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Voyage Phase - Alpha Rulebook Skull Tales

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Live the adventures of a pirate sailing the Caribbean sea. Semi-competitive board game with miniatures for 1 to 4 players.

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    Voyage Phase

    1. INTRODUCTIONAs in any good pirate adventure, we cant forget the crossings from one island to another, the naval warfare, the boarding, the mutinies During

    the Voyage phase youll find all this and more.

    2. COMPONENTSShip board / CrewThe board and crew are divided into five sections: Hold, Deck, Morale, Compass and Sails.

    Sea Enemy tokensThese tokens are used when a sea event with an enemy takes place.(See pg. 8)

    Hexagonal Sea BoardIt represents the section of sea across which well play the Voyage phase. To move your ship across this board you cant cross squares occupied by

    islands. To dock on an island your ship must reach the square containing the parchment with its letter, which represents the port where you can dock or sail away from.

    Six-sided diceUse them for the Voyage phase rolls.

    Voyage Event cardsWhen you take your speed roll, should there be results of 1 or 2 on any of the dice, you must draw a Sea Event card and follow the instructions on the text.

    Sea TokensDuring your crossing youll come across enemies and sea events that will be represented by these tokens.

    Pirate Ship

    Galleon

    Coastguard Brigantine

    Merchant Vessel

    Whale

    Sea Monster

    Whirlpool

    Ghost ship

    Pirate Squad Tokens (PS)They are used to represent groups of your crew members and fighting capacity.

    Wares TokensWares represent the plunder, booty, and resources that youve loaded in to the ships Hold.

    1 Gold

    2 Metals

    3 Fabric

    4 Tobacco

    5 Slaves

    4 Rum

    6 Supplies

    CannonsThese tokens are placed in the Hold and they indicate your Firepower. For each cannon in your hold youll be able to roll one die on shooting.

    Wound tokensDuring the voyage phase they are used to indicate the impacts received by your ship and your enemys.

    Impact tokensEvery time your ship our your enemys receives an impact, reveal a random Impact Token to see where the impact struck.

    Pirate Flag TokenIt is used to keep track the Morale of the crew. Prestige TokensUse your prestige to try and get captaincy during a mutiny.

    Level indicator / CompassIt indicates which direction an encounter with an enemy on the high sea can occur.

    Its also the turn counter and marks whether its daytime or nighttime.

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    3. SETTING UP THE VOYAGE PHASE:

    If youve finished your first adventure successfully and theres a Captain for your crew, youll be able to go on your first Voyage, a crossing back to The Pirate Home, and youll do so on board The Lady of the South.

    Hold: 10 Speed/sails: 3D6 Firepower: 3 Fighting capacity: 4UMFor the first crossing youll have 4 Pirate Squads (PS) and the specialists (the characters that are being used by the players); Youll also have 3 cannons, 2 rum barrels and 3 supplies.Take the Sea Board, the Compass indicator and your Ship Board.Next place your ship token on the square with the letter indicated in the voyage of the Adventure Book.Place the Pirate Squads (PS) on the Deck and leave the specialists (characters) cards near to the Captain so that he or she can check out their Voyage skills. The

    cannons, supplies, rum and any item or ware are to be placed inside the Hold, one token per square, filling up the green squares first. As you get more tokens to place in the Hold, fill up the green squares first, then the yellow ones and finally the red ones. Leave the remaining ware tokens face-down in a pile from which youll draw random wares, for example, on capturing booty from a boarded ship.Place the Compass indicator on the Sea Board with the arrow pointing towards number 1, and place the Ship Board facing that direction, so the sea hexagons should fit in with the Compass hexagon.Take a wound token for the sails and place it on square three of the sails. If youve added auxiliary sails to your ship, move the wound token one square forward for each one. Every time the sails receive an impact, move the wound token down one square. A ship without sails has a speed of 1D6.Add up the morale of your crew and place the Pirate Flag indicator on the according square. Each PS counts as 5 Morale, and each character will have its own value.

    Example: We have 4 PS which add up 20 morale, plus two characters that add up 5 morale between them. Well place

    the Pirate Flag on square 25.

    Each player with the exception of the Captain must draw the event cards with which they can try to reduce the crews morale. The player with the least Prestige starts by drawing a card from the Voyage event deck, then the player with the second lowest prestige draws, and so on so forth until 7 cards in total have been drawn. If there is a draw between two players prestige, the must take a confronted charisma roll to decide who draws first.

    Goals for the Voyage phase:

    At the start of the Voyage phase, all the players except for the Captain draw two island tiles numbered from 1 to 16 and check their goals., which must be kept secret. Each player must try to fulfil his o her goals by playing their event cards. At the end of the Voyage phase, each player will receive a reward according to the goals he or she has fulfilled.

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    A goal can be fulfilled thanks to the actions of other players.Youre ready to sail!

    4.- GAME TURN:The voyage phase takes place on the Sea Board. On it youll find several islands with letters on parchments that indicate which is the square of the goal island you must dock in. Voyage turns are divided in three parts: events, Captains turn and enemies turn.

    4.1.- Events:The Captain will be the player in charge of the Compass and he must spin the arrow clockwise one slot each turn. If the tip of the arrow is on a dark

    square, it will be night-time, and any threat will be placed 2 squares away instead of 3, since it will have been harder to spot in the darkness.

    When the arrow completes one full turn of the Compass, a day will have passed. The Captain must discard one Supplies token to feed the crew or else the morale will go down. Any effect that must be implemented between turns will be carried out in this part of the Voyage phase.During the Events section, each player except for the Captain draws a cart, reads it, and then discards a card from his or her hand. If a player has put a card into play he wont have to discard any cards until he regains the same number of cards in hand as he or she had at the beginning of the Voyage phase.

    Sometimes your ship can be moved to other squares due to the effect of a Voyage Event.

    If during this movement the ship has to cross a square that contains an island section, the ships movement is stopped on this square and the Hold takes 2 impacts.

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    Voyage Goals1 Ending the Voyage phase with 8 fewer morale points that it started off with. 1PP

    2 Causing an impact on the ships sails. 2PP

    3 Reducing by 3 the ships Hold. 1PP

    4 Losing all the supplies. 1PP

    5 Ending the Voyage phase with 5 fewer morale points that it started off with. 1PP

    6 Getting 2 Supplies for the crew during the crossing. 1PP

    7 Capturing the booty of an enemy ship. 2PP

    8 The ship takes part in two naval battles. 1PP

    9 The ship is sunken or the Captain surrenders. 3PP

    10 Reducing by 4 the ships hold. 1PP

    11 The ship finishes the Voyage phase with the same amount of Hold points as it started off with. 2PP

    12 The crew ends the crossing with 2 PS less than it started off with. 1PP

    13 The crew finishes the Voyage phase with the same amount of PS points as it started off with. 2PP

    14 End the crossing without any Rum left. 1PP

    15 Two atmospheric events occur during the Voyage phase. 1PP

    16 There are exactly 10 occupied Hold squares at the end of the Voyage phase. 2PP

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    4.2 The Captains Turn: During this section of the turn, the Captain will decide the course which the ship will take, he can fire the cannons if necessary, command to board another vessel... always trying to reach the destination and, if possible, amassing some more plunder on the way to keep the crews morale high.A ship can perform different actions according to the situation in which it finds itself :

    - Movement: the movement indicates the speed of the ship. Roll as many dice as Sail Points the ship has. If there are no Sails, roll 1D6. In order to move you must overcome your Cargo Index (CI) indicated in the coloured number by the Hold. For each success (die with a higher result than the CI number), the ship can be moved one square.

    How to calculate the CI: Each colour of the Hold is corresponded by a number of the same colour which indicates you ships Cargo Index. Whenever you place items in the hold, fill up the green squares first, then the yellow and finally the red ones. According to which colour your last token is in, your CI will be higher or lower.During the voyage, the Captain can discard any amount of cargo tokens (Wares, Rum, Supplies, Cannons...) from the Hold

    The ship can only be moved in a direction of the green sides of its token, facing the bow towards the square into which it moves. The ship can also turn around on its square spending one movement point (one of the successes of the roll).

    - Events: Once the movement is finished, if any of the dice rolled had a result of a 1 or a 2, the Captain must play a Sea Event card. Ask the rest of the players whether theyd like to play one from their hand, starting with the one with the least Prestige. If a player plays a card, next time this situation occurs, start offering the chance to play cards to the player that was next in line when the last event was played by a player.

    Example: The Lookout is the Captain. The Cutthroat has 5PP, the Sea Dog 4PP and the Doctor 3PP. The Captain rolls for speed and he gets a 1 and a 2 amongst the dice results. So a Sea event must be played. First he offers the chance to the

    Doctor, who declines. Next he offers the Sea Dog the chance

    to play a card, and the Sea Dog accepts and plays a card from his hand. The next time a Sea event must be played, the Captain must offer the Cuttrhoat the chance to play a

    card first. Should she decline, hed then offer the chance to

    the Doctor, and then to the Sea Dog. If all three of them decline, he draws a card and plays it himself.

    If the card that a player has played is an enemy card,

    that player will roll the dice and take the decisions required for that enemy in that event. If no player plays a card from his or her hand, the Captain must draw a card from the Sea Events deck and play it. In this case, the player with the highest prestige will take the decisions and roll the dice for the event, should it be needed. If there is a draw of prestige values, break it by means of a confronted Charisma roll. The compass wont move during a turn with enemies on the Sea Board and 1 and 2 results on the speed rolls will be ignored until the foe disappears. The Captain cant dock in the goal square while an event is taking place (i.e., youre still fighting a Kraken).

    - Naval battle: amongst the Sea Events that can occur there are several you might have to fight your way out of. To do so, use the Ships Firepower, which is equal to the number of cannons (maximum 5), and check if the enemy is in rage (see example further on)Roll as many dice as your Firepower stat. For each result that overcomes the enemys speed youll cause an impact against it. Randomly reveal as many Impact Tokens as impacts youve caused to see where the damage went (Sails, Hold...), apply the damage and return the Impact Tokens face-down to the pile.Whenever your ship receives its first impact to the hold, place a wound token on square number 10 of the hold. Each time your Hold suffers another impact, move the token one square down, losing any item on that square. If the token reaches square 1, the ship sinks.

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    - Boarding and defense (Fighting capacity): to board another ship, both your ship token and the enemys must be on the same square of the board. During a boarding or defence between your ship and an enemys there wont be any speed rolls, except for the Whale and the Sea Monster. For each Pirate Squad you have on board, you have 1D6 Fighting Capacity (FC). Add to this any specialist that improves your FC. Pirates have a range from 4 to 6, so any result of 4, 5 or 6 will be considered a success and reduce the enemys Fighting Capacity by 1. When a crew loses all its squads, pirates or sailors, they surrender the ship.

    Example: Were going to board a merchant vessel. We have 3 PS and no specialist with extra Fighting Capacity. So our FC is 3D6. The merchant has 3 Crew Squads, so theyll also have 3 dice, but their range is lower, they need a 5 or 6 to succeed. Both ships roll their dice and the pirates get a 3, a 5 and a 6; the Merchant Vessel rolls a 2, a 4 and a 5. So the pirates have managed two successes, which theyll deduct from the Merchants crew squads, leaving it as 1, while the pirates will suffer the loss of 1PS, leaving it with 2.

    - Sunken ship: when the players boat is sunken, they lose all their cargo, the crew and the ship. The players characters survive and must play the Shipwreck adventure which youll find in the adventure guide. During the Port phase the new Captain will be able to acquire another vessel and a new crew to be able to sail the seven seas again.

    - Surrender: The Captain can choose to surrender during a boarding, in which case, the players must play the Escaping the noose adventure which youll find in the adventure guide, in which you can try and recover your ship under the command of a new Captain.

    A ship can perform one movement or part of a movement, one naval battle and one boarding during the same turn in any order, being able to insert movements between other actions.

    Example: if on the speed roll the pirate ship has obtained a 1, a 5 and a 6, they have two movement points and an event card must be played. Its the Coastguard Brigantine, and the Captain decides to shoot against it, and then move into the same square (if its night-time, the enemy will have appeared two squares away) and board it.

    CREW:A crew is formed by sailors and specialists (both players characters and NPCs). When you finish your first adventure, youll have 4 Pirate Squads and as many specialists as players are taking part in the adventure.Pirate Squads are even groups of buccaneers with the same hiring fee, and theyll add their moral and fighting skills to both naval battles and boarding, as well as the ships defence.

    Pirate Squads:Salary: 30 Coins Morale: +5 Fighting capacity: +1D6 (4-6)Skill: During the Adventure Phase the PS can perform two actions:

    1.- Collect supplies, obtaining 1 supply token per PS for your ship.2.- Repair the ship, recovering 1 point of Sails or Hold per PS.

    Decide what each PS is going to do.

    The specialists (Players): they contribute their skills as part of the crew. A gunner can add a higher Firepower or an experienced veteran can improve the ships speed, for example. The ability is on the Character card, under the Adventure phase ability.

    The specialists (NPCs): These are characters who have been hired to be part of the crew but dont belong to any particular player, or they might have joined you on some adventure.

    The Crews Morale: On your Ship Board you can keep track of the total Morale that your crew has (including Players Characters and NPCs). The Morale represents the degree of confidence and backing that the pirates have with the Captain. Should it go down to much there would be high chances of a mutiny. There are several mechanisms by which the crews morale can go down. Throughout the crossings, several events may occur that lower morale and combats in high sea that cause casualties amongst your crew will also decrease it. Likewise, hunger or lack of coin can reduce a crews morale.

    For each PS or Specialist that doesnt receive his or her salary, deduct their morale stat from the crews total.When a PS is killed in combat, subtract the Morale

    they were lending the crew from the total.Hunger is another factor that can affect a crews morale. Each supply token will feed your crew for a day. If youre left without any, for each day of the crossing in which you cant discard a Supply token to make dinner, roll 1D6 and deduct the result from the crews morale. A ship sails on its belly, after all.

    On the other hand, rum can help you raise the crews morale. For each Rum barrel token you discard (chip it open and drink up, me hearties! Yo ho!) roll 1D6 and add the result to the crews morale. You can discard up to one rum token per day, less your crew gets too drunk to sail.

    A crews maximum morale is 30. If for any reason the total would be higher, ignore the extra points.

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    Mutiny: A morale bellow 10 is enough reason to mutiny and choose a new and better Captain. The old Captain will go back to being a regular crew member but he or she might only use his or her Charisma points to forward his or her candidacy.All the other players must present themselves as candidates for captaincy. For this a secret auction must take place. For each Prestige Token a player hides in his hand, hell roll a die which will be added to the dice he rolls according to his Charisma points. All the players must open their hands at the same time to show how many prestige tokens theyre going to turn into dice. Next, each player rolls the dice (maximum 5)and adds the results. The player with the highest result will be the new Captain. The Prestige points that have been used by the players are lost.

    Example: The Sea Dog has 2 Prestige Tokens in his hand and 3 Charisma Points. He rolls five dice and gets a total of

    18 for his candidacy.

    The crews morale is set back to normal after a mutiny, adding up all the morale points that the crew has at

    that moment, and starting to count as from 10 (see example below).

    If the mutiny has happened as a consequence of any Event card that hasnt ended up in

    shipwreck or surrender, discard the event.

    After a mutiny in which there has been a change of Captain, the old Captain who is now part of the crew must draw as many Event cards as the

    character that has taken the Captaincy from him had drawn at the beginning, and the new Captain will discard the Event cards he or she had.

    Example: : after a mutiny the Sea Dog gets the captaincy. Adding up the morale points from his PS and the rest of the characters, theres a total of 12 morale points, which counting as from ten, leaves the moral indicator on square 22.

    4.3 Enemies Turn:In Multiplayer Mode, the enemies from the Event cards deck are controlled by the player with higher Prestige, opposing the Captain.In Single-Player Mode, apply each enemys specific rules.

    - Enemies Appearance: As a general rule, the enemies appear three squares away from our position, in line with the Compass needle.An event with a sea enemy cannot appear on an island square; if so, discard that event.To know where the enemy is pointing to, roll 1D6 and check its result in the Compass.

    - Enemies attack and Movement: There are three different types of enemies, according to their role. Aggressive (Coast Guard Brigantine, Galleon, Ghost Ship and Sea Monster), Passive (Merchant Cog) and Neutral (Whale).

    Aggressive Enemies: They will try by all means to

    chase, sink or board your ship.In Single-Player Mode, you must do an Enemy Speed Roll and move it until there is a chance to make use of its Firepower. Should they have any movement points left after firing, the enemy must try to get closer and board your ship.Just like in the Captains turn, the player representing the enemy must draw as many impact tokens as hits obtained, applying the corresponding damage to the pirates ship.Now the Captain faces two options: He either fights these enemies, or tries to flee from them, which will occur as soon as theres a 5-square distance (straight line) between them.

    Passive Enemies: They always try to flee, by all means. A ship succeeds in fleeing as soon as theres a 5-square distance (straight line) between both ships, or leaves the board by any side.In Single-Player Mode you must move the enemy away, as much as you are allowed to by its Speed during its turn.Whenever an enemy has a chance to use its cannons, it must do so before moving.Passive enemies never board other ships, their Fight Ability is used only for defence.

    Neutral Enemies: This type of enemy will not perform any action or movement, unless you attack them somehow, which turns them into an aggressive enemy type immediately.As soon as there are five or more squares between the enemies and your ship, the enemies corresponding counters are withdrawn, and the event is discarded.

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    THE ENEMIES:The characteristics of sea enemies usually coincide with those of your ships:

    - Enemy Type.

    -Speed: It indicates the number of dice to roll, and the results to be obtained to succeed. For every success, the enemy can move one square in any of the directions on the green sides of its token.

    - Firepower: It represents the dice to be rolled in naval battles. Neither the Whale nor the Sea Monster have the chance of performing Naval combat ranged attacks (thats what you get for having flippers or tentacles instead of cannons, har har!).

    - Fighting Capacity: The number of PS to face a boarding or defence, and the range in which rolls succeed. When an enemy FC is reduced to zero, it surrenders and is discarded, granting any Morale or loot rewards indicated on its card.

    - Hold: The impact points that an enemy can take before being sunk. Some enemies carry goods in their holds; try not to damage them if you ever want to obtain any booty!

    - Morale: the amount of morale points you can win or lose, depending on the enemy and the outcome of the encounter.

    Special Rules for enemies and special events in the high seas:

    Whenever an enemy card appears on your crossing, you must use its enemy card and token to represent it. Next, check its stats for Speed, Hold and Fighting Capacity, if any. Assign a Wound Token in every corresponding box in the card for these mentioned stats. Every time that enemy receives an Impact, the Captain will draw that many impact tokens and assign them accordingly; move the wound tokens one square back for each impact on their area.When a box reaches one, that area will be lost:

    1.- If its the Hold that goes down to one first, the enemy is sunk. You will benefit from any Morale rewards as a consequence of sinking this enemy.

    2.- When an enemy has lost all its Sails (speed), it will only move with 1D6.

    3.- If the Fighting Capacity goes down to one, that will mean you have obliterated all of the enemys Crew Squads, and so that enemy surrenders. You obtain all the rewards.

    The Whale does NOT have a Fighting Capacity, therefore any deck impacts will be assigned to its Hold value.

    SEA ENEMIES TYPES:

    - Merchant Vessel:With these enemies you must be very careful not to shoot the Hold, as any impacts there will make you lose one piece of goods. If you manage to

    make the ship crews surrender, or finish them off, you can draw the same number of goods tokens as indicated on its Hold points, and add them to your Hold (as long as you have enough space).A captured Merchant Vessel adds 3 points to your Morale; A Merchant Vessel that manages to flee, however, will reduce your Morale Points by 3.

    - Galleon: A sunk or captured Galleon adds 8 Morale Points to your crew, although we must advise that it is a somewhat suicide mission... If you

    manage to flee from it, your Morale Points go down in 3. If you capture a Galleon, you can draw as many goods tokens as Hold Points the Galleon has left at the moment of being captured.

    - Coast Guard Brigantine:A Pirate Captain who succeeds in fleeing from a Coast Guard Brigantine loses 2 Morale Points from its crew. On the other hand, sinking or

    capturing it will grant you 5 Morale Points. Its capture will allow you to draw as many goods tokens as Hold Points the Brigantine has at the moment of being captured.

    - Sea Monster:The Sea Monster will use its full movement to come into the same square as you are in; at that moment, it will use its Fighting Capacity with

    four tentacles (FC 1D6 for each). For each hit, it draws an impact token, applying the corresponding damage to the pirate ship. The sea monster will not cease

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    attacking until your ship sinks down into the depths. Whether you defeat it or flee from it, you get +3 Morale Points.

    - Whale:If attacked, it will try to use its only weapon (Charge) moving towards your ship. If it manages to coincide in the same square as your ship, it will

    automatically deduct 2 Hold Points from your vessel.To repeat its charge after the attack, the Whale must leave your square into a different one.To fight the Whale there are two options: By means of your Firepower, or using your Fighting Capacity when the Whale is situated on the same square as you, in the same way as when your crew is boarding a ship, but drawing an impact token for every success.If the Whale reaches 0 Hold Points, you get 2 pieces of supplies, +1 Goods token and +3 Morale Points.If you decide not to confront the Whale or you flee from combat, you lose -3 Morale Points.

    - Whirlpool:The Whirlpool places itself under your ship token, and stays on the board until you manage to flee away from it, getting to a 5-square

    (straight line) distance.At the beginning of the enemies turn, if your ship happens to be in the same square, or any square adjacent to the Whirlpool token, it inflicts 1 impact to your Hold.As long as you stay inside its effect area (a 5-square straight line radius), deduct -1 from your Speed Rolls.In the enemies turn, the Whirlpool will roll 1D6; if it gets a higher result than your speed roll, it will pull you one square towards the Whirlpool token.

    - Ghost Ship:The Ghost Ship cannot be attacked in any way. All you can do is flee from it. At the beginning of its turn, it will deduct 1 Morale Point out of your

    crew if your ship is 5 or less squares away from the Ghost Ship token.

    - Island: (Spend 1 Provisions when you are done with the island.

    Divide your PS between explore and repair.

    Explore: for every PS in this category, roll 2D6 and check its result on

    this chart:

    12 You find a 100-coin booty.

    10-11 You rescue some shipwreck survivors, who join your crew. +1PS and +1 Supplies.8-9 You get+2 Supplies.5-7 You get +1Rum and +1 Supplies. 3-4 You find nothing.

    2Cannibals have captured your explorers (-1PS).

    Repair: Take a single 1D6 roll and check the chart below.

    6 Remains from a shipwreck allow us to repair 2 impacts per PS.5 You can repair 1 Impact per PS.

    3-4 You can only repair 1 Hold impact per PS.

    1-2 You dont find any materials in this island that can help you repair your ship.

    5. END OF THE VOYAGE PHASE

    If the ship is captured, sunk, or navigates to the square marked in the adventure book, the Voyage Phase is over.Players unveil their goals to the rest of the board and check who succeeded, obtaining the corresponding reward for each goal achieved.

    WHAT SHALL WE DO WITH THE TREASURE?

    All richness you may obtain, whether theyre coins or other treasures, are due to be taken on board at the risk of losing them all in a naval battle, by being sunk or surrendering.To avoid this you can store any amount of your choice in any of the islands on the Board.The Captain will keep a record of this island in his logbook. Whenever you need your treasure, or want to add more riches to keep them safe, all you will have to do is travel to that island.

    6. VOYAGE PHASE ABILITIES:Deck Officer: Increase Fighting Capacity by 1D6.

    Lookout: If wishes to, he can place any enemy at a 4-square distance instead of 3 when it appears.

    Navigation: Increase your Speed Rolls by +1D6.

    Clairvoyance: Allows the Captain to ignore one event card per Voyage phase.

    Artillery: Add +1 to your Firepower Rolls.

    Medic: A crew that loses one or more PS in combat after a Voyage event, can recover one PS by rolling at least one 6 in an Intelligence Roll with the Surgeon. It can also bring down the effects of illness-related events.

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