Thanks to everyone who voted for this one! What did you like about it? I'd appreciate any thoughts or ideas for improvement.
Shipwrecked!
Components:
30 White “Sailor” D6s – 12mm
30 Black “Sailor” D6s – 12mm
1 White “Captain” D6 – 16mm
1 Black “Captain” D6 – 16mm
5 Desert Island Tiles
Players:
Any number of players, divided onto two teams, with a leader to make the final decisions. For large numbers of players, just add more sailor dice. These rules will assume a two player game, but how multiple players, or rather multiple hands, enters into the gameplay should be obvious.
Set Up:
Roll all 60 12mm sailor dice onto the table. These are the sailors from the wrecks of two rival pirate ships, treading water in the ocean (it helps if your table is blue). Place the 5 Desert Island tiles on the table, roughly surrounding the sailors.
Playing the Game:
Both players choose a color. Determine the starting player. At the beginning of a player’s turn, he indicates a Desert Island to be the one that his sailors are swimming towards, and then his opponent does the same. Both players may choose the same island.
He then rolls both Captain Dice, keeping them separate from the sailors. Both players then simultaneously pick up as many sailors as they can which correspond to the Captain Dice. So, for example, if the Black Captain Die rolls a 6 and the White Captain Die rolls a 2, players pick up as many black sailor 6s and white sailor 2s out of the ocean as they can. They may only use the thumb and index finger of one hand while doing this, and may only pick up one die at a time. These dice must be held in the hand that is picking the dice up.
After no more dice can be picked up from a Captain roll, both players reveal the sailors they have picked up and place the sailors of their own color on the island that they indicated earlier. All the sailors of the opposing color that a player has picked up are rerolled back into the ocean. The Captain Dice are now passed to the other player, who begins his turn.
Sharks!:
When the Captain Dice roll doubles, the players shout “Sharks!” and, again pick up as many of the correct dice as possible. However, in this case, all opposing sailors that are picked up are eaten by sharks and removed from the game, while allied sailors are rerolled back into the ocean. Then, all the dice in the ocean are rerolled (to prevent the ocean's number distribution from becoming stale), and the Captain Dice are passed to the other player.
Winning the Game:
The game ends after the third time that doubles are rolled and the sharks have been fed (the game becomes quite intense after the sharks have fed twice). Players look at the desert islands and determine which player controls which island, by seeing which player has more sailors there. If the number of sailors is equal, neither player controls the island. The player who controls the most islands wins the game. If the players are tied, the player with the most sailors altogether on islands wins the game. If this is tied, the player with the least number of sailors in the ocean wins.
Hey, I like that last idea quite a bit. When I play it with others, after the captain dice are rolled, everyone looks at them and then starts muttering "black 4, white 2" while frantically grabbing dice. Having pictures on the dice might be more interesting and make the game more visual and thematic, as long as they were clear enough. That would be the trickiest part, since those dice are small. The dice do get knocked around every once in a while, and sometimes people pick up the wrong ones, and then drop them back when they realize their mistake, but I just see that as part of the game, and it doesn't make any difference in a party situation.
Why do you say that it might be tricky to publish?