Skallywaggs

Bent Castle Workshops

Skallywaggs is a pirate-themed collect-the-sets card game, much like Rummy. Each person attempts to collect a set of ten buccaneers to set sail open the high seas by playing and swapping heads, bodies and feet, while obstructing er opponents with event cards and body parts (such as the peg leg or the eyepatch) that stop a sailor from sailin'.

My sister let Steve and me borrow a copy of this game, which she had obtained at a card convention and thought it looked really neat. So, last night we gave it a try, and, after a failed start (we misread the rules regarding hand limits), we played a full game.

I was mostly disappointed with this game, which is a shame because the premise is promising; it may just have been my luck last night, but it felt terribly unbalanced to me. Additionally, the game took FAR too long; again, it may have been our play style, but 10 complete pirates is a lot to go for. The game may be more balanced with more players, and it may also be designed for less strategic play than Steve and I attempted (we went through the deck FOUR TIMES before Steve won, and that was largely because I gave up).

So, I wouldn't recommend this game to anyone, although I probably wouldn't disrecommend it, either. But I doubt we'll be playing it again.