Dread Pirate is an elegantly presented family game focusing on pirate lore and like any good Pirate the one with the most loot wins.
Each of the pirates start in their own port with a few doubloons and jewels of their own color. The rest of that color of jewel are piled near their port and the remaining doubloons are piled on “Dread Island” in the center of the map, along with the ‘fate’ cards that are drawn when sailing through specific marked areas of the board. It is these pirates goal to sail to the other ports and either raid or trade for jewels of the other colors. Once a pirate has at least one jewel of each color they can land on that Dread Island and collect some free doubloons. "Skirmishes"can be had with other pirates at sea and may slow the journey, but the reward of treasure can be great. Once all the jewels are gone from the original piles in the home ports (some will accumulate on Dread Island), the game is over and everyone counts the swag in their pouch.