Prepare to weigh anchor, me hearties!

I've been making very slow progress lately, but at last, the Scurvy Crew is ready to sail.  More or less.

My lovely wife, S, volunteered to try the game out with me, making for a reasonably successful two-player experience, after which she gave me a list of feedback as long as my arm, but also a qualified thumbs-up, suggesting that the game is, at least, not awful.

Choose the right subject matter and it's great what artwork you can find in the public domain.  This is from an old edition of Treasure Island.

Some of S's thoughts were...

• It is not obvious when it is best to switch between Acts.  (I'm bearing this in mind, but am not sure this is a big problem as it is a quick game and future plays should be more clued up.)
• The optional actions in Act 3 (at sea) are a bit confusing at first.  (We agreed that a player aid card/sheet would make a big difference here.)
• The number and balance of treasure cards doesn't seem quite right. (I agree and will be working on this later. We discussed possibly having some uncertainty as to the exact cards in the treasure deck, which sounds a good plan.)
• Some cards have 3 icons on them, does this make those cards too good?  (My hunch is that it is probably OK to have some "better" cards -- apart from anything else, they are usually gained by a form of draft pick, which reduces the luck of the draw. I'll need to keep an eye on this though.)
• The presentation of icons on the ship cards is confusing.  (I agree, I need to improve on that and have some ideas that shouldn't be too hard.)
• The differentiation between Act 1 and Act 2 is not great.  Perhaps in Act 2 you should be able to, say, draw no cards but play 3 as an option.  (Maybe.  I'll definitely bear this in mind as a potential solution if this becomes a problem.)

The next step was to get the rules written up, and this is the part that has taken far too long.  As they stand, I think the written rules should work to get people started, but I'm not sure if they are structured in the best way, and there are bound to be details missing.

However, if you are interested, there are links below to PDF files on DropBox for the rules and print & play cards, so please help yourself.  If you have any comments, whether on playing the game or just a quick glance over the rules, my contact details are in the rules document, or you could comment on this post.

I'll leave this as a short update this time, but will list a few things that are on my immediate to-do list for the game...

• Make player aid cards to remind what actions are available.
• Make more ships, treasure and crew cards.
• Playtest a lot with various player counts if possible.

Links:

• Scurvy Crew V0.1 Rules on DropBox
• Scurvy Crew V0.1 Cards on DropBox