Debt or Alive

A One-Card Pirate Game

Rulebook
Yarr !
Un tempo eri un marinaio altamente qualificato della Marina. Ma quando è arrivata
la pace, quasi due anni fa, ti sei ritrovato improvvisamente senza lavoro. Una
sfortuna tira l'altra e, in un momento di disperazione, hai chiesto un prestito a un
personaggio poco raccomandabile di Pirate's Haven. Ora sai cosa dovi fare. Dopo
due anni senza essere più salito su una nave hai messo a malincuore le tue abilità
a disposizione della pirateria e del mercato nero. E sai cosa? È una bella
sensazione.

Debt or Alive è un gioco di pirateria e commercio con una sola carta. Saccheggiate
le navi mercantili e navigate da un porto all'altro, acquistando merci e, si spera,
vendendole con un profitto. Navi minacciose pattugliano queste acque, quindi
bisogna fare attenzione. Man mano che la vostra abilità di comando migliorerà,
potrete far crescere la vostra ciurma e ottenere ancora di più. Ma le vostre imprese
impressionanti aumenteranno la vostra notorietà attirando l'attenzione della
marina e rendendo più difficile rintracciare i mercanti da razziare. Se guadagnerete
abbastanza oro da saldare il vostro debito in sei mesi, potrete ricominciare da capo
e lasciarvi alle spalle questa vita criminale. Ma se non ci riuscirete, potreste
ricevere un biglietto di sola andata per il Forziere di Davy Jones.

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Components
1) Questo regolamento
2) Una carta gioco
3) Una carta riferimento
4) 9 cubetti (8 gialli, 1 nero)
5) 24 dadi (12 neri, 5 bianchi, 3 blu, 2 rossi, 1 giallo, 1 viola)

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Game Card Anatomy

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1) L'immagine della nave.

2) La traccia delle azioni della nave. Il tracciato d'azione contiene le sette azioni principali.
a) Azione di preparazione
b) Azione commerciale più forte
c) Azione commerciale più debole
d) Azione di navigazione più forte
e) Azione di navigazione più debole
f) Azione di attacco più forte
g) Azione di attacco più debolete

3) I 6 spazi portuali.
a) Porto dello zucchero
b) Porto del rum
c) Porto delle banane
d) Porto del riso
e) Porto del caffè
f) Pirate’s Haven

4) Spazi azione equipaggio. Ogni porto ha due spazi azione equipaggio nelle vicinanze,
tranne il porto delle banane che ne ha uno. Questi sono gli spazi azione del porto dello
zucchero.

5) Spazio per il dado Leadership

6) Spazio per il dado Notorietà

7) Spazio per il dado XP

8) Spazi per il tracciamento dell'oro

9) Spazi per i dadi del carico

Other Components
Il significato dei colori può cambiare a seconda dello scenario in cui si gioca, ma per la
maggior parte delle volte i dadi e i cubi rappresentano le cose come segue.

 Dado nero sulla mappa > la propria nave

 Dado nero adiacente alla scheda di gioco > tracciamento di altre informazioni come oro,
carico e livello di leadership.
 Dado rosso > navi della marina
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 Dado blu > navi mercantili
 Dado giallo > flotta del tesoro o avventura
 Dado viola > il kraken
 Dadi bianchi > dipende dallo scenario
 Cubo nero > traccia le vostre azioni principali
 Dadi gialli > membri dell'equipaggio

Setup
Di seguito viene spiegato come impostare lo scenario predefinito con lo stesso nome del
gioco: Debito o vita. Altri scenari possono avere regole di configurazione speciali che
variano leggermente da quelle predefinite e che sono spiegate con i singoli scenari.

1. Scegliete la carta da gioco jumbo o la carta da gioco poker. Sono uguali a parte le
dimensioni. Posizionatela sul tavolo di fronte a voi.

2. Mettete un cubo nero sull'azione vela debole.

3. Impostate un dado nero a 5 e mettetelo su Pirate's Haven. Questa è la vostra nave. Con
questo dado si tiene traccia degli HP della nave. 5 è l'HP massimo.

4. Popolate il tabellone con navi mercantili e navali (PNG). Impostate i due dadi rossi ai
valori 5 e 6. Impostare i tre dadi blu sui valori 2, 3 e 4. Posizionate il dado blu di valore 2 su
uno spazio di mare adiacente ad un porto a vostra scelta. Poi alternate il posizionamento
dei rimanenti dadi rossi e blu accanto al porto successivo verso sud, iniziando con i valori
dei dadi più bassi e aumentando. Saltate lo spazio portuale del Rifugio dei Pirati.

5. Impostate un dado nero a 1 e posizionarlo nello spazio del dado leadership.

6. Posizionate un dado nero nello spazio del dado tracciamento dell'oro con il valore che
riflette l'oro di partenza (questo può cambiare a seconda dello scenario). Nello scenario
predefinito, si parte con 5 oro, quindi impostate il dado a 5 e posizionatelo nello spazio del
dado oro più a nord.

7. Set a black die to value 1 and put it just off of the game card’s northwest corner. This is
the round tracking die.

8. Take all remaining black dice and yellow cubes and place them in a supply nearby.

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That’s it! It’s time to set sail. A photo of completed setup is shown below.

Completed Setup

How to Play
Debt or Alive is played using one of a selection of scenarios. Each uses the same core
system. The game is played in a number of rounds based on the chosen scenario. Each
round is made up of six turns. If your ship sinks, you are captured or you run out of time
before completing your scenario’s goal, you lose. But if you survive and complete your
goal in time, you win.

Likely, you will want to earn as much gold as possible by raiding merchants and buying
and selling goods. You can spend gold on various things, but an important one is
upgrading your leadership level, which allows you to have a larger crew. Crew is used to
defend your ship against navy attacks and to take crew actions.

The rest of the How to Play section of this rulebook will explain the game from the
standpoint of the default scenario. Any changes to the rules for the other scenarios will be
explained in the Scenarios section at the end of the rulebook.

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Quick Concepts:
It will be helpful to be introduced to a few concepts before digging into the rest of the
rules.

Tracking Notoriety
You track notoriety with a die placed next to the notoriety die space. You start with zero
notoriety (a die is not present there). When you gain your first notoriety point, take a
black die from the supply and place it next to the notoriety die space. If you are on
notoriety 6 and gain another notoriety point, change the die back to a 1 and move it over
to the “notoriety+6” space. This is to show that you have notoriety 7.

You gain 1 notoriety whenever one of the following happens:

 You sink an NPC ship
 You sell a good in demand

How sinking ships and buying and selling goods works will be explained in detail later.

Port Numbers
There are six ports. Each port is associated with a number (1-6). You can remember
which number corresponds to which port based on the port’s position from top to
bottom on the card. These are the sugar port (1), rum port (2), banana port (3), rice port
(4), coffee port (5) and Pirate’s Haven (6).

A Note About Directions

For greater precision, this rulebook will sometimes use compass directions to describe the
location of things (north, south, northeast, etc.) rather than top, bottom, left, etc.

Map Spaces/Hexes
The main portion of the card is a map, which is made up of hexagonal spaces. This
rulebook will often refer to any given hex as simply a space.

This is not to be confused with die spaces. Die spaces are the partial squares that line the
top, left and right edges of the card. Die spaces show you where to put dice to track
different things.

There are two more types of spaces on the card: action spaces and crew action spaces.
Action spaces are the full or partial squares near the bottom of the card, next to your

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ship’s image. Crew action spaces are the squares on the map near ports, with different
icons in them.

All these concepts will be explained in more detail. This was just for clarification to avoid
confusion when the word space is used in this rulebook.

Rounds
There are four rounds in the default scenario. A round is made up of 6 player turns and 6
NPC turns.

At the start of the game, the round tracking die is placed just off of the top-left corner of
the card and set to a value of one. This indicates it is your first turn of round one. At the
end of each of your turns, increase the round tracking die by one. If the die is on a 6 and
must be increased, instead change it to a 1 and move it clockwise to a new corner of the
card (from top-left to top-right, bottom-right and, finally, bottom-left). When the die
moves to a new corner of the card, it means a new round of the game will start after that
NPC turn. After that NPC turn, check to see if any NPCs have been defeated (removed
from the map). If so, replenish the map so once again all three merchants and both navy
ships are present. When adding defeated NPCs back onto the map, roll their die and
place them on the corresponding port. Then move the NPC to an adjacent sea space of
your choosing (similar to how you did at setup).

After your sixth turn of the fourth round, resolve the final NPC turn and the game ends.
At this time you will check to see if the victory conditions have been met.

The victory conditions for the default scenario are that you have reached leadership level
3 and have acquired 20 gold.

Your Turn
There are two types of actions, main actions and free actions. On your turn, you must
take exactly two main actions. For most main actions, you must be able to complete the
action in full to be able to take it. The only exception is the sail action. To be able to take
the sail action, you only have to sail one space; you may skip any remaining sail points if
you choose.

Main Actions
The four main actions are prepare, trade, sail and attack. Spaces for these actions are
found on your ship’s action track. Trade, sail and attack each have two versions: a weaker

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and a stronger version. To take a main action, you must move your action cube from its
current action space to a new action space, obeying the routing rules as shown by the
arrows connecting the action spaces.

Routing Rules
You may only take a main action that is connected to your current action space with an
arrow—and that arrow must point in the direction you need to go. Note that some
routing arrows are one-way. Others have arrow pointers on each end, which means you
can move your cube either direction along these routes.

The weaker actions (with the white borders) provide a value of 1 for that action. The
stronger actions (with the gold borders) provide a value of 2.

If the arrow itself is gold, that means there is a route bonus and you get to add +1 to the
action you are taking. If the arrow is black, no such bonus is awarded. All the arrows on
your starting ship are black.

The Prepare Action

The prepare action is a special type of main action. It does not let you resolve an action
when you move your cube to it. It is instead a way of boosting a future action. When
moving from the prepare action space to another action space, add +1 to whatever value
that action space provided.

You can take the prepare action only when you are currently on the weaker sailing action.
There is also a crew action that allows you to jump your action cube directly to the
prepare action, but this will be explained later.

Note that the prepare action still uses up one of the two actions on your turn even
though the prepare action itself does not allow you to do anything.

The Sail Action

When you take the sail action, move your ship up to the number of spaces provided by
the action taken. You must move to adjacent spaces from where your ship currently is.
Blue spaces are sea spaces that your ship can move into. You must be able to see the full
space to move into it; spaces partially cut off by the edge of the map are not meant to be
moved into (two sea spaces along the south edge of the map are not able to be moved
into).

Some sea spaces have images in them. These are sea states, which are relevant for combat
and will be explained later.
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Two spaces west of the banana port have a double outline and are a darker shade of blue.
These are tumultuous sea spaces. They require two sail points to move into instead of
one. This applies to both your ship and NPC ships.

Green on the map is considered land. The only land spaces you can move into are the six
port spaces. It costs one sail point to move into port spaces, as with regular sea spaces.

You can move through NPCs and even end your movement on the same space. Stack
your ship’s die on top of the NPC in this case.
If you move into a port space, you must immediately end your sail action and lose any
remaining sail points associated with that action. You may, if you choose, sail out of the
port again on your next action by using another sail action.

You do not have to use all the sail points generated by your sail action, but you must at
least move one space.

The Trade Action

The trade action is how you buy goods. Note that selling goods is a different action (one
of the free actions explained later).

You must be on a port space to take the trade action. Before deciding to take the trade
action at a port, you may check which goods are available for sale. Roll a die. A result of
1-5 corresponds to one of the five available good types. Reference the cargo die spaces
right edge of the game card to find the good number. These are numbered 1-5 from top
to bottom: rum (1), sugar (2), bananas (3), rice (4), coffee (5).

Normally, goods are purchased for 2 gold and sold for 2 gold. Whenever you take the
port action, however, one good will be discounted. The value rolled when checking which
goods are available tells you which good is discounted. It can be purchased for 1 gold
instead of 2. The two goods adjacent to that good in the cargo spaces section are the
other two goods available to be purchased for full price (2 gold).

For example, you moved into a port space this turn and decide to check which goods are for sale. You roll
a die and get a 4. You look at the cargo spaces along the right edge of the card. You count down from the
top and rice is the fourth good type. That means rice is discounted (price of 1 gold), and the two goods
adjacent to it (bananas and coffee) are also available at full price (price of 2 gold). Since you are not
looking to purchase any of those good types, you decide not to take the trade action and set sail instead.

When you buy a good, it becomes cargo on your ship. Take a black die from the supply,
put it adjacent to the corresponding cargo space along the right edge of the card, and set
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the die value to the proper amount. If you already had some of this good, adjust the die
that is already there to reflect the new larger amount.

The starting ship can hold a maximum of seven cargo. This can be made up of any
combination of goods. The upgraded ship (on the back of the card—explained in detail
in the commandeering a navy ship section) can hold 10 total cargo.

The Attack Action

Attacking is how you complete merchant raids and—if you so dare—sink or board a navy
ship. You may only attack if you are on the same space as an NPC.

NPCs have a few stats going on. Sometimes these are different based on if the NPC is a
merchant or a naval ship.

See the table on the next page for these values.

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 Merchant Naval Ship
Normal 2, 3, 4 5, 6
HP
Boarding +2 +2
HP
Scouting 1 + (1 for 1 + (1 for
every 3 every 3
notoriety) notoriety)
Sailing 1, then 2 in
2, then 3 in
round 3+ round 3+
Response ½ HP ½ HP
Attack rounded up rounded up
Aggressor N/A 3 damage to
Attack your HP &
kill 2 on-
board crew
Gold Same as HP N/A
Reward
Cargo ½ HP N/A
(boarding rounded up
only)

When you attack an NPC, it is considered a combat. Combats have different outcomes
depending on whether you have chosen normal or boarding combat, and how much attack
you generated.

Note: when you sink or board a ship, you must immediately increase your
notoriety by 1! Notoriety is explained in detail in a later section.

Normal Combat
Normal combat is when you are simply trying to sink the NPC ship. If you generate
attack points equal to or greater than the NPC’s HP, it is considered a decisive victory.
Remove the NPC’s die from the map. You can also defeat merchant NPCs with a
narrow victory. This means generating enough attack to reach at least half their HP
rounded up. You defeat them in a narrow victory, but they also get to resolve their
response attack. Both a narrow and decisive victory are considered successful combats.
These concepts are explained in more detail in the next sections.

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MERCHANT NPCs
If it was a merchant ship, also collect the gold reward, which is gold equal to its HP. Navy
ships do not provide any gold, but you may find situations where you want to sink them
to get them off the board (temporarily—we’ll get to that).

If you generate attack points equal to at least half the merchant’s HP rounded up, but less
than its full HP, it is considered a narrow victory. You get to collect the gold reward and
remove the merchant from the map, but you also must take damage to your ship equal to
the merchant’s response attack. All NPCs’ response attack values are equal to ½ their
HP rounded up. To take damage to your ship, reduce the value of your ship die (your
HP) by the appropriate amount. If this resulted in your ship’s HP being reduced to zero,
you immediately lose the game.

If you generated attack points equal to less than half the NPC’s HP rounded up, the
combat is a loss. You must take the NPC’s response attack, you do not collect a gold
reward, and you do not remove the NPC from the map.

NAVAL NPCs
The only differences in normal combat with a naval NPC are 1) you do not collect any
gold rewards, and 2) there is no such thing as a narrow victory. Combats against naval
ships are all-or-nothing; you must reach the ship’s full HP or lose and take its response
attack.

Boarding Combat
When attacking an NPC—whether merchant or navy—you may decide you want to
attempt a boarding combat. This represents you and your crew boarding the enemy
ship. Boarding combats are the same as normal combats, except for a few changes,
explained in the next few paragraphs.

BOARDING MERCHANTS
In boarding combats, NPCs get +2 HP. For example, if you choose to board a level 2
merchant, its HP is instead 4. Use this higher HP to calculate values that depend on the
ship’s HP, including the merchant’s attack, gold rewards and cargo (explained next).

If a narrow or decisive victory against a merchant ship, you get to collect cargo rewards
in addition to gold rewards. After a successful boarding combat, roll a die. The result is
type of good you looted from the NPC ship. The amount of the goods you receive is
equal to ½ the NPC’s HP rounded up. Remember that you use the ship’s boarding HP
to calculate this—which is 2 greater than its normal HP.

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BOARDING NAVAL SHIPS
As with normal combats, there is no such thing as a narrow victory against naval
ships. If you decide on a boarding combat, you must reach the boarding HP (normal
HP+2) or lose and take the naval ship’s attack. As with merchant boarding, you must use
the higher HP to calculate the ship’s response attack, if necessary. There are also still no
gold rewards in boarding combats with naval ships. But you do get something really cool:
you get to keep the naval ship itself! The navy uses only the most powerful and cutting-
edge ships. This will definitely be an upgrade from your dirty pirate vessel.

If you win a boarding combat against a naval ship, your reward is to flip the entire card.
The back of the card is identical to the front, with two exceptions: 1) your ship’s picture
in the bottom left corner has changed, and 2) you have an upgraded action track. All
routing between most actions is now gold instead of black. This means every action you
take gets +1 from what you are used to.

Note: I recommend taking a photo of the current side of the card to remember where your ship, NPCs
and deployed crew are on the map.

The upgraded ship also has some improved stats. Your maximum HP is now 6.
Immediately after successfully taking over a navy ship your HP is 4. But you may heal it
up to 6 at the next opportunity.

Your ship can also now hold a maximum of 10 cargo rather than 7.

Even though you have defeated one of the naval ships and its die has been removed from
the map, at the start of the next round you must still re-populate the board so there are a
total of 2 naval ships.

Experience Points (XP)

In addition to the attack points generated by your attack action, you may boost your
attack actions with XP. XP is tracked by a die in the XP die space (the right-most space
on the top edge of the card). The maximum XP that can be stored is six, and the
minimum is zero. If you have zero XP, simply do not have a die in this space.

You earn XP when:

1) You spend 3 gold as a free action while in port (free actions are explained later). Limit
of once per turn.

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2) You complete a sail, attack or trade action that generated three or more sale, attack or
trade points. If you have the upgraded ships, it requires an action of 4 or more points. In
either case, crew actions boosting your action do not disqualify the action from earning
XP. Attack points generated by spending XP to boost an attack action are not counted,
however.

You do not have to spend all 3 points of the action in order for it to earn you an XP. It
must only have provided 3 or more points. For example, if you moved from the prepare
action space to the stronger move action space, this would earn you an XP even if you
only resolved 2 of the movement.

When you earn XP, change the XP die to reflect this. Do this immediately after
completing the action that led to earning the XP. For example, if you moved from the
prepare action space to the stronger sail action space (thus earning 3 sail points), and
moved into the same space as a merchant to attack it next action, you get to gain that 1
extra XP right after your move action, which means you get it going into that next attack
action. BUT, if you move from the prepare action space to the stronger attack action
space (thus earning 3 attack points), resolving the combat is part of that action, so you do
not actually receive the XP until after the combat is completely resolved.

You can spend XP to boost attack actions. You can spend as much XP as you wish on a
single attack action. The cost to boost an attack action depends on the sea state on
which the combat is taking place.

SEA STATES
There are four sea states:

Calm seas

Fog

Rocks

Current

Currents can go in three different directions. Moving into a space going perpendicular
with the current’s wavy lines is considered entering with current. Entering a current
space at an angle to the wavy lines is considered entering cross current.

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As mentioned, the cost of boosting an attack action with XP typically depends on the
space at which the combat is taking place. If the combat space is a current, it instead
depends on whether you entered the space with current or cross current. You can buy
as many extra attack points as you can afford to pay in XP.

The cost to buy extra attack points with XP are as follows:

Calm seas: 2 XP

With Current: 2 XP

Fog: 3 XP

Cross Current: 3 XP

Rocks: 4 XP

As you can see, unless the combat is taking place in a rocks sea state, you could
potentially buy up to two additional attack points to add to your attack action—if you
have enough XP.

Free Actions
Free actions are actions you can take that do not cost you one of your two actions on
your turn. You can take as many free actions as you are able to or want to.
IMPORTANT: Free actions are only available while on a port space!

The free actions are 1) sell goods, 2) repair ship, 3) hire crew, 4) deploy crew, 5) level up
leadership, 6) recall crew.

1. Sell goods. You may sell any number of goods that are currently cargo on your ship.
Reduce the cargo die by the appropriate amount (or remove it and place it back in the
supply if you reduce the cargo to zero). Then receive 2 gold per good sold, or 3 gold per
good sold if the good is in demand at this port. Reference the image on the port space to
know which good is in demand. When you sell any number of goods in demand at a
port, you must immediately increase your notoriety by 1! Notoriety is explained in
detail in a later section.

2. Repair ship. Your ship will likely take damage from combats. If your ship is currently
less than its maximum HP, you may pay 1 gold to increase your ship’s HP by 1. You can

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do this as many times as you like, but only up to your ship’s maximum HP. The starting
ship’s maximum HP is 5, and the upgraded ship’s is 7.

3. Hire crew. If you currently have less total crew (your on-board crew plus your
deployed crew) than your maximum crew size, you may pay 2 gold to hire 1 crew. You
may do this as many times as you like until you reach your maximum crew size. Your
maximum crew size is equal to your leadership level plus 1.

4. Deploy crew. You may place crew cubes on one or both crew action spaces near the
port space—if they do not already have crew on them, and if you have enough on-board
crew to do so. On-board and deployed crew are explained in more detail later.

5. Level Up Leadership. You may pay 10 gold to increase your leadership die by 1.
Leveling up leadership does a few things for you. To win the default scenario, your
leadership level must be at least 3.

6. Recall Crew. Recalling crew means taking crew cubes currently deployed to crew
action spaces anywhere on the map and bringing them back to your ship. They are once
again considered on-board crew. When recalling crew, you do not get the benefit of the
crew action space from which they came. You can recall any number of crew while in a
port.

7. Buy XP
You can spend 3 gold once per turn to buy 1 XP.

Crew and Crew Actions

Your crew are represented by yellow cubes. You start the game with two crew on board.
On-board crew are placed near the card or on your ship’s image in the bottom-left
corner. Just make sure you keep them somewhere so you don’t get them mixed up with
the extra yellow cubes in the supply.

You can deploy crew as a free port action (explained earlier). These crew are now
considered deployed rather than on-board.

You can use deployed crew to take crew actions. To take a crew action, remove the crew
cube from the crew action space and put it back with your on-board crew. Then resolve
the action that corresponds to the icon on the space the crew was deployed at.

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There are nine different types of crew actions. The crew action icons and their meanings
are listed below.

: +1 sailing point when you take a sailing action.

: +1 attack point when you take an attack action.

: +1 trade point when you take a trade action.

: Move the action cube directly to the prepare action space. This does not use up
one of your two actions this turn.

: Increase or decrease the action die by up to two values.

: Cancel two damage to your ship during combat.

: Cancel one loss of a crew when attacked. You can use this crew action to
respond to an aggressor attack from a naval NPC.

: If you end your turn in a fog space, NPCs do not see you on their next turn.
They even move through you without noticing you. The only exception to this is
if a navy ship accidentally ends movement on your space, it will still attack you.

: If you are currently within two spaces of an NPC, they do not move on their
next turn. You must use this crew action during your turn.

You can use multiple crew actions at once if applicable. For example, you could take a
crew action that moves your action cube to the prepare space and one that increases your
attack in the same attack action.

You cannot deploy crew to a space you have already taken the crew action of this turn.

End of Turn
When you have completed two main actions and any number of free actions desired, your
turn ends.

At the end of your turn, increase the round tracking die by 1. Then resolve the NPC turn.

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NPC Turns
On NPC turns you will activate navy ships, resolve any navy attacks, and then activate
merchant ships.
Navy Activation
First, determine which navy ship will activate. If there is one navy ship on the map,
activate that one. If there are two, roll a die. If the result is 1-3, activate the ship furthest
north on the map. If the result is 4-6, activate the furthest south navy ship. If it is a tie,
you choose which ship activates.

Then, roll a die to determine the direction the ship will sail. It will be one of six
directions, as indicated by the image on the next page.

Navy Scouting
Next, check to see if you have been scouted. NPCs have a scouting range equal to 1 plus
1 for every 3 notoriety you currently have.

For example, if your notoriety is 2, the navy ship’s scouting range is just 1, since your notoriety is not 3 or
greater. But if your notoriety was 7 (as another example), the navy ship’s scouting range would be 3.

If your ship is within the ship’s scouting range, you have been scouted. The navy ship will
move toward you instead of a random direction. If it can’t take a straight line to you, it
will take the shortest route (see next section).

Navy ships will not scout for you if you are in a port space.

Navy Movement
Then, resolve movement. Move the ship based on its sailing value. Navy ship’s sail 2
spaces in rounds one and two, and sail 3 spaces in rounds 3 and 4.

NPCs will move through other NPCs but never end movement on them. NPCs will
never move into a port or any land area. If the ship cannot go in the direction it wants to,
move it in the closest direction to that direction. If it is a tie, move use the next clockwise
direction.

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If a navy ship accidentally moves through or lands on your ship, it stops movement and
engages in an aggressor attack (explained in the next section).

If a navy ship did not initially scout you but happens to move within scouting range with
the random movement, it does not adjust its random movement to try to move toward
you. It continues resolving the random movement since it did not scout you ahead of
time.

Navy Aggressor Attacks

A navy ship will move into the space your ship is on if it successfully scouted you and can
reach you (and rarely, it may accidentally move into your space). If this happens, you
must resolve a navy aggressor attack. A navy aggressor attack is still considered part of
the NPC turn. You cannot take any actions—not even crew actions—during a navy
aggressor attack.

A navy aggressor attack is special in that it affects both your ship’s HP and your on-board
crew. They don’t care how they get you, as long as they get you. They will both try to sink
your ship and defeat your crew in melee combat.

To resolve a navy aggressor attack, complete both of the following:

1) Reduce your ship’s HP by 3.

2) Reduce your on-board crew by 2.

If your HP is reduced to zero, you have been sunk. If your on-board crew has been
reduced to zero and you still have more damage to take, you have been captured. Either
way, the game immediately ends in a loss.

If you were not defeated, you must retreat. Immediately move your ship to an adjacent
sea space of your choosing.

Merchant Activation
Only one merchant ship will not activate on each NPC turn. So if there are three
merchants, two will activate. If there are two merchants, one will activate. But if there is
one merchant, it always activates.

As with the navy ship activation, roll a die. If there are three merchant ships on the map,
split the die values into thirds to decide which will not activate:

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  1-2: north-most merchant
 3-4: middle merchant
 5-6: south-most merchant

As with navy ships, merchants will not scout for you if you are on a port space.

Merchant Scouting
A merchant’s scouting range is the same as a navy ship’s. It is 1 plus 1 for every 3
notoriety you currently have.

Merchant scouting works just like navy scouting with one exception: merchants are trying
to move away from you rather than towards you. If a merchant scouts you, it will move
to get as far away from you as it can. If there are two equally viable places it can choose
to sail to, you get to choose for it.

Merchant Movement
If the merchant did not scout you, it will move based on a die roll, just like navy ships.
See the previous section on navy ship movement for a full explanation.

After resolving the navy ship and merchant activations, proceed to your next turn.

NPC Movement: Points of Clarification

A few more things to clarify about NPC movement.
 Turbulent waters cost 2 for NPCs to move into, just like for the player. They will
move clockwise if they should be moving into a turbulent water space but do not
have enough movement.
 NPCs can move through each other but do not end movement on each other.
They will choose an empty space over one with an NPC in it.
o If there is nowhere for the NPC to legally move due to being surrounded,
they will not move.
o If you are on the same space as a merchant, a navy ship will break the
rules and end movement on the same space as you and the merchant, if
scouted for your or happened to move into your space. Note this may
require stacking the components in the smaller configuration of the game.
Also note that this results in the merchant retreating (mentioned next).
 If ever a merchant finds itself in the same space as a navy ship and all NPCs have
resolved movement, the merchant will retreat. This means you choose an adjacent
empty space to move the merchant into.
 NPCs will always avoid moving to a space there were already on during their turn.

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  Navy ships activate first, and then merchants. Start with the lower number values
and work your way up.

Now Set Sail!

You know everything you need to get started playing Debt or Alive. The rest of this
rulebook lays out the different scenarios you can use to play.

Scenarios
You must choose a scenario to play. The default scenario is the first one with the same
name as the game, Debt or Alive. For all scenarios, you must meet the stated goal
stipulations within the time limit to win. When you achieve all goals, the game ends in a
win (you do not need to play out the rest of the timer).

Scenarios are numbered for convenience.

1. Debt or Alive
Flavor: When peace broke out nearly two years ago, you lost your job as an esteemed
navy sailor. You had a string of bad luck and took out loans with some unsavory
characters. You turn to piracy to pay down your debts. You have six months, or your
lenders will introduce you to the bottom of the sea.
Timer: 4 rounds
Goal: Reach leadership level 3 and accrue 20 gold.
Special rules: none.

2. Legendary Merchant
Flavor: You are on the cusp of greatness. Your prowess as a merchant will become
legend if you can prove your mettle in the most cutthroat market in the empire.
Timer: 4 rounds
Goal: Reach notoriety 12.
Special rules: Sinking ships does not generate notoriety. Selling goods in demand
generates 2 notoriety each time you do it.
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3. The Notorious Pirate
Flavor: When you lead the crew in a mutiny on your pirate vessel, some on the crew
didn’t think you could cut it as a captain. You will use every brutal tactic at your disposal
to prove them wrong.
Timer: 4 rounds
Goal: Reach notoriety 12.
Special rules: Selling goods in demand does not provide notoriety. Sinking NPC ships
provides 2.

4. Man o’ War
Flavor: You were denied your rightful position as captain of a royal naval ship. It’s time
you took what’s yours by force.
Timer: 3 rounds
Goal: Defeat a naval vessel in a boarding combat.
Special rules: None.

5. Kraken Hunter
Flavor: The empire must be truly desperate to come to you for help. A low-life pirate is
now their best hope. You’ve been commissioned to find and destroy a dreadful sea
monster—a kraken, some say—that has been sinking merchant vessels. You best sharpen
your spears.
Timer: 4 rounds
Goal: Kill the kraken.
Special rules: The purple die is the kraken. Set it to 6 HP and roll for its starting location
as you would a navy NPC. Do not put a level 6 navy ship on the map, but still include the
level 5 navy ship and all three merchants. The kraken behaves just like a navy ship, except
it has armor and damage it takes is residual. The kraken has 4 defense, meaning every
time you attack it, it cancels 4 of your attack points. The attack that does get through
reduces the kraken’s HP. You do not have to defeat the kraken in one attack action. The
kraken does not heal up between combats.

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6. The Treasure Fleet
Flavor: With the greatest challenge comes the greatest prize. The treasure fleet delivering
vast amounts of gold across the sea promises riches and an early—and glorious—
retirement.
Timer: 4 rounds
Goal: Sink the treasure fleet.
Special rules: Use the yellow die as the treasure fleet. Set it as a 6. The treasure fleet
starts on the sugar port space. The level 6 navy vessel is its escort. When the treasure
fleet moves, the navy escort moves with it. The navy escort is always in an adjacent sea
space to the treasure fleet (it does not enter ports). You choose which sea space it
occupies, as long as you abide the navy ship’s normal movement distances (2, and then 3
starting in round 3). The treasure fleet has the same movement distances as the navy
ships.

On the NPC turn, the treasure fleet moves toward the coffee port on the opposite end
of the map. Before moving the fleet toward the coffee port for the first time, roll a die. A
result of 1-3 means it will choose a route north of the banana port. A result of 4-6 means
it will choose a route south of the banana port. Leave this die nearby as a reminder. Other
than that restriction, you get to choose the route the fleet takes to its destination port—as
long as every move it makes takes it closer to its destination. When it reaches the coffee
port, it will move all the way into the port space (with its navy escort waiting in an
adjacent sea space) and immediately end the fleet’s movement. On its next turn, it will
reverse course and start sailing back to the sugar port. Once again roll the die to
determine if it will run north or south of the banana port. Keep repeating this process
until you sink the treasure fleet or the game ends.

On its turn, the treasure fleet does not attack you or scout. It just keeps moving to its
destination. The treasure fleet’s navy escort behaves like a normal navy NPC. It will scout
for you and attack you on the NPC turn. If you defeat the navy escort, it will repopulate
at the start of the next round, in a sea space adjacent to the treasure fleet of your
choosing. If the navy escort is defeated, the fleet will continue on without it as needed.

At the start of the game, set a white die nearby to track the treasure fleet’s preparedness
(on the treasure chest icon near the top-left corner of the card is a good spot). Each time
the treasure fleet moves into a port space, increase the preparedness die by 1 (it starts the
game at 1). Think of the fleet’s preparedness as extra HP you must fight through to
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defeat it. You must add the treasure fleet’s preparedness to its HP when you take an
attack action against it. For example, if the fleet’s preparedness is 3, that would be 6+3=9
HP. Similar to combat against navy ships, you must reach the treasure fleet’s full HP (plus
its preparedness) in a single attack action to defeat it.

You can take a new free action at the Pirate’s Haven port space: Sabotage. Each time
you take the Sabotage action, pay 4 gold and reduce the treasure fleet’s preparedness die
by 1. If its preparedness reaches zero, remove the die from its space to indicate this.

If you defeat the treasure fleet before the timer runs out, you win!

7. The Adventurer
Flavor: The sea has called your name ever since you were a child. The thrill of adventure
beckons too loudly to ignore. It’s time to scratch that itch. And maybe, you’ll attain glory
in the meantime.
Timer: 4 rounds
Goal: Complete the adventure.
Special Rules: The yellow die represents the adventure. Set the adventure die to 5 and
place it on the cargo box icon near the top-right corner of the card. (You can adjust this
die lower for an easier game). Your goal is to reduce the adventure die to zero. You do
this by completing quests. Quests are mini-adventures that are all a part of completing the
larger adventure. You must first attain a quest and then complete it. Each completed
quest reduces the value of the adventure die by 1.

While in a port you have a new free action: Attain a Quest. When you take this action,
pay 2 gold and roll a white die and place it on the port space (stack your ship die on top
of it if needed). The value you rolled is the quest you received:

1) Sell rum in demand at the rum port.

2) Spend 10 gold while in the rice port.
3) Sink a navy ship.
4) Defeat a merchant without spending XP.
5) Have 5 crew on board.
6) Buy 4 of a good in one trade action.

Leave the white quest die on the port space. When you complete a quest, remove its die
from the map and reduce the adventure die by 1.

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You cannot complete two quests with a single action. For example, if you have two “2”
quests active, spending 10 gold while in the rice port only completes one quest, not both.
You would have to spend 10 additional gold to complete the other quest.

If you reduce the adventure die to zero before time runs out, you win!

8. The Pirate Republic

Flavor: For too long you have been under the thumb of the empire. It’s time to establish
your own world. One with your own rules. A Pirate Republic.
Timer: 5 rounds.
Goal: Establish 3 pirate ports.
Special Rules: Each port that is not Pirate’s Haven is available to be attacked and
potentially sacked. You must sack 3 ports to win. Ports have 6 HP. When you start an
attack on a port, place a white die on the port space to track its remaining HP. Damage
the port takes is residual; that is, damage you deal to it stays on it. You cannot spend XP
against ports, but you can still benefit from crew actions. When you reduce a port’s HP to
zero, put a crew cube from the supply on the port space (this is not part of your crew! It’s
only there to signify a pirate port has been established). You cannot enter a port if it
currently has an HP die on it.

Sacking a port gives you +1 notoriety, but ports do not deal damage to you and they
provide no gold reward. Once a port has been sacked, you can recruit crew for a cost of 1
gold there, similar to Pirate’s Haven.

Whenever you take an attack action against a port, all naval ships will move toward you
on their next turn, regardless of scouting range.

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 Thanks for Playing!

Debt or Alive is designed by Joe Klipfel and published by Mythfield Games.

Learn more at mythfieldgames.com.

Thank you to game-icons.net for supplying the icons in the game.

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