Gather Round Me Hearties

Onside by Jim Wallman

The players encounter ships at random – the types encountered depend on where they look. All the rules for the boarding action is on the target’s ship card.

Gather Round Me Hearties came about because I offered to create a pirate-themed party game for someone’s birthday. The players would be a mixture of gamer and non-gamers, and it therefore needed to be a fast-moving social game

The main aim for players is to “survive and live free” while trying to become rich, either collectively as a crew or individually.

Players operate in groups of three, with a captain who is “first among equals” rather than an absolute commander.

The possibility of removing an unpopular captain through the Black Spot gives the game a simple political layer, meaning that leadership must be exercised through negotiation, success and shared reward rather than command authority.

The game works through a card-based as the main game engine. Each player has a small private hand of cards and may talk about their cards, but do not have to tell the truth. There are four card types — Crew, Savvy, Powers and Objectives — support different forms of play including capability, useful knowledge, special actions and allow for private ambitions.

As a party game, I wanted it to involve movement and interaction with player-crews moving between tables that representing ports, trade routes, off-route waters and unknown waters. A two-team limit at each table also encourgaes movement as a speed and prioritisation problem, not just a map decision.

The gameplay alternates between danger at sea and recovery in port. At sea, players face reefs, shallows, naval patrols, prizes, treasure islands and possible pirate battles. In port, they heal, repair, pay crew, recruit and manage their cards.

The main development area is now to add a few unresolved elements of the game system, but I think that so far the game is very nearly ready for use now.