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Pirates of the 7 Seas is an innovative, fast and competitive board game full of events from everyday pirate life: plundering, old maps, and horrible gigantic krakens. Adventures, new ports and powerful rituals are waiting for you. Sometimes pirates have to rely on the other pirates, but don't forget that you can get stabbed in the back anytime.
As the waves break on your ship, take a turn for the topsy-turvy motion of the ocean by rolling your ship dice — but remember that where they land on the board means as much as what you roll! Choose to remain an independent vagabond, or maybe cut a deal with a Governor to become all official-like in your pirating ways. Consult with a shaman to curse the other pirates or pay a visit to the cartographer to find a map with some hidden treasure.
In the game, the turn begins with players choosing the character card whose action they want to play — because each character has its own ability to help you get rich quickly — and places it facedown in front of them. When everyone has chosen their character cards, the first player announces the characters one by one. When you hear your character, you reveal your character card and play your adventure, curse, or port card, and everyone gets involved in a new adventure, which usually ends with a grandiose sea battles, or some curse, or finding a new port.
The pirate with the most booty wins the day, but a pirate's life isn't always on the up and up. Savvy?
Nathan McNair from Pandasaurus has uploaded English rules (PDF) for Pirates of the 7 Seas, while Nate Murray from IDW has posted a short video demonstration of the battle resolution. Pirates of the 7 Seas is also being released by Ukranian publisher IGAMES in 2015, and a much longer video of the prototype from 2012 is also available, although you should assume that details have changed in the past three years:As the waves break on your ship, take a turn for the topsy-turvy motion of the ocean by rolling your ship dice — but remember that where they land on the board means as much as what you roll! Choose to remain an independent vagabond, or maybe cut a deal with a Governor to become all official-like in your pirating ways. Consult with a shaman to curse the other pirates or pay a visit to the cartographer to find a map with some hidden treasure.
In the game, the turn begins with players choosing the character card whose action they want to play — because each character has its own ability to help you get rich quickly — and places it facedown in front of them. When everyone has chosen their character cards, the first player announces the characters one by one. When you hear your character, you reveal your character card and play your adventure, curse, or port card, and everyone gets involved in a new adventure, which usually ends with a grandiose sea battles, or some curse, or finding a new port.
The pirate with the most booty wins the day, but a pirate's life isn't always on the up and up. Savvy?
McNair explains that Pirates of the 7 Seas is a role selection, VP engine game: "Standard roles in the game allow you to gain ships (Shipwright or Governor), go on an adventure (attack a convoy), change the active adventure card, gain a curse (attack) card, change the market (different goods in demand for bonuses), or sell goods collected by attacking convoys." If you're the only player to choose a character, then you receive a "gift" on top of the action itself; if you're the first player in the round and the only one to choose the character, you receive a doubleplusgood gift.
The captain action is what brings the "3D Dice Battle System" into play, with each player committing a number of dice to battle after seeing how many merchant ships are in the caravan that awaits plundering. Says McNair, "Ships are hard to come by and either can be purchased for money or gained for free from a Governor of a nation (English, Spanish, Dutch and French), with the caveat that attacking convoys of that nation after accepting ships from that nation will cost you VP." The captain then rolls all the dice in the game lid, with each merchant ship confronting the closest pirate ship; the ship with the lower value is removed from battle (with both ships sinking on a tie), and this process continues for each merchant ship until no merchants or no pirates remain in the water. Says McNair, "Any remaining pirate ships gain their owners a treasure card that can then be sold using the appropriate role."
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That game is Rattle, Battle, Grab the Loot from designer Ignacy Trzewiczek and publisher Portal Games, and I contacted Trzewiczek to learn more about this odd coincidence. "Portal Games bought the license from IGAMES for using this [3D Dice Battle] system in our games in late 2014," he says. "The names of the designers and the logo of the system will be in the rulebook (according to the contract)."
As for the games themselves, Trzewiczek says, "In both games (7 Seas and Rattle, Battle) this system is used and players will toss dice in the box and resolve battles. The rest of the mechanisms in both games are different. 7 Seas is a role selection game about collecting sets of goods and selling them in various ports to earn money; Rattle, Battle is a game where players exchange goods in port to buy upgrades for their fleet and with better fleet sink more merchants (VP)."
He continues, "On one hand it is indeed a little awkward that two companies have the rights to use [the 3D Dice Battle] system and publish games at the same moment. On the other hand it will be interesting how different games were developed with the same starting point. I believe reviewers will have fun!"
Currently both games are scheduled to debut in time for Gen Con 2015 at the end of July 2015, with games reaching stores shortly afterward.
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