Basic Info

Type: Card game
Players: 3-7
Playtime: 5-30 minutes
Requires: One standard pack of cards

Quicklist

Davy Jones wins by having 20 or more hearts in a hand or when every hunter is dead.

Hunters win by killing Davy Jones.

11 spades are needed to kill someone.

If you draw the Joker you immediately die unless you’re Davy Jones.

You can trade blindly with other players for cards of an equal or lesser value, or trade with the table and know what you’re buying.

You can discard to the discard pile and draw the top card from the deck.

Overview

Hunt for the hidden monster collecting souls of the damned while keeping your wits about you and not accidentally killing your friends in an crazed effort to uncover Davy Jones before it’s too late!

Preparations

Remove all face cards and jokers from the deck and place them aside before shuffling the remaining cards and dealing three to each player. Deal three more cards into the center of the table face up, these will be the shop. Place one card face up beside the deck, this will be the discard pile. Finally, shuffle the joker into the deck and place the deck face down next to the discard pile.

From the face card pile, take the Jack of Hearts who represents “Davy Jones” and enough black suited face cards to have one face card for each player, these will be the hunters. Shuffle the needed face cards and lay them face down on the table so that each player may take one. Keep your character card a secret! One player will always be Davy Jones.

Rules

If you are a hunter, you win by killing Davy Jones.
If you are Davy Jones, you instantly win by collecting twenty hearts (Aka: Souls), or when every hunter has died.

The player who won the last game you played goes first.

On your turn you may do one of three things: Kill, Trade, or Discard.

Killing: If you have a value of eleven or more spades in your hand then you may throw the cards worth eleven or more spades down in front of your victim and say something quippy like “I kick you to the sharks and steal your rum!” and this player must reveal their character card. If your victim was Davy Jones, then you have saved your mates and won the game! If your victim was a hunter, then you’re a murderous psychopath who will probably be killed next. Draw however many cards are needed to have three cards in your hand again.

Trading with a player: Choose a card from your hand and choose a player to trade with. Show them the card you are trading. They must allow you to pick any card from their hand of an equal or lesser value but you’re not allowed to know what you’re taking until you’ve taken it! If they don’t have any cards of an equal or lesser value to the card you are trading then you must trade with someone else or do something else with your turn.

Trading with the shop: If there is a card in the shop or discard pile that is of an equal or lesser value than a card in your hand, you may take that card and place the card you are trading down where it was.

Discarding: Place a card from your hand in the discard pile face up and draw a card from the top of the deck, but, if you draw the Joker you immediately die and your hand becomes another shop! Ye’ve been warned! If you are Davy Jones and you draw death however, you do not die. The death card cannot be traded and may only be discarded.

Play continues to your port side (clockwise) until Davy Jones has a hand with a value of 20 or more hearts, has been defeated, or the hunters all lay dead.

Great fun for the whole crew!