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Title: Piece Packing Pirates
Version Number: 1.0.0
Version Date: January 14, 2004
Copyright © 2003, 2004 by Clark D. Rodeffer, CDRodeffer@juno.com
Number of Players: 1
Duration: Approximately 40 minutes
Equipment Needed: one standard piecepack, opaque bag, reference sheet and play mat
(both included)
Piece Packing PiratesA piecepack solitaire sea adventure
Ahoy, me hearties! Thar’s booty afloat, and me wants me fair share. The sea, she’s
a-callin’ me, so drinkye grog and woo ye lassies tonight, for on th’ morrow it’s
gangplanks and cutlasses. We weigh anchor atdawn!
Piece Packing Pirates is a solitaire sea adventure full of sailing, booty, fighting,
booty, mayhem andmore booty! You’ll need a standard piecepack, an opaque bag, and
copies of the reference sheet andplay mat from this ruleset.
SetupBuild the Sea. Individual tiles are parts of the sea, and collectively they
make up the whole sea. Parts of
the sea are left face-down until you sail your pirate ship into them, whereupon they
are flipped.Regardless of orientation, each part of the sea has four spaces (or
quadrants: NE, SE, SW and NW) thatmay be occupied by ships. The values of face-up
parts of the sea determine the likelihood of spottinganother ship nearby, while the
pips indicate prevailing wind directions. Shuffle all twenty four parts of thesea
face-down, then arrange them into one large flat connected surface. Adjacent parts
of the sea mustoverlap at least one quadrant, but otherwise, your sea may take
almost any shape. Use yourimagination! The edges and open areas in the middle of the
sea are land. Here are a few possibleunexplored seas:

N
w X e
s

Sort Ships. Coins are various types of sailing ships ranging in size from small
sloops (value = null) togigantic ships of the line (value = five). Your pirate ship
sails under a black moon flag, and ships having

other loyalties sail under other flags. But when you’re a pirate, nationality
matters less than a heartycrew, a barrel of rum and plenty of ammunition. Shake the
non-pirate ships (arms, crowns and sunscoins) in an opaque bag and set it nearby.
Place the pirate ships (moons coins) face-up on thecorresponding spaces at the
bottom of the play mat.
Sort Dice. The arms and suns dice are used to determine the results of ship-to-ship
conflicts. These
happen frequently, so keep these two dice handy. As your booty increases, you will
probably want to burysome of it for safe-keeping until you retire. The moons and
crowns dice will be used to map your buriedbooty, but they begin the game on the
moons and crowns spaces at the bottom left of the play mat.
Sort Pawns. Pawns are used to keep track of turns, crew, notoriety, and most
importantly, booty! All fourpawns start on the color-coded spaces at the lower left
of the play mat. During the game, the pawns willmove up and down the corresponding
scoring tracks, but the tracked values can never fall below zero.
Get Starting Booty. Roll the suns and arms dice, then add five to the result (null =
zero, ace = one).
Place the crowns pawn onto the booty track space corresponding to the sum. This is
how much bootyyou have available to pay for your starting ship and crew.
Buy Ship & Crew. Prices for the various types of ships and incremental increases in
crew are indicatedon the booty track on the play mat and on the reference sheet.
Crew requirements for the various typesof ships are indicated on the crew track on
the play mat and on the reference sheet. You may only haveone pirate ship at a time,
but you may trade them in later. After your purchase, adjust the crowns pawnon the
booty track to reflect how much booty you have left (if any).
Example: Suppose you get the worst possible roll, a double null, which leaves you
withonly five booty. You can still purchase a sloop (ship size = null) for two
booty, and a
single crew to man it for three booty. The total cost for a minimally manned sloop
is fivebooty. If you’re a lucky salt, you might be able to buy a ketch (ship size =
ace) for five
booty, and three crew to man it for three booty each. The total cost for a
minimallymanned ketch is fourteen booty.
Note that one crew is not equal to just one man. Ships require many more men than
that to run, and the
range from one to ten is merely for convenience. Each incremental increase in crew
probably representsanywhere from twenty to fifty men. Likewise, there are no hard
and fast conversion factors for turnstaken and the amount of time that passes
between them, nor for booty and its monetary value. PiecePacking Pirates is a game,
not a simulation.
Weigh Anchor. Finally, place your pirate ship in any sea space adjacent to land.
Flip that part of the seaface-up and orient it so the prevailing wind blows in any
direction you choose. Now ye be ready toplunder! Arrr! For your convenience, all of
the steps taken during setup are summarized on the referencesheet.
Goal & PlayYour goal is to explore the sea, plunder booty from other ships, and
finally retire rich and notorious. Butwatch out for the big ships of the line,
especially as your notoriety grows! Their cannon have cut short thecareers of many a
scurvy bilge rat such as yourself. The game advances in turns, and each turn
iscomprised of a number of steps. It may look complicated at first, but all of the
steps are summarized onthe reference sheet and at the bottom right of the play mat.
Sail. The first step in every turn is to sail your pirate ship zero, one or two
spaces orthogonally, includinga 90/ turn, if desired. At any time while sailing, you
may also move up to one space diagonally in theprevailing wind direction (as
indicated by the pip icon) for the part of the sea your pirate ship is currentlyin.
Sailing is always optional, and you may choose to stay put if you wish.
Example: In the following partial map of a typical sea, the sloop (null coin) may
sail to any

of the shaded spaces. See if you can figure out how, as well as why it can’t sail to
any ofthe unshaded spaces.

L M
R

K 5

K 2

M L

The sea is vast and dangerous, and several things could happen to you while you’re
sailing. Your shipmight enter previously unexplored parts of the sea, your lookout
might see another ship on the horizon,or you may finally catch that other ship
you’ve been pursuing the last several turns. Arr! Every time yourship moves into a
previously unexplored part of the sea (a face-down tile), flip it face-up and orient
it sothe prevailing wind blows in any direction you choose. (This may happen more
than once during a turn.)
Example: In the following partial maps of a typical sea, the pirate ketch wants to
explorethe part of the sea to the east. As the ketch sails east, the unexplored part
of the sea is
revealed to be the four arms tile, and the player chooses to orient the newly
explored partof the sea such that the prevailing wind blows toward the northeast.
3 3 3 3

L L L L
2 @ 2 @
R 2 @
R 2 @

K K

? K

Every time your ship moves into an unoccupied part of the sea, roll the suns die. If
the result is less thanor equal to the value of the tile, a ship is sighted! Draw a
coin from the bag, and after looking at it, placeit face-up in the quadrant
diagonally opposite your ship, then continue your sailing phase. Obviously,higher
valued parts of the sea are the most likely places for ships to be sighted – the
prime shippinglanes.
Example: In the previous partial maps of a typical sea, when the ketch entered the
fourarms part of the sea, a roll on the suns die resulted in a three. A ship!
Drawing at random
from the bag produced a brig sailing under the suns flag! In Piece Packing Pirates,
a brigis bigger than a ketch, so it will give chase and try to attack if possible.
(The rules for
other ships sailing are next.) The pirate ketch can use this to its advantage by
moving tothe northeast quadrant of the four arms part of the sea to lie in wait.
Every time your pirate ship moves into the same space as another ship, the two ships
engage in combat.Your combat score is the value of your ship (null = zero, ace =
one) plus the value of your crew pluswhatever you roll on the arms die. Your
opponent’s combat score is the value of their ship plus the valueof your notoriety
plus whatever you roll on the suns die. Highest total wins.
If your ship wins, remove the opposing ship, increase your notoriety by one and
collect booty equal towhatever you rolled on the arms die during combat times the
total of the opposing ship size pluswhatever you rolled on the suns die during
combat, then subtract your crew size from that product to

represent booty shared with your crew. Note that even if you win, your net booty
could be negative!
If your ship loses, leave the enemy ship in play, decrease your notoriety by one,
decrease your crew sizeby one (which may also necessitate a decrease in ship size,
for which you get nothing), and lose eitherall the booty you have aboard or booty
equal to whatever you rolled on the suns die during combat,whichever is less. If the
loss of your last crew precipitates the loss of a sloop, and if you cannot afford
toreplace them in the upgrade step, you will drown at sea at the end of this turn.
(Rules for these arecoming up soon.) If both combat scores are equal, there is a
standoff and nothing happens.
Other Ships Sail / Attack. All nearby ships (those in the same part of the sea as
your pirate ship and
those in all bordering parts of the sea) sail. In the following partial map of a
typical sea, any ships in theshaded parts of the sea would sail, but those in the
unshaded parts of the sea would not sail..

Where the other ships sail depends upon their types. Smaller ships flee. All nearby
ships that are smallerthan your pirate ship move one space orthogonally away from
your pirate ship. Ships in previouslyexplored parts of the sea automatically use the
wind to move one space diagonally if it helps them fleefurther, but ships in
unexplored parts of the sea may never use the wind to sail diagonally. Smaller
shipswill always choose the routes that maximize the distance between their ships
and yours; in case of a tie,you may choose among the best options.
On the other hand, larger ships give chase. All nearby ships that are larger than
your pirate ship moveone space orthogonally toward your pirate ship. They also
automatically use the wind to move one spacediagonally if it helps them get closer.
Larger ships will always choose the routes that minimize thedistance between their
ships and yours, but as with smaller ships, in case of a tie, you may chooseamong
the best options. Ships equal to yours in size do not move.
As in your sailing step, after another ship moves onto the same space as your pirate
ship, the two shipsengage in combat, which is resolved as in the sailing step. Ships
sailing under other flags do not engageone another, but may occupy the same space
peacefully. If two or more ships sail into the same spaceas your pirate ship, engage
them sequentially, in any order you wish.
Example: in the previous example, the pirate ketch lay in wait in the northeast
quadrant
of the four arms part of the sea. Since the brig is bigger than the ketch, it will
give chaseby sailing one space orthogonally, in this case to the north. Now that
both ships are in the
same space, they immediately engage in combat. Both the arms and suns die are
rolled,producing a five and an ace, respectively. If the pirate ketch has a crew of
five and a
notoriety of four, the combat scores for the pirate and enemy ships would be [1
ketch + 5crew + 5 arms die = 11] and [2 brig + 4 notoriety + 1 suns die = 7],
respectively. The
pirate ship wins! The suns brig is returned to the bag, and the pirate’s notoriety
increasesfrom four to five. The arms die was a glorious five, but the suns die was a
disappointing
ace, so the booty from this engagement is only [5 arms die × (2 brig + 1 suns die) -
5crew = 10 booty].
Bury / Retrieve Booty. A pirate ship of any size can carry a maximum of fifty booty.
For the sake of
simplicity, booty is merely represented by numbers. But if it helps you get into the
game, imagine the

booty represents rum, gold, sail cloth, ammunition, cannons, silk, ropes and
whatever else a pirate mightfind useful. If you somehow manage to acquire more than
fifty booty, or if sailing around with a lot ofbooty makes you nervous, especially
with those ships of the line in hot pursuit, you might want to burypart of it for
safe keeping. Mark the spot where you want to bury your booty (it must be an
orthogonallyadjacent land space) with the moons die (the treasure chest). Record the
amount of booty you bury byplacing the crowns die onto the appropriate space on the
booty track, then adjust the crowns pawn toindicate how much booty remains aboard
your pirate ship. Move the crowns die to the right-handcolumns to track buried booty
in excess of fifty. Similarly, you may retrieve any amount of previouslyburied booty
from any sea space orthogonally adjacent to your buried treasure chest by merely
adjustingthe crowns die and pawn on the booty track. You may bury and retrieve booty
at the same location anynumber of times, but if you bury booty elsewhere without
first retrieving your previously buried booty, thepreviously buried booty is lost!
Example: Having just plundered ten booty from that suns brig, you would like to
upgradeyour pirate ship. A brig would cost [8 - 5 = 3] booty for the ship upgrade,
and your five
crew are enough to man it. That leaves seven extra booty that you could lose if you
runup against a powerful opponent. Alternatively, you could try for a frigate, which
would
cost [13 - 5 = 8] booty, but your current crew is only minimal for such a large
ship, andyou can’t afford any more crew right now. It might be best to save the
three booty
needed for the upgrade to a brig and bury the rest on the nice beach to the east.
Purchase Upgrades. If you have enough booty and wish to do so, you may purchase a
different shipand/or more crew according to the following cost schedule:
Ship Coin Value (Cost) Minimum Crew (Cost) Maximum Crew (Cost) Total Booty
Sloop null (2) 1 (3) 3 (9) 5 to 11
@ Ketch ace (5) 3 (9) 5 (15) 14 to 20
? Brig two (8) 4 (12) 6 (18) 20 to 26
? Frigate three (13) 5 (15) 7 (21) 28 to 34
µ Galleon four (21) 7 (21) 9 (27) 42 to 48
? Ship of the Line five (34) 9 (27) 10 (30) 61 to 64
You may only own one pirate ship at a time, but you are allowed to trade in your old
ship (at full value) aspart of the payment for the new one. Keep in mind that larger
ships require a larger crew to operate, andsmaller ships cannot carry crew beyond a
certain size. This table also appears on the reference sheet.For advanced players
who no longer need the reference sheet, the types of ships that can be run by crewof
various sizes are marked with appropriate icons on the crew track, and the prices
for crew and variousship sizes are marked with appropriate icons on the booty track.
Advance Turn Pawn / Retire. A pirate’s life is hard and usually short, so at the end
of every turn you are
faced with a choice. Do you continue pirating, risking your life and ship for more
notoriety and booty? Ordo you hand your ship over to your first mate and retire?
After twenty turns, you must retire.
ScoringWhen your pirating career finally ends, whether you survive for twenty full
turns, if you decide to retireearly, or if you lose your ship and drown at sea,
figure your final score by multiplying your crew timesyour current ship type (null =
zero, ace = one), then multiply your buried booty times the booty youcurrently have
aboard ship times your notoriety. Add those two products together, then add the
numberof turns you completed for your final score.
Example: imagine you have taken sixteen turns, and you have a frigate (ship size =
three) manned by seven crew with only five booty aboard. You also have fifteen
bootyburied several spaces away and a notoriety of eight. Furthermore, there are
three ships
of the line who are in hot pursuit, and no matter where you try to run, at least one
of themis likely to catch you on your next turn. Rather than facing repeated attack
and possible

loss of your ship and crew, now might be a good time to retire. Your score would
befigured as [(3 frigate × 7 crew) + (15 buried booty × 5 booty aboard ship × 8
notoriety) +
16 turns = 637 points]!
Keep track of your scores on the Notorious Pirate History Sheet and try to beat your
own record!
Tips & TacticsX In general, keeping your pirate ship face-down makes it easier to
tell which ship is yours – theonly one sailing under a black moon flag. Keeping
other ships face-up makes it easier to planroutes of attack (or escape). Once
another ship has moved, you may want to flip it face-down tosimplify the bookkeeping
task of tracking which ships have and have not moved.
X Diversify. The geometric scoring mechanism rewards well-balanced pirating much
more thanfocusing on a single task. Of particular note, if you have no buried booty,
none of the booty youhave aboard ship will count toward your score. If you only have
a sloop, your ship and crew won’tcount, either.
X Be aggressive, especially if you have a good crew. Go for booty, because it has
the biggestinfluence on your final score. Normally, the biggest one-time loss you
might incur is eight booty(the value of one crew combined with an unlucky roll of
five on the suns die). That is, unless youhave a minimal crew for your ship.
Remember, ship downgrades due to crew size decreases arenon-refundable losses. On
the other hand, the potential for gain is great – up to fifty booty if youmanage to
board a rich ship of the line!
X Obviously, try not to lose in combat because decreases in crew (and ship size) are
veryexpensive. If you’re being chased by bigger ships that you’ll never be able to
defeat, run away.Yours is the fastest ship on the sea, so with a good wind at your
back, you should be fine. Ifyou’re surrounded and can’t run away, retire. There’s no
shame in escaping with your life!
X Try to end your last turn next to land, so if you haven’t buried any booty yet
(Shame on you!),you will be able to.
X Invest in crew before upgrading your ship. More crew improves your combat odds,
and a smallership means newly sighted ships are less likely to run.
X That said, invest in bigger ships as soon as you are able. A bigger pirate ship
means you can goafter bigger ships and get even more booty! But if everyone is
always running away, even thebiggest ship may not be as profitable as something
smaller.
X Upgrading to a smaller ship (for example, to make other ships chase you) is
perfectly legal.
X Use geography to your advantage. Ships are more vulnerable in open waters, and
it’s ofteneasier to find escape routes by ducking behind islands and peninsulas.
CreditsInspiration: International Talk Like a Pirate Day (www.talklikeapirate.com)
Proofreading: Amanda J.-L. RodefferPlay Testing: Jonathan Dietrich, David Whitcher,
Matt Worden
Revision History0.0.1, September 19, 2003 initial concept, title, headers, revision
history, license0.0.2, September 30, 2003 setup, play mat0.0.3?, October 8, 2003
goal & play, scoring, tips & tactics, reference sheet, general editing,
firstinternal play test version0.1.0?, October 8, 2003 first external play test
version0.1.1?, October 14, 2003 tweaks based upon play test feedback, style &
content editing0.1.2?, October 20, 2003 updated formatting & graphics0.2.0?, October
27, 2003 tweaked booty payoff & integrated with crew payment0.2.1?, November 5, 2003
turned advanced rules into another game, contest version1.0.0, January 14, 2004
added pirate record sheet, minor corrections & clarifications

Notorious Pirate History Sheet
Name Date Score

LicenseCopyright © 2003, 2004 by Clark D. Rodeffer. Permission is granted to copy,
distribute and/or modify thisdocument under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation
License, Version 1.1 or any laterversion published by the Free Software Foundation;
with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of
the license can be found athttp://www.gnu.org/copyleft.fdl.html.

Piece Packing Pirates Reference Sheet
Setup
1. Build the Sea. Connect all of the shuffled face-down parts of the sea (tiles)
into one large surface.
2. Sort Ships. Shake the non-pirate ships (arms, crowns and suns coins) in an opaque
bag. Place the pirate ships (moons coins) on the
corresponding spaces on the play mat.3. Sort Dice. Place the crowns and moons dice
on the corresponding spaces on the play mat. Keep the arms and suns dice nearby.
4. Sort Pawns. Place the pawns on the color-coded spaces on the play mat.
5. Get Starting Booty. Roll the arms and suns dice and add five to their total (null
= zero, ace = one). Place the crowns pawn on the
corresponding space of the booty track on the play mat.6. Buy Ship & Crew. Spend
booty to purchase a ship and crew, and adjust the crowns pawn accordingly. A sloop
(null coin) costs two booty,
a ketch (ace coin) costs five booty, and each crew costs three booty. A sloop
requires at least one crew and can accommodate up to three crew
(minimum cost of five booty, maximum cost of eleven booty). A ketch requires at
least three crew (minimum cost of fourteen booty). You may
only have one pirate ship at a time, but you may trade them in when purchasing
upgrades.
7. Weigh Anchor. Place your pirate ship on any sea space adjacent to any land space.
Turn Sequence
1. Sail. Move your pirate ship zero, one or two spaces orthogonally, including a 90/
turn, if desired. At your option, you may interrupt this
movement with one diagonal move in the prevailing wind direction. Flip any
unexplored parts of the sea face-up as your pirate ship enters them
and orient them however you choose. If your pirate ship enters any parts of the sea
that are unoccupied, roll the suns die to determine if your
lookout spots another ship. A ship is sighted on a roll equal or less than the tile
value. If your pirate ship enters the same space as another ship,
resolve the engagement using the following formulæ:
Your combat score = (pirate ship + crew) + roll the arms die (null = zero, ace =
one)
Opponent’s combat score = (enemy ship + notoriety) + roll the suns die
If your combat score is higher, remove the enemy ship, increase your notoriety by
one and plunder the enemy ship for booty:
Booty = arms die value from combat × (enemy ship + suns die value from combat) -
crew
If your opponent’s combat score is higher, leave the enemy ship in place, decrease
your notoriety by one, lose one crew and lose booty equal to
whatever you rolled on the suns die during combat (booty can’t go less than zero).
Note that the crew decrease may necessitate a decrease in
ship type. If both combat scores are equal, it’s a standoff and nothing happens.
2. Other Ships Sail / Attack. All ships in your part of the sea and all bordering
parts of the sea sail one space orthogonally, plus one space
diagonally if the wind would help them. Ships may not use the wind to sail
diagonally while in unexplored parts of the sea. Smaller ships flee,
larger ships give chase, and ships equal in size to your pirate ship stay put. Ships
always sail to their best advantage (flee, chase or stay – this
may require a brief search), but if there is a tie among several best sailing paths,
you may choose freely from among them. After other ships sail,
resolve any ship-to-ship engagements as in the sailing step.3. Bury / Retrieve
Booty. To bury booty, mark the chosen adjacent land space with the moons die, mark
how much booty you bury with the
crowns die on the booty track, and adjust the crowns pawn to reflect how much booty
you’re keeping aboard your pirate ship. To retrieve buried
booty (only from a sea space orthogonally adjacent to the buried booty) merely
adjust the crowns pawn and crowns die on the booty track. Note
that there is only one moons die (treasure chest), so if you bury booty again
somewhere else, your former buried booty is lost! Move the crowns
die to the right-hand column to track buried booty in excess of fifty.
4. Purchase Upgrades. If you have the booty to spend and want to improve your ship
and crew, you may do so, adjusting your crowns pawn
on the booty track appropriately. Here are the costs and crew requirements for the
various types of ships:
Ship Coin Value (Cost) Minimum Crew (Cost) Maximum Crew (Cost) Total Cost Range,
Booty
Sloop null (2) 1 (3) 3 (9) 5 to 11
@ Ketch ace (5) 3 (9) 5 (15) 14 to 20
? Brig two (8) 4 (12) 6 (18) 20 to 26
? Frigate three (13) 5 (15) 7 (21) 28 to 34
µ Galleon four (21) 7 (21) 9 (27) 42 to 48
? Ship of the Line five (34) 9 (27) 10 (30) 61 to 64
5. Advance Turn Pawn / Retire. At the end of every turn, you may choose to either
continue pirating or retire. After twenty turns, you
must retire.
Scoring
Your final score = (pirate ship × crew) + (buried booty × booty aboard ship ×
notoriety) + turns completed

Turn

10 11

Crew

10 ?

Notoriety

10 11

Booty

10 11 30 31 50 +50 +1000

9 12 9 µ? 9 12 9 12 29 32 49 +100 +950

8 13 8 µ 8 13 8 ? 13 ? 28 33 48 +150 +900

7 14 7 ?µ 7 14 7 14 27 34 ? 47 +200 +850

6 15 6 ?? 6 15 6 15 26 35 46 +250 +800

5 16 5 @?? 5 16 5 @ 16 25 36 45 +300 +750

4 17 4 @? 4 17 4 17 24 37 44 +350 +700

3 18 3
@
3 18 3 R 18 23 38 43 +400 +650

2 19 2 2 19 2 19 22 39 42 +450 +600

M 20 R

L 20 K 20 21 µ 40 41 +500 +550

M @ ? ? µ ?K

Turn Sequence:1. Sail
2. Other Ships Sail / Attack
3. Bury / Retrieve Booty
4. Purchase Upgrades
5. Advance Turn Pawn / Retire

PiecePackingPiratesTextVersion