Unique Treasures:  Answers to frequently asked questions

1)  General:

-Unique Treasures (UTs) must be loaded and revealed when found, unless an ability states otherwise. 

-UTs cannot be transferred to other ships or unloaded at an island unless an ability states otherwise. 

-UTs take up no cargo space, unless an ability states otherwise. 

-If a ship sinks or is scuttled, all UTs onboard are removed from the game unless an ability states otherwise. 

-UTs that may be loaded face-down are treated as standard treasure until revealed.  They take up one cargo space, may be transferred between ships, and may be affected by any actions or abilities that target treasure, until revealed. 

-UT abilities that cause the loss of a ship’s turn/action take effect at the beginning of the following turn, and apply only to turns on which the ship can be legally given actions (i.e. your own turn).  The loss of a turn/action applies to all possible actions that could be given to a ship, including free actions and extra actions.  Abilities present on the ship may still be used normally unless they generate, modify, or apply to actions for the ship. 

-If the ability of a UT cannot be carried out in full due to an ability on the ship or due to the “no stacking rule”, it has no effect until conditions change to allow the entire ability to function. 

-If a UT modifies the gold value of a treasure it retains that modified value for the duration of the game, unless an ability states otherwise. 

2)  Spanish Main Unique Treasures:

            Homemade Flag (HF)

-HF changes only the range at which a ship’s cannons may fire, not the range of the cannons themselves (L-range cannons do not become S-range cannons), so it does not negate the effect of the “L-range cannons cannot hit this ship” ability.  L-range cannons cannot hit a ship with that ability even if they are reduced to S-range by HF. 

Marksman’s Map (MM)

-MM cannot be used in conjunction with abilities that allow you to trade treasure “after looking at treasure on a wild island”, in order to load treasure without docking at the island.  (Neptune’s Hoard, etc.) 

Plague

-If a docked ship loads Plague, it immediately becomes undocked.

-Plague only transfers when the initial contact is made, and only between the two ships directly involved in that contact; it does not transfer between ships that are already touching.

-Plague will eliminate crew even if they are loaded onto the ship after Plague was loaded.  

Rum

-The gold value of Rum is based on the number of crew onboard when it is loaded; this value is determined before applying the effects of any other UTs that affect crew. 

3)  Crimson Coast Unique Treasures:

Abandoned Crew (AC)

-AC may be loaded face down.

-When face up, AC are treated as crew according to ALL rules and abilities, with the following exceptions:

--They ignore all nationality requirements.

--They have a point cost of 0 (zero). 

Ghostly Encounter (GE)

-The gold value of GE is based on the number of crew remaining after it is revealed; this value is determined after applying the effects of any other UTs that affect crew. 

Neptune’s Figurehead (NF) or Resurrection Codex LE

-ONLY the ship itself returns to its home island; the standard rules for sinking or scuttling apply normally to any other treasure or crew onboard.

-NF has no effect if a ship becomes “wrecked” on a Reef, because it has not sunk. 

Trees

-Trees may be revealed even if a ship has all of its masts.  If revealed, fully repair the ship (even if no masts can be replaced), then remove Trees from the game as specified by its ability. 

4)  Revolution Unique Treasures:

            Castaway

-Castaway must be revealed when found, as required by the standard UT rules.

-The added crewmember follows all standard rules for crew placement, including the cargo and point limits of the ship and the zero-point crew restriction.

-If the ability of Castaway can be applied it must be applied, even if it does not provide a desired crew. 

            Explosives

-After it has been revealed, Explosives is removed from the game regardless of the die roll result. 

            Fruit

-If a ship has fewer than two cargo spaces free when Fruit is loaded, it fills the required cargo spaces as they become available. 

Missionary

-Crew affected by Missionary are “removed from the game”, so abilities that prevent crew from being “eliminated” have no effect. 

Neptune’s Trident (NT)

-NT may only affect a number of ships and forts up to the number of masts on the firing ship.  Any additional ships or forts within the target area are unaffected.

-NT affects both friendly and opposing ships and forts within the target area.

-NT does not require that any ships or forts be within the target area.

-The “wave” may be measured starting from any point of the firing ship, even from the oars of a Galley.

 -After applying ALL effects of NT, the firing ship may complete its shoot  action normally, using any remaining cannons.

  -NT does not affect ships that are “lost” inside a Fog Bank.

5)  Barbary Coast Unique Treasures:

            Poseidon’s Breath (PB)

-PB applies only to the printed base move on the ship’s deckplate.

-The movement bonus restriction applies to all other abilities that affect physical movement.  This includes but is not limited to: helmsmen, oarsmen, and the Galley and Schooner keywords.

-Abilities that apply to a move action but do not directly affect movement may be used normally.  This includes but is not limited to: captains, explorers, and the “S-range boarding” ability. 

            Rats

-The reduction in gold value continues to apply to treasure even if it is transferred to another ship.

-If a ship carrying Rats sinks and the treasure is split between players or recovered by Divers, the gold onboard is not reduced in value because the treasure was not “unloaded”. 

            Wolves

-Wolves only prevent ships from loading treasure; they do not prevent players from building forts.

Wine

-Only non-unique treasure can be traded for Wine. 

6)  South China Sea Unique Treasures:

Albatross

-If the ship sinks, Albatross is removed from the game. 

Bad Maps (BM)

-The island and ship are moved together, as a single unit.

-Standard island placement rules (min/max distances) do not apply when moving an island.

-The island and ship cannot be moved into contact with any other islands, ships, or terrain. 

Jade

-Jade only affects one treasure at a time, even if there are multiple treasures with the same lowest value.

-If not unloaded, Jade may be applied every time the ship docks at its home island.

-Jade is applied to a treasure before applying any other effects that add or subtract from the gold value.

-Jade cannot be applied to other UTs. 

Kharmic Idol (KI)

-Only face-up UTs are affected.  Face-down UTs remain in play, even if their current locations are known by one or more players. 

Pandora’s Box (PB)

-The UTs provided by PB should be applied as if they were already present on the island when it was first explored.  

Pension

-If the eliminated crew remain in the game due to the doctor ability, Devil’s Maw, or some other effect, they do not produce a gold value.  The crew must remain eliminated for Pension to apply. 

Trade Route (TR)

-Only non-unique treasures can be traded. 

Volcano

-Other UTs on the island are included when randomly eliminating a treasure.

7)  Davey Jones’s Curse Unique Treasures:

-Forthcoming...

Thank you to Woelf for compiling this list (Updated March 30, 2006)

Required Legal note: