Pirates in a Pocket

Components

4 ship cards

3 destination cards

Pirate Cove

Trade Port

Treasure Island

12 secret movement cards

7 upgrade cards

3 captain cards

14 black pawns

3 orange pawns

5 six-sided dice

20 gold crystals

Overview

Pirates In A Pocket is a game about collecting the most treasure and battling other pirates. Each player will secretly sail to one of three destinations. However, only ONE player may exploit the resources at those islands. If more than one player arrives there, they must fight over the precious resources, winner takes all. This is a clever game of secret movement, dice combat, and building/upgrading your crew and ship.

Set-up

1. Find the Pirate Cove, Trade Port, and Treasure Island cards and place them in a triangular shape (see example). Leave enough space for player pieces to move in the middle.

2. Give one of each of the secret movement cards to each player. Players should receive three secret movement cards total (Pirate Cove, Trade Port, and Treasure Island).

3. Each player takes one ship card and places it in the middle between the three location cards. This will be their vessel for this game. (ship cards are the cards with a bird's eye view of the ship.)

4. Shuffle the rest of the upgrades and captain cards together and place them in a face-down pile nearby.

5. Each player receives two black pawns. These represent your crew members. Place these pawns ON your ship card. They travel on top of your card wherever you move it.

6. Gather all the gold crystals and place them in a pile nearby.

7. Gather all the black and orange pawns and place them in a pile nearby.

How To Win

To win the game, players must possess the most gold at the end. This is achieved by sailing (moving) to the treasure island, from upgrades, or with certain captains. The game ends after any one player has obtained seven gold pieces from the Treasure Island. So don't waste too much time, start scrambling for those treasures!

Playing The Game

The game is split into rounds. For the first round, flip over the top card of the face-down upgrade/captain deck and place it face-up near the Trade Port. This card will be available to be bought for this round (it won't cost any gold).

Take this time to plan your strategy and acknowledge how well each rival is doing. Take a glance at the face-up card at the Trade Port. It might interest you.

Now, everyone secretly picks a card from their hand of secret movement cards. Each player places that card face-down in front of them until all players have chosen a card. Once everyone is ready, flip over the cards all at once. Each player simultaneously moves their ship from the center of the play area to their chosen destination.

This may result in everyone moving to the same destination, everyone moving to separate destinations, or everyone moving to any combination of destinations.

Conflicts

Conflicts occur when there are two or more players that move to the same destination. This represents those rivals battling over who gets control of those precious resources. If there is only one player at a destination, they gain that reward without conflict.

When conflict occurs, all players in conflict at that destination rolls one dice for each crew member they possess on their ship (including orange captains). Total up the sum of the dice rolls, then add any other bonuses from upgrades or captains. The player with the highest total wins that conflict. The winner of the conflict gains the reward indicated on the destination card. If there's a tie, no one gains that reward.

Rewards

There are four kinds of rewards.

Gold - one gold is rewarded to the player at the Treasure Island after conflict is resolved. Gold is NOT spent in any way to buy upgrades or crew members. Place all gold to the side to be counted later.

Crew Member - one black crew member pawn is rewarded to the player at the Pirate Cove after conflict is resolved. Each crew member adds one more die when rolling to win conflicts. Place new crew members on your ship.

Upgrade - the face-up upgrade is rewarded to the player at the Trade Port after conflict is resolved. Place new upgrades you gained in front of you. Their effect is active right away.

Captain - captains share the same pile as upgrades and are obtained the same way. However, they function slightly different. Captains add one more dice when rolling to win conflicts much like crew members. Captains also have a secondary effect as stated on their card, making captains powerful and highly prized. Add one orange captain pawn to your ship.

New Rounds

After all conflict is resolved, players move their ship back to the center of the game area and begins a new round. Reshuffle the face-up card at the Trade Port (if any) and draw a new one.

Players now possess all rewards they acquired and may use them for the rest of the game.

Now, begins the next round. Repeat play until one player possesses seven gold pieces (not upgrades or captains that may represent an extra amount of gold). Once someone has seven gold, finish the remainder of the round then proceed to scoring.

Scoring

The player with the most gold wins. This is simple addition. Add up all your gold pieces plus any special gold from other cards such as upgrades or captains. This means that whoever obtains seven gold first may not always be the winner.

Final Word

This game should feel quick and move fast. That's good! Simply reset and play again, or set up another In A Pocket game. You should be able to set up and finish within 20 to 30 minutes.