Treasure Island

Sit down and prepare for a thrill seeking, treasure hunting, truth twisting adventure which builds tension with every action all the way to the inevitable cathartic climax… if you can beat Long John Silver at his deceptive game.

Based on the characters and story of Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson, is a board game which captures the nature and themes of piracy and brings them together into a treasure hunt. Treasure Island begins with a simple concept, find the buried treasure, but soon becomes a desperate search and leaves you reeling from the final reveal.

The first few turns are calm but, piece by piece as your map completes and the other player’s activities clue where the treasure might or might not be, you will move to the edge of your seat openly querying the smallest unsearched spots on the map, with a touch of madness.

The player involvement is limited but fantastic, especially because you are explicitly forbidden from collaboration. Treasure Island makes you want to collaborate and compare your clues, getting to the treasure faster, but this is against the rules and rightly so. Long John Silver is a player character and must be given a chance to succeed, and, thematically, all the pirates are off searching the island!

Initially the clues that Silver must provide feel weighted in favour of the seekers, but with a little practice and a careful bluff, you will find that it works well to keep the pirates running in circles. As Silver, you only need to get to Day 18 and you have won or are one round from winning. On this day, you escape from the tower that the other pirates have put you in, and must move as quickly as you can to get to the treasure. Once there, you have won the game.

Raise the Anchor, Onward!

The game begins with everyone picking a pirate and placing them on the map. You each have your own miniature map to track the information you are given and reduce the searchable area. The game comes with handy small coloured dry eraser pens. There’s also some mini map tools to help draw on your mini map.

After everyone is ready, the player who is Long John Silver will secretly mark a point on their map, and provide the first starting clue. These are clues that Silver always has three of. Additionally, Silver also provides a stamp with the clue which indicates where the clue provided is fact, or a possible bluff. There are two bluff stamps which Silver gains as the days (turns) progress. The first clue must be fact.
As each turn plays out, the tracker board indicates if Silver places another clue, or something else happens, which would be the pirates deciding which tower to lock Silver in, or Silver moving onto Black Spot clues, which are much more revealing.

Apart from Silver’s actions, the pirate players each have their own skills that allow them to search the island. However, everyone gets to do a full move, a short move and small search, or just a big search. The circles feel very small as you place them on the map, but as you approach the end of the day tracker, you’ll see that the board is running out of places to dig.

When a player places their search circle over the buried treasure, Silver must reveal and the pirate wins the game. However, if the day tracker reaches 18, Silver escapes and beelines to the treasure. Once he’s upon it, he wins the game instead.

Pieces of Eight – or nine, or ten

The pieces in this game are fantastic. The main treasure map has two sides, a colourful vibrant map, and a sepia toned on the reverse. Personally I prefer the vibrant map, but both set the tone very well. There’s lots of lines on the map so be sure to read the book so you understand what they’re referring to – mostly they’re setting the boundaries and also giving Silver an easier time with some of the clues, such as “the treasure is not within 2 miles of the deep sea”.

One of the most fun pieces is the treasure chest, which you must slide the treasure in and give to the pirate that finds it if they succeed. There’s also some other tokens you can provide but I’m not entirely sure you want to use all of them because they only assist the pirate digging, and you can’t bluff with the directional tokens.

Alongside the map are the map marking tools. These are the compass with 8 directions, a measuring stick for miles, the caliper, which is used to draw neat circles and just a fun tool, and lastly the search circles which you use to draw neat circles on the map. These are good fun, but I can see the caliper tool wearing out if played often.

There’s also some miniature tools for the mini maps, the mini measuring sticks are cardboard but their limited use should give them some longevity.

Finally the provided dry erasers work well and are in theme, but the copy I played with, the black marker for Silver had run dry, which is quite easy to spot in hindsight as he is the only mandatory character to play with. We used the other coloured pens where we could and it didn’t detriment the game. Also, I’m sure small black pens are easy and cheap to find.

X Marks The Spot

Treasure Island is definitely a game you want to bring out with family or friends. Before the end, you will be bluffing your way and trying to get others to dig in the wrong places so you can get the treasure for yourself. Once the game is over there will be plenty to talk about with who went off in the wrong direction, who wasted their valuable searching time and how Silver may have tricked you with their false clues.

In retrospect, based on just a couple of plays, I’m left feeling unsure how fair this game is to Silver. It is certainly difficult hiding the treasure and getting the others to dig in the wrong areas. Having only two bluff tokens is tricky too but using them wisely and some clever misdirection leads me to believe it’s entirely possible to win.

The feel of the game is the biggest draw for me. Having a physical map you can touch, draw in, make notes, explore and search and dig. It’s fantastic. You’ll spend your downtime studying the artwork on the map, or the character sheets, or just laughing internally as you watch a friend search somewhere you have hard evidence it is not.
Treasure Island is all I ever wanted from a buried treasure game.

 

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