Salt & Sail

• Player Count: 2 – 5
• Play Length: 60 minutes
• Age: 12+

The Capital is abuzz with strange tales and exotic rumors of ancient cities and remarkable wonders to behold. As the captain of your small ship, fortune and glory are just beyond the horizon. Follow the rumors, make the discoveries, and beat your opponents in becoming the world’s most famous explorer!

Salt & Sail is a game of adventure and discovery, set during the great Age of Sail. 2 to 5 players take on the roles of intrepid  captains  in search of fame and fortune. Along the way, you will hire  Officers,  purchase new ships and unique tools, and sell goods and  treasure to fund  your expeditions. But, be vigilant–encounters with  pirates and storms  aren’t your only concerns: the other player captains  are trying to make  those rare discoveries first and steal the glory for themselves!

In Salt & Sail, you attempt to locate and make discoveries, competing to become the most famous explorer at game end. To do so, you must follow Rumor cards to locations on the hex board that have discovery tokens. If the symbol on the Rumor card matches one of the symbols on the token, you can attempt to make the discovery completing “feats” in one of three distinct skill sets (Fight, Lore, Observation). These skill checks are performed drawing feat tokens out of a skill bag.

Once complete, collect the awarded gold Ducats, and hold on to the discovery to score at game end. However, taking on such a task alone is ill-advised. Some skill checks will require additional help to achieve. You can recruit Officers and purchase Equipment to improve your Skill Bag for such situations.

Unlike traditional dice rolling to determine the outcome, you will be able to augment and adapt your skill bag to best suit the situation–and help ensure success!  As you sail in search of fortune and glory, fierce storms and deadly pirates will get in your way. These Encounters will also require skill checks to overcome. Succeed and get rewarded fame and other valuables to help further your expedition. However, failure comes at a cost…

It takes more than just an intrepid captain with a loyal first mate to chart these waters. Allocating your crew to Sails or Hands-on-Deck positions will increase your ship movement or provide draws out of the Skill Bag to overcome encounters, respectively.

With several different map scenarios found in the Atlas at the back of the Rulebook, you will be able to cater your game session based on quantity of players and time constraints. Plus, the modular hex tiles can be arranged to fit your own custom map layout!

There is much to discover just beyond the horizon. Will you beat your opponents to fame and fortune? Salt & Sail features 15 beautifully drawn hex tiles–in the style of maps from the Age of Discovery. These tiles are arranged as part of game setup depending on the map chosen from the Atlas. The hex layouts will provide a challenge to players with predetermined bottlenecks with encounters or maybe open swaths of sea which will prove dangerous for ill-prepared captains.

The tiles will contain 2 to 5 hexes each, and feature fun annotations and easter eggs that bring the board to life. Players are also encouraged to create their own map designs and customize the various Discovery and Encounter tokens placed on the hexes depending on their own play group’s wishes.

Players will search far and wide to make these rare discoveries. Salt & Sail features 30 unique discoveries (some of which you may have seen in person yourself). Plants, Creatures, and natural Landmarks are just some of the discoveries to be made.

More info on BGG here.