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Spotlight on Games > Ludographies > Pirate Games > Pirate Games for Kids
Pirate Games for Age 8
December 26, 2015 added Capitán Flint · Cutthroats · Pirates Melee · Piratoons · Playa Pirata · Tricky Pirates

Ataque Pirata
Mauricio Gibrin; Game Office-2011/Toyter-2011; 3-5; 45
The pirates take turns being the captain, who gets to choose every other pirate's role. This determines the order in which players select treasures. Some treasures are in danger from pirate hunters, however. Rum barrels have special powers. P

Buccaneer
aka Trade Winds
Geoffrey Bull; Waddington-1938|Damm/Egmont-1971 (as Pirat); 2-6; 8+
The board shows the sea as a square grid with a home port for each player. Heaped on the central islands are diamonds, rubies, pearls, gold and rum. Ships can be attacked and their treasures and crew captured. Perhaps this game helped inspired
Privateer? P link link

Buccaneer Bones
Kris Gould; Wattsalpoag Games-2013; 1-4; 15
Players race to be the first to bring back three treasures from a fictional island. Each has an individual player mat with six sea lanes. Rolling particular dice combinations such as pairs or trips moves the ship corresponding to that number. Reaching particular islands grant the powers provided by that island such as extra dice, re=rolls or the ability to modify results. Treasures are gained by a trips roll. Rolls which do not advance a ship instead provide the ability on a future turn, enable thieving from others or remove a thief. Quick, uncomplicated and not bad for light fare. Suitable for play while waiting for the restaurant food to arrive, for example.
[Review] P

Buccaneer Bones: Expansion Set
Kris Gould; Wattsalpoag Games-2014; 1-8; 20
Adds material needed to play the above with now up to 8 players, or can be used to play standalone with up to 4.
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Capitán Flint
Josep M. Allué; Viravi Edicions-2015; 2-6; 10-20
Revolving around the press-your-luck mechanism, this card games sees players trying to collect coins, gems and the parrot before Flint's ghost catches each of them.

Captain Pirate
Bruno Faidutti & Gwenaël Bouquin; Cocktail Games-2009; 4-7; 8+
Players are trying to discover treasure, but need help from their opponents in forming a crew. Then there is the question of who will be captain ...

Cutthroats
Adam Salsbury; The Game Crafter-2015; 3-6; 45-120
Each player operates a ship in the Caribbean, armed with cannons. There are seven skills available for attacking other ships as well as towns. Ships move via roll of a twelve-sided die, but can only move in certain directions, changeable upon reaching port. Landing on another's port incurs a fee. Combat is resolved via ten-sided dice with losers giving up a a ship upgrade and paying a ransom. A player who goes into debt is eliminated; the winner is the last player standing, or the one who conquers all five towns.

Dead Man's Treasure

aka Der Schatz des Käpt'n Flint
aka Kapten Gold
Reiner Knizia; W. Nostheide-1991/Piatnik-2005; 3-5; 8+
A treasure map has turned up and multiple pirates arrive at the archipelago looking for the chests and trying to avoid the ghost guarding them.
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Doubloons
Paul Hedges & Eric Sargent;
Hex Head Games-?; 2-4; 45
Players represent differently-abled pirate captains who compete to claim the most treasure from the fictional islands. The board is modular and laid out randomly, being gradually discovered. It is possible to attack other players, the conflicts being resolved via cards. P

Dozen Doubloons
Alan Anderson; World Village Games-2014; 1; 5
Card game includes 54 cards, numbered 1-12, plus 4 Blocks and 2 wilds. At the start the player faces 6 stacks of 5 cards each. The player combines 1-3 cards so that they add up to 12 and discards them. Block cards are obstacles that make things more difficult. The remaining cards are supplements used when a sum of 12 cannot be achieved. The object of the game is to discard all cards.
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Dread Pirate
Steve Edmiston; Front Porch Classics-2003; 2-4; 8+
Game which is won by engaging in trade at ports or by plundering from opposing captains. Movement is by roll of two dice, combat by each player rolling a single die. Comes in a wooden treasure chest and includes a board in the form of an aged treasure map, three knuckle bones (dice), four treasure sacks, four die cast metal ships, one wind cube, forty-eight Dread Pirate cards, four map cards, fifty replica doubloons, 120 treasure jewels, rulebook and a captain's log. First edition recalled for having lead content.
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Dread Pirate: Buccaneer's Revenge
Dan Tibbles; Front Porch Classics-2006; 2-4 8+
This expansion to Dread Pirate adds player-specific missions and action cards, i.e. more engagements and adventures.
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Find the Treasure
Nicholas Hjelmberg; The Game Crafter-2014; 2-6 45
Pirates search for treasure hidden in one of nine locations on an island. They have maps, but each shows information only for a specific longitude or latitude. As random digging is dangerous, players challenge one another to get maps or steal from succesful diggers. The player who finds the treasure tries to escape before anyone else realizes the fact. The island is different each time.
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Flußpiraten
W. Kühn; Pelikan-1975; 2-4; 8+
In "River Pirates" players try to place their river tiles as directed by a special die. Inability to do so forces picking up some river tiles instead. The goal is to be the first rid of all of one's tiles. There isn't a strong connection to the pirates theme here, but one is pictured on the box cover.
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Hey Piraten
Marco Teubner; Pegasus-2013; 3-6; 25
No other information available.
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Händler der Karibik
Alexander Pfister; Österreichisches Spiele Museum e.V./Pegasus Spiele-2013; 2-4; 20
"Merchants of the Caribbean" is a press-your-luck card game set in the Caribbean along the lines of
Cirkus Flohcati (Zircus Flohcati). Each turn players reveal cards hoping not to draw two ships of the same type before they stop and draft either money or personnel. A big difference is that after the current player finishes drafting the others may also each take a card, provided they pay the main player a coin card (as in Bohnanza card backs serve as coins). Personnel cards make drawing cards easier and in some cases offer special abilities. Many also provide victory points, ten of which plus a particular pair of personnel provide the goal.
This works fairly well, but the other-player drafting slows things down too much. A press-your-luck game should be fast and simple, but the other-player drafting continually interrupts the action. Probably omitting this would work much better. Just start each player with a pirate and two extra coins and have ships grant two more coins than printed to compensate. P

Hispaniola
Schaper-1957; 8+
Galleons sail the Caribbean racing to islands for treasure. Said to have beautiful artwork.
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Horrible Histories: Perishing Pirates
(unknown); Cheatwell Games-2012; 2-5
Consists of four suits of traditional playing cards illustrated instead with comic pirate characters plus rules for a game called "Blackbeard". Amazon P

Islas Canarias
Leo Colovini; Clementoni-2009; 2-5
Players each run one of the Canary Islands. They each choose a hand card whcih are placed into a face down deck along with random cards and turned up one at a time. Most cards indicate colonists and players are attempting to prepare their islands to be the most attractive for settlement. There are also pirate cards to play and deal with. This is a clever, challenging system. The only downside is that it's not that good for two since one player tends to get ahead and it's difficult for the other one to catch up since they're the only one working on the problem. [review] P

Jolly Roger
Franz Josef Lamminger; Salagames-1992; 3-5; 8+
Flint's treasure has been found and now the race is on. Whoever possesses the most gold after 10 treasure searches wins the game. Basically this is a Whist variant.
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Jolly Roger Pirate Game
Whitman-1959; 2-4; 8+
Movement is by spinner as players try to be the first to win the race around a set of islands.
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Karibik (Caribbean)
Michail Antonow and Jens-Peter Schliemann; Winning Moves-2004/Rio Grande-2004; 2-4; 30
Inspired by Rock-Paper-Scissors and set on a simple map of the Caribbean six pirate ships roam around grabbing treasures from ports or from one another. Players have a simple rectangular stand in which they place six tiles numbered between -1 and 5. Each place corresponds to a ship. Place by place, the tiles are revealed and the player having the highest number gets to move the ship, the idea being to grab a treasure and get it to one of the player's havens, or maybe hand it off to another ship. The amount of movement is equal to the tile used, but other player "-1" tiles reduce this. Ties are resolved using the player's left over tile. Two new treasures appear each round and wisely, brought in treasures are placed face down at their ports so that players know which are still eligible to appear. Games in this style can be frustrating at times, especially if some players think alike and cancel one another out to the benefit of the rest, but with the handoffs this does allow clever plays and challenging situations. It ends when a player reaches a set total based on the number of players, a little artificial considering the theme, but ensuring that play does not overstay its welcome. [review] P

King's Gold
Stéphane Maurel; Blue Orange (EU)-2014; 2-6; 15
On a turn he pirate player rolls five dice up to three times. Crossbones results are locked in. When all results are in, the results dictate resolutions such as taking coins from the supply and giving them to the king, stealing coins from another player, taking the king's coins, giving up your own coins to the king or ending the game, which happens anyway when the supply of sixty dries up. The skull results are critical: get a few for a good result, but too many becomes a disaster.
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Lego Pirate Code
Cephas Howard; LEGO; 2-4; 8+
Each player has a secret code which the others, using dice and deduction, attempt to guess.
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Paper Trails: Pirates!
(unknown); Channel Craft-2017; 2
Game designed for travelers that comes in fifty tear-off sheets. Employs paper and pencil and dice as players race to reach the destination before the opponent can. Movement is via dice roll, but a bad roll causes ship damage. The first player to dig out the treasure and bring it home wins.
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Peter and the Pirates
Pepys (Castell Brothers)-1955; 2-6; 8+
A version of the traditional card game,
Fan Tan, including forty-four cards in eight sets of five plus special cards for Peter Pan, Tinkerbell, Wendy and Captain Hook. P

Piracy on the High Seas
Games Unlimited-1981; 2-4; 8+
Players obtain ships, captain and crew and attempt to take loot from the treasure ship, or failing that, the other player who has it, burying the goods on Treasure Island and returning with the map. Includes dice, four metal ships and various cards and tokens. Sounds like a simple roll-and-move as well as roll-and-fight affair.
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Pirate and Traveler
Milton Bradley-1911; 2-4; 8+
On a map of the world, players spinn a dial to reach the secret destination indicated on a card. When ten cards have been completed by a player, all become pirates and can begin to steal when landing on an opponent. Sounds similar to Pachisi, but does feature player elimination.
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Pirate King
Flaster Siskin; Temple Games-2006; 2-4; 8+
In this relatively simple game players sail the Caribbean Sea and attempt to improve their ships, find treasure, capture territory and establish fortifications. Ships are represented as cardboard illustrations in stands. Lots of dice, money and jewels included. Very reminiscent of Monopoly.
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Pirate Plunder
unknown; All-Fair-1930; 2-4; 8+; 20
Roll-and-move game of collecting treasure chests of the highest aggregate value.
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Pirate Sen So
TwinBlade Games-2007; 2-8; 8+
Abstract fighting game of simultaneous action selection.
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Pirate Treasure
Gamecraft-1970; 2-4; 8+
Players move their ships by rolling the dice. Around the board are various holes in some of which are coins. One holds the treasure chest worth ten coins. Looking in a hole can also get you captured. It's a race to collect twenty-five coins.
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Pirate's Booty Pirate's Booty
(unknown); Dice of March Games-2013; 2-5; 8+; 45
Card game of drafting and hand management with a humorous tone. A pirate deck includes ships, sailors, treasures, tactics and voyages. Plunder cards include ports, treasure ships, native cultures and even ancient ruins of lost civilizations. Fights over these cards between players seems to form the core of play.
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Pirate's Cove
(unknown); Gabriel-?; 2-4; 45
Roll-and-move game about moving your pirate ship to collect treasure, avoid hazards and get back to the safety of the cove. P

Pirates' Raid
Stoll & Einson-1934; 2-4; 8+
Players control either a treasure fleet trying to transport its cargo safely from Mosquito Gulf to Porto [sic] Rico or a pirate fleet attempting to rob them. Firing is a function of movement. Read our
rules PDF for this golden age game.

Piraten Kapern
Haim Shafir; Amigo-2012; 2-5; 30
Dice and cards game in which players search for treasure while avoiding danger. This involves continually rolling eight special dice, setting some aside, until satisfied or crapping out by rolling three or more skulls. The idea is to get combinations such as three-, four-, five-, even eight-of-a-kind. There are also gold and diamonds that give extra points. Rolling a very large number of skulls enables the player to cause opponents to lose points. Yes, it's reminiscent of Roll Through the Ages. Cards provide a special goal for each turn. P

Piratenjagd
(unknown); Fröhling Spiele-1947; 2
In this German version of the abstract Fox and Geese two frigates hunt fifteen pirate ships. The pirates must get seven ships safely into the bay, but the frigates win if they sink ine pirate ships. While the frigates can move in all directions, the pirates only go forward. A frigate sinks a pirate by jumping over it.
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Piratennest, Das
Wolfgang Kramer; Herder/Jumbo-1998; 4; 3+/8+
Players try to rescue their abducted friends. One variant is suitable for players 8 and up.
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Pirates Melee
(unknown); CastlePoint Games-2006; 2; 20
Players depart from either a hidden or the safe harbour at the start, and move one or two spaces per turn attempting to capture opponent and the five jewels on the board. Play tends to end when all of the jewels have been claimed; the player with the most jewels wins.

Pirates of the Caribbean Dead Man's Chest
(unknown); Friendly Games-2006; 2-4; 30
This is Chess, Checkers and Liar's Dice repackaged in pirate settings.
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Pirates of the Isles
Slawomir Czuba, Wiktor Fabianski, Grzegorz Traczykowski & Jacek Zdybel; Cranio Creations/Trefl-2011; 2-4; 8+
A spin-and-move and pickup-and-deliver affair including sharks, octopi and floating islands. It is possible to attack other pirates. Modular board makes the setup different each time.
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Pirates vs. Ninjas
(unknown); Wiggles 3D-2012; 2-4; 15
Dice rolling game in which each side – the pirates and the ninjas – has different special powers. On a turn the player rolls nine dice and uses them to attack or employ special powers. Re-rolls are allowed. Can be combined with the other games in the Army vs. Aliens series, which currently includes Army vs. Aliens
Robots vs. Dinosaurs and Zombies vs. Wrestlers. P

Piratoons
Olivier Grégoire & Thibaut Quintens; ABBA Games/Act in games/Blackrock Games/Fishing Cactus-2015; 2-4; 30
In Piratoons, players assemble ships and recruit crews. Then one player opens a treasure box and then based on what they see in it players race to place crew pieces, trying to gain a majority at particular locations, before the sand timer runs out. Not placed crew earn doubloons. Winners at each location earn tiles. Tiles remaining in the chest are auctioned off via blind bidding, but every player gets something, so long as supplies last. Tiles are sails, equipment and adornments. Winning is a matter of scoring the most points among a variety of categories such as fastest ship, largest ship, richest pirate, not having the most empty spaces, having the most sets, etc.

Plic-Plac Pirates
Vincent Billard; Ludobis/Neuroludic-2005; 1-6; 15; 8+
Players are using their memories to look for cards of the same pattern or color and apparently can sometimes pirate one another to get them.
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Playa Pirata
Luca Bellini; dV Giochi-2014; 2-4; 20
In this card game modern pirates retrieve treasures they or others have buried on tourist-infested beaches. Then they compete to cover as much space as possible with beach towels and then dig up the loot at night. There is also the ability to play cards to find out what others are doing.

Plundarr!
Nico Carroll; TableStar Games-2008; 2-4; 8+
Similar to the Cassino traditional card game, or to the Safarü game in the
set, but employing a pirates theme. Includes 52 cards.

Sea Dogs
Rick Westera; (web-published)-2012; 2-8; 60
An unusual pirates topic: piracy in the steam age. Features include a randomly-generated board, a market based on supply-and-demand and players delivering cargo where it is most in demand. Players may also enhance their ships. This is more of a trading game, but piracy is an option. ignored!
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Sea Hawks
Jon Dunkelman; Orca Games Ltd.-1986; 2-4; 8+
Played on a square grid board accurately showing a portion of of the 18th century Caribbean. A treasure chest is "buried" in one of ten possible locations. Each player's ship goes searching and must also contend with dangerous waters and rival ships while pickin up clues.
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Sjörövarön
aka Pirate Island
Alga (Brio)-1984; 8+
First players fight over the treasure map, then travel to the place to get the treasure and finally try to escape with the treasure. Dice play a prominent role. Notable for its beautiful hex map board and metal miniatures.
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Skull & Crossbones
John White; Paul Lamond Games Ltd.; 8+
Players represent pirates trying to locate and steal the treasure of the unfortunately-named Captain Skull and escape with it before he returns. Special cards are used to move about the board as players visit locations, collect location cards and try to find keys to open the chest. Includes an optional video tape which runs as the game progresses and interrupts play from time to time so that the captain can intervene and take actions to hinder the players. The tape lasts an hour which should provide the maximum game duration.
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Stowaway
Jonathan Curley;
self-2010; 20
Web-published bluffing card game. Competing pirate crews try to get treasure cards having various values. The method is that of Raj in which all players reveal their pirate cards and the highest wins.

Tacdex: Pirates
Richard Borg; USAopoly-2014; 2; 10
A pirate-themed twist on the traditional card game War, here a battle marker determines whether it's the high or the low card that wins. In addition there are action cards that modify the usual rules. Other games in the Tacdex series are titled Halo and The Walking Dead.
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Tinker Bell and the Pirate Fairy
Tortuga
Jay Cormier & Sen-Foong Lim; Queen Games-2014; 2-4; 30
Dice rolling and set collection game of pirates trying to transport treasures to the haven at Tortuga before others can steal it. Players roll dice and assign them to boats, cannons, recruiting, engaging at close quarters, and/or moving treasure. There have been two small expansions so far. Tortuga: Queenie 1: Treasure Tiles adds 17 alternative treasure tiles. Tortuga: Queenie 2: Island & Island Tiles adds an alternative island and 6 island tiles.
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Treasure Fleet
John B. Morgan; Ship of Fools Game-2006; 8+
Includes 107 cards. Basically merchant ships are dealt out and players commit hand cards to fire on them. Or boarding parties (which beat cannons) or storms (which mess up cannons) can be used. After three rounds the player with the most shots on a ship gains its treasure. At the end, the governor is captured by the player holding the best hand card.
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Treasure Island
Gem Publishing-1922; 2-4; 8+
Little is known about this game from the golden age.

Treasure Island
Ernest Shaw; Jolly Gnomes Annual-1952; 2-4
Roll-and-move racing game in which the object is to avoid sidetracks and be the first to reach the treasure.

Tricky Pirates
Andrew Muhling; (web-published)-2015; 2-4; 30-60
A print-and-play trick-taking card gamew with area control. Card play fuels pirate ship movement and attacking opponent characters or ships. Movement is also affected by the wind direction. The goal is retrieval of treasure from five islands. Control of three islands provides instant victory.

Walk the Plank
Evan Sass & Brian Hess;
Green Ronin Publishing-2007; 3-9; 8+
Children can play this trick-taking game of 68 cards divided into five suites: doubloons, hooks, monkeys, parrrots and peg-legs. Since players don't choose the card they play, instead only turning up the top one from their decks, the game goes very fast, lasting only five minutes on average. Amazon P

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