Fridays seem to have become a board game day for me. Usually we like to role play with a minimum of four people, three players and the GM, but lately we’ve only had three people show up for various reasons. It’s cool with me because it gives me a chance to catch up on my board games. This week’s victim was Avalon Hill’s Sword & Skull.

This game is meant for ages 10 and up, takes about 60 minutes to play, and can accommodate two to five players.

The game includes the following: Game Board Pirate Plastic Figures: 5 Officer Plastic Figures: 5 Crew Cards: 36 Enemy Cards: 16 Fortune Cards: 33 Item Cards: 20 Player Cards: 5 Gold Tokens: 80 Dice: 2 (blank through five)

So what’s the point of the game? Why, to beat the Pirate King. To do so, you’ve recruited a pirate and an officer. Each one starts on a separate ship and you control movement of one of them per round, unless you roll doubles, in which case you move both of them.

Each player selects one color pirate and officer, and gets a player card of the same color. The player card is your chest where you put your gold, starting with the ten you get to start every game.

The game board has an outer section and an inner section. On the outer section, it’s much like Monopoly in that there are colored areas that you gain crew members of that color. Crew members can either provide you with a bonus to fighting or a bonus to gold when you cross the ‘Castle’ (known in Monopoly as ‘Go’.) There are also areas where you can draw Fortune cards, like the Tavern or the Church, with the number of cards you get varying depending on if it’s the officer or pirate who stops there, and Caves where you fight enemies.

There are two ways to beat the Pirate King. The first is to bribe him. To do so, you add the number of players to the roll of one of the d6 included with gold amounts varying from a minimum of thirty gold to fifty gold. The second is to fight him. Since the King has a Might of 10, you’ll need to build up your fighting prowess.

To get this gold, there are several things you can do.

Collect Rent: Remember those colored spaces where you get gold for crossing the Castle? Well, if another player lands on it, they have to give you the amount of gold indicated on the card. It’s interesting in that no one owns those spots and every player can have members of the locations. Fight another player. If you land on another player’s square, you have to fight them. If you win, you can take 2 gold, or if you have fewer crew than they do, you can take a crew member. Fight an Enemy from the Caves. Depending on the amount of crew you have, the enemy’s strength grows higher and the rewards greater.

So how do you gain more Might and how do you use it?

Crew: Most locations have two types of crew. Those that offer strength, indicated by a saber or a pistol, and those that offer gold, indicated by gold coins. Items: There are numerous items that you can find though the game, either through auctions at the trading post or through Fortune cards. The strength of the items range from a bonus of 1 to 3.

The interesting thing about the cards is that you can have widely varying strength on your pirate and officer because the strength of the cards can’t be switched. You can’t give your officer an item marked with pistols for example. For combat, you roll one of the dice and the player rolls the other. One with the highest might wins.

In terms of instructions, the book reads easily save for a few questions that popped up during play. In many instances, the person with the least amount of crew cards or gold is at an advantage when Fortune cards pop up or when a player lands on the Bridge of Tears. It mentions nothing for a tie in terms of crew or gold. The only time it notes anything about ties, is during combat with Enemies, in which case you win.

There are some wildcards in the game, caused by the blanks on the dice. For example, no matter how much Might you have, if you roll a blank in combat, you lose. So even if you’re fighting the weakest creature and you ‘can’t’ lose normally, a blank will send you packing. In addition, some of the Enemy cards have unique abilities, like not being able to use Fortune cards, some of which give you a bonus to your roll or allow you to reroll, and some of them don’t allow you to use items, which often grant bonuses, in your combat.

Another interesting point is that in terms of crew cards, they are numbered on the back and you remove any card with a higher number than you have players. For example, if you have two players, you remove any crew card with a number higher than two on it. This prevents everyone from having the same type of crew when playing with fewer players.

The Fortune cards add some more wild elements to the game. For example, they could allow a player to buy an item from another player for the sell cost. They could give the player a bonus to his movement. They can send the other players back to the boats unless they pay you a fee. The components are all plastic. The pirates and officers are well done for the most part and I’m tempted to take some primer to one of them and see how the details come out with some paints. The coins come in numerations including one, five and ten and are sized differently and make good counters. The art on the cards is black and white and is good stuff and the instructions on the cards are easy to read.

The instructions, by being easy to use, allow the game to progress quickly. At the same time, because your controlling two pieces, you still have to make some choices. Some of the areas on the board give you penalties where you lose crew or items and some give you a tax per crew member that you have. Knowing which figure to move can evade most of these issues but at the same time, the threat of rolling doubles, making both figures move, can negate any palnning.

The game is very simple to run and younger players will enjoy the quality pieces and quick paced movement of the game.