- Open the webapp: https://fwcrossroads.com
- If playing with 4 or fewer, put the Hungry Pirates special rules card in play.
- If playing with 3 players, also put the Masked Pirate special rules card in play.
- Place the location book with room to open it.
- Place the map board next to the location book.
- Place the ship standee and special location tokens on the map as indicated in the scenario setup in the app.
- Shuffle the treasure cards into a face down stack.
- Place the navigation tokens face down in a pile.
- Place all the re-roll, misfortune, lock, and constellation tokens in separate piles.
- Place the story cards in a face down pile.
- Each player selects a pirate standee, its matching 12-sided die, treasure chest card and infamy marker. If playing with 3 players, no one can choose the masked pirate.
- Each player takes a pencil and a player sheet (all with different titles). Create a name for your pirate and write it on your player sheet. You can use the name generator to generate one for you!
- Each player fills out the story blanks section on their player sheet.
- Assign all the roles to the players with each player having at
least 1 role.
- Ship Scribe: Writes and references info in the ship's log.
- Collect a ship scribe sheet and add a name for the ship.
- Quartermaster: Keeps track of infamy and times the Planning'
phase.
- Collect the Quartermaster board and each player's infamy marker. Place the infamy markers in a random order.
- First Mate: Keeps track of the crew and their discontent.
- Collect the First Mate board and place the crew and discontent markers as indicated in the scenario setup.
- Boatswain: Keeps track of the ship's hull.
- Collect the boatswain board and place the hull marker as indicated in the scenario setup.
- Cooper: Keeps track of the ship's supplies.
- Collect the Cooper board and place the supplies marker on the value indicated in the scenario setup.
- Gunner: Keeps track of the ship's cannons.
- Collect the Gunner board and place cannon tokens on it as indicated in the scenario setup.
- Lookout: Keeps track of threat and the current objective.
- Collect the Lookout board and create a supply of threat tokens nearby it. Find the objective card indicated in the scenario setup and place it on the objective slot.
- Ship Scribe: Writes and references info in the ship's log.
- Follow any other setup instructions in the scenario setup.
- After completing setup, click the continue button at the bottom of the scenario instructions page of the app.
- This is played over a series of rounds.
- Each round takes place on a page of the location book.
- Each round consists of 3 phases.
- 1. Planning Phase
Players should not spend time reading exactly what the actions do before selecting them!
- There is a limited amount of time for this round.
- At the start of the planning phase, the Quartermaster starts the time.
- In order, from highest to lowest infamy, each player must choose an action by placing their pirate standee.
- If the timer runs out before the last player places their standee, raise discontent by 1, then finish selecting actions.
Types of Actions
Unlimited Action: Any number of players may choose this.
Limited Action: Only 1 player may take this action.
Locked Action: These can't be chosen.
Required Actions: These MUST be chosen by exactly
1 player.
Types of Guide Symbols
- White guide symbols mean a player might gain the represented skill and may have to perform a check with that skill.
- Black guide symbols mean a player might gain the skill/resource or reduce/increase the shown location dial.
- 2. Action Phase
- Resolve all actions in numbered order.
- If more than 1 person has chosen an action, resolve it in infamy order from highest to lowest infamy.
- After a player has resolved their action, they should remove their standee from the page.
- 3. End of Round Phase
Read the entry listed under the current page's Round End section.
- Remove all tokens from the current page.
- If there is a location warning section, read that aloud.
- Go immediately into a new round by starting the planning phase (start the timer and select actions).
- The game can end in 1 of 4 ways:
- Drowned: If the ship's hull reaches 0, everyone loses.
- Mutiny: If the discontent is >= than the crew, everyone loses.
- Threat: If the last threat event is reached, everyone loses.
- Scenario Goal Reached: If a scenario entry says that players have reached the goal, then all players that have completed at least 4 constellation events win the game. If a player has completed all 5 of their events, they have achieved a superior victory. In infamy order (high to low), each player consults the Endings chart on their player sheet and reads their ending.
- The game can end in 1 of 4 ways:
- When you reach part 2 of a scenario, you have the option to save your game.
- Write "Part 1 Complete" on the ship's log and follow instructions on how to record the game state on the back of the ship's log.
- Follow instructions in the app by clicking on the View Setup.
- Performing Skill Checks
Perform the following in order:
- Roll a 12-sided die.
- Add 1 for each filled in box for that skill from your player sheet.
- Add the number under each icon matching that skill on your treasure and story cards.
-
Consult the text associate with the skill check and resolve the appropriate option.
-
Misfortune Tokens: If you have 1 or more of these, roll a 2nd die and keep the lower roll. Then discard 1 token.
- Re-Roll Tokens: If you have 1 or more of these, you discard 1 token to re-roll 1 die. You may do this multiple times on a skill check.
- Gaining Skills
- When a player gains a skill, they fill in the left-most unfilled box for that skill.
- If there is a ★ in it, that player also fills in a circle on their constellation.
- Note: Boxes with an "X" printed on them cannot be filled in. Players do not gain the skill if all boxes are already filled.
- Highest/Lowest Skill
If you need to determine who has the highest/lowest amount of a skill, only count the boxes filled on the player's sheet. Do not count treasure/story cards.
- Filling in Stars on Constellations: ★
- Fill in an empty star (circle) when directed.
- The new star must be connected to an already filled star or the starting star.
- If the star has a "!", the player takes a constellation event token.
- Fill in an empty star (circle) when directed.
- Resolving Constellation Events: !
- When a player is directed to resolve their constellation
events:
- Discard all constellation event tokens.
- For each token discarded, check off the next unchecked constellation event and read it aloud, filling in any blanks with words from the story blanks section of their sheet.
- When a player is directed to resolve their constellation
events:
- Gaining/Losing/Checking Threat
- The Lookout adds/removes threat tokens from the threat track when gaining/losing threat.
- When directed to check threat (and only when directed), if the number of threat tokens on the track >= to the current objective card's threat limit, check off the next unchecked Threat Event ont he ship's log and read the entry.
- Gaining/Losing Ship Stats
- The appropriate player (First Mate, Boatswain, Cooper) moves the corresponding ship stat marker. No stats can go below 0 or above its max.
- Moving the Ship
- When instructed, move the ship to an adjacent space.
- If the ship moves to an empty space (no token on it), draw a navigation token and place it face up on the space before moving onto it.
- When moving, do NOT go to the entry listed on the new space until directed to.
- If the ship moves onto navigation token or special location with a "!" on it, the ship can't be moved further.
- The ship can't be moved onto rocky waters.
- Scouting
- Draw a navigation token and place it (still face down) either adjacent to the ship or another nav. token. Do this for the number of spaces directed to scout.
- Flip all the newly drawn nav. tokens face up.
- Cannons
- When directed to upgrade a cannon, the Gunner can replace a cannon with 1 that has a value 1 higher. An unloaded canon stays unloaded, and vice versa.
- Cannons can be discarded at any time to make room for new ones.
- Gaining/Losing Infamy
- Move the infamy token up or down the specified number of spaces, but shift all tokens accordingly so there are no gaps (from left to right).
- Breaking Ties
- Break any/all ties in infamy order with the higher infamy player having the higher result.
- Objective Cards
- At all times, exactly 1 objective card will be in play.
- When players are directed to discard the card, they will also be given directions for which card to replace it with.
- Treasure Cards
- When a player gains a treasure, they draw and put 1 treasure card into play.
- If the treasure deck runs out, shuffle the discard.
- Treasure cards are played face up.
- Treasure can be stolen from other players.
- A player can never have more than 4 treasure cards in
play at a time.
- If a player gets another treasure, they must first discard an existing treasure.
- +1 to Supplies for each treasure discarded in this manner.
- A player does not fill in a box on their player sheet when gaining a treasure with skill icons.
- Skill bonuses are added to skill checks.
- Some cards have discard effects.
- They only resolve when they are specifically discarded. This is not activated when discarding down to 4 or when burying treasure.
- Discard effects can only be used during the player's turn (during the action phase), unless otherwise instructed on the card.
- Story Cards
- These function similar to treasure cards, but are specifically not treasure cards.
- They cannot be buried, discarded, stolen, or used to pay a treasure cost.
- There is no limit to the number of story cards a player can have.
- They should be taken from the story deck, or else the player that has it.