Setting up
- Start Sip n Sail on a Windows PC and connect it to the TV if you can. Choose New Game.
- Every player scans the QR code on the TV with their phone, or opens the address shown and types the room code. Pick a name and you're in. No app and no account.
- When 4 to 6 players are aboard, the host presses Set Sail.
The PC and every phone must be on the same Wi-Fi. If a phone drops out, open the game again on it and the player picks up where they left off. If someone doesn't answer for a while, the game makes the move for them so nobody waits forever.
The deck
48 cards in four factions. The factions come in two pairs: Surface (Crew and Pirate) and Deep (Siren and Kraken). Every faction has three ranks, Low < Mid < High, with four copies of each card.
| Faction | Pair | Low | Mid | High |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Crew | Surface | Deckhand | Officer | Captain |
| Pirate | Surface | Swab | Raider | Captain |
| Siren | Deep | Maiden | Siren | Queen |
| Kraken | Deep | Runt | Warrior | Elder |
The names are just flavour: only the rank (Low, Mid, High) and the faction matter.
Phase 1: Recruit your crew
Every captain signs their own crew at the tavern door. Players take turns making three guesses, one per step, each about the recruit (card) they are about to draw. Every recruit joins the player's crew (their hand) whether the guess was right or not, so everyone finishes Phase 1 with a crew of three. That crew fights for you in the plunder.
| Step | The question | A wrong guess costs |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Surface or Deep? | 1 penalty |
| 2 | Higher, Lower or Equal, compared with your step 1 card? | 2 penalties |
| 3 | Which faction exactly: Crew, Pirate, Siren or Kraken? | 3 penalties |
In step 2, Higher or Lower is wrong if the ranks are the same. A right Equal turns the tables: everyone else takes 1 penalty.
Phase 2: Mutiny
The captains turn on the King and plunder his flagship together, each for their own share. His loyal guards defend it in four waves. Your goal is to get your crew into the fight: every crew member you send hands out penalties to your rival captains, and anyone left idle at the end counts against you.
| Wave | Guards on deck | Each fight hands out |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 4 | 1 penalty |
| 2 | 3 | 2 penalties |
| 3 | 2 | 3 penalties |
| 4 | 1 | 4 penalties |
- Every wave gets a new random turn order, and everyone gets one turn per wave.
- On your turn, send one crew member from your hand against a guard of the same rank (Low on Low, Mid on Mid, High on High; the faction doesn't matter), or skip.
- Guards never go down for good: any number of players can fight the same one.
- Every fight hands out that wave's penalties to the other players, split however you like.
- One faction stays loyal to the King each wave: you can't send crew of that faction. It's never the same faction twice in a row.
- The deck is cleared after every wave.
The gamble: later waves hold richer plunder, but bring fewer guards to fight. Holding a crew member back for a bigger payback can leave you stuck with them.
After wave 4 the plundered flagship starts to sink. Whoever has the most crew left (cards in hand) loses the mutiny and is shipwrecked aboard it. Players tied for most are all shipwrecked. If everyone sent their whole crew into the fight, nobody is.
Phase 3: Escape the shipwreck
The shipwrecked captains have to reach the lifeboat before the ship takes them down, and the King's most loyal make a last stand in the way. The game deals that final stand as a table of five cards for each shipwrecked player: four loyalists in plain sight and a last one hidden in the smoke (face down). Every card drawn from the deck after that is a mutineer from the hold who also wants out and steps up to help you.
- Fight the line from left to right. For each loyalist, call how you send in the next mutineer the dealer draws: Higher to charge (they'll outrank him), Lower to slip past (they're smaller), or Equal to duel (same rank).
- Right: that loyalist is broken. Move on to the next.
- Wrong on a face-up card: the wrong mutineer for the job. 1 penalty, and you're driven back to the start. The line stays the same.
- A right Equal on a face-up card pins that loyalist for good: a safe point. Later misses on this table send you back to just after it, not to the start.
- The last loyalist is hidden in the smoke, so that call is blind. Right and you're in the lifeboat: saved. Wrong costs 2 penalties: the King rallies a new final stand (a new table, safe point gone).
Every shipwrecked player has 10 mutineers willing to follow them, and every miss costs one. Run out and you go down with the ship, taking 3 penalties. If anyone escapes, they take their cut: everyone who wasn't shipwrecked takes 1 penalty. With several shipwrecked players, they all play at once, each on their own table, while the hold floods a little more with every miss.
Tip: against a Mid loyalist all three calls are about equally likely, so a duel (Equal) is a smart call there and pins him. Against a Low or High one it's a long shot. The King never puts two Mid loyalists side by side.
End of the game
The TV and every phone show everyone's penalty tally. The shipwrecked player (or whoever took the most penalties) is written in red. There's no winner, just the story of the night. One tap starts the next round.
Penalties or Adult mode
Every game starts in Penalties mode: just count them. The host can switch on the optional Adult mode, where penalties become sips of a drink of your choice. Adult mode is for players of legal drinking age only. Water counts, nobody should be pressured, and never drink and drive.