Pirate Legends Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Set-up
• Playing the game
• Actions
  • 1. Explore
  • 2. Move
  • 3. Unload
  • 4. Attack
  • 5. Exchange Island cards
  • 6. Play a special tile
    • Sails special tile (4 tiles)
    • Parrot tile (1 tile)
    • Splash tiles (12 tiles)
• End of the Game
• Scoring
  • Treasure Chest tiles
  • Cursed Idol tiles
• Treasure Map
• Advanced Rules

Components

• 4 ship decks
• 4 ship markers
• 4 plastic stands for the ship markers
• 65 tiles
• 1 game board
• 4 Island cards
• 1 treasure map
• 14 envelopes (with additional components)

Before your first game, assemble the ship decks. To do that, connect two pieces using the special stickers. The piece with the slots should be flush with the solid base.

Set-up

1. Place the game board in the middle of the table. Shuffle 65 tiles face down and place them on the empty spaces of the game board face down.

2. Each player takes up a side of the game board.

3. Shuffle the Island cards and deal 1 card face down to each player. The players look at their Island cards without showing them to the other players, then place them back on the table. You may look at your Island card at any point of the game. Put any remaining cards back in the box.

4. Each player takes a ship deck and places it on the table in front of them.

5. Before your first game, insert the ship markers in the plastic stands. Each player takes an assembled ship and places it on the starting space indicated by an arrow on their side of the board. Then each player takes the tile underneath their ship and, without showing it to the other players, places it on their ship deck. Put any remaining ships back in the box.

   Optional rule: if the players collectively decide to, they may start the game from any space on their edge of the game board.

6. The last person to travel by water starts the game.

Playing the game

The players take turns proceeding clockwise. During your turn, you may perform up to 3 of the following actions:

1. Explore
2. Move
3. Unload
4. Attack
5. Exchange Island cards
6. Play a special tile

You may perform the same action several times in a row.

Actions

1. Explore

Move your ship to one of the four orthogonally adjacent spaces, and then take the tile from that space and place it on your ship deck. If there's no free space left on your ship deck, you cannot perform this action.

Notes:

• You can perform the Explore action to take a tile from the space your ship is on without moving.
• Once you insert the tile in the empty slot on your ship deck, you cannot switch it with other tiles.

2. Move

Move your ship up to 2 spaces (you neither look, nor take the tiles from the spaces you stop on as the result of the Move action). You cannot move your ship diagonally!

Note: You can move through and stop on the spaces occupied by other ships.

3. Unload

The spaces orthogonally adjacent to the islands in the corners of the game board are called coastal waters. If your ship is located on one of these spaces, you can transfer any number of tiles from your ship deck to the adjacent island. Place the tiles face down on the island.

4. Attack

Discard 1 cannon and 1 additional cannon for each space separating you from your opponent to take any 2 tiles from his ship deck without peeking. Place the "stolen" tiles on your ship deck. If you don't have any space left for the second tile, discard it.

Note: the tiles are discarded in the discard pile face up. You can look through the discard pile at any point of the game.

You can attack a ship that's not on the same line as yours.

Cannon tiles: 9 tiles with 1 cannon, 3 tiles with 2 cannons.

Example: To attack Red, White discards 3 cannons: 1 to initiate the attack and 1 for each additional space separating White from Red (for example, 1 tile with 2 cannons and 1 tile with 1 cannon).

Notes:

• You can attack a player whose ship is on the same space as yours. To do that, discard 1 cannon.
• If you need to discard only 1 cannon, but you only have a tile with 2 cannons, you don't get the "unused" cannon back.
• You cannot attack the same player more than once during your turn.

5. Exchange Island cards

Discard 4 cannons to switch Island cards with a player on the same space as you.

6. Play a special tile

During your turn, you may spend an action to play one of your special tiles. Discard the special tile and apply its effect.

Sails special tile (4 tiles)

If you have the Sails special tile, discard it to move your ship along the dotted line on the game board until you reach a space covered with a tile (take that tile and place it on your ship deck). Leave your ship on the now-empty space. You may also choose to stop earlier and not to take the tile.

Important! You cannot play the Sails special tile if your ship is on the central space of the game board.

Parrot tile (1 tile)

This tile allows you to discard one of your Cursed Idol tiles (of your choice) at the end of the game before Scoring.

Splash tiles (12 tiles)

These tiles don't have any special effects and only take up the space on your ship deck.

End of the Game

The game ends immediately once there are no face down tiles left on the game board.

The players now reveal their Island cards.

Proceed to scoring.

Scoring

Players retrieve the tiles from their islands and their ship decks and place them all face up on the table in front of them.

Now, the players count their points according to the tiles in front of them.

Treasure Chest tiles

At the end of the game, each Treasure Chest tile brings you as many points as there are treasure chests depicted on the tile.

• 1 chest: 18 tiles
• 2 chests: 6 tiles
• 3 chests: 6 tiles

Cursed Idol tiles

At the end of the game, for every Cursed Idol tile you lose as many points as specified on the tile.

• -1: 3 tiles
• -2: 2 tiles
• -3: 1 tile

Treasure Map

The winner of the game is allowed to scratch off one of the locations on the Treasure Map. As you explore the Treasure Map you will be opening envelopes containing new game components and stickers introducing new game rules that will make the game more diverse.

If you reveal a symbol (anchor, parrot, compass) with a number next to it, open the corresponding envelope. Once you open an envelope, take out all new components from the envelope, put the rules sticker (if there is one) on the corresponding space in the rule book and read the new rules carefully. From now on you may choose to play using these new rules.

If you reveal a skull and crossbones symbol, nothing happens. However, once you reveal 6 skull and crossbones symbols, you can open the envelope with the same symbol (6 skull and crossbones).

In order to scratch off the location with a padlock next to it, you must first find a key under the scratch-off layer on one of the locations.

Important! You can only scratch off the locations in the strict order dictated by the dotted line starting from the center of the map.

Advanced Rules

Note: You are not required to play with all advanced rules at the same time. You may play with any combination of advanced rules of your choice. You may also choose to ignore the rules that seem too difficult for you.

The rulebook provides blank spaces for the rules stickers from the envelopes: anchor envelopes 1 to 5 (page 6), parrot envelopes 1 to 4 (page 7), the skull and crossbones envelope and the compass envelope 1 (page 8). The sticker text is not part of the rulebook file.