- Journey back in time for a treasure-hunting, pirate-plundering adventure on the high seas!
- Comes in a beautiful wooden Bookshelf box
- Features detailed pirate ships, authentically aged doubloons and glass jewels
- Game board is made of heavy cloth that is a wonderfully illustrated and aged treasure map
- Pirate battles, exciting missions and buried treasure await you in this game!
Product Description
Journey back in time with your family for a high-seas, treasure-hunting pirate adventure. A Family Fun Magazine “Toy of the Year” award winner, Dread Pirate is a slice of adventure gaming for the entire family that’s rich in detail, history and excitement. Game is played on a wonderfully illustrated and aged treasure map with cast metal playing pieces, replica doubloons, wooden dice, treasure bags and pirate treasure. This attractive Bookshelf Edition comes packaged in an aged wooden book that will look great displayed in any room of the house. For 2-4 players.
Don’t be deceived by the box: Dread Pirate LOOKS like a really cool game with exceptionally made components, but it is DREADfully boring to play. The game is slow, tedious, and completely luck based, and simply no fun to play. You have been warned.
Amazon Rating: 1 / 5
Now physically, this is a beautiful piece of work. Just holding the box makes you want to buy it. And if temperamentally you are drawn to pirate games–who can resist the allure of breaking the rigid rules of the sea?–you can’t help buying it, and even this review won’t dissuade you. But beware–this is a non-starter of a game. There are tons of rules, but they don’t interdigitate in any way to make a compelling game. The goal of becoming a dread pirate is unmotivated and easily reversed. Further, there is an arbitrariness as to overall strategy that means the less aggressive players simply float around, like a clueless detective lost in the mansion of Clue, or a follower of Gandhi playing Risk.
Now I admit that I tended to play with someone who, temperamentally, could not be less suited for this sort of game. The problem is that you need to CHOOSE which of your fellows to go for. Like croquet, this leads to seriously bruised feelings. People may take your attacks and your raid somewhat personally. She couldn’t take that sort of guilt and would constantly apologize–”I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry”–for simply doing what kept the game moving. (We never played Hasbro’s Sorry–which is an excellent version of the classic Indian game Parcheesi–but I can see from where they got the name!) At the time I would wonder how someone could ever work her way up to vice president of a major candy corporation without being comfortable with a little aggression.
But the thing about Dread Pirate, in contrast to Parcheesi, is that there is too little constraint on where you go and what you do. It’s as if a boxing match involved four people sitting down, and on your turn, you could walk over to any of the other three and smack him on the back of the head while he wasn’t looking. And then sit down and wait.
And most dice games like this breed more anger than heavily skill-based games; I’m not sure why. But when you’re beaten in chess, you’re beaten. There’s no one else to blame but yourself–there were rules, you knew them, and the opposition just used those rules better than you. But with Dread Pirate, every loss seems quite unfair. If the game didn’t take quite so long, that wouldn’t be much of a problem. But after 50 minutes, you don’t want the game to hang on a single piece of randomness. Then even the winner is likely to feel pretty bad. [19]
Amazon Rating: 1 / 5
My family received this game last Christmas and, a year later, it is still one of our favorites. As other reviewers have stated, it is a visually beautiful game, and it is also very satisfying in a tactile way — we just love to roll those gold pieces and gems around in our hands! My youngest daughter was 7 when we first started playing, and she had no difficulty mastering the complex rules. (In fact, she is the most cut-throat player in our bunch and a frequent winner.) Yes, we often referred to the rule book for help, but unlike other reviewers, we did not find it disorganized.
Playing the game has never become monotonous or repetitive because there are several obscure rules that enliven the experience of playing. Perhaps your ship will be captured by another player, and you will lose your turn for several rounds until the opportunity to mutiny arises. As the game nears its conclusion, you might be willing to invoke the Desperation Gambit for a last ditch chance at winning. You can play with or without the Wind die. (Using the die generally quickens the pace of the game.)
Because the gameboard is made of cloth and is folded for storage, it never lies flat during play. This is a small drawback. I guess you could iron it before the game, although that is not a very pirate-like thing to do. We just weight it down with our bags of treasure and make the best of it.
Recommended for background music while you play: Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest
Amazon Rating: 5 / 5
I was a little reluctant to purchase this game for my son who is only 7 because I thought it might be too difficult for him to enjoy. But since he was fascinated by pirates this year (ie. Lego Pirates), I decided to give it to him for Christmas. We were all impressed with quality and beauty of this toy, including my son. The game calls for 2-4 players but it is best to play with 4. We played as a family and he picked it up very quickly. We stuck to the basic directions, but it includes additional ways to play to make the game more interesting. I suspect he will enjoy playing this game for years to come. P.S. The wooden book box is pretty enough to keep out on display.
Amazon Rating: 4 / 5
I gave this to my kids for Christmas and we played it every night for a week.
Amazon Rating: 5 / 5