Conjure the the sea, the moon and the stars, to navigate the Sea of Souls. Choose your actions wisely to maximise your wealth and strength at the and of the game. Keep an eye on the tide and wind and other pirates who would take your treasure and your soul.
The downloads below include the pnp files and rules for two versions of Voodoo Pirate: The BOARDGAME and the TILE & CARD Game. The later is a work in progress and has not been playtested beyond solo play. For both versions the Cursed Pirate player aid is usful if you are using these automa in a solo, 2 or 3-player game. It is included in the rules of the TILE & CARD Game version and as a separate download file for the Boardgame version.
The three expansions can be used with both versions of the game but should only be used for when you are familiar with the game.
The Barrel Magic Expansion and The Ghost Pirate Expansion are WIP and have not been playtested as much as Lucky's Blessed Deck Expansion so may have some rough edges.
Lucky's expansion adds another source of VPs positive and negative for the players with the highest and lowest playing cards when they are revealed at the end. Depending on the tide the Ace could be high or low). These cards can be forcably swapped (unseen) by boardiing pirates during the game.
- print the 'Voodoo Pirate CARDS & TOKENS' file on A4 and select 'Fit to printable area'
- print the 'Voodoo Pirate BOARD' file on A3 or select 'Poster' to print two halves on A4
- the 'RULES' and 'PLAY MATS' in 'Landscape' orientation on A4. The playmats are for the boardgame version. The TILE & CARD version mats are included in the Tile & Card pnp file.
- 5 x regular six-sided dice
- A base to stand each pirate ship and pirate.
- Any 18 coins (I use 5p or10p coins or pirate coins from other games.
- 18 x coloured counters for 'Souls' : 4 each of red, yellow, blue, green and
2 x purple. It doesn't matter if the numbers are not equal or other colours are used that work You might have to overwrite the skull cards that give end game bonuses so they refer to the colours used. For my sets I have used wooden pawns or counters or skull beads or coloured wooden buttons from ebay.
- 3 x pawns (I use chess pieces) to mark the wind, the tide and the number of colonial ships in Podpe harbour.
- A bag or a cup from which the souls can be randomly drawn during the game
- 2 x pawns (parrots) for the round markers (not needed in the TILE & CARD version
- 18 x counters/buttons for poppets
- The compass token. A compass image is included. For my pnp sets I have found old compasses. It's nice to have a working one for atmosphere. You can also use magnetic North to determine the wind direction at the start of the game.
- The GirGri token In voodoo cultures it's a talisman carried around for good luck. In the game it can be anything. I have used lots of things from a small ship in a bottle to halloween skulls. It just needs to be easy to see who has it.
- Pirate and ship standees can be replaced by miniatures. I have used Munchkin figures and pirate ship mini's from other pirate games.
- Buttons work well for Poppet tokens. I found some hand painted wooden ones on ebay at £3 for 50.
Lucky's Voodoo Blessed Deck EXPANSION (pdf)
DownloadPirates (pdf)
DownloadBarrel Magic Player Aid (pdf)
DownloadVP as TILE & CARD Game pnp files WIP (Only tested solo )April 12th 2024 (pdf)
DownloadVP as TILE & CARD Rules WIP (Only tested solo )April 12th 2024 (pdf)
DownloadVP Score Card (pdf)
DownloadVoodoo Pirate Boardgame Rules 27 (pdf)
DownloadVoodoo Pirate pnp cards and tokens 27 (pdf)
DownloadCursed Pirate Playing Aid 15-9-24 (pdf)
DownloadVoodoo Pirate Ship Play Mats (pdf)
DownloadVoodoo Pirate Board 15-9-24 (pdf)
DownloadGhost Pirate Expansion (pdf)
DownloadThe picture here shows the set up of the board.
The blue and yellow tokens are the round markers (parrots).
Eight coins are placed anywhere on the Sea of Souls (Inside the red border). Five coins are placed in the Mermaids Treasure area along with the compass. Five coins are also placed in the Spanish Gold treasure area at the SW corner of the board [treasure chest image].
The weather vane showing the wind direction is placed on the compass facing one of the four quadrants decribing the weather conditions. (I prefer 'Storm').
The tide maker (left corner) is paced in the 'IN' position and alternates between 'IN' and 'OUT' after each round. The colonial ship marker starts the game on the '1' position and moves when pirates play the action card 'Jax".
Pirate ships start in the harbour squares at the bottom left (NE) of the board.
The Sun and the Moon tokens are given to the player to go first and the GrisGris is placed at the side of the board with the bag of souls and the 'buried' card. Each pirate is given a soul, two poppets and a Skull object card (randomly and unseen).
The aim is to finish the game with the most Voodoo Points. This is the total of a ship's board location and its power, a pirate's wealth in coins and end game bonuses from objects collected. Each square in the Sea of Souls awards its own Voodoo (victory) Points (VPs) from 1 (NE corner) to 13 (SW corner). Ships gain and lose voodoo power between 1-6 VP from broadside hits. Coins are worth +1 VP each. Some objects retrieved from the Sea of Souls give bonus VP if their conditions are met at the end of the game.
Pirates fuel their own ships by borrowing souls from sailors on colonial ships and releasing them in #oodoo rituals. Each player has six action cards. At the start of each round pirates play one face down before revealing simultaneously. These cards enable players to collect souls, call #oodoo rituals and conjure magic to help their progress (sometimes at the expense of others). Before revealing action cards pirates can select additional older 'barrel' magic to control the elements, see the future or raise the Kraken.
At the end of each round the tide changes and one of the parrots (round markers) climbs closer to its flight across the moon. The Sun and Moon tokens are passed to the left before a new round begins and new action cards are chosen. The game ends when either a ship reaches the Voodoo Shore or a parrot flies across the moon. The longest a game can be is 13 rounds. At the end of the game Voodoo Points are added together and the pirate with the highest total is declared the Voodoo Pirate (until the next game). Voodoo points = board position + coins(1VP each) + end game bonuses from object cards and the Voodoo Power of a pirate's ship from Broadside hits. Some expansions add other sources of VPs.
Expansions include 'Lucky's Blessed Playing Cards', 'More Barrel Magic' and 'Ghost Pirates' - the last of these has not yet been playtested.
© S.P.Stenton 2014