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The Pirate Code, Scorpion keyword, pg 37
“Defensive pieces such as the panels of a turtle ship or the outrigger of a catamaran are ignored by a blade attack, and remain in place.”
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What else does a scorpion blade ignore? The Code only has this one line about the blade attack ignoring defensive abilities. Would the blade eliminate a mast from a ship such as the Constitution(RV) or Algernon; or ships that cannot be hit by L-range cannons or cannot be shot at by ships within S?
The updated text in the Master Keyword List covers that part. Even though it can be triggered by a shoot action, it’s not actually part of that action, and it’s not treated like a cannon, so essentially it bypasses/ignores ALL defensive abilities that would prevent shots and/or reduce damage.
Aside from keeping your distance or taking out the scorpion before it can attack, the only ability that will help is a canceler that can disable the keyword before the blade swings.
What happens if players cannot agree on the number of terrain pieces used?
How are mysterious islands handled if some players want to use them and others don’t?
If the players can’t agree on a compromise, let fate decide. Each player makes their choice, then they all roll dice or something to see who gets it.
Holy Water/DJH lists treasure stealers/swappers as direct affects that it protects against. I take it to mean that any other treasures on the same ship would be protected as well, or do the Water/Heart only protect themselves from being swapped or stolen?
Treasure stealers and swappers have to target the ship in order to get at any treasure being carried by it, so Holy Water/DJH will block them.
Kharmic Idol, Pirata Codex, and Jailhouse Dog bypass the protection because they specifically go after Water/Heart itself, without going through the ship or its crew first. They don’t even care if it’s on a ship at all.
On a related note, for win condition #3 on page 14, can the phrase “a player” mean the opposing player, or does every “his/her/player” reference in that sentence specifically reference the active player’s turn and no opponents?
That applies only to the current/active player’s own turn. If some other player gets wiped out in between, the endgame condition doesn’t trigger until their turn starts.
I assume there is no way to eliminate the Wolves UT from the same ship that finds it on an island? I think the free explore would end before you could voluntarily shoot with a musketeer (if you had Captain), and a Marine shot would be a separate action from the explore that reveals the Wolves. (especially for initial discovery of the Wolves)
Aside from some other UT that can trigger at the same time (Kharmic Idol, Pirata Codex, Jailhouse Dog), there’s no way to eliminate Wolves during the explore action when it’s first found. You’ll need separate/extra actions to get rid of it first.
A situation came up that I was unsure about. I think in the end we played it correctly, but just to reassure myself.
If a player’s last ship in play is dismasted and has an oarsman that had their ability changed to another crew (OE Davey Jones) via Eye of Insanity, would the end of game trigger since the oarsman’s ability is not currently active? When does Eye of Insanity make the original target crew’s ability active again, and also what is the timing on the game officially ending? Thanks for your patience
The Eye of Insanity cannot trigger that endgame condition.
You are required to choose the ability at the beginning of your turn, but actually using it instead of the crew’s original ability is optional (the text says “can”, rather than “must”), so the crew’s original ability is still considered active/available when that endgame condition is checked.
The Eye’s effect only lasts until the end of the player’s own turn. It does not carry over to opposing player turns, and then has to be reset at the beginning of the player’s next turn, even if they do choose the same ability again.
Side Note: The Eye can prevent that endgame trigger as long there’s at least one eligible ability somewhere in play that would allow the ship to still move, repair, or get to a repairable location in some other way.
If a ship wins a boarding party against a ship with Unique Treasure on board, can the winning ship decide to steal a Unique Treasure from the loosing ship? The Code is open-ended in boarding, simply saying “a Treasure”.
UTs are included with “treasure” in situations like that, so the player losing the item can certainly hand over a UT instead of a standard treasure (unless something specifically prevents the UT from transferring), but you can’t force a UT to be chosen if the player wants to give you some other treasure instead (unless the UT or some other ability does require/allow it).
I know this question has probably already been asked but, Can you put two Tribal Chieftains on the same ship if you have the required cargo and point cost on the ship?
The no-stacking rule applies, so while you can put multiples on the same ship, they all have to start the game on different ships to get all of their canoes.
Once the canoes are all placed, you only need to keep one Chieftain of each nationality “active” in your fleet, so at that point you can double them up or unload the duplicates at home without penalty.
Can a ship with the Parley ability parley out of being damaged by abilities such as Namzu or Neptune’s Trident? What qualifies a ship as being a target of a shoot action?
This ship must be targeted directly with a shoot action to use Parley.
Namazu and the Trident target an area rather than any ship specifically, so Parley won’t work even if it’s the only ship within that target area.
Suppose you have the Savage Shores version of Wraith in your fleet, and a source of the SAC ability. If I SAC a crew can I choose not to roll for Wraith or is the roll mandatory? PC entry seems to indicate that the roll is optional.
The wording of Wraith does imply that it’s mandatory, but I don’t think it’s ever been treated that way in the PC. There are a few others in the game with similar wording that are considered optional too. I’ll think about it, but for now play as noted in the PC, with the roll being optional.
Would the Mines unique treasure be considered a direct ability affect if it was used against a ship with Holy Water/Davy Jones Heart?
Mines: Load this treasure face down. Reveal it when target enemy ship moves within S of this ship. Choose and eliminate one mast from the target at the end of her move. Remove Mines from the game.
Yes, Holy Water/DJH will protect a ship from Mines.
Thematically, the use of mines seems like a gray area, but the way the actual ability is worded makes it a direct effect. The exact same wording could have just as easily been a cannon or some other weapon that produced the same end result. If you placed the token in the water and left it there until someone else got too close, it might be a different story…
After exploring this island, place a treasure coin from your collection with value equal to or less than one you took on the island.
The way it’s written, Mysterious Island #7 would allow you to replace a coin with a UT (likely worth 0 gold). I’d imagine that’s not the intent, but the 0’s from the last sets would provide a good counterpoint to that.
I think the intention is non-UTs only, but the wording is ambiguous. As written you could technically choose a UT, but your options are going to be pretty limited because it has to have some sort of gold value, and has to be less than something (also with a value) that you took from the island. A 0-Gold coin will always be an option because that does have a printed value.
Can great turtles be moved 5S in a turn by a single set of native canoes?
Yes. Each canoe is given its own move action, so you can apply some or all of them to the turtle.
Sorry if some of these are obvious or repeats.
No worries! I had to really dig to find answers to a few of them…
Does a ship with an Explorer have to look at coins when it docks and explores or can it just mark the island explored?
Yes. The looking is the primary aspect of the explore action, so if you don’t look, you haven’t actually explored, and can’t mark it as explored.
You’ll need one of the handful of abilities that lets you mark an island without docking to place the marker without looking.
Do you have to place a ship at a different whirlpool when the Whirlpool UT is triggered?
Triggering the effect is optional, but if you do trigger it, you must place the ship at a different whirlpool. You can’t bounce around within a single pool just to ditch cargo.
If a ship is only in contact with a ship stealer such as the Harbinger by the jib/foremast which is subsequently removed, is that ship still considered “in contact” with the Harbinger because that was the previous state of touching? Similarly, does a mast elimination remove the state of being pinned? (ex: a titan takes out a mast from a ship it pinned in place, and that mast was their only point of contact)
That goes back to one of the earliest entries in the PC (under “Pin”). A ship is still considered to be in contact even if the physical part making the contact is removed. Likewise, replacing/repairing a previously-lost part cannot cause a pin if it results in contact. Some sort of movement must occur to break or create contact.
Do sea creature segments block other segments’ lines of fire? (ex: a titan shooting forward of itself with the outer arms will have a hard time)
Their segments do not block their own lines of fire (this is actually the last line in the rulebook under Sea Creatures).
Does derelicting a towing ship break the tow?
Yes, unless the ship still has some ability to be given move actions without masts remaining (Galley, Oarsman, etc.).
If the ship is derelict and can’t move on its own, it can’t start or continue towing.
What are your thoughts on a situation where an optionally loaded UT like Homing Beacon is left on a wild island, only one player knows this and wants to call the game because it’s not worth a gold value? (not callable but this is really interesting given HI Raiders/etc.)
Facedown UTs are treated as standard treasure for the endgame condition, even if some/all players know what it is. Until someone picks it up and uses/reveals it to show it has no gold value, someone unloads it facedown at home, or some other endgame condition is reached, the game continues.
-On that point, does Wine have to be on a home island for the game to end?
No, it loads faceup and has no inherent gold value of its own, so it’s treated just like any other face up non-gold UT (Plague, Fruit, etc.) and will not prevent the endgame trigger. Whatever potential value it might have from making a swap is wasted if you don’t use it in time.
Can Duel be used to target an enemy crew on a ship in a fog bank?
Yes – It has no range or line of sight requirements that being lost in fog would prevent, so it can be used by or against crew on ships lost in fog.
If the island treasure trading ability is used to receive a UT that can’t be loaded, does the UT still apply? (and stay on the island, for example with Altar of the Loa)
The trading ability takes place immediately before revealing UTs, so if you received the Altar or any other UT that can’t be loaded (Wolves, etc.), it applies normally as if it had been on your current island from the start.
Do you know if cancellers were costed at 5 points partially to allow players to bring them in with 0LR+5 crew to counter things like Submarines/etc? (or if 0LR+5’s were introduced to allow the kind of “canceller flexibility” that would be helpful in later expansions when things like Submarine/Eternal/etc were introduced – not sure how the plans for sets were developed in regards to future idea implementation)
The cancel ability (Nemesio) was already in the game before the 0LR+5 was introduced, but at the time it was still unique/rare, so I don’t think that had much direct effect on the value chosen for the adder. 5 was just a nice, round, easy-to-remember number that gave some flexibility but not too much.
I had no input or insight into what went on with the design back then, but always got the impression that there wasn’t much of an overall plan. There also always seemed to be a large disconnect between which abilities and effects the designers valued and what got the most attention of players (at least, those posting to public forums). A lot of stuff they just kinda threw in because it sounded cool, and many ability costs were just guessed at/estimated. That’s why certain abilities seemed weirdly over- or under- priced, and why some recurring issues like the action limit took so long to be addressed directly in any meaningful way.
ADDED: The later sub-attacking abilities might have been intentionally priced based on the +5 ability, but they definitely weren’t priced with cancellers in mind, because if they had, they would have cost at least a point or two less.
Keywords:
Return Fire – When this ship is shot at, after the enemy ship has completed their attack action, as a free action, this ship may return fire with all remaining masts. While conducting this action, all cannons increase to rank four.
What happens if the ship’s natural cannons were a 5 or 6? (There are a handful in the game.) Do they reduce to 4, or stay where they are?
An easy fix would be to say “…all cannons become rank 4” so you’re covered either way. Better yet, you could word it like the range-extending abilities and say “…you must roll a 5 or 6 to hit” so rank becomes irrelevant.
Crew:
MCPO Harvey “Hammer” Johnson – American – Cost 7
Shipwright. This ship gets +1 to boarding and cannon rolls. At the end of every turn, as a free action, roll a d6. On a 5 or 6 repair one mast on this ship. This ship cannot add anymore masts once the ship is fully repaired.
Is that last sentence serving some specific purpose?
There’s no mechanism anywhere in the game to allow a ship to increase its number of masts beyond the number it started with, so as written, it seems to imply that if you ever repair the ship back to full after taking damage, you can never repair it again if it takes new damage.
Can you re-roll the die roll for the Duel event, if the chosen crew are on the same ship as a re-roll?
No, for the same reason you can’t reroll a Marine. The roll is being made for the crew, not the ship they’re on.
Can a home island raider dock at an enemy home island if there aren’t any coins there?
Yes. You just won’t get to steal anything.
Pretty sure I’ve asked this but not seeing it via the forum search: If you start your turn on a sargasso sea but you didn’t get stuck last turn, do you have to roll since you’re sailing over it? Or would you only roll if you contact a NEW sargasso sea during that action?
You don’t get stuck (or have to roll) immediately if you start on it, but when you move if any part of the ship is still touching the terrain after any segment, you will have to roll again.
It might need to go up a couple points, but they’d always felt overpriced for what they did (or couldn’t do), so maybe it doesn’t actually need to change.
Test them priced as-is, but if they start to feel too powerful, you can always bump them up a little
Adding the abilities to repair and move-shoot both do a LOT to improve the playability of sea monsters. The submarine-style underwater ram maybe isn’t as necessary, but still worth testing.
If a ship has Holy Water, and an enemy ship has Voodoo Doll, can the Doll be used against the ship with Holy Water? I’m thinking no, since it would count as a direct effect because it targets a specific crew and turns them face-down and prevents them from using their abilities.
Correct, Holy Water will protect crew from Voodoo Doll, for exactly the reason you listed.
Do you know if there is a reason that Wizkids often used the term “boarding action” instead of “boarding party”?
Seems to me that using “boarding party” would avoid potential confusion for players thinking that boarding is (maybe only for certain abilities) a full action.
It’s mostly just written that way as shorthand in the PC, because the rulebook does say “boarding party as a free action”, and abilities like the S-board refer to “boarding party” too. The +1 abilities just say “boarding rolls”, and don’t refer to a party or action.
Can you reveal a face down UT such as Runes of Odin to play it from your home island after unloading it there, or do face down UT’s have to be on ships in order to be revealed and used?
Unless the UT specifically says it can be used or applies while still on an island (Altar, etc.), or is revealed when unloaded at home, once it’s on your home island you can’t use it any more.
When you dock at home with a facedown UT that isn’t required to be unloaded as part of its ability, you can choose to keep it on your ship, but must state that it’s a UT. You don’t have to reveal which one it is specifically, though.
In multiplayer games, is gold on sunken ships revealed when it’s removed from the game? Or do you have to rely on asking the player whose ship sunk what they had on it? (this could be very important to know if something like Runes of Loki is still in play vs. gone for good)
Unrevealed treasure that’s removed from the game by sinking or any other means remains unrevealed. The player who lost the ship is free to tell you what was on it, but they’re not required to.
I assume you can stack the uncommon versions of equipment like exploding shot with the LE variants because they have slightly different effects/drawbacks? (just confirming since a “trigger” could be different than a drawback)
Yes, that’s correct. Even though the end effect is similar, the LE versions remove themselves after use, which makes them different enough that you can use them along with the non-LE versions.
Latest unboxing was a great deal from BGG!
Looks like a really nice haul! Was someone selling their collection, or were those just extras they had?
Is the ability of Tobias Huntington the same as the ability of Rollando (and others). I know there is a difference in text but would the two abilities function more or less the same?
They do both let you steal UTs, but their methods are completely different, so you could put both on the same ship and use both abilities in full.
Tobias is more convenient to use because you can grab something just by sailing past another ship, even a friendly, but you can only take one at a time, and removal/unloading restrictions still apply.
Rollando is much more powerful because you can grab as many as you want, even UTs that normally can’t be taken (Nemo’s Plans!), plus you reveal non-uniques. The downside is that you do have to make contact with the other ship, which takes some careful maneuvering if you don’t want to ram, board, or be pinned.
ADDED: Another subtle difference is that with Tobias, only you get to see which UTs the player has, and only the two of you will know what specifically you took if it was facedown. With Rollando, everything on the ship gets flipped face up so other players will see it too, and everyone will know what you took.
Transferring the crew is allowed, but all of the extra effects caused by it will cease as soon as the possessed crew is separated from the possession source. It will revert back to its original nationality, it will take up cargo space again, and its point cost will apply normally. (ADDED: It does not return to its original owner.)
The same happens if the Possession ability is cancelled, except in that case you may end up having to eject some crew.
For clarification, this applies to the ability of Wraith (SS) and Captain Davy Jones as well, and not just to the “possession” ability of Papa Doc?
Correct.
Devil’s Maw is one of the only things in the game that will permanently alter a crew, and that’s mostly just because of the way that crew (don’t) interact with forts.
“If this ship isn’t assigned a Helmsman crew, roll a d6 after this ship resolves a move action. On a result of 4-6, this ship can move L.”
According to page 29 of The Pirate Code, this ability happens after a shoot action provided by a captain. How does the timing work with explorers and S-boarding?
This ability applies after the ship resolves the move action, so you do all of the usual effects that would be attached to a shoot action (captain, explorer, s-board, ram, board, etc.) first, then after all of that is completely finished, only then do you get to roll for the extra L.
You can use it to dock the ship, but because it’s not part of a move action, you can’t use any other move action abilities or effects with it, whether you’d used them with the original move action that triggered it or not.
Can a crew captured via the Possession ability be transferred to a friendly ship of the same nationality and use their abilities on the second ship? The Code entry for Wraith makes me think not, but nothing in the Possession ability forbids it.
Transferring the crew is allowed, but all of the extra effects caused by it will cease as soon as the possessed crew is separated from the possession source. It will revert back to its original nationality, it will take up cargo space again, and its point cost will apply normally. (ADDED: It does not return to its original owner.)
The same happens if the Possession ability is cancelled, except in that case you may end up having to eject some crew.
After using Towing Option #1 from the Reference Diagrams (initiate towing when already touching a derelict’s bow at the beginning of a move action), can you immediately drop the tow in order to not have your base move limited to S, or is your base move limited to S during that move action?
You can drop the ship at any time, even immediately after grabbing it, but the movement reduction continues to apply for the entire move action.
I’ll add that one to my notes for the future (maybe) PC update.
Decided to just rework False Sighting altogether. Its new effect is similar, although hopefully more balanced:
At the beginning of this ship’s turn, roll a d6. on a 5 or a 6, skip this ship’s turn and remove False Sighting from the game. This treasure cannot be unloaded.
This is a more interesting effect anyway. The previous was basically a weaker version of Natives (lose 1 turn per crew).
The thematic implications of it hitting later on are better too. Instead of being stuck at the island longer, they sail along doing other stuff when they spot something in the distance and then spend a turn checking it out, only to find out it was unimportant.
Riches from Distant Lands: I could see this getting messy, regardless of the campaign game implications of sudden windfall riches. It sounds like it would force the next player to reveal how much gold they have. By “held”, is it just gold on their home island or does it include gold on ships, in forts/etc? Such a big reveal might change a game by tipping off other players if they should build a fort, flip Trade Route (UT from SCS), HI raid said player, etc.
I agree, this one would be a mess to implement because there are a lot of variables that would have to be considered, and a lot of specific details would need to be clarified. Getting to peek at another player’s entire gold collection is almost as powerful as the gold payout, but is only indirectly implied by the wording; it should be clearly stated as part of the full effect.
There’s also the issue of it being potentially game-breaking if a player purposely keeps it on a ship near home until as late as possible in the game, to maximize the value. It would be especially problematic in a timed tournament game where every player is allowed to have the same number of turns.
It would work better as a UT if the value was locked in when it was first loaded, and was based on something that was easier to determine at that moment, like the total value of all other treasure on the island where it was found, for example.
ADDED: Another alternative would be to add some sort of “poison” effect that forces the player to unload it as quickly as possible, because, regardless of how the gold value is determined, it could be a massive amount of gold value sitting on a single ship with no obvious downside.
The silly Pirates nerd in me is trying to think of a reason to not place all of them. I assume since each token is considered a UT that they’re not considered “available gold” for endgame conditions? If you know you have a lead but a weakened fleet and your opponent has an HI Raider, you might want to end the game as fast as possible, in which case less turtles could help.
A physical limitation is the only thing I can think of, either a lack of turtles to place or (somehow?) not enough space to place them.
Even though they head toward a specific player’s home island, they don’t actually belong to that player until they arrive, so they won’t count toward victory and won’t do anything to prevent the game from ending.
