Ship, Captain, and Crew

Setup

• Players: two or more. Our practice table is solo.
• Dice: five standard six-sided dice.
• Who starts: anyone. Each player takes one turn a round.
• A turn: up to three rolls.

How to play

1. 1Roll all five. Start your turn by rolling all five dice.
2. 2Ship, then captain, then crew. Set aside a 6, then a 5, then a 4. A 5 can’t stay until you have a 6, and a 4 can’t stay until you have both. Several can come from one roll.
3. 3Roll the rest. Roll the dice you haven’t set aside, up to three rolls in all.
4. 4Count the cargo. With all three aboard, the other two dice are your cargo. Their total is your score.
5. 5Spare rolls. Rolls left over can go on the cargo: roll both dice, and keep the new total even if it is lower.
6. 6No crew. Without a 6, a 5 and a 4 after three rolls, you score nothing.

Winning

When everyone has rolled, the biggest cargo wins the round. Tied players roll again until one wins.

Scoring

Our practice table is solo: you sail 5 or 10 voyages and add up your cargo. At a real table, the biggest cargo each round wins.

Key terms

Ship:

A 6. It has to come aboard first.

Captain:

A 5. It can only stay once you have a ship.

Crew:

A 4. It can only stay once you have a ship and a captain.

Cargo:

The two dice left over. Their total is your score.

Set aside:

Keep a die out of your next roll. The ship, captain and crew stay once in.

Reroll the cargo:

Spend a spare roll on both cargo dice. The new total stands.

Voyage:

One turn at our practice table.