Ye be the Captain of yer very own pirate ship! Take up yer blade and set sail on as many Voyages as it takes to plunder a hoard of 500 Doubloons. As ye roll, set aside and tally every scoring bone, then press yer luck and keep rolling, or play it safe and Hoard yer captured Doubloons — one bad roll and ye Run Aground, though yer hoarded Doubloons are always safe.

The Bones

2@ Blades   3 Anchor   4$ Ships   6^ Rum

5% 1! Coins   # The Black Flag

There are four white bones and one black bone. Blades, Anchors, Ships, and Rum are non-scoring faces. Coin faces are worth 5 or 10 Doubloons. The Black Flag is wild and can act in place of any face, scoring or non-scoring.

How to Play

The youngest Captain goes first. A Voyage is begun by rolling all five bones. Count any Doubloons ye’ve scored, then choose to add them to yer Hoard, or continue the voyage by rolling any remaining non-scoring bones. If ye score on all five bones ye get struck with Gold Fever and must roll all five again to regain yer senses, after which yer voyage continues normally.

Prove Yer Mettle

Before ye can begin to hoard yer winnings, ye must Prove Yer Mettle by scoring at least 35 Doubloons with one or more rolls in a single voyage. After that, ye could hoard as few as 5 Doubloons from each future voyage. But fortune favours the bold, so consider yer strategy wisely.

Voyage’s End

Yer voyage ends when ye be satisfied with the total Doubloons ye’ve plundered. Add them to yer hoard and pass the bones to yer left. If ye keep going by choice or from Gold Fever and ye roll all non-scoring bones, ye’ve Run Aground. If ye roll all five bones at once and get no score, ye haven’t just Run Aground, ye’re Shipwrecked. Either way yer voyage is over, and ye lose all Doubloons tallied from this voyage. Play passes to the next Captain to begin their next voyage. Yer ship will be repaired and ready for yer next voyage when the bones reach ye once more.

Play continues until a Captain hoards 500 or more Doubloons. At that point, each Captain gets one more voyage to try and plunder a larger total hoard or Run Aground in the trying. Largest hoard after the final round of voyages wins the game!

Broadsides

Three matching faces of either color on a single roll score a Broadside:

22@ = 20 Doubloons   333 = 30 Doubloons

$44 = 40 Doubloons   5%5 = 50 Doubloons

^66 = 60 Doubloons   1!1 = 100 Doubloons

Cannons must be Reloaded after a Broadside. Set aside the Broadside bones and others that score. All remaining bones must be rerolled. Keep rerolling those bones until none show the same face as the Broadside. If at that point ye have any scoring bones, add that score to yer tally of Doubloons and hoard them or continue. If none of those bones score while reloading yer cannons, ye’ve Run Aground and lose yer turn and Doubloons from that voyage.

The Black Flag

The Black Flag can be used to complete a Broadside and must do so if there are only two matching faces in a roll. For Example:

$#4 = 40 Doubloons

When not used in a Broadside, the Black Flag can score as a Five or Ten Coin or be treated as non-scoring. If no other bones score on a roll, it must be treated as a Coin so yer voyage can continue. If the Black Flag is yer fifth bone to score, Gold Fever strikes and ye must keep going and roll again.

Captured Prizes

Roll five of a kind in a single toss and ye’ve Captured a Prize!

22222 = Boarding Action — 200 Doubloons

44444 = Armada — 400 Doubloons

55555 = Chest O’ Gold — 500 Doubloons

As ye’ve scored on all five bones, Gold Fever applies so ye must keep going.

66666 = Rum Run — Instant Win

Ye’ve captured a true prize — a rich merchant ship filled with rum — Victory is yours and the game ends immediately.

11111 = Capsized — Instant Lose

Ye’ve overloaded yer ship’s hold with Doubloons and she’s Capsized! No more voyages for you. Play passes immediately to the next Captain.

The Black Flag can not be used to complete a Captured Prize. Any Boarding Action, Armada, or Chest O’ Gold triggers Gold Fever and ye must roll all five bones again.

Worked examples

Broadside. 22246 — three Blades score a Broadside for 20. The Ship and Rum don't score alone, so ye Reload the Cannons: reroll them until neither shows a Blade.

The Black Flag completing a pair. 44#36 — Ship, Ship, Black Flag: the Flag must complete the pair, so this is a Ship Broadside for 40. Anchor and Rum don't score, so ye Reload the Cannons using the Anchor and Rum bones, rerolling until neither show ships.

Reloading the cannons. After a Blades Broadside ye reroll the leftover bones. 2 on that reroll — even alongside a bone that would otherwise score — voids the whole reroll: nothing scores, and ye reroll all of the leftover bones again under the same guard.

Flag Broadside. 666# — the Captain picks whether to use all three white rum, or interpose the black flag as the third "rum die".

Captured Prizes. Five of a kind in one toss: Blades 2 = Boarding Action (200), Ships 4 = Armada (400), Five Coin 5 = Chest O' Gold (500, and Gold Fever), Rum 6 = Rum Run — an instant win, and Ten Coin 1 = Capsized — an instant loss. The Black Flag can't complete a five-of-a-kind.

Prove Yer Mettle. Ye roll 20, then 15 more (35 total) and could stop right there and Hoard — that proves yer Mettle for the rest of the game. Push on instead and Run Aground, and that 35 sinks with the rest: it never counted.

Running aground vs. Shipwrecked. Shipwrecked is just a fancy way to call Running Aground with all five bones on a single toss. Otherwise it is treated the same as any other Run Aground; the Doubloons are lost and play passes to the next Captain.