Evil Stevie's Pirate Game
copyright 1998, 1999, 2000, 2003 by Steve Jackson
Updated (very slightly) August 5, 2004
Hi. This pirate base is still under construction, as it has been for years, and a couple of links are still just placeholders. Enjoy, but come back later and look again. Arrrrrrrrr.
I would like to thank all the Legophiles who have traded with me to help me build up my pirate fleet; Jackie Hamilton, for creating the logo above, and lots more invaluable help in building these web pages; Derek Schin, who has been a huge help, and a very competent Admiral of the Royal Navy, for some of the first public games; Franklin Cain and Meredith Monaghan, for HTML and PDF help, and everyone who has played this game and made suggestions! Acknowledgements also go to Frank Filz, who has carried the Lego Pirate banner to GenCon and other faraway shores . . .
Introduction
This is a game, involving elements of both roleplaying and tactical combat, in which grown men and women sit on the floor and push toy pirate ships around, going "Arrrr!"
I, personally, use Lego (tm) ships and figures for the games that I run, and the "ship class" rules are written to support Lego and similar building sets . . . but any sort of toys can be used, and these rules are emphatically not licensed or approved by The Lego Group, more's the pity. Non-Lego products that can be used with these rules include Playmobil, Pressman's Weapons & Warriors play sets, Mega Bloks (which makes some cute Viking ships), Best-Lock (which makes a HUGE pirate ship), Rokenbok (www.rokenbok.com) and many others. I suspect there's a way to adapt the WizKids "Pirates of the Spanish Main" mini-ships to this game, too, but I haven't tried yet.
These rules are shareware. Have fun. You may print them out and play with them, make copies for personal use (retaining the copyright notice and this paragraph) and give them to your fellow players, and so on. You may not, however, incorporate any of this material into other publications, hardcopy, online, or in any other media, with or without credit. If you want to refer to this material online, please just link to this page.
Unlike most of my work, this game is published privately (that is, not through Steve Jackson Games or any other professional publisher). I hope you have as much fun with it as I did. If you REALLY have a good time, don't send money . . . well, you can if you INSIST, but the appropriate offering would be some toys to help me build up MY fleet. I run this game several times a year at conventions . . . I can always use more pirates, more cannon, more ships . . . I've got a whole wish list. But opening an envelope and getting ONE PIRATE as a thank-you would make my day. Surprise me!
Suggestions can be sent to me at sj@sjgames.com. If you take any great pictures of your own pirate battles, I'd like to add them to these pages. The mailing address for contributions to the fleet: PO Box 18957, Austin, TX 78760.
Want to Play?
- The schedule of upcoming games . . . when and where I'll be with several boxes full of ships and other toys! This file also contains FAQ about the game as played at conventions.
- The Pirate Fleet Muster! A list of people with pirate fleets of their own. If YOU have a fleet (or just want to join the Pirate Mailing List), <>here's the form. NOT UP YET...but Jackie has coded it, so we just need to spend a little time getting it to work. Heh, I wrote that in 2000 and we haven't done it yet.
The Rules
- Parte ye Firste: Combat. How to sail around and sink things.
- Parte ye Second: The Campaign Game. Roleplay, gather wealth, and try to become the King of the Pirates.
- Ship Record Sheets. Thanks to Meredith Monaghan for creating this version and PDFing them. This URL just sends you to a directory. If the PDFs won't open by themselves, try dropping them on the Acrobat icon.
- Charts, Tables and References for the referees. Thanks to Franklin Cain for HTMLizing these!
- GM Tables: An assortment which one hopes is self-explanatory. Note that some of these are designed for long, complex games, and are of no use for a sail-and-shoot game.
- Movement Plot: Each player needs one of these in order to plot his moves before making them.
- Player Setup: A sheet to use when starting a new player, if you are allowing players to choose some elements of their starting setup.
- Sutler Information: Buying and selling goods. Again, some elements here are more complex than you'll want for every game.
- Turn Phases: A "cheat sheet" from which the referee can read aloud in order to control the flow of the game.
- Slips: Print out and cut apart these ships to allow random drawing of cargo items, special non-combat bonuses, or pirates with special abilities.
- Pirate Names: A very brief list of individual and ship names with the right "sound" for a pirate game.
- Logistics: What it takes, in terms of time, space and people, to run this game for a large group.
- GM Aid Programs. Not up yet. Not even WRITTEN yet. So sink me.
Support
Photos
Some Great Lego Pages
- The Holy Grail of Lego sites, with links everywhere . . . Lugnet. This will, directly or indirectly, get you to all the Lego sites you could ever want.
- The biggest and most beautiful custom-built pirate ship that I have ever seen.
- Port Block, New South Wales: description and photos of an excellent Lego ship and a couple of fine Pirate-era buildings.
Some Great Pirate Sites