Port Royal – The Dice Game

Port Royal – The Dice Game is a restructuring of Alexander Pfister’s classic, and recently big-boxed game, Port Royal. It takes the push your luck excitement of Port Royal and translates it to great effect into a roll-and-write style game that has you exploring new islands while picking up character abilities over the course of four chapters. The game is 2-5 players, however 3 seems to be the ideal head count here.

The structure of the game matches that of its predecessor, Port Royal. The active player will have an opportunity to push their luck by rolling dice to place tokens onto a board. The more tokens they can place, the more spaces on their personal board they can unlock. But don’t get too greedy, as two ships of the same color could mean an early end to your turn, or worse.

Gameplay Overview

Each player is given their own paper map to write on. These include increasingly complex routes and island abilities as the chapters go on. The goal of the game is to gain 20 VPs on the central scoring track by crossing off islands or being the first to find the gold-filled chests scattered across the map. There is a second victory condition, which I will cover later, but that too requires the player to have at least 11 VP.

Turns are split into two phases. In phase 1, the active player rolls two dice, which tell them where to place wooden ships or ship wheels on the central board. If a ship is to be placed in a row where one is already present, the player must either have the necessary cutlasses to repel the ship or else fail phase 1.

If the active player succeeded, they are then allowed a certain number of X’s based on how far they pushed their luck. They add any abilities they have earned from completing certain islands and use that number to can cross off circles on an island or sea routes to gain more options in the future.

Once the active player is done with their turn, each player then gets an opportunity to take one ship or wheel along with their own map actions.

The High Tides

Letting everyone take an action on each player’s turn means there is very little downtime. Even more so, as you often don’t have to wait for the previous player to finish marking down their map before you can start your own scribblings.

The one case in which turn order does matter, however, are the treasure chests. These difficult to reach areas are the one element of player interaction, as each chest can only be found by a single player. This creates the most exciting moments, as a handful of victory points can be swiped away just before you put pen to paper.

The true highlights of Port Royal – The Dice Game are the maps themselves. Not just eye candy, but a helpful way to keep track of what you and your opponents have achieved so far; the maps draw you into the theme and give the feeling of a small campaign game.

Speaking of campaigns, the four chapters gradually introduce new elements such as missions, challenging to pass sea spaces, and off-turn bonuses. Four chapters may not seem like much, but with a game as light as this, they don’t overstay their welcome.

Dangerous Reefs Ahead

Port Royal – The Dice Game is not without its issues. The primary one being that it takes several games before a player can, without thinking, translate their dice roll into what needs to happen on the board. This is a combination of poorly designed graphics on the dice, as well as the differentiation between ship wheel locations and ship spots on the board. The former problem is obviously an issue that could be solved with a new pair of dice, with the latter simply providing a learning curve.

Coming back to that secondary victory condition, we have “sudden death.” Starting at 11 VP, the active player has the opportunity to keep pushing their luck in the hopes of placing 7 tokens onto the board. If so, they immediately win and (from the rule book) “This player is declared the winner, and a great celebration is held by all!…” Or not, as this condition doesn’t usually feel earned and can cut the game short around halfway through. While I do appreciate the pressure to make the player closest to winning the most likely to bust, a few extra conditions for “sudden death,” could have made it more palatable.

Pulling into Port

Despite being an enormous fan of the original and big-boxed Port Royal card game, Port Royal – The Dice Game does not offer the endless replayability of the original. While the push your luck element remains strong, the overall experience isn’t nearly as tight, with a game lasting anywhere from 20 minutes to an hour based on how many players already know the rules.

Despite all that, the crossing off of spaces on your map as you expand and plunder across the Caribbean remains enjoyable. If you enjoy role-and-write games but want the strategy that comes with a traversal / land grab experience, this may be a game to add to your collection.