Forgotten Waters

To set up, each player selects a pirate role and receives a corresponding standee, a 12-sided die, a treasure chest card, and a foldable player sheet. On their player sheet, they will write their pirate's name, track their skills, and complete a Mad Libs-style backstory. The game's web app provides specific instructions for setting up the physical map, detailing the initial state of the ship, and outlining any starting bonuses. Additionally, each player is assigned a specific role on the ship, such as Quartermaster, First Mate, Boatswain, Cooper, Gunner, or Lookout, with responsibilities for tracking various ship stats like infamy, crew happiness, hull integrity, supplies, cannons, and threat tokens. These roles are crucial for managing the ship's overall condition throughout the game.

The main objective of Forgotten Waters is to collectively complete a series of scenario-specific objective cards. These objectives are dynamic and change based on the chosen scenario, guiding the narrative and the crew's journey. Typically, completing these objectives involves navigating the ship to specific locations on the map and successfully carrying out particular actions or challenges at those sites. While the crew works together towards these shared goals, individual players also strive to fulfill personal constellation events on their player sheets, which contribute to their unique ending at the game's conclusion.

A round in Forgotten Waters begins with players deciding on actions during a timed planning phase. The Quartermaster starts a timer on the web app, and players, in order from highest to lowest infamy, place their pirate standees on desired action spaces in the location book. Green-symbol actions can accommodate multiple players, while blue-symbol actions are limited to one. Locked actions are unavailable, and red-icon actions must be chosen by at least one player. Once all players have chosen or time runs out, actions are resolved from top to bottom. If multiple players are at the same action, they resolve it in infamy order. Resolving an action often involves a skill check, where a player rolls their 12-sided die and adds their current skill level from their player sheet. The result is then compared to thresholds in the location book to determine the outcome, which may include reading story entries from the app, gaining rewards, or affecting ship stats.

Players win the game collectively by successfully completing all the objective cards for their chosen scenario. Beyond this collective victory, individual players also have personal goals tied to their constellation events. By filling in at least four of the constellation circles on their player sheet, players achieve a 'good' ending, while filling in all five leads to a 'legendary' ending. These personal endings are read out at the end of the game, providing a narrative conclusion to each pirate's journey based on their accomplishments and choices throughout the adventure.

The game can end in a loss for the entire crew if certain critical conditions are met: the ship's hull track reaches zero, the discontent marker on the First Mate's track meets or exceeds the crew number, or if five threat events are triggered from the ship scribe sheet. If none of these loss conditions are met, the game concludes when the players successfully complete all the objective cards for their chosen scenario, resulting in a collective victory. After the game ends, players read out their individual endings based on how many constellation events they managed to fulfill.