Marvin’s Pirates Go!

Introduction

Marvin is my five year old son. He and my wife (with whom he graciously shared some credit) developed this game during the Great Lockdown of 2020.

It’s a pretty simple game; a five year old can play it. It’s nice in that it’s not entirely random like so many games for that age group, but instead has a small amount of strategy.

Note that some of the rules don’t seem to have much of an actual effect on gameplay. That is intentional: it gives little kids the feeling that they’re doing something interesting without letting them paint themselves into a corner.

What You Need

• A standard deck of playing cards, shuffled. Jokers are optional.
• Eight pirates (we use little plastic pirate figurines that came as part of some other toy set)
• Eight shield markers (we use coins)
• Damage counters (we use little pieces of paper, or just keep track in our heads)
• Three prizes:
  • The cave (we use a little plastic cave from some toy set)
  • The ship (we use the pirate ship from the same toy set as the pirate figurines)
  • The fort (we use a little Lego fort)

Game Concepts

Cards

• Play proceeds in turns, with each player drawing the top card of the deck and taking an action based on the value of the card.
• Cards are discarded after use into a discard pile.
• If the deck were to ever somehow be exhausted, shuffle the discard pile into a new deck (I don’t think it is actually possible to play long enough to exhaust the deck).

Pirates

• Each player has four pirates.
• Each pirate has four hit points.
• When a pirate’s hit points are reduced to zero, that pirate has “fainted” and is out of the game.
• If a player has all four of his/her pirates faint, he/she loses the game.
• Pirates are arranged in a two-by-two square.
• The front row of pirates (closest to the other player) is the guard row; the back row is the captain row.
• It is not possible to attack a captain pirate until the guard pirate in front of it is defeated.

Hits and Shields

• Some cards cause different amounts of damage to be dealt to one opposing pirate, called hits.
• Some cards and prizes allow for a shield to be placed on a pirate.
• A shield absorbs one hit of damage to that pirate, and then disappears.
• Shields do not stack: once a pirate has a shield, it cannot get another shield.

Prizes

• At the beginning of a player’s turn, they may use one prize power, but only if they actually hold that prize.
• A player may have more than one prize, but can only use one prize power per turn.
• The prize powers are:
  • The ship allows you to swap the position of two pirates, or move one pirate into an empty position. This can be used, for example, to turn swap a captain with a guard.
  • The cave allows you to take one captain off the board. When the other captain is defeated or if you lose the cave, the hidden captain has to come back.
  • The fort allows you to place a shield on a guard pirate, but only if there are two guard pirates on the board.

Turn Sequence

• If the player has one or more prizes, optionally use one of their powers if possible.
• Take the top card of the deck and take the associated action:
  • 1, 3, 5, 7 - deal one hit to one pirate
  • 2, 4, 6, 10 - add one shield to one pirate
  • 8 - immediately knock out one pirate, regardless of shields or remaining hit points (this is called a “one-hit kill” and is a major source of excitement or anguish)
  • 9 - deal two hits to one pirate (this is called a “slash” and is only slightly less exciting than the one-hit kill)
  • Face Card - take one prize from the prize bank or the other player
  • Joker - miss the rest of your turn