Dread Pirate: Buccaneer's Revenge

At my office, we have a busy season and a slow season. The slow season is what our board games are for.

I picked up Dread Pirate: Buccaneer's Revenge as an impulse buy at my local game shop. It was $25, supported four players, and was pirate themed. How could I not pass this up? After going through the rule book, we set it up for three players and gave it a shot. As with most games that we play, the first run was a little rough as we referred to the instruction book a number of times looking for resolutions to some situations, and luckily we did not come across anything that was not explained in some form.

Here's a quick and basic summary of the rules, this is how I explain the game to new players:

Every pirate gets a boat, a starting treasure of 4 gems of their color (red, green, blue, or yellow) and five pieces of gold. Each pirate picks a starting position, denoted on the board as the big anchors, each landmass in the four corners of the board has one. The goal is to be the first pirate to collect one of the following: A) 12 gems of any one color, not necessarily your own color; B) 4 gems each of every color, a total of 16 gems; or C) 20 pieces of gold.

To work towards completing the goal, each pirate starts with two mission cards. Most missions have a Start port and an End port, the little map on the card shows an approximation as to where the ports are. The pirates keep their missions hidden from the other players. To complete this type of mission, the pirate must get to the Start port, REVEAL THEIR MISSION by turning it face-up, and then get to the End port. Other missions have a goal of using a certain amount of Action cards, or paying gold. Mission rewards for completion are usually a combination of gems (choose which gems you want), coins, and Action cards. Some missions have bonus effects that you get to keep, such as re-rolling a die or bonus movement spaces. Mission Impossible? Well, you have to get back to a major city (the four corner cities), and on the following turn, instead of moving, you may discard it and draw a new one. You may also simply draw new missions without discarding, but you cannot have more than two missions you are working on.

So what are these Action cards you glossed over a second ago? Well, Action cards simply do what they say, such as "On your turn, instead of moving, go straight to San Cristobal". You use them during your turn.

Let's talk actual gameplay. Movement is determined by rolling dice. You can move up to as many spaces as you rolled, but you can move as little as you want. Rolled a 10 but only want to move 5, perfectly fine and legal. You can move in horizontal, vertical, and diagonal, but only if the two spaces have water in between them. Some pieces of land jut out and block certain movement so you'll have to go around.

On your turn, you ALWAYS roll first whether you move or not, then you can move, stay put, use an action card to warp around, or if you are staying still in a major city, you can (discard and) draw missions. As you start and complete missions, collect your gems and coins and such, get back to a city so you can pick up a new mission, and continue collecting gems and coins. And that's the game....


.....wait a minute, these are pirates!! I want to fight and/or kill something!

Oh ok, well on your turn, if you park your ship next to an opponent's ship, you can decide to attack. Each player rolls two dice, highest roll wins. Well, not yet. The attacker can then use an action card to modify their roll or affect combat, then the defender can use an action card. The attacker can then use another one if they decide, so on and so on until battle is resolved. High (modified) roll wins. If the attacker wins, he gets to choose any combination of 2 treasures from the defender (1 gem and 1 coin, 2 coins, or 2 gems). If the defender wins, they get one gem and one coin. The winner can also choose to switch spots on the board with the loser. This helps when some jerk is blocking the major city you need to get to, just blast his ship and switch spots. Some mission cards even have a battles-won requirement, so fighting might be your goal.

The final rule to discuss is the Dread Pirate. The Dread Pirate gets +1 to every single roll; movement, attack and defense. To become the Dread Pirate, you must defeat the Dread Pirate in combat. At the beginning of the game, there is no Dread Pirate, so whoever defeats an opponent first becomes the Dread Pirate. You even get this little pirate flag to put in your ship, instilling dread pirate fear into all your opponents. (In our office, we've got an eye-patch that the Dread Pirate wears, and they get to talk like a pirate for the length of the tenure as Dread Pirate) And that's the game.

At our office, we have a good time playing the game. One thing I personally don't particularly like is that you can go through the game without really interacting with other players. The game then just becomes a race and mission-drawing luck. But, all games need some luck in them, so it's still a decent time if that happens. The most fun is when all players get into the Dread Pirate hunting fun, but also complete missions on the side. Since battle can be a quicker (but not necessarily easier) way to get gems and coins, they do happen often, at least with my group of gamers. Then again, usually when a new game opens up, the first question is "How do I kill someone else?". As far as winning the game, you usually can see it coming because you can always see each other's gems and coins, but we've had sneaky players all of a sudden win when others weren't paying complete attention. I rated the game a 6.5, the game is fun to play and pretty easy to explain, but there are other games I'd rather play in the same amount of time. It does go over very well in the office, however, so if you have a board-game playing office, give it a shot, especially if you can get it for $25 or under.

-Sledge-

:EDIT: Goofed a few rules, fixed those.