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What's different about Pirate O-Zone?
What's different about Pirate O-Zone?
Pirate O-Zone is our latest O-Zone game. It will be in stores soon!
It's quite different from previous versions of O-Zone, so we gave it its own page.
Here the highlights of this fun new twist on our popular team dice game:
1) Like all versions of O-Zone, you can still play Classic O-Zone with the components in the tiny box. That's right, Pirate O-Zone is two games in one!
2) Pirate O-Zone puts teams at both ends of the table, facing off over control of the islands in the middle. (See that great island artwork? We paid a real artist this time! Island art and the box cover were illustrated by Brian Ritson.)
3) Each team gets a 12-sided cannonball die! After players toss their usual five dice (known as ships in this version), a gunner will get up to three tosses of the cannonball. A well placed cannonball with a high roll can sink enemy ships!
4) Teams get gold doubloons (points) by controlling the islands. Islands are controlled by having the most dice on or around the island. Being on the island disk is always best, but close enough counts in Pirate O-Zone...well, unless your opponent sinks your ships with the cannonball!
Examples and Frequently Asked Questions
Examples and Frequently Asked Questions
Examples of Sinking Ships
Examples of Sinking Ships
If you want to know where to fire your cannonball, you have to understand the rules for sinking ships!
First, here's the actual rule for how cannonballs can sink ships:
In descending order of strength, sink as many enemy ships within range as possible without exceeding the cannonball’s strength.
Each die's strength is based on the value on the die. If the die is in contact with an island, double the value to find the strength. Otherwise, the strength is equal to the value of the die.
Sinking Example 1:
In this simple example, it's white's turn to do some sinking. We can assume all the ships shown are within range (1 League) of the white cannonball.
The cannonball's strength is 9.
The black die on the island has a strength of 8 (2 x its value of 4).
The other black die has a strength of 3.
Since we always check for sinking from highest to lowest strength, we start with the strength 8 ship. That's less than the strength of the cannonball, so it sinks. That makes the total sunk strength so far is 8.
Next we check if the strength 3 ship sinks. It will NOT sink because doing so would make a total sunk strength of 11, which is higher than the cannonball's strength.
Final Result: Only the black die with value 4 is removed from play.
Sinking Example 2:
Here's an example to show how order matters when checking the ships.
The blue circle represents the 1 League range from the white cannonball. All three ships are within range, even though Ship A is just barely in range.
The cannonball's strength is 8, since it's on the island.
Ship A's strength is 4, Ship B's strength is 2 and Ship C's strength is 6, since it's on the island.
Start with Ship C (since it has the highest strength). It sinks, since it's less than the cannonball's strength. Next, check Ship A. The strength of 4 is too high, since that would make the total sunk strength 10, which is more than the cannonball.
Do NOT continue checking to see if Ship B sinks. Yes, the strength 2 would not be too much for the cannonball. However, we check ships in descending order of strength and stop checking as soon as the sunk strength is too high.
Final Result: Only ship C is removed from play.
Examples of Scoring Islands
Examples of Scoring Islands
These three examples illustrate the basics and some finer points of scoring. Note that the scale for a distance of 1 League is altered, just to make it easier to see the dice clearly.
Scoring Example 1:
In this situation, Black has two ships contributing a total of 3 Control. The one on the island counts for 2 Control, and the one off the island (but within range) contributes 1 Control.
White gets 1 Control from the ship near the island and 1 for the Cannonball. The other white ship is out of range, so it contributes nothing.
So Black has 3 Control to White's 2 Control. Black scores the 300 Doubloons for Skull Island.
Scoring Example 2:
Here it's important to note that White's S2 die is within 1 League of both islands. It contributes 1 Control to each of them.
For Island 1, Black has 2 Control (1 from S3 and 1 from C2). White has 3 Control there (1 from S2 and 2 from S4). White has more and gets 300 Doubloons.
For Island 2, Black has 2 Control from S1 and White has 2 Control from C1 and S2. Black wins the tie, since the first tie breaker is number of dice in contact with the island being scored.
Black gets those 300 Doubloons.
Scoring Example 3:
Here's a case where both teams are tied with 3 Control, and they both have 1 die on the island.
In these cases, go to the next tie breaker which is total value of the dice. (And dice in contact with the island count as double their value.)
Black's dice values are 4 (for the die in contact with the island) and 3. White's dice values are 2 (for the die in contact with the island) and 4.
So Black has a total value of 7 to White's total value of 6. Black gets the 500 Doubloons of Treasure Island.
Other Questions
Other Questions
From Scoring Example 3, where do the rules say that you double the value of dice in contact with the island?
Sorry! There are a very few copies of the game that got an earlier printing of the rules. That detail was left out. You can always see the latest full rules here.
Can you measure with the box lid when deciding if you want to toss the cannonball again?
No. Measuring with the box lid only happens during the sinking ships and scoring phases. You have to make your best guess for which dice are in or out of range any other time.
Measuring with the box lid? Really?
Our goal with our games is always to pack big fun into small boxes, all for a low price. To keep costs and assembly times down, we wanted to limit the components. So the box lid serves as a measuring tool!
Most of the time it's extremely easy to measure the ranges with the box lid. Sometimes cases will arise where it's hard to determine and the box lid is cumbersome. You might choose to mark that distance on a strip of paper or even on the string and use that instead. Or you can use a ruler. The distance is about 5 inches, so you can use a ruler if you prefer.
Ultimately it's up to the group. If everyone decides on the measure you're using before the game starts, choose whatever you want. Smaller distances make a more challenging game, so you can set the difficulty this way.
How exactly do you measure the distances? From the center of the island? From the center of the dice?
First, be aware of the differences involved with measuring in O-Zone games. In Classic O-Zone you have to measure to see which die is closest to a target. In Pirate O-Zone you are measuring to see if something is "within range". Also, it's "within range" of a cannonball for sinking, but from the edge of an island for scoring. So there are two cases.
A ship is within range of a cannonball if the box lid (or measuring tool) could touch both the cannonball and the ship.
A die is within range of the edge of the island if you can put the box lid (or measuring tool) at the very edge of the island and still touch any part of the die.
Sometimes it's too hard to tell if a die is within range. Things get bumped around while checking. Any tips for making this easier?
Most times you can check the distance with the lid or any measuring tool without touching the dice. Yes, cases will come up where it's just too hard to tell without touching the objects (more than likely bumping them enough to mess up the results). Here are three options for handling this. For a very competitive game, teams should decide before starting the game how you will handle these cases.
When teams honestly cannot agree* on whether the die is within range or not without touching the objects in question:
Easiest Option: Consider it within range.
More Challenging Option: Consider it out of range.
Let the dice decide: Let the value of the die determine whether it's close enough. A ship in question with a value 1 - 3 is not within range. A ship in question with value 4 - 6 is within range.
*And if your group is just having too much trouble agreeing on these measures, flip those targets over and play Classic O-Zone instead.
How did Pirate O-Zone come about?
Mike set a goal of making a new version of O-Zone every month in 2025. That proved to be too ambitious, but he didn't know that in January. He had a lot of partial ideas for new versions in notes already. Many of them, like this pirate version, were based on common genres in tabletop gaming.
Mike and Lee playtest games and discuss game design all the time, and Lee was working on a pirate game. It was natural to ask him for input on this O-Zone version. They met at a local game store for a couple hours and brainstormed ways to make this version quite a bit different than the previous two.
Lee suggested having the islands in the center and teams tossing from the ends. Mike knew he wanted d12 dice to be cannonballs. Lee pressed hard for something more strategic than "aim for the targets".
By the end of that session, the overall game structure was worked out. Playtesting helped hone the rules for firing cannons, sinking ships, and scoring. (Thanks to the players at the Oxford Tabletop Gaming Group for a good chunk of that playtesting!)
Firing cannons up to three times per round to get the perfect shot was a late addition. It greatly enhanced the fun and tough decisions involved in that phase of the round.
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