Game: Key Largo

Thread: Re: Really Busy Vacation

faidutti — 2008-11-03T10:51:54+00:00

The Tourist cards (used only with the advanced rules) have text on them in the english version. They are generic in the frrench/german/italian version, with text in the rules.
I mostly play without them.

Thread: Re: Really Busy Vacation

sveinmain — 2008-11-02T22:03:50+00:00

Is the game language independent??? Text on cards etc...

Thread: Really Busy Vacation

VixenTorGames — 2008-11-02T07:15:16+00:00

For a short time, Titanic Adventure Vacations is offering a fun-filled and exciting tour of scenic Key Largo. The Caribbean storm season approaches, so we are pleased to provide a whirlwind two-week exploration of sunken pirate ships and the lovely island around which dozens of wrecked pirate ships await the intrepid adventurer! (please note that Titanic Adventure Vacations has no reasonable explanation for why so many completely unplundered ships would be just sitting around untouched at the same time)

Our tour only lasts for ten days before the weather around Key Largo tends to get a little rough (Titanic Adventure Vacations adopts no liability for damage to property or person if you don't get off the island before hurricanes turn the entire island into an uninhabitable wasteland). With such a short amount of time, you'll want to make the most of your time, and we provide several different ways that you can spend your day.

Our rustic tavern is a popular stomping ground for some of the best divers money can buy - and we'll even pay for your first diver! The patrons of this fascinating locale can often by counted on for tales of buried treasure, and all it will cost you to hear their stories is a few rounds of drinks. (Titanic Adventure Vacations denies claims that thieves are also for hire, though we do recommend that all adventurers secure theft insurance. Sadly, no theft insurance is available through Titanic Adventure Vacations, so you'll most likely just lose treasure and have no recourse at all)

After a visit to the tavern to hire a diver, you may want to visit our affordable equipment shop to buy the hoses, tridents and weights that your divers may need. Our prices are quite reasonable, and the gear is kept in top condition (please note that Titanic Adventure Vacations does not actually own the store, and the presence of multiple adventurers in the store at the same time has been known to drive up prices, so we recommend that you attempt to visit the store while nobody else is there).

Once your divers are equipped, you're ready to explore the various wrecks around this beautiful vacation spot. These derelict ships can be found at many different depths, and can easily be explored by nearly any diver, provided he has adequate equipment. The shallow wrecks are some of our most accessible treasure troves, though they tend to be a bit picked-over. The medium and deep wrecks are far more prosperous, but recommended only for divers with adequate gear. (Titanic Adventure Vacations is not aware of the presence of monstrous kraken, but just in case, we are not able to reimburse adventurers if their divers are eaten by monsters of the deep. We highly recommend you equip your divers with tridents to fend off these beasts, which for some reason seem to be easily defeated by even the most inept of divers, provided they are carrying their underwater pitchforks)

After a hard morning searching for sunken treasure, you'll want to return to our convenient and completely fair buyer's market, where you can exchange the gold, goods and artifacts you've discovered for what we assure you are fair market prices (prices tend to fluctuate depending on the number of sellers. This is what is called a free market economy. Complaints can be lodged with Titanic Adventure Vacation's customer service hotline, where they will be promptly ignored and you will be openly mocked by our less-than-friendly operators).

If you get tired of hunting for treasure, you're more than welcome to take advantage of our lovely Dolphin Bay, where gawking tourists are delighted to pay you to take them dolphin-watching. You'll earn money just for sailing around the bay, and while you may not earn as much as if you sell treasure, you might also meet interesting and delightful people who can help you in your hunt for sunken gold! (Titanic Adventure Vacations does not suggest that you take advantage of your customers, even if they do offer to sabotage your fellow adventurers or deliberately drive up prices. All relationships between adventurers and their contacts are outside the business consideration of Titanic Adventure Vacations)

As the gentle autumn storms roll in at the end of our ten-day tour, you will have discovered untold treasure, and possibly recovered enough to pay for your trip! Feel free to compare your findings with those of your fellow adventurers - after all, there's nothing wrong with a little good-hearted competition (Titanic Adventure Vacations recommends hopping around your beaten opponents like an ill-behaved wide receiver doing a ridiculous endzone dance).

So schedule your vacation now - space is limited, and time is critical! Come out once, and you may find yourself making our sunken treasure expeditions a regular occurence. You'll have so much fun, you'll want to come back again and again.

(The following text is provided by the Key Largo Committee for Fair Play, and does not imply endorsement by Titanic Adventure Vacations:

Key Largo is fun and easy to explore. It requires some tricky planning to make sure you don't try to hire a diver or buy equipment when every other diver is also doing the same thing. You will need to plan your dives to beat the other adventurers to the best treasure without acting rashly and losing perfectly good divers to tentacled monsters, and you will need to time your sales so that you get the best prices for the treasure you haul up from the deep. While meeting contacts and hiring thieves are optional activities, Key Largo is much more interesting when your tour includes them. You may find that two or three visits to Key Largo will be plenty, and you may not find good reasons to revisit regularly, but Key Largo is still clever, challenging and fun enough to occupy a family of adventurers for the occasional game night... er, adventure vacation.)

Summary

Pros:
Rules work great - you can't do the same thing twice in one day, and timing is everything
Graphics are brilliant and funny
Components are top-notch
Easy to learn
Very clever
Thoroughly polished - everything works like clockwork

Cons:
A little low on replay value

Thread: Re: Tourist Card effect?

Brian Sinclair — 2008-09-05T14:22:54+00:00

Has there been any official resolution to this question? I just purchased the game and would like to know how to play this. My son who loves the "screwage" part of games would likely come up with this during a game.

Thread: Race for wealth in paradise

merb101 — 2008-08-25T15:24:47+00:00

Key Largo a race for wealth in paradise

By MICHAEL ERB
merb101@gmail.com
www.newsandsentinel.com

Hurricanes are headed for the island of Key Largo. When the storms pass, the treasure-filled wrecks off the coast will be buried and lost. Businesses from the mainland are set to move in and take your customers. Island life will never be the same again.

You have 10 days to make your fortune. Assuming a sea monster doesn't eat you first.

"Key Largo" by Titanic Games and Paizo Publishing is a board game for 3-5 players ages 8 and up. Players compete to make their fortunes by catering to tourists, scrounging artifacts from sunken ships and trading their finds for cold, hard cash. You have only 10 days (rounds) before the storms on the horizon end the game and your search for wealth.

The game board shows the island and different areas, such as inlets, shops and taverns where the players can send their ships. Each round the players lay face down action cards, which determine what the ship and crew will do that day. A player can choose to do one of five things search a wreck, go dolphin watching, go to the tavern, shop for equipment or sell at the market.

The market allows you to sell off goods you collect from wrecks. The shop allows you to buy equipment, such as diving hoses which allow divers to search deeper wrecks. Dolphin Cove allows players to collect money for taking tourists on a dolphin-watching trip.

The tavern allows players to hire divers and also to learn more about the wrecked ships off the coast.

Wrecked ships are represented by stacks of cards to the side of the main board. Each wreck randomly contains a number of treasure cards and possibly sea monsters. The level of difficulty can be scaled by shuffling more or fewer monster cards into the decks. Divers must have hoses to explore different wrecks. No hose means you can search only shallow wrecks. One hose means you can search up to medium-depth wrecks, and two hoses allows you to search any wreck, including deep wrecks.

The deeper the wreck, the more possibility of high-value treasure. But if your diver encounters a monster he gets scared and you lose that diver and all his equipment.

You can purchase tridents at the shop that allow you to kill a monster and continue looking for treasure. The trident is used up whenever you kill a monster, so if you draw two monsters in a row, you'd better have two tridents. You also can buy a weight that allows you to search for more than one treasure on a dive, but it also ups the risk of finding a monster.

Buying a round of drinks at the tavern allows you to look through some of a wreck's cards, to give you a better idea the amount of treasure and monsters hidden within.

One of the great things about "Key Largo" is the depth of strategy and the number of ways you can approach the game. Since you have a limited number of rounds, you have to carefully choose how to both build up your resources and how best to use them. Potentially you could put all of your resources and efforts into diving the deep wrecks, but it costs to hire divers and buy equipment, and the potential of monsters ups the risk. You could spend all your time taking tourists dolphin watching, but the payoff for treasure is much greater.

Even better, since each action is played at the same time, multiple players might decide to take the same course at the same time, which has an effect on the payouts. For example, if you are the only one at the market, you can sell certain items at a higher price than if there are several people selling. Other artifacts actually go up in price if there is more than one person at the market. You also get less money for taking tourists around Dolphin Cove on the week days, with the value changing each round.

This means you will be changing and altering strategies throughout the game, instead of picking just one and sticking with it the whole time. Trying to anticipate the moves of the other players to maximize your own adds a very cool twist on "Key Largo" and helps keep the game fresh through multiple games.

There also are optional rules to add encounters at Dolphin Cove or to hire a thief to steal treasure from competitors.

"Key Largo" is a fun, compelling and beautiful game that is great to play with a group of friends. The theme and storyline are a lot of fun, and it is quick to learn and easy to play but surprisingly deep in strategy. I would highly recommend picking up this game.

One last thing to note about "Key Largo" is the game's history. The game was designed by Paul Randles, co-designer of the popular "Pirates Cove," and was intended to be a sequel to that game called "Treasure Hunt." Randles, however, died from pancreatic cancer in 2003 before the game could be completed. "Treasure Hunt" was picked up by two well-known game designers, Mike Selniker and Bruno Faidutti, and completed under the name "Key Largo." The back sheet of the game rules has essays about the game and Randles written by Selniker, Faidutti, Lisa Stevens of Titanic Games, and Randles' widow Katty Pepermans. It is a somber and touching addition to an already incredible product and I'm really glad I got the chance to learn a little bit more about this much-missed game designer.

For more information on "Key Largo" or other Titanic Games products, visit Paizo Publishing at www.paizo.com. For more game reviews and discussion, visit my blog at http://merb101.livejournal.com.

Key Largo
Published by: Titanic Games
Players: 3-5
Ages: 8+
Time: 30-40 minutes
Cost: $39.95
www.paizo.com

Thread: Re: Diving to sunken ship of Pirates Cove isn't like sailin them

thoia — 2008-06-12T18:39:00+00:00

Thief is already an option in the Tilsit edition as you can hire a thief at the tavern as one of your possible actions there.

Thread: Key Largo -- Review

gschloesser — 2008-04-24T01:10:05+00:00

Publisher: Titanic Games
Designers: Paul Randles, Mike Selinker & Bruno Faidutti
Players: 3-5
Playing Time: 45 minutes
Review by: Greg J. Schloesser

Originally published in three foreign languages by Tilsit back in 2005, the late Paul Randles’ Key Largo has found renewed life with a new, revised edition released by Titanic Games. This spiffy new edition has received an artistic facelift, as well as some rules twists and modifications. The end result, however, is not much different from the original, which may be good news to some and disappointing to others.

The theme has players scurrying to obtain divers and equipment in order to pillage ancient shipwrecks for the treasures they contain. There are dangers, however, as monsters lurk in the deep, and greedy thieves lay in wait for the opportunity to pilfer players’ hard-earned goods. Further, only ten days remain before the hurricane season begins, thereby making it impossible for further diving expeditions. Victory goes to the player who recovers the most treasures and sells them at the market for the greatest profit.

The board depicts Key Largo from above, with its variety of houses, shops and features. The key areas are the market, tavern, equipment shop, and Dolphin Cove, where players will send their ships during the course of the game. Four wreck sites are established, with three decks of cards at each site. The cards are divided into shallow, medium and deep decks, with the rewards – and possible perils – potentially greater at increased depths.

Each player receives a set of five action cards, four of which correspond to the four island locations while the remaining one allows the player to search a shipwreck. Players begin with a small treasury and one diver in their employ.

Each turn, players secretly select two of their cards, one for the morning action and one for the afternoon action. Morning actions are revealed, and players move their ships to the location matching the card they played. In turn order, each player then executes the action. Once these actions are completed, players then reveal their afternoon actions and repeat the process.

Possible actions include:

• Search a Wreck: A player moves his ship to one of the four wreck sites. He sends his diver or divers to a depth of his choice. Divers with no hoses can explore only shallow wrecks, as hoses are required to investigate wrecks located further below the surface.
The player takes one card from the appropriate deck for each diver sent to explore a wreck. If the card shows a treasure – goods, artifacts, gold or jewels – the player keeps the card. If a monster is revealed, the diver is frightened away and removed from the game – unless the diver possesses a trident, in which the diver continues exploring, but the monster and trident are removed from play.

If the diver possesses a weight, he may discard the weight to select another card. Each diver may possess only two hoses, one weight and one trident, so players cannot overload their divers with equipment to ransack a wreck all at once.

• Go to the tavern: Players may hire a diver or purchase drinks for the patrons for $20, which allows the player to look at two decks at a wreck site. The cost for a diver varies from $80 to $120, depending upon the number of players present at the tavern.
Players may opt to use an optional rule that allows the purchase of a thief. This allows the player to steal a treasure card from an opponent. This adds a healthy dose of nastiness to the proceedings, but it also ratchets up the frustration level as there is no defense against the vile criminal.

• Shop for equipment: Divers need hoses to go to the wrecks located at a greater depth, and tridents to fend-off the nasty monsters that lurk in the deep. Weights are also useful so a diver can potentially grab multiple treasures when exploring a wreck. All of these items can be purchased at the Equipment shop, but the cost for each is more expensive when more customers are visiting the shop.

• Sell at the market: When a player collects treasures, he will ultimately want to sell them at the market. Three types of treasures can be sold at the market – goods, artifacts, or gold – and each treasure will contain one or more crates. Jewels do not need to be sold, but rather grant their value to the player at game’s end. A player may sell only one type of treasure per visit to the market, and the price for all but gold will vary depending upon the number of customers at the market attempting to sell their wares. Occasionally, a player will visit the market, only to decide not to sell due to a reduced price. The risk of not selling isn’t that great unless playing with the optional thief rule.

• Go dolphin watching: An alternative method of earning cash is to visit Dolphin Cove. The amount of money earned is not dependent upon the number of players visiting the Cove, but rather is based on the day of the week. More money is earned on weekends – up to $60 – with only a paltry $30 being earned on weekdays. Thus, it is usually wise to visit the Cove on the more popular weekends.

Another optional rule allows players to have encounters while visiting the Cove. This allows the player to draw an encounter card, each of which depicts a character that grants the player a special ability. These abilities include drawing an extra treasure card when exploring a wreck, avoiding a monster, selling a treasure for a set price, treating areas as if more players were present, etc. These cards definitely add spice to the game and give players a bit more control over their fate.

The game is played over the course of ten turns ("days" in game parlance). With each passing turn, the start player rotates, which can be an important factor when choosing which wrecks to explore, and when the thief option is being used. After ten turns, the value of unsold treasures (as listed on the cards) is added to a player’s cash, and the wealthiest player becomes the toast of the Keys … and wins the game.

Randles was obviously enamored with the mechanism where players secretly choose their actions, then simultaneously reveal them. This method was used in his only other published title, Pirate’s Cove. While it can be entertaining, this mechanism does tend to create considerable chaos in a game. The chaos here isn’t of the potentially devastating variety, as it mainly will affect the income a player can earn when selling at the market, or the amount that must be paid when purchasing equipment or divers. It can also affect the wrecks a player may explore, as only one player may explore a particular wreck at a time.

There really isn’t a lot of strategy present here. Outside of the thief – and that is an optional rule – there isn’t much a player can do to affect an opponent. There also isn’t any danger of losing one’s treasures, so success is really dependent upon lucky explorations and simple money management. There’s not much here to challenge or excite folks who seek deeper fare. Key Largo is clearly designed to be a light, frolicking affair and is not something targeted to strategy gamers. Viewed in that light, the game is just fine and offers a pleasant experience. It seems to be suitable for gaming with the family, at a church group, or in other light, social settings. For those desiring something deep and challenging, however, I’d suggest that you stay out of these waters.

Thread: The more; the merrier...I think.

Crockerdile — 2008-04-12T15:50:29+00:00

I've only had the chance to play this once and that was only a 3 player game. It was clear to me from early on, that the game would have been much more robust (i.e. more competitive and confrontational), with a full compliment of 5 players.
Then I started thinking, "How about a 6th player, or even a 7th and / or 8th player to liven up "Key Largo".

To that end, I've created some extra action cards and some boats to add. Click "browse" in the photo gallery, and you'll find the cards, because for some reason they are not in the regular image display here.

Print 1 to 3 sets of Action Card "faces" on different colored cardstock, then cut them out. Or you can get fancy and print them on matte photo paper, then print up the 1 to 3 sets of card backs that are there also. Cut out the card backs and faces individually, and attach to each other. I use spray ahesieve. I also spray a clear protective coat of something onto my cards, after assembly.

In the files section you'll find 3 extra boats that will match the card backs (purple, orange, and white). Sandwich some cardboard between the reverse images.

I made and printed my extra cards using a program called "Quickcards". I can email anyone who is interested my Quickcard file for "Key Largo". Unless you also happen to own a copy of Quickcards", you won't be able to open it. But if you have Quickcards, request my file at

mcrocker@wideopenwest.com

with an email, and I'll send it to you.

Thread: Re: Break out the steel drums

matthiske — 2008-04-06T19:10:46+00:00

Your Correct! I believe the comment was made because of the choice from the five actions. I personally don't enjoy Race For The Galaxy and would have never noticed the small comparison, But I love Key Largo!

Thread: Re: Break out the steel drums

faidutti — 2008-04-06T18:28:20+00:00

I'm really glad to see some nice feedback from the US edition of Key Largo, but I'm really appaled by the comparison with Race for the Galaxy!
I really like Race for the Galaxy, but I would never have compared Key Largo with it, even when I see where the common point is - the simultaneous selection of one action card in four or five possibilities. Aside from this, they are completely different - mostly, Key Largo is light, while Race for the Galaxy is meaty.

Thread: Re: Break out the steel drums

matthiske — 2008-04-06T01:51:54+00:00

Played for the first time and loved it, Despite the fact I came in last with four player's. It was brought up during play that it has similarities to Race For The Galaxy, But I enjoy Key Largo Much More. Much more visually appealing than RFTG.

Image

Crockerdile — 2008-04-05T23:13:08+00:00

Cardbacks to add an 8th player

Image

Crockerdile — 2008-04-05T23:08:54+00:00

Cardbacks for a 7th player

Image

Crockerdile — 2008-04-05T23:07:05+00:00

Card Backss for a 6th player

Image

Crockerdile — 2008-04-05T23:04:23+00:00

Card fronts for a 6th, 7th , or 8th player

Thread: Re: Break out the steel drums

dspezzano — 2008-04-05T19:21:57+00:00

Your absolutely right, when I read that back I knew I had written it poorly, but we were in fact playing by the correct rules. I wrote that late at night I will clean it up.

Thread: Re: Break out the steel drums

Crockerdile — 2008-04-05T12:50:40+00:00

You might remember the different wreck depths? Well in order to dive at medium depth each of your divers needs a hose, to dive at Deep depths each of them needs two hoses. So if for example you have 3 divers and two of them have 2 hoses but one of them has none you can only dive at a shallow wreck.

You may have been playing wrong. In your above example you still could have searched a deep (or medium wreck, for that matter). But you could only use 2 of your 3 divers. To quote from the rules posted in the links below,
"A player must search the same wreck with all of his divers. If some of them cannot dive that deep do to lack of hoses, the player searches only with the divers who are equiped to do it, and his other divers don't do anything, staying on the boat waiting for their colleagues."
The new English language version says the same thing.

But you are spot on that this is a light weight game. I've only had the chance to play once (3 player), and it was clear to me that 5 players would maximize the current potential. And I say current, because I'm going to add ships and action cards to expand the game to up to 8 players. That should make it a much more intense game of bluff (and more chaotic).

edit: I now have uploaded an image of homemade action cards into the image section, along with some card backs to add a white, purple, and/or orange player. (The backs are old movie posters of the film "Key Largo...which has absolutely nothing to do with the theme of this game).

Thread: Break out the steel drums

dspezzano — 2008-04-05T04:37:00+00:00

This is lifted from my blog, I just played a game of this last night and since there are so few reviews i thought it might be helpul. I don't feel like editing it so it is coming as is.

-----

I've previously written on the tale of Key Largo before which is the last game designed by Paul Randles one of the designers of Pirates Cove. Last night was my first chance to play Key Largo with my gaming group and we had a full five player game.

The Object
The object of Key Largo is simple have the most money by the end of ten days. You acquire that money mainly from sending divers down for buried treasure and selling them at the market. You can also make money by taking tourist Dolphin Watching but the real money is made through salvaging the wrecks on the ocean floor.

The Components
The game comes with some rather large wooden pieces to represent your boat, a number of chits of items you can buy like hoses, weights and Tridents. A nicely illustrated board, lots of fake money and then plenty of cards to represent the treasure you find on the bottom of the ocean. I didn't find any of the components cheaply made at all.

The Theme
The game is set around the islands you pillaged during Pirate's Cove, or at least it is loosely based on that concept. The theme of being a salvage captain and sending your divers down works pretty well. I found it odd that the obstacle chosen for the divers were Sea Monsters and that the Trident was used to fend them off, I would of expected possibly a spear gun and Sharks perhaps. It's not a big deal and the art of the divers and the board represent that fun, humorous family ton so it works.

How it Plays
The dynamics of Key Largo are simple enough to get up and going fast. A first time game with 5 players and rules explanation only took about an hour. I think this game can be played in anywhere from 40 minutes to just over an hour depending on the size and group.

Players start with $100, a boat and a single diver. They also have a set of cards which allows them to do various actions, more on that in a minute. Then depending on the number of players you place wrecks down around the board of varying depths (shallow, medium and deep) in a 3 player game for example there are 3 shallow, 4 medium and 4 deep wrecks. Wrecks are stacks of 5 cards placed face down.

So the game is runs over 10 days, that's how much time is left before the hurricanes roll in and wash out all diving for the season. Each day is broken into a morning and afternoon, so effectively you have 20 turns of game play.

Each player has a set of cards with actions on them, you must choose two of these cards and place them face down on top of each other. The top card is your morning action and the bottom your afternoon action. What this means is you can only perform one of your actions once a day. After ten days you count up your money and unsold treasure and whomever has the most is the winner.

The Action Cards
Search a Wreck Card
Your diver goes to one of the wreck decks and draws the top card. Each wreck can only have one boat so there is a start player token and it passes each turn. If more then one player chooses a wreck action then they place their boats clockwise from the start player. You can also hire up to 3 divers, so you could be drawing 3 cards from a diving expedition.

You might remember the different wreck depths? Well in order to dive at medium depth each of your divers needs a hose, to dive at Deep depths each of them needs two hoses. So if for example you have 3 divers and two of them have 2 hoses but one of them has none you can only dive at a shallow wreck.

The wreck decks consist of either treasure or a monster. Treasure comes in the form of goods, gold, artifacts and jewels. When you draw these they simply go into your hand, a monster card just means your diver found nothing. There is a way to counter a monster, it's called the Trident. If you have one of these you can simply ignore the monster card and then draw another card from the wreck depth.

Finally each diver can have a single diving weight which allows him to discard it to draw another card off the wreck deck. When that's a lot to cover, but its best to explain everything here as searching a wreck is the key to the game.

Go Dolphin Watching Card
This card has you take tourists out to see Dolphins and collect some meager cash, how much depends on the day of the week but Friday - Sunday pay the most. There is an optional rule that frankly must be used for this card or else the Dolphin watch card will almost never get played and it's called encounters. Each time you go Dolphin watching you draw an encounter card and can keep it to use later. All encounter cards are beneficial, for example you may draw a card that allows you to immediately sell the last card you drew from a wreck deck.

Buy Equipment Card
I pretty much explained what the 3 different pieces of equipment did under the Wreck card. Just know you can only buy two items on each visit to the shop and each diver can only have 2 hoses, 1 Trident and 1 weight each.

What I am going to do is use this spot to explain the one dynamic that is going to come into play for this card and the remaining two and the one that makes the game interesting and it is the changing market. The number of people who visit the shop at the same time determines the price of goods. A hose might be $30 if you're the only one there, but if two people visit its $40 and if 3 visit its $60. In other words try and shop when people aren't around.

Sell Goods Card (ie visit the market)
This is how you make your money and of course making money is the key to the game. Up top I mentioned the 4 types of treasure goods, gold, artifacts and jewels. Well of those four only three of them can be sold at the market, jewels are never sold.

Each treasure card with the exception of Jewels has two numbers printed on it. The number of crates and the end game scoring value. As an example I might draw a Gold card and it will say 5 crates of gold and have an end game value on it of $100.

Much like the shop, the markets values for selling go changed based on the number of boat captains selling their haul. Gold always sells for $30 a crate, Good sell for less when there are more people an oddly enough Artifacts sell for more if there are more people.

Getting back to my example if I went to the market to sell my card which had 5 crates of gold i would make $150, 5 crates multiplied by the market of $30. So whats the other value you ask, the $100? There is a good chance you will not sell all your goods at market instead of them not counting towards your final score you get the value on the card, in this case $100. Jewels only have a value on them and it is usually a nice sum like $200. I should also mention that you can only sell one type of good per visit. So if I sell Gold I can't sell goods, but I can sell as many gold cards as I want.

Visit the Tavern Card
This is where you can do any of 3 things, the most important of which is buy another diver. Much like the shop, more people here means it cost more to hire a diver. Each boat can only transport 3 divers and no more.

You can also buy the tavern a round of drinks for $20, this allows you to pick two treasure decks, look at whats in them and then reshuffle them. Finally another option rule is hiring a thief, which allows you to steal a card from another players treasure hand.

Conclusion
Key Largo is a decent enough game, there is a pretty good theme here and the rules seem well balanced. The one thing I really love about it is the lack of downtime, everyone is doing their things at once and the game moves. The optional encounter rule should always be played with, while the thief rule I could live without. The game lacks any kind of drama really short of pulling a monster card and most late game strategy revolves around trying to out guess your opponents and be the sole visitor at the market.

Who is it for?
Pirate's Cove fans, people looking for a nice family or dinner party game which plays fast and has no confrontation.

Who is it NOT for?
People looking for a very strategic or heavy game. If you scoff at games like TTR, Pirate's Cove or That' Life stay far away from Key Largo.

Image

Vagos — 2008-03-28T23:11:01+00:00

What you get from the Titanic version

Thread: Re: Tourist Card effect?

Crockerdile — 2008-03-27T00:08:52+00:00

I thought I was asking a stupid question. Apparently it's deeper than I thought.
This is the way I am going to play.
I dock at the Tavern or Equipment shop (and I have a tourist in my hand). I do my business, then I play my tourist card, which adds to the number of players in the tavern, driving the price up for everyone else...because I am still there, along with the tourist.
I dock at the Market to sell goods, for the maximum price possible...then play the tourist,after my transaction, which drives the price down, because I'm still there, along with the tourist.
Or I dock at the Market (and I have a tourist card), with the intention of selling artifacts. I play the tourist card first, and thus receive a better price. I'll assume that we (myself and the tourist), remain in the market for that half day, so that all players will get the benefit of an extra person at that location, until that half day is done. (i.e. it would be great to be the last player under these circumstances).
I guess what I am trying to say is that the tourist should remain in effect from the moment it is played until the end of the half day. If I do business BEFORE I play a tourist, then my business should not be affected. Good screwage potential here.
Now can anyone talk me out of this interpetation?
And thank you Mike. I didn't expect an answer so soon. I'm going to debut this game to my friends this Friday. I refuse to allow "rules lawyering", so my interpetation must be spot on.

I'm thinking that the tourist walks into the shop BEFORE or AFTER my business, but it's my choice.

Thread: Re: Tourist Card effect?

mike selinker — 2008-03-26T22:37:19+00:00

That is an excellent question, and one I'm surprised we missed when designing the game. I would rule that there's a step where you determine how many people are at the location. The Tourist should be played at the time you determine that. So "the guy comes with you," as one of my co-workers just said, and he applies to the whole half-day. Everyone's time at the location is thus affected by the card, whether or not they play before you.

But we really should have caught that.

Mike

Thread: Tourist Card effect?

Crockerdile — 2008-03-26T19:15:30+00:00

Playing with the ENCOUNTER CARDS.
If I play a tourist card at either the TAVERN, MARKET, or the EQUIPMENT SHOP, then it has the effect of adding 1 more person(player) at the site. Does it only affect me, or does it affect all players at the site until the half-day is over?
For example: Could I go to the EQUIPMENT SHOP and make a purchase, then play the TOURIST card? Now I've made my purchase, but I'm still there. Then by playing the TOURIST card I've added another person to the market, thereby driving up the prices for my competitors. Am I interpeting this rule correctly?
2nd example: If I went to the market to try to sell an ARTIFACT, then playing a TOURIST card would increase my profit. Is the profit just for me, or for all players in the market? Or could I go to the Market and sell GOODS for a decent price...then play the TOURIST card which would seemingly reduce the price other players woud receive? (because I'm still there).

Thread: Re: Diving to sunken ship of Pirates Cove isn't like sailin them

Crockerdile — 2008-03-24T14:05:16+00:00

The board problem, and the ship problem have both been solved in the newer version(Titanic Games). There is also an optional thief mechanism.

Image

offwater — 2008-03-07T18:57:07+00:00

components and box

Thread: Re: Key Largo release date

CJHeart — 2008-02-28T21:28:57+00:00

Does anyone know when this will be released at Boards & Bits or Boulder games?

Thanks in advance!

Thread: Re: Key Largo release date

CJHeart — 2008-02-27T06:13:38+00:00

Weird if it's been realeased how come all the online stores only have it for pre-order? I'm confused.

Thread: Re: Key Largo release date

Walt Mulder — 2008-02-27T06:10:37+00:00

It has already been released and in my local game store for about 2 weeks now.

Thread: Key Largo release date

CJHeart — 2008-02-27T05:49:12+00:00

Key Largo is listed on Thought Hammer for 3/05/08 does anyone know if this is true? Or how soon it will in fact be released?

Thanks in advance for any help!

Thread: Re: New Titanic Version ?

Frank Burbach — 2008-02-23T08:01:36+00:00

I just received my copy in the mail. The components are above average quality. The wooden boats stand up a little better than the plastic ones in the Tilsit version. The new board is a quad-fold design rather than the original piece-together affair. All in all the quality is an improvement over the previous version (which I had no problem with other than the boats). The art is different, but still comical in nature (it kind of reminds me of Mad Magazine artwork for some reason). Hope this helps.

Frank

Thread: New Titanic Version ?

upstartcrow — 2008-02-20T01:18:49+00:00

The new version of Key Largo is now available. Has anyone seen the newly designed components for this game yet?

Thread: Re: Key Largo releases in English

Drew — 2008-02-15T20:44:43+00:00

Nice story Mike and a great tribute to Paul. Congrats of getting it published in english.

Thread: Key Largo releases in English

mike selinker — 2008-02-15T15:28:33+00:00

This week, the English-language version of Key Largo arrived in the Paizo warehouse. So it should be on sale soon. In the meantime, I wrote this blog post (http://paizo.com/paizo/blog, look down to 2/12) about my friend Paul. I hope you like it, and I hope it encourages some of you to try out the game.

Mike

Paul Randles' Final Game: Key Largo

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

In February 2003, Pirate's Cove designer Paul Randles died of cancer. That story didn't have a happy ending. This one does.

A year earlier, Paul drafted a deep-sea diving board game he called Treasure Hunt. Players would salvage treasure from shipwrecks off the Florida coast. The game had pop-up boats, and little cardboard shipwrecks with treasure disks. Paul wanted a European publisher to publish it, but it wasn't good enough yet. A solid 6 on the scale of 1 to 10, he said. It better at least be a 9 before it hit the street.

Then he got sick. I didn't know how to help. My wife did. Evon suggested I ask Paul for Treasure Hunt. I'd develop the game with him, and then find a publisher to put it out. For the last months of his life, we worked on the game together.

I gave him a 21-Nerf-gun salute at his funeral, and told the legions of game industry folk there that I was shopping Treasure Hunt. It was a pretty good game by this point. Maybe an 8.

At an Ohio convention, I met Bruno Faidutti, the French designer of Citadels. He knew of Paul and wanted to help. Within a month he had restructured the game he was now calling Treasure Island into a great game. A 9 for sure. Gone were the pop-up boats and the cardboard shipwrecks, replaced now by full-size boats and card decks of sunken treasure. Now we could find someone to publish it.

Every publisher wanted to see the game, because Paul had a lot of friends. A major American board game company wanted to convert it to a dungeon-crawl game. I thanked them and declined. (Side story: Based on this, I did design that dungeon game, with my co-designer James Ernest of Cheapass Games. That game, Dungeonville, came out from two more publishers, Z-Man Games and Pegasus Spiele. So Paul's game has a son, and he's bilingual.)

Then Tilsit Editions of France made an offer, which Bruno, Paul's widow Katty, and I accepted. Editor Nicolas Anton proposed adding people you could meet on the island, the last thing the game needed to become a 10 out of 10. Tilsit renamed it Key Largo, gave it a fancy cover and a modular board, and released it in 2005 in German, Italian, and French. Which was great, except I don't speak any of those languages very well.

But I do speak English, and I do know Lisa Stevens, the CEO of Paizo Publishing. Lisa was looking to start a new line of board games, which eventually I helped forge into Titanic Games, the publisher of the color version of Kill Doctor Lucky and Stonehenge: An Anthology Board Game. Titanic needed a third game, so I looked at the name of the company and said, "How about one about sinking ships?"

How about it indeed, she said. And so, in February 2008, five years to the month after Paul's passing, Titanic Games will be releasing the full-color English version of Key Largo, with all-new art and all-new components delivered by graphic designer James Davis. The English edition has a large one-piece board, nice wooden boats, fifteen delightful divers, and beautiful cards with art from Ben Huen and Andrew Hou. Everyone we've shown it to says it's a work of art. I like those people.

The game has undergone a lot of facelifts since Paul's fun little prototype, but there's something unmistakably Paul-ish in the final version. That's why the money in the game bears the inscription "E Paulibus Unum," which I can pretend means "In Paul We Trust."

I can't play Key Largo with Paul, but now I can play it with you.

Mike Selinker
Titanic Games Brand Manager

Image

mike selinker — 2008-01-09T04:52:43+00:00

U.S. edition box cover

Thread: Diving to sunken ship of Pirates Cove isn't like sailin them

thoia — 2007-11-27T02:59:20+00:00

HI there, and welcome today to my review of Key Largo. As with the handful of other reviews I've written I'm not going to spend any time here describing game mechanics. That's been done already in another review and it's a waste of time to both write and READ that information twice. Instead I'm going to give you my opinion and thoughts on the game as that's really what a review is all about anyway now innit?

I'd like to address the components first off. The infamous board. It sucks. Yes the idea of the non-rectangle board is neat but what happened is the die-cut cardboard does cause severe warping to all four sections of the board. Now my "puzzle piece" that holds the 4 sections together did stay in place and I never had an issue with the boards moving around but it was still awkward to put your boat on a spot and have it leaning this way or that because of the warping.

Speaking of the boats they look cool and are very nice plastic models…very nice indeed except they are really quite difficult to make stand up. The "flat part" of the hull is so small in comparison to the rest of the really large boat figure it simply isn't enough surface to easily balance the boat. YES worse than the Pirate's Cove boats! In addition the mold seam of the fig runs right through the middle of this small flat part creating a slight imbalance to the boat too. Couple all this with warped boards and you literally end up just grabbing your boat and laying it on it's side in the place you want to navigate to.

Great ideas for the components no doubt about that but terrible implementation here. Now that I've got that out of the way I can move on to a real part of a review.

This game get's heavily referenced to Pirate's Cove…and why not? Paul Randles only other game was Pirate's Cove. Here's the deal there are similarities but then are there extreme similarities between Antike and Imperial just because they both use the rondel mechanic and are the same designer? So with Key Largo players secretly select TWO locations to travel to each turn then resolve the results. Similar yes but not that's very basic and doesn't go much beyond that to compare it to Pirate's Cove. Granted this game is considered to be a sequel of sorts in that you are diving to the ships that sunk here years ago but that's about it.

When 2 players meet at the same location for instance there is no battle between them to see who gets the spot. Each player is able to freely take actions at the location. What happens however is the more players that show up to the same spot typically means the prices go up making it more expensive to procure the items/services you needed. I will say they were nice with the selling off to the tourists section in that one item goes down in value with more and one item goes up in value with more players showing (and a third that remains constant) so you can always make some cash but maybe you'll have to switch your plan this turn

In this way I'd say that KL is a little more friendly than PC. Have you ever played PC and it just seems like the game itself decided to pick on one player over and over again? This doesn't happen here. That player may be lower on money than he/she anticipated but they can always purchase the goods/services they were looking to get no matter how many other players showed up.

Now the character cards are listed as optional/advanced rules. Man I hate it when games do this. These are EASY cards to deal with. I taught this game to people who are not avid gamers and they grasped the concept of these cards straight away so there is no reason to ever play the game without them. On the most rudimentary level they add a lot of flavor and well, character to the game. More over they give an added reason to visit Dolphin Cove. Some times mid week just isn't attractive enough to take tourists dolphin spotting...but if you are guaranteed a card well now that might make it worth while!

Alright so what's the deal then you ask? Key Largo is a fun little game. Not as blood thirsty as Pirate's Cove but still lays out a nice round of game playing for 45 minutes or so. It's light and fluffy it's got some randomness and playful chaos along with great cheeky artwork that suits this game very well. I encourage this game to given a try by all.

Thread: New edition coming

tom-le-termite — 2007-08-23T17:05:43+00:00

and in english!! published by Titanic Games, in November 2007

all the informations here: http://paizo.com/titanicGames/v5748btpy7ymg

Thread: variant for 2 players

ropearoni4 — 2007-05-29T18:20:17+00:00

Simply, take 2 other "hands" and randomly draw one card for each part of the day. Flip them over and move their boats to where their card says. They gain nothing, but they annoy/help you with prices.

Thread: Re: 2nd printing with English rules

ropearoni4 — 2007-04-27T17:49:43+00:00

How long till to US release? And how much is really needed compared to non-english version. I only say I want the US release because it is so hard to find the other version at a normal price. My brother lived in Fla. for many years and I think he would enjoy this game. His wife's family is from San Juan, Puerto Rico. She liked San Juan - the game, better than PR, icyww.

ps. I have a game design idea I don't want to step on any toes, and it has a similar theme; called Key West - but Key largo I hear is where all the fun is.

pps. Does anyone how does this game compare to Jensiets von Thebon in the "exploration" phases?

Thread: Re: 2nd printing with English rules

faidutti — 2007-04-18T08:34:24+00:00

Things didn't go as expected but, yes, there will very probably be an english version of Key Largo.

Thread: Re: 2nd printing with English rules

ropearoni4 — 2007-04-17T14:14:32+00:00

Did this game ever get a US publisher?

Image

Ceryon — 2007-01-31T00:38:00+00:00

Image

MWChapel — 2006-07-20T00:28:13+00:00

box pic

Image

Toynan — 2006-06-24T13:18:32+00:00

Thread: Box Comparison

MWChapel — 2006-05-31T00:23:10+00:00

Ok, now Key Largo is a strange size box, and was a tricky on to fit with like games.

It's the same height as the Alea games, but about an inche wider. So ended up proping it up with the Alea games and my copy of Zepter Von Zavendor, and it blended well.

Thread: Re: 2nd printing with English rules

skeletodoc — 2006-03-15T16:18:48+00:00

You don't need the english edition. I have the first edition and there is very little language problem with the rules on BGG.

Thread: Re: 2nd printing with English rules

fsumarc — 2006-03-15T15:26:20+00:00

waiting patiently...

Thread: Re: 2nd printing with English rules

faidutti — 2006-03-15T15:04:22+00:00

Just asked the guys at Tilsit about it - it's not done, and they are still in discussion with possible US distributors. So, definitely not this spring, may be summer....

Thread: 2nd printing with English rules

jElliot — 2006-03-14T17:07:44+00:00

If anyone notices the 2nd printing with English rules (expected spring of '06) selling any where, I would love to here about it.

Thread: Re: The Adventures of Tintin in Key Largo

jens_hoppe — 2006-01-09T10:13:20+00:00

Nice catch! Can Tilsit possibly get into legal trouble over this?

Thread: Re: The Adventures of Tintin in Key Largo

Frouvne — 2006-01-08T21:14:53+00:00

A very interesting observation...

Thread: The Adventures of Tintin in Key Largo

Drew1365 — 2006-01-05T16:58:29+00:00

I was browsing the entry for this game today, and noticed that the image on the box cover looked very familiar.

]]>

I knew I'd seen it before. The red fish were a dead giveaway.

That's from page 40 of Red Rackham's Treasure by Herge.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Rackham's_Treasure

Thread: Formidable!

Friendless — 2005-12-03T22:50:45+00:00

Disclosure: The copy played is an Essen trade sample. It was provided free of charge to this author for the purpose of forming and expressing an opinion.

So it was late at night after a big games meeting, and riding high from my glorious victory at Tikal, I sat down with a gin and tonic and a block of cheese to read the rules to Key Largo. It shortly became clear that there were no actual English rules, but being relaxed and ensconced where I was, I decided I could read the French rules anyway. Strangely, that was true. This review refers to the Tilsit version (no Rio Grande repackaging) and the French rules.

The game is about deep sea divers (you know, big metal helmet with a hose attached) trying to get rich by diving on wrecked pirate ships (as happens in Pirate's Cove), and selling the treasures found to wealthy tourists. The theme works extremely well.

The board consists of 4 colourful pieces held together by a jigsaw piece. We found that the boards didn't sit flat, so the jigsaw piece wouldn't stay in, and that was quite annoying when there are so many perfectly good boards out there. On the other hand, it does allow the board to be a blobby island shape rather than perfectly square. I would have preferred a flat board though.

Each player is represented by a plastic sloop, which is quite a cool piece. Unfortunately, on this copy, one of the topsails of one of the boats was twisted. When I unpacked it, the boats were loose in the box, and I guess that is the price that must be paid. Ideally, the boats would have their own foam insert to sit in. Come to think of it, the bottoms of the boats are quite narrow and they regularly fell over in our game, so maybe that piece could do with a redesign.

The game also has several decks of cards, and some divers. The divers are thick cardboard tokens looking like a deep sea diver. As you buy more hoses so he can dive deeper, the hose plugs onto the top of the diver piece. There are also weights and tridents, which are also good pieces. The divers are good pieces which bring a lot of style to the game. Oh, and there's also a deck of money. The smiling face on the $100 is M. Faidutti, I don't know the others. There are two other authors of the game, I expect they are there.

So the game consists of 10 days. On each day, you can do two actions - one in the morning, and one in the afternoon. Players have a private deck of 5 action cards, and they simultaneously choose 2 and place them on the table. Morning actions are revealed simultaneously, played, then afternoon actions are revealed and played, and then it's the next day.

The possible actions are:
dive on a wreck - the "wrecks" are piles of 5 wreck cards scattered around the island (this game takes up the whole table). They come in shallow, medium and deep. To dive on a shallow wreck, a diver needs no hoses; to dive on a medium wreck a diver needs one hose; and on a deep wreck a diver needs w hoses. If you dive on a wreck where not all of your divers have enough hoses, the ones without cannot retrieve items from the wreck - you can't send your divers to different wrecks. The cards retrieved from the wrecks are usually treasures - more on them later - but you can also find sea monsters. If you have a trident, you can fight the sea monster off and take another card (and the trident gets used up). If you don't have a trident, that diver and all of his stuff gets discarded to the box.

Now if you have one diver with a trident and one without, the one without is allowed to save his buddy, so the trident is in some sense a team possession. However if the guy with the trident can't dive deep enough to get to the monster, the trident cannot be used, and the guy gets eaten up. In both games I've played, someone lost a diver, and although that's pretty funny to everyone else, they weren't smiling so much at the time.

When you dive on a wreck, you take one card from it for each diver diving on it. If you defeat a sea monster, take a replacement card. For each weight you have, you may diacard the weight to take another card. As you'd expect, the deeper wrecks have the better treasure.

visit the Siren Bar - the Siren Bar is a location on the island. At the bar you can do each of three things up to once each.
- recruit a new diver - the price goes up if there is more than one player in the bar. You can have at most 3 divers in your team.
- shout the bar - that's an Australianism, so maybe the American term is "buy a round". You buy drinks for the old sea dogs, and they tell you about the wrecks. You can look at all of the cards in any two wrecks, then shuffle each pile and put it back.
- hire a thief - the price of the thief also goes up if there is more than one player in the bar. The thief will steal a treasure card from another player of your choice.

work in the Bay of Dolphins - tourists will pay you to take them out to see the dolphins. They pay better on the weekends, but the money is nowhere near as good as you get for treasure.

visit the Sea Wolf Dive Shop - at the dive shop you can buy hoses, tridents and weights. The price goes up if there's more than one player in the shop. You can only buy two things per visit, so you can't get 4 hoses, 2 weights and 2 tridents like you'd like to. That means building up your dive team must be gradual. Each piece of equipment must be assigned to a diver, and each diver can only have two hoses, one weight and one trident.

BTW, here is our only rules question. When you go diving and not all of your divers can make it to the wreck, can you pass equipment from non-diving divers to the guys who are going down? It seemed sensible that you could, so we allowed it. Of course, we wouldn't allow equipment to be passwed between divers who were both descending.

visit the Market - at the market, you sell treasures to the tourists. There are 4 types of treasures, but you can never sell diamonds (they only score at the end of the game), and you may sell treasures of only one type. If you can sell treasure, you must.
- merchandise - old pirate crockery, mostly. The price goes down when more players are at the market.
- antiquities - religious relics, etc. The price goes UP when more players are at the market.
- gold - treasure chests! The price is always the same.

Treasure also has an "end of game" price, which you get added to your score if you still hold that treasure at the end of the game. It's better to sell them, but you can't always make it to the market.

Note to self and other players: You don't have to sell ALL treaures of that type, but you must sell something. We played that wrong.

OK, so that's all the stuff that happens in the game. Go read M. Faidutti's translation for the exact details of the rules. Actually, there is a deck of optional cards and some rules for them, but I haven't read them yet so I can't review them.

So what's it like? If you've played Pirate's Cove, it's sort like that without the incessant dying. It's not like Citadels, it's not like Diamant, it's not as cerebral nor quite as much fun as Mystery of the Abbey. But it is a very good game, and it is quite fun. Many players like the mechanic of building up your powers and then using them for profit. Although you can steal from other players, and that's fun, it doesn't seem to be a game-breaker.

In the first game I played, one player played well and got many treasures. Another player tried the strategy of stealing from him every turn. The player who was stolen from won by a large margin.

In the second game I played, there was hardly any stealing. After all, it just invites recriminations and sucks money away from everyone involved. I concentrated on diving deep and selling treasures, and I won by a long way. I suspect I was lucky because I met no sea monsters, whereas the other guys seemed to meet swarms of them.

Strategy-wise, I don't know how much can be gained from trying to choose when to go to the shop to get the best prices. I could never successfully second-guess people in Pirate's Cove, and I don't expect to do it in this game either. I just had a plan and executed it without regard for what other people were doing.

In summary, the game play was great, but the bits were of varying quality, with the board being bad, the boats dubious, and the divers excellent. I liked this game a lot, and when the review copy goes back to its rightful owner, I will buy my own copy. It seems to me that this game is slightly on the fun side of serious, but that's fine by me.