Skelit's Revenge....the most feared ship on the high seas....and you've finally taken it. Captain Fromm and his skeleton crew have amassed a massive treasure, and now is your chance to take it all. Players take on the role of Pirates who are boarding Skelit's Revenge for one purpose....to take the loot. They must battle the flames, the skeleton crew, and their own fatigue if they hope to make it out alive.
Dead Men Tell No Tales is a co-operative game for 2-5 players. The game uses the common Action Point system to determine what a player does on their turn...with a twist. As players work together, they can pass their Actions on to their teammates in order to best utilize the assets that they have. Players will build the board as they play, ensuring that no two games will ever be alike. As they search the ship for the Treasure, they will encounter Enemies and Guards that they must battle, along with various items that will help them in their quest. all the while, battling the inferno that resulted when they took over the ship. Unique systems for tracking fire, enemy movement, and a player’s fatigue all combine into an interesting and unique cooperative gaming experience.
Do you and your crew have what it takes to make off with all of the treasure and live to tell the story? Or are you going down with the ship in Dead Men Tell No Tales?
- Visually impressive presentation
- Good combination of elements from both inspiration games
- Sweet character abilities
- Thematic and engaging
- Can get samey over time
- Quite fiddly with dice manipulation
- Tedious remembering of skeletons and effects
- Too complicated for what should be simple game
- Pirate looting under pressure with multiple threats
- Burning haunted pirate ship
- Tense treasure-hunting mission
- Pandemic
- Flashpoint: Fire Rescue
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Dice-based fire spread — Dice in center of rooms countdown to explosions
- Pandemic-flashpoint hybrid — Combination of Pandemic and Flashpoint Fire Rescue mechanics
- Room destruction — Entire rooms can be destroyed, blocking pathways
- Skeleton combat — Combat with skeletons guarding treasure chests
- Treasure hunting — Find loot in treasure chests throughout ship
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- This game could basically be called Pandemic: Thunderbirds
- It's depressing as all heck
- You're not doing anything heroic in this game
- Really under the radar cool co-op
- This man is blinded by IPs
- Strong theme in the box, you can teach most of this game by theme alone
- It is all tech at this point
- You're really getting a lot of your money's worth
- It can get quite fiddly for my liking
References (from this video)
- strong theme
- engaging co-op structure
- may be long for two-player play
- cooperative/encounter-driven
- pirate-themed
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- cooperative play — team-based objectives with tension between players
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- Five out of 10 is not great but not terrible
- I called Star Wars Battleship a cash grab
- Pop-Tarts and freeze them and eat them—that blew my mind
- I love the Marvel United team decks
- Last year, I reviewed 13 Beavers
- These might even go to a 10