Role ideas similar to Puerto Rico

A few ideas from a similar idea I am still brainstorming (and still looking for a nice theme ... it seems I like a solid theme base ...):

(1) have a selection of the Peutro Rico 'Governor' ... i.e. you guarantee yourself 1st pick next round

(2) provisioning (take on fresh food and water)

(3) snitch (tip off the royal navy as to locations of other pirates)

Not sure what you mean by 'Adventure cards' but you could have certain 'adventures' be worth VPs once completed (e.g. loot town X and bury the treasure on Y) ... reminds me a bit of Magic Realm where (I think) gold could be gained by picking up certain 'chits' (e.g food/ale) and delivering the to other sites.

Fame is also a natural choice and used in games like Pirate's Cove .

All depends on what you want to be the 'traits' of the winner ... most adventurous, richest, greatest sinker of ships, or a combination ...

Quick question, just for my own info; is this just a game that you're making for fun, or one that you hope to bring to market? If it's the latter, my comments will be somewhat different (and a bit more critical).

I think that "move" needs to be bundled into the other actions; otherwise, whether or not you're allowed to take a certain action will depend on where you "moved" to in your last turn, and moving next to an enemy ship, say, will telegraph your intentions. This may be lessened somewhat if you have multiple ships, but it's still something to watch out for.

I fear that "Trade" may be too close to the "Captain" in Puerto Rico or "Treasure Island" in Pirate's Cove. But if you're just trying to make a fun game, gratuitous borrowing is all right, I suspect.

While some people will no doubt chime in on this subject, my typical reaction to these kind of requests is, "well, that's your job as the designer." Which sounds kind of jerky, I admit, but I think it shouldn't be so bad to come up with ways to get VPs. There are tons of pirate-themed games out there, which means on the one hand that if you don't mind borrowing, you'll find something just by looking into these games. Unfortunately, on the other hand, it means that if you do want to strike original ground, you're going to have an uphill battle. I think just thinking in terms of what pirates "did" -- burying treasure, accumulating fame, swashbuckling, etc -- should give you plenty of VP sources. It sounds like you have 3 routes to getting VPs already. I don't think you need more than that; too many routes to VP and the game will feel too "open", as if there's no reason to follow one path as opposed to another. Keep the game somewhat focused on a couple of VP sources and focus the mechanics on pursuing those sources.

I have, probably like everyone else, done some work on a Pirate game and I may put it up in the Game Design Workshop at some point, if you're interested in seeing someone else's solution to "how to make a good pirate game".

Best of luck with your project!

-Jeff