Something that the community asked since the game launched is games, gamble etc... These games are something that pirates did back in the days, and it’s a fantastic feature to introduce to the game. Imagine being able to play some games with your crew while sailing, or with another crew at an outpost!
In Sea of Thieves: A pirate’s Life we can find several moments and places where pirates are playing some games like Chess, dice etc... So, I started thinking about making some minigames. But, you will ask yourself: “This has been suggested several times. Don’t make a new post for that!”. And well, you are mostly correct, except, I have gone through the process of thinking like a Game Designer, and mostly, taking into account the “Tools not Rules” approach. I hope you find my ideas interesting, and I hope Rare devs notice this 👀.
Before detailing all the possible games that I thought, let’s start by setting a place to do it, right? Let’s start with the most obvious one: The taverns. The taverns are a fantastic place that is not used enough honestly. Another place is the ships! We would have a new prop in the ship: A games table (or something). In the galleon, it would be in one of the decks. In the brigantine, it could be where the bed is right now, and finally, on the sloop, it would be a small table next to the voting table, in front of the armoury.
(Table interaction example)
To start a game, you would need to approach a Games table and interact with it. You could play games alone if you want, or you could be with more pirates. Now, you would need to select what do you want to use: Dices, Cards or a Chess set. (Or even more items if more minigames were added). When you have selected the game type, it’s time to play!
The approach I had in mind is “Tools not rules”. That’s why no specific minigame was going to even be programmed. In fact, only basic things like moving chess pieces to different places, throwing some dice, or using some cards (in this case it would be the most complicated thing). With this approach, players themselves are the ones setting the rules of the games, and playing the way they want, instead of limiting them to certain rules and games.
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Now, onto the more detailed explanation of each game type:
1. Chess
I’ll start with chess, as it’s the most basic one. It would be 2 players, minimum and maximum. Each player would have a set of pieces and a chess table. The players are able to move the pieces wherever they want on the table, doing the movements they want, as I said earlier.
Players will be able to cheat, will be able to do things wrong, will be able to create, remove or change rules of the game. Everything is permitted! (At least if both parties agree, or not, on it!) This can lead to funny situations like the one we see in the first tale from A Pirates Life, at Sailor’s Grave.
2. Dice
Dices are also something very simple! The minimum of players would be one. Each player would have a number of dice (it could be set before the game starts. For example, we could decide to have a die, two dice, five dice... Up to you!). Then, there would be a simple mechanic of throwing dices (one at a time, or all at once), and the dices would randomly display a number, as real dices do, of course. If we wanted, we could expand this and have something like a cup, where we could hide the thrown dice, and we could play the “Liar’s dice” game that appears on Pirates of the Caribbean!
Again, no set rules or anything, just a simple mechanic. Players would set their own rules.
3. Cards
Cards something more complicated than the above. There are so many ways to play card games that having the possibility of playing everything would be impossible. Though I think simple mechanics as mixing a deck of cards, distribute some amount of cards to the players, players being able to see only their own cards, and finally, players leaving cards on the table would be a good start. I think this can be expanded a lot, so if you have suggestions, leave them in the comments, and we will expand them!
Customization options
With these games, new customization options could be created. For instance, we could have Dice sets with different colours and symbols on their sides, different Card sets, with different pictures on them.
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And the winners?
Now, what about the winner of these games? I’m glad you asked! As with all of the above, it’s based on tools, not rules, so the players could decide what to do. Though, I think we could add some new tools. For instance, the players of these games could be vulnerable to the rest of the players, even if they are from the same crew! So, the winner would be able to shoot with a pistol at the loser! Or, if we are on the ships, we could use the little planks to throw the looser overboard and let sharks eat him! Another thing that comes to my mind is, instead of punishing the looser, the winner could for example drink some grog!
Another thing that could be done, though it might get to the Age rating red zone, is being able to give something. Let me explain. At the start of the game, players could leave something of value on the table, from a piece of loot such as a trinket or a chest, to a bag of gold or doubloons. (With a limit, or something symbolic, like 1 gold or something, to not have farming or something). The winner would be the one getting the trinkets, chests etc (Obviously, the loser could steal the loot from the winner afterwards. Tools not rules!)
As you can see, with the “Tools not rules” approach, there are endless opportunities! This would add a social layer to the game that didn’t have until now! It has strong good sides, while having little to no bad sides (though, there will be some for sure!), and IMO, it doesn’t seem too complicated to program (as just the basic mechanics need to be programmed!).
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I hope you liked this (lengthy) suggestion, and let’s hope Rare does something like this in the future!
