Piratz (2021)

Overview

Piratz is a press-your-luck card game in which you're collecting treasure to outdo everyone else.

The deck consists of fifty treasure cards, with each card showing one or more items on it; these items can be any of the six types of treasure or a rat. Each player receives a shovel card, and you place scoring cubes (worth 1-4 points) on a score card, with one cube next to each of the six types of treasure in a two-player game and two cubes each in a game with three or four players.

On a turn, either you reveal the top card from the deck and place it face up on the table or you pass on revealing a card. If you reveal a card that has a rat on it while another rat is already visible, you must take one of these rat cards and add it to your collection. If you pass on revealing a card, you must choose a type of treasure and collect all cards that have this treasure on it; you may also name a treasure type after revealing a card if the rats didn't catch you.

After taking one or more cards, place your shovel card on a face-up treasure card, then sit out until all players have placed their shovels, with the last player taking as many turns as desired as long as the rats stay away. You then each reclaim your shovel, while removing the covered cards from play. Continue taking turns until the deck is exhausted; if not all players have placed their shovels at this point, shuffle the removed cards and continue play until all shovels have been placed.

For each treasure type (rings, coins, etc.), players count how many of these items they have on their cards, with the player who has the most (and secondmost in a game with more than two players) claiming a scoring cube for this treasure type. Once all the cubes have been claimed, sum the value of your cubes to see who wins.