may not play battle cards. Battle cards they already played during the trading phase do not count.

The side that lays down the greater number of battle cards (counting those played during the trading phase, as well as the boatswain's extra battle point marked on his card) wins. In case of a tie, the mutineer wins.

Phase 5: Scoring Victory Points

Victory points for the captain, mutineer, boatswain, and sailor:

a) The mutiny is suppressed, or there was no mutiny at all:

The captain removes the mutineer's destination card, and receives victory points equal to the value of the island (the ship symbol in the lower right corner of the island card) indicated by the captain's destination card.
The boatswain receives 1 victory point, plus as many victory points as the captain promised for his support (0-3). The captain loses the points he gave away, even if this results in a negative total for him.
The sailor and the mutineer receive nothing.

b) The mutiny succeeds:

The mutineer removes the captain's destination card, and receives victory points equal to the value of the island (the ship symbol in the lower right corner of the island card) indicated by the mutineer's destination card.
The mutineer becomes the new captain and takes the captain cards.
The sailor receives 2 victory points.
The boatswain and the captain receive nothing.

Victory points for selling goods:

All active islands (no more than 2) are counted separately.
The player who sold the greatest number of goods on an island receives the victory points shown on the island card (at the bottom, in the middle, the first number). If two players sold the same amount, they both receive points (the second number on the island card); if three players tie, the third number applies; if four players tie, no one receives points. The merchant always wins ties in the number of goods among several players.

Note: If players have goods that can be sold on different islands, they must decide, starting with the captain, where they sell what. Each player may sell only one kind of good on any one island. For example, if you offer 4 grain cards, you may split them between 2 islands — 2 grain on each.

Phase 6: Moving the Ship

All islands except the one the ship is on are turned to their passive side.

Depending on the outcome of the mutiny, the ship moves to the captain's or the mutineer's destination island.

The new island is turned to its active side.

Phase 7: Removing Destination Cards, Discarding Goods Cards

The destination cards are set aside.

All revealed goods cards (and battle cards) are discarded to the discard pile.

Players take back into their hand the cards that were lying face down on the table in front of them.

Phase 8: Drawing Goods Cards

Starting with the captain, all players draw goods cards from the deck to bring their hand back up to 5 cards.

The stevedore draws 3 extra cards from the deck and, from among all the cards he received, chooses which ones he will keep so that he ends up with exactly 5 cards. The cards he rejects are discarded to the discard pile.

Phase 9: Discarding Character Cards

All character cards are once again placed face down in the center of the table.

Phase 10: End of Round

The round is over. A new round begins with Phase 1.

End of Game

The game ends after the 8th round (the 9th round with 3 players).

The winner is the player who has accumulated the greatest number of victory points across all rounds.

Pirate Variant

In this version of the game, a pirate card and a pirate ship card are added. The pirate card is shuffled together with the goods cards, and the pirate ship card is placed next to the Pirate's Nest island.

When a player plays the pirate card during the goods-offering phase, the pirate ship raises its sails and sails toward another island — counterclockwise, by a number of islands equal to the number of cards left in the hand of the player who played that card.

If the pirate ship catches up to the merchant ship (or passes it), a pirate attack occurs: all goods cards played by the players are discarded to the discard pile, as is the pirate card. Play then continues as normal.

If the merchant ship catches up to (or passes) the pirates during its voyage, nothing happens.

Example of Play (4 Players)

The island cards have been shuffled and laid out on the table. Boris is closest to the Mountain Island, so he becomes the captain. He takes both captain cards and places them in front of himself. To his left sit Sveta, Fedya, and Katya. The island cards are laid out clockwise in a circle. The Mountain Island card is turned to its color side; the rest remain black-and-white. Boris is closest to it, so he becomes the captain and receives the 2 captain cards. The ship card is placed on the Mountain Island card.

The goods cards are shuffled and the deck is placed next to the circle of island cards. Starting with Boris, each player draws 5 cards from the deck. Here is what the players receive:

Boris: 2x battle, 2x wine, 1x grain
Sveta: 2x battle, 1x salt, 1x grain, 1x cloth
Fedya: 2x cloth, 1x grain, 1x salt, 1x wine
Katya: 2x salt, 1x wine, 1x battle, 1x rubies

Phase 1

Boris decides how many points he will give the boatswain for support. He takes the 0/1 captain card and places it with the 0 side up.

Phase 2

Boris begins the goods offer and places 1 battle card in front of himself, face up. Although this card cannot be sold, it may prove useful for preventing a mutiny. Sveta also plays 1 battle card, Fedya plays 1 cloth card, and Katya plays 1 wine card.

It is Boris's turn again. He plays 1 wine card. Sveta passes. She places her remaining 4 cards face down in front of herself and takes the 5 character cards to choose one for herself. She chooses the mutineer and places it face down in front of herself. She returns the remaining character cards to the center of the table.

Fedya plays 1 cloth card, and Katya plays 1 salt card.

Boris plays 1 wine card. Sveta, having already finished playing, simply watches the game.

Fedya also passes. He places his 3 remaining cards face down in front of himself and takes the remaining character cards. He notices that Sveta took the mutineer, and realizes that if he chooses the boatswain, he will only get 1 victory point (the captain offered nothing). If he chooses the sailor, he will get 2 points if the mutiny succeeds. However, he has no battle cards in hand to support the mutiny, so he chooses the merchant card for himself, so that if there is a tie in the number of goods offered with other players, he will take the higher place and more victory points. He places the remaining character cards in the center of the table.

Now only Katya and Boris can still play cards. Katya plays 1 salt card.

Boris passes and places his remaining 2 cards face down on the table. The captain's destination card is placed on the Green Island — this island is two spaces clockwise from the Mountain Island. Since Boris is the captain, he does not choose a character card for himself.

Katya remains the only active player. If she had more salt cards, she would play them to become the player who offered the greatest quantity of goods. But she has none left, so she chooses a character card for herself: the sailor.

Phase 3

All players reveal their character cards. Boris is worried. If he had offered the boatswain a larger reward (1, 2, or 3), he might have gotten the boatswain's support in the mutiny. Sveta, who chose the mutineer card, places the mutineer's destination card on the Icy Island, based on the 4 cards she has left.

Phase 4

The mutiny begins. In the current situation, Sveta is trying to become the new captain, since the mutineer wins ties. All players taking part in the mutiny may play any number of battle cards. Boris defends with 1 battle card. Sveta attacks with 1 battle card. It's a tie so far, and Katya, the only one who can still play cards, may save her battle cards to use another time. She does so, playing nothing. Boris loses the mutiny, since ties favor the mutineers.

Phase 5

Points are tallied.

Points for the mutiny. Since the mutiny succeeded, the former captain Boris receives no points, Katya as the sailor receives 2 points, and Sveta receives 5 victory points for the ship's course toward the Icy Island, and also takes the captain cards — she is now the captain.
Points for goods. At this moment, only the Mountain Island is active, but any kind of goods can be sold there. Since Boris, Fedya, and Katya offered the same number of goods for sale, Fedya's decision to choose the merchant role turns out to be correct — he receives 4 points, as shown on the island card. Boris and Katya, who split 2nd-3rd place, each receive 2 points.

Phase 6

The ship moves to the new island. The Mountain Island remains active (as the island where the ship was previously located), and the Icy Island becomes the ship's new location (and is also active). Sveta moves the ship card to the Icy Island.

Phase 7

The destination cards are set aside, the revealed goods cards are discarded, and the players take their hand cards back into their hands.

Phase 8

All players fill their hands back up to 5 cards. Sveta, as the new captain, goes first and draws 2 cards, Fedya also draws 2 cards, Katya draws 3, and Boris draws 4.

If Fedya had chosen the stevedore role, he would have drawn 2 cards plus 3 bonus cards and, choosing 2 of them, discarded the rest to the discard pile.

Phase 9

All players (except the captain) place their character cards in the center of the table.

Phase 10

The round ends and a new one begins, with Sveta as the captain.