Designed by: Alexander Pfister
Port Royal is a simple card game where players race to be the first to 12 victory points, which they achieve by buying cards, which have a victory point value on their front, and when flipped represent one gold piece.
Each player starts with three face-down cards (ie three gold coins) and during play the top card of a central deck is flipped by the active player. He or she can buy this card (if they have enough gold) or choose to flip more cards. Some of the cards are boats, and these can be exchanged for money. Once the active player has chosen which card to buy (or taken the money) subsequent players can also buy a flipped card, though they must pay the active player one gold for this privilege.
There is an element of push-your-luck, however, as the boat cards come in several colours, and flipping two boat cards of the same colour means you are ‘bust’ and your turn is over – no more flipping and no buying!
Your bought cards sit in front of you and can help you win the game by giving you special actions or privileges, or trading them in for other, more valuable cards.
It's a race, rather than a fight, and there is no direct confrontation.
Port Royal moves quickly.
It's not an overly complex game and shouldn't exhaust anyone mentally.
Reasonably quick to learn, and - once you know the cards - play, Port Royal is a light game that doesn't outstay it's welcome.
2-5
Players
8+
Years
30-60
Mins
Sam says
This is one of those games that I respected without hugely enjoying. I should balance that by pointing out everyone I played with (including Joe) thought it was great, but for some reason I found it a little bit of a grind - if you fall behind you need to gamble to catch up; if that goes wrong you need to gamble a little more, and the game can kind of slip away from you. Countering that rather subjective gripe, I will say at least it does play quickly!