Pyrates!

Pyrates! is a game for one to four human players (each pirate captains) set during the Golden Age of Piracy in the Caribbean. As a pirate captain, either as a full pirate with no allegiances or one with an allegiance to England, France, Spain, or the Netherlands, you control the fate of your pirate band while attempting to win the game by accumulating fame, infamy, and popularity. You do this through acquiring new ships to be part of your pirate fleet, attacking merchant ships (piracy), raiding ports, and trading booty seized in attacks on ships and ports for gold.

The game map shows the Caribbean region during the Golden Age of Piracy from the mid seventeenth to the early eighteenth centuries – the age of sail, musket, and cutlass. There are three sea zones: High Seas, East Caribbean Sea, and West Caribbean Sea – these have a range of numbers for random placement of Merchant Ships and other events from a D6 roll. Around the seas are ports which are marked to indicate the nation owning the port: British, French, Spanish, or Dutch. There are also three pirate ports: Tortuga, Nassau, and Port Royal. Ports can be adjacent to one or two sea zones. Pirate ports additionally have random number indicators showing return from sea zones and placement of ships for AI players.The map has a turn track for keeping track of the game’s progress and a scoring track where each player can record their Fame, Infamy and Popularity.