Tahiti
Tahiti Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Contents
- 1 board
- For each player, equipment in their colour comprising:
- 1 sailboat (called "sailboat" in the rest of the rules)
- 1 screen
- 1 chest
- 15 pearl-fisher boats (called "boat" in the rest of the rules)
- 1 special die, marked 1, 2, 3, 4, white, white
- 24 glass pearls, 6 of each colour: green, white, black and blue
- 1 large token, marked with a treasure on one side and the symbol "$" on the other
- Money in $1 and $5 notes
Principle of the Game
The board represents the waters around the Island of Tahiti, in the South Pacific. You must occupy the best places in the pearl banks around this island. Each player in turn rolls the die. The value that appears is put up for auction among all the players. The best bidder advances their sailboat by the number shown and follows the possibilities of the space they reach. At the end of the game, you count your riches, made up on one hand of the money you saved during the game, and on the other hand of the points you score according to the position of your pearl fishers on the map. The one with the highest total is obviously the winner.
The Board
The players' sailboats travel around the outer spaces of the board, clockwise. Each of the 12 spaces bears a letter A, B, C, D, E or F and a pearl colour. This indicates in which sector you found a pearl OR which colour of pearl you found.
The letters on the spaces correspond to the rows and columns of the map in the centre of the board.
Setup
Determine the starting player: it is the one who looks most like a sailor. Each player in turn places their sailboat on one of the 12 spaces around the edge, and receives $15 and the equipment of their colour.
Then each player in turn chooses a pearl, which they place on a boat in front of them on the table (not on the map). Two players cannot take the same colour. The pearl colours have no relation to the player colours.
The large token is placed on the Island of Tahiti, with the "$" side face up.
The first player can begin.
Course of the Game
The player whose turn it is rolls the die. If a white face appears, an event must be resolved, then they roll the die again until they get a number, which will be put up for auction.
A white face appears: event
An event occurs, determined by the visible face of the token.
- "$" face visible: it is payday! Each player receives from the bank $1 per boat present on the map.
- "Treasure" face: everyone to the savings bank! Each player, starting with the one who rolled the die, may save between $0 and $10. They must announce aloud the sum saved and place it in their chest. This money can never come out of the chest again, and no player has the right to check how much another has already saved. The money in the chest counts toward victory points at the end of the game, but cash kept outside the chest does not.
When the "$" or "treasure" event has been resolved, the token is turned over to its other face. Then the same player rolls the die again, until they obtain a numbered face, which leads to an auction phase. (White faces that appear are ignored: there are never two events in a row.)
A numbered face appears: auction
The number that appears is put up for auction: the winner may advance their sailboat by the indicated number.
Starting with the player who rolled the die, each may bid or pass. A "pass" is final for the current auction. The last bidder pays the announced sum to the player who passed first.
Then the buyer moves their sailboat the exact number indicated by the die, clockwise. On the space they reach, they may "take the letter" or take a pearl of the colour.
- If they have neither a pearl in front of them, nor a boat already placed on a space around the edge (indicating that they have already taken possession of a letter), they may choose freely between "taking a letter", that is, placing an empty boat on the space where their sailboat currently stands (the boat marks ownership of the letter), or taking a pearl and placing it on a boat in front of them on the table.
- If they already have a boat on a space around the edge, they must take a pearl of the colour indicated by the space they have just reached and place the boat with its pearl in the sector of the letter. This sector is made up of the spaces of the column and the row marked with this letter on the map. Of course, there can be only one boat per space.
- If they already have a pearl on a boat in front of them, they must "take the letter" and therefore place this boat and its pearl on a space in the sector of the letter (column or row).
It is then the next player's turn, always clockwise.
No More Pearls of a Colour
If a colour of pearls runs out, players may instead take a pearl of the colour of their choice. If two colours are exhausted, the game is over.
End of the Game
As soon as the second colour of pearl is exhausted, the game stops. If the player who has just taken the pearl already has a letter, they may place their boat. Otherwise, they bought the pearl for nothing.
Final Scoring
Each player's score is the total of the dollars saved in the chest (one point per dollar) and the points earned by their positions on the map.
Groups of pearls of the same colour have formed on the map. All the pearls of a group touch each other by a side (a corner is not enough). The value of each bank is estimated by the following formula: number of pearls multiplied by the number of empty spaces touching the group (even only by a corner). The Island of Tahiti is not considered an empty space. A group may consist of only one pearl, which could nevertheless earn up to 8 points if all the spaces around it were unoccupied.
The points of the group are awarded to the player having the most boats in it (or to the first of those tied). The other players present in the group score half the points (rounded down), regardless of their rank in the group.
The winner is the player with the most points.
Example
Example (illustrated on the map with pearls labelled A, B and C for the three players):
- White group: 5 pearls x 3 empty = 15 points
- Small black group: 1 pearl x 1 empty = 1 point
- Small green group: 1 pearl x 3 empty = 3 points
- Large black group: 3 pearls x 6 empty = 18 points
- Large green group: 2 pearls x 6 empty = 12 points
Player A (blue): 15 + 1 + 12 = 28 points Player B (purple): 15 + 3 + 12 = 30 points Player C (red): 7 + 18 = 25 points