Variant Merchants & Marauders variety glory points and other minor changes

Tex

Tex

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Here is our M&M variant that works well in our group, with changes that we found positive for the game:

CUSTOM RULES
  • Start the game with 1 NPC Naval and 1 NPC pirate at random.Less safe from the start, especially for merchants this is important, as it can sometimes take a long time until pirate ships spawn.
    • Remove 1 (or 2 if you want) captain for a NPC frigate from each nation, so 4 (or 8) in total. The deck is too NPC spawn heavy, which makes ship movements sometimes too infrequent.
  • At your home-port, you can transfer ship mods for 2 gold each. Small boost to your home-port.
  • Favors: 3 gold per favor, instead of 2 gold. Favors are so good, and in our opinion too cheap. Especially since you gain a favor just for STARTING a mission as well.
  • Pirate sloop (NPC) no longer gives a GP when you reach 5 GP’s, unless you are using the sloop/flute. If it spawns late in the game, it is just free GP. Literally no risk with larger ships. So for players under 5 GPs, you can still catch up by sinking it, and it could even post a threat if you are on your start ship due to being killed.
  • Upgrading to a galleon/frigate does not provide a GP. You upgrade your ship to gain a better ship, the GP is unnecessary.


SCORING CHART

Achieve 10 glory points (or more at the last round, if able).
You can get at most 5 GPs in merchant/location raid AND cargo/contraband trade category, and at most 2 in stash gold category. Stash gold per GP is also increase from 10-10 from base game to 15-30. The others are unlimited.

[TABLE=collapse]
[TR]
[TD]Merchant or location raid[/TD]
[TD]☐☐☐☐☐[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Cargo and contraband trade[/TD]

[TD]☐☐☐☐☐[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]5 checkmarks in total on the two above rows, and this category is full. [/TD]

[TD][/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Complete a mission[/TD]
[TD]☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Confirm a rumor[/TD]
[TD]☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Defeat a player/NPC[/TD]
[TD]☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Stash gold[/TD]
[TD]15 gold: ☐
30 gold: ☐[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
 

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Also, feel free to check out my proposed changes in a (hopefully) new/improved version of Merchants & Marauders:

www.boardgamedungeon.net

The pirate sandbox classic: Merchants & Marauders - Things I would like to see in a new/updated version

Merchants & Marauders is a superb pirate sandbox game. You are free to do whatever you like to gain glory points, be a pirate or good guy trading with merchants, maybe something in between.. Hunt other players, fight off threats on dangerous rumors or run missions for the colonial powers.. The...
www.boardgamedungeon.net www.boardgamedungeon.net
 
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