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A pirate's life is all about the treasure — or surviving to tell the tale! Turn yourself into a legend by defeating the enemy, saving the ship, and having the most valuable loot in your hand...but if the ship does sink, be the pirate who survived to tell the tale by having the fewest cards in your hand so that you can be light enough to flee on the lifeboat.
In We're Sinking!, a 3-6 player, secret action-taking survival game, players take on the role of pirates on a ship under siege. As the ship takes damage, the crew must work together to repair the ship and defeat one of the threats — kraken, skeleton pirates, megalodon, or sirens — while keeping the ship from sinking.
Each turn, players choose one of four actions: Bucket decreases the current water level; Patch fixes breaches and busted cannon; Fire allows you to fire cannons at the enemy; and Plunder allows you to steal revealed loot cards. Players discuss and possibly bluff about which actions they should take, then they secretly choose their actions on hidden compass dials, place them face down, then reveal them simultaneously.
Will you or your fellow crew instead choose to selfishly pocket treasure as precious time runs out? If you can manage to take out the threat, the game ends, and you win if you have the largest treasure score. If the ship sinks before taking out the threat, you win by having the fewest cards in hand.
Players constantly make tough decisions as they change their strategies based on how close they think the ship is to sinking or how trustworthy their fellow mates ar(rrr)e.
- Works really well as a social deduction game.
- Fun aspects.
- Works better in big groups.
- Can lead to the ship sinking if players prioritize loot over saving the ship.
- Pirate
- A sinking boat
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- action selection — On your turn, you're all making actions. You're all picking.
- Social Deduction — Players are on a sinking boat, with treasure, enemies, and sea creatures, and players make actions to pick up loot while also trying to keep the ship from sinking.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- Pirates, one of the most misunderstood groups of people in history.
- And by misunderstood I mean they were pretty terrible people, but we love to romanticize them in games and then books and movies.
- Until the last decade, there was not many good pirate games out there. There are a lot of good ones now though.
- The asymmetrical nature, this is something Leader Games likes to do, works well here.
- Nowadays, it would look maybe more ordinary, but I still was very impressed with this game.
- It's very lucky in many ways, and it's a very family-style game, but it is very piraty.
- There is a lot of social deduction-style games out there nowadays, but I think this one works really well.
- But, the Stonemaier version has some better mechanisms. They streamline it a little bit better.
- I wish there was a way to make some sort of Frankenstein where I have the art from the first and the gameplay mechanisms of the second.
- Nothing you have is safe, ever.
- And it's silly and light and fun, and I'm really surprised sometimes that this one just wasn't a bigger hit.
- There's a lot going on in this. It is a card crafting game where you have members of your crew, but you're making them go get better as time goes by as you play them.
- And man, a streamlined version of this could be my number one, frankly.
- This is a logic deduction game and you might like this game even if you're not a fan of pirates.
- It's cooperative, but you're all working together and you need to find the right things to do, but you also have your own personal goals.
- And when you're done playing this, it just you feel like you've had a grand old adventure.
- This game here is a MOBA style game where you have your basic old boring pirates running at each other and fighting each other in ships.
- It just has this cinematic quality to it with all the miniatures that CMON makes for one of these games.
- It's a deck-building game. I've always liked deck-building games and this game uses deck-building for something really fun.
- It doesn't overstay its welcome.
- Well, there's too many There's too much merchanting in it for me to love that one, but there are a lot of good pirate games out there.
References (from this video)
- Everybody's very suspect the entire time.
- High production quality with a gorgeous 3D boat where sections disappear as it sinks.
- Helpful insert for setup, tear down, and organization.
- Understood that it's a competitive game with a single winner.
- Hilarious and fun to play.
- Unique game concept.
- Frustrating experience for players who prefer support roles.
- One player found it frustrating because they were lying to themselves about their motivations.
- Surviving a sinking ship while gathering treasure
- A pirate ship
- Prisoner's Dilemma
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Dilemma — It's a play on words of the prisoners dilemma, famous social experiment. Actions are linked in a way that makes them opposite of what they are conducive to for the end game scenario. If you are fighting the sea monster, then you're not getting treasure. But if you are bailing out the water and saving the ship, you're getting treasure.
- hidden action selection — You have this little dial that has what your action options are. You turn it to whatever action you're actually going to do, but you're going to flip it upside down so we can see what it is and put it in the column telegraphing to the people what you want to do, but you don't have to tell the truth.
- Variable Win Conditions — There are two ways the game can end. Either the monster can die or the boat can sink. You are going to be the winner if the boat sinks if you have the least amount of treasure. You win if the monster dies if you have the most amount of treasure.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- You can take your actions on your turn, but what's going to happen is you have this little dial that has what your action options are. You turn it to whatever action you're actually going to do, but you're going to flip it upside down so we can see what it is and put it in the column telegraphing to the people what you want to do, but you don't have to tell the truth.
- Everybody's very suspect the entire time you're playing.
- The production quality from this game is out of control. The boat itself is absolutely this gorgeous 3D thing and as you're sinking, you know, a literal section of it disappears.
- I found it to be a frustrating experience. It's not the game's fault. It was very clear about what it was. It's just my particular play style did not match up with what this game wanted me to do.
- It was hilarious to me the entire time I was playing it. and and for once we don't agree with me being the more positive one.