This thread is for critiques of the game "Rolling Plunder" that was submitted to the Feb 2011 GDS.

The concept of the game was for a quick playing, thematic dice driven game that had a bit of strategic and tactical oomph to it. The component limitation held back the design a bit (as Im sure it did for everyone). Here I will list the other additions/alterations that would have been, had there been more components available.

1. More Locations - This would have allowed for a larger play area and more ability to 'hide' from other players. Of course, this could also be accomplished by marrying two sets together. This leads into the next item:

2. More dice - I like the idea of rolling 4 dice standard, instead of 3. To do so, the ship cards would need more hits to them and there would possibly need to be more locations on the table (more cards).

3. More ship cards and types - The regular ships and naval ships are great, but I crave a little more variety (of course, has to be balanced with the elegance and ease of learning/play). Non-player Pirate ships was one idea. If you are on a location when one of these are revealed, you must give up one of your loot cards to it. The player to defeat that pirate receives whatever loot that pirate holds (it could obtain multiple loot if multiple players are at that location when it is revealed).

4. More ship cards at each location - Initially, the idea was to have 2 ship cards revealed at each location. This gives more strategic choice of where you assign your cannon shots from your rolls.

5. Treasure cards - Mixed in with the ship cards. These cards would simply be loot cards that players obtain if they are at the location when they are revealed. Allows for a bit more strategy of where you place what and making sure you are the player that reveals it.

6. No Risk, No Reward - Allowing players to roll an extra dice when they are at 3 bounty.

7. End conditions - Initial end conditions was for all ship cards to be cleared off of the board before the game ends. This would make for a longer game and prevent the leading player from trying to wipe a single location as quickly as possible (which would also make him an easier target if he is carrying a bounty). Also could be accomplished by having more ship cards at each location (and having any single location cleared out of cards).

Here is the initial game entry:

Rolling Plunder

by Ty'ger Welch

A low-cost quick playing rum soaked loot filled game of plundering pirates and scurvy scallywags.

Players act as Pirate captains with unruly crews on the high seas. Players roll dice to determine their actions. Pirate crews are often drunk on rum and wont always do what their captain wants. The player can re-roll the dice to try to get the actions they need but must be careful of having a bounty placed on their head. Bounties open them up to attacks from other players.

The object is to travel from location to location attacking the merchant ships that are sailing there. The pirate that delivers the last shot on a ship gets the loot. Everyone knows that the pirate with the most loot wins.

Components

• 4 Location Cards
• 14 Ship Cards
  • 10 Merchants
  • 4 Navy Ships
• 4 Action Dice
• 4 Pirate Ship Dice

Setup

Each player receives 1 Pirate Ship Die that represents their Pirate Ship and how much of a bounty is on their heads. Shuffle the Ship Cards and deal 12 to the players. Place 4 randomly selected Location Cards on the table next to each other (Location Cards are double sided, but only 1 side will be used).

The players take turns placing a Ship Card face down on a location until all 12 Ship Cards are placed. No location can have more than 3 Ship Cards. The players then choose a location to place their Pirate Ship Die (making sure that it is placed showing no bounty symbols).

Once the Pirate Ships are placed, flip the top Ship Card for each location over and slide them under the location card so they are undamaged. Play begins.

Location Cards

Each location provides a bonus to the players when their turn starts unless otherwise specified.

• Pirate Cove
  • Remove a Bounty from the player when their turn ends here
• High Winds
  • Player receives a bonus Move
• Merchant Port
  • Player rolls an extra Action Die
• Lost Island
  • Player may re-roll 1 Skull
• Patrolled Waters
  • Player receives a bonus Skull
• Neutral Port
  • Players may not be attacked here
• Heavy Fog
  • Player rolls one less Action Die
• Trade Waters
  • Place 2 more Ship Cards on this location

Sequence of Play

1. Roll
2. Perform Actions
3. Replenish Ships

Roll

Players roll 3 Action Dice to determine their Pirate Ship's actions. The player may re-roll any number of results up to 2 times. If a Skull result is rolled, it is set aside and cannot be re-rolled.

Dice Results

The Action Dice have 4 possible results.

• Move (2 sides)

  • Move results allows a player to move their ship to a location adjacent to their own.

• Cannon (2 sides)

  • Cannon results allows a player to attack a ship (or player) at their current location.

• Doubloon (1 side)

  • Doubloon results can be used to reduce a player's Bounty. Every 2 Doubloon results will reduce a player's Bounty by one.

• Skull (1 side)

  • A Skull result cannot be rerolled (unless the player's location specifies otherwise). For every 2 Skull results rolled, the player must add a bounty to their Pirate Ship. This is done by turning the die so that the correct number of Bounty icons are shown.

Action

Players must perform all actions shown on their Action Dice. They can perform these actions in any order.

Movement

Moving a ship to an adjacent location takes 1 Move. The play area does not wrap around.

Attacking Ships

Each Cannon action will damage a Ship Card once. Damage is represented by sliding the Ship Card out from under the location card enough to reflect how much damage it has taken. If the Loot result is revealed, that player takes the card.

Bounties

A player may attack another player at their location only if that other player's Ship Die shows any number of Bounty icons and the attacking player has enough Cannons.

• 3 Cannons for a 1 Bounty player
• 2 Cannons for a 2 Bounty player
• 1 Cannon for a 3 Bounty player

If successful, they randomly take 1 of their opponent's loot cards and their opponent resets their Bounty to 0.

Replenish Ships

If any location does not have a Ship Card showing, flip over the next card in that location's stack and slide it under the location undamaged. If the ship is marked as a Navy Ship, every pirate at that location gains a Bounty.

Victory

The game ends when any location has no Ship Cards in its stack at the end of a turn. The players count up their Loot. The most Loot wins.