For years, you’ve dreamed of the high seas. The open skies, the spray of the water, the hapless merchant vessels in your area just waiting to be plundered. And by Neptune, you’re ready! You’ve got a really cute captain’s hat and a matching sash that will slay in any galley.
There’s just one problem. You haven’t got a crew! Luckily, that’s a problem easily solved. Dust off your hiring ads and head down to the Dock. There are plenty of living pirates who’d be happy to crew yer vessel.
And maybe a few not-so-living pirates too. G..g..g…g..ggghost pirates!
Everbound, from Steven L Smith and published by Logical Fox/the Game Crafter, is a 1-player recipe-fulfillment game that takes about 15 minutes to play.
Gameplay Overview:
Everbound uses an 18-card construct to fill out the crew of a pirate ship. You start with your Captain and a twinkle in yer eye. And presumably a ship. Yarrrr.
You’ll take one of two actions per turn.
- Draw: Take a card from the Dock
- Recruit: Play a card from your hand by paying its icon cost
The game here comes from gathering and matching icons to buy more and more powerful pirate cards. Draw cards to spend the icons on them to recruit cards that match the cost. Then, as you build your tableau, you can spend the icons listed there in addition to the ones in your hand to get scarier and scarier pirates.
If at any point the Dock is empty, the discard is shuffled to create a new Draw deck. The Compass card (which is the timer for game end) will also tick down.
The game ends when either the Compass closes (after your 5th reshuffle) or you have completely filled out your ship tableau. Scores are tallied and compared against the score chart to slap a label on your Captainly Prowess.
Game Experience:
Everbound is a good filler game for those moments where you’d normally be doomscrolling. Waiting room at the doctor? Riding a train? Just before bedtime? Put yer damn phone down and get in a game or two!
With just 18 cards, Everbound is supremely portable. It does have a bit of a large footprint for its size. You’ll need room for 16 cards to be laid out, which ends up hogging the table a bit.
The game flows quickly after setup. At its heart, Everbound is a recipe-fulfilling tableau builder. You’ll draw cards to spend those cards on other cards, which are then recruited to your ship. Welcome aboard, mateys.
Each pirate recruited to your crew has a weapon icon that counts toward all subsequent purchases. This gives the game momentum. The more crew you have, the easier it is to recruit. The designer compares it to Splendor in the game’s BGG forums to give a feel for gameplay.
There is some careful planning to be had, though. If you aren’t careful about where you assign your crew on your ship, you’ll lose out on tasty, tasty Pirate Points.
Did I mention the ghost pirates? Well, there are ghost pirates.
Every living pirate you recruit has a ghostly counterpart in the Ghost Deck. The ghost versions are more expensive and more powerful than their pathetic, fleshy predecessors. If you plan well, you can recruit both a living pirate and their ghost-self to create an Everbound. Forever cursed to roam the seas serving the whims of their cheery-looking captain. This feels like a pretty prettttty big hack for the Job Creator class.
Once you, ruthless labor exploiter that you’ve proven yourself to be, have filled all 8 crew spots on your ship, it’s game over and time to count points. Unless you weren’t fast enough at HR. Because there is a timer.
The compass is a welcome element as it adds restrictions to the game flow. Each time a row of the dock empties, you must tick the Compass down. Essentially, you get 5 total re-shuffles for whatever the Pirate equivalent of Monster dot com to match you with suitable candidates. Having that timer ramps up the pressure, especially if the Dock isn’t presenting what you need.
After points are tallied, you check a chart to see how well you fared. And like every good corporate simulator, you get an official nickname on a scale of Forgettable to Legendary. Just how Roc Brasiliano did it.
Final Thoughts:
Everbound is a small box that packs a decent punch. On the box-size-to-puzzle ratio scale, it is a winner. The Splendor-like gameplay with a Pirate HR department theme works as a good filler game. It can get a bit stale with more than 2 games in a row, as the deck is small enough that you learn to anticipate what’s available and how to plan for it.
The art in Everbound lends itself well to the pirate theme. Its cartoony presence on the table can’t help but endear with some of the crew. (#teamCannons, by the way. Canongelica is bae).
Final Score: 2.5 Stars – Everbound is a good puzzle with a quick playtime. Cosplaying as Pirate HR is way better than doomscrolling
Hits:
• Super portable
• Fast
• Enjoyable puzzle
• Exploiting indentured Ghost labor is fun and worth a lot of points!
Misses:
• Kind of a table hog for being as small as it is
• Replay value is lacking
Source: Board Game Quest
