Signet-of-the-Seas

Somewhere beneath the deck of your flagship lies a single hidden cell. It holds the signet. Find the rival signet before they find yours and the sea is yours in one stroke, no matter how much of their fleet is still afloat.

Signet of the Seas is a game of naval deduction played on a single device. You lay out a fleet on a parchment chart, hide the signet aboard a hull that bears one, then trade broadsides with a rival admiral until someone strikes it.

THE SIGNET CELL

Every battle turns on one cell. Sinking the whole fleet still wins, but a single well reasoned shot can end everything first. When you strike a hull that conceals the signet you are told only that the signet is near. You are never told where. That one report turns a routine bracket into a race.

ROYAL DECREES

Gunnery earns signet favour, and favour buys orders from the court.

Royal Spyglass sweeps a three by three window of enemy water and reports how many hull cells sit inside it, without saying which.

Full Broadside rolls out the guns and fires three cells in a line at once.

Writ of Careen sends the carpenters below and mends one point of damage on a hull of your own.

Summon Tempest calls the weather down on enemy water, where five shots land where they will.

TWELVE REALMS

The campaign runs twelve realms along one long blockade, each held by a named lord with a different temper and a different set of house rules. Perrin Vale keeps a quiet harbour. Bern Castellan has dismissed the court entirely, so no decrees are granted in his waters. Iriane Sorrel seals her galleon as well, giving you two ways to fall. Aurelian Rook, the pretender, waits at the end of the line. Every realm awards up to three stars.

SKIRMISH AND DUEL

Skirmish sets a single battle against the court navy. Choose your waters from Narrow Bay at eight by eight, Open Sea at ten by ten or High Seas at twelve by twelve. Choose your rival from Cadet, Corsair or Admiral. Then switch on any house rules you like.

Fog of War announces no sinkings at all. You will know you struck something and never know when a hull went down.

Twin Signet conceals a second signet aboard your galleon.

Salvo Law removes the extra shot for a hit, so every turn is exactly one shot.

Iron Tide withdraws every decree and leaves you with cannon and nerve.

Duel hands the device back and forth between two admirals on one screen. A wax seal covers the chart between turns so neither one reads the other fleet.