''Pirateer'' is a spatial

board game Board games are tabletop games that typically use . These pieces are moved or placed on a pre-marked board (playing surface) and often include elements of table, card, role-playing, and miniatures games as well. Many board games feature a co ...

for two to four players created by Scott Peterson in 1978. The game was originally named ''Privateer'', before being published by the Mendocino Game Company in 1995. The name of the game is apparently a combination of ''

privateer A privateer is a private person or ship that engages in maritime warfare under a commission of war. Since robbery under arms was a common aspect of seaborne trade, until the early 19th century all merchant ships carried arms. A sovereign or deleg ...

'' and ''

pirate Piracy is an act of robbery or criminal violence by ship or boat-borne attackers upon another ship or a coastal area, typically with the goal of stealing cargo and other valuable goods. Those who conduct acts of piracy are called pirates, v ...

''.

Gameplay

The objective of the game is for a player to either: return the centrally located treasure to their home port, or to capture all of their opponents' three ships, using movement restricted by dice rolls (two six-sided dice), obstacles, trade winds, and currents. The theme of the game is for each player to assume the role of a different band of three ships, with their own port and flag.

Mendocino Game Company and lawsuit

The aptly named Mendocino Game Company, based in

Mendocino County, California Mendocino County (; ''Mendocino'', Spanish for "of Mendoza) is a county located on the North Coast of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 91,601. The county seat is Ukiah. Mendocino County consists whol ...

, began publishing Pirateer in 1995. In 2002, the Mendocino Game Company ceased producing ''Pirateer''. The designer of the game, Scott Peterson, unsuccessfully

sued - A lawsuit is a proceeding by a party or parties against another in the civil court of law. The archaic term "suit in law" is found in only a small number of laws still in effect today. The term "lawsuit" is used in reference to a civil acti ...

board members for misappropriating

trade secrets Trade secrets are a type of intellectual property that includes formulas, practices, processes, designs, instruments, patterns, or compilations of information that have inherent economic value because they are not generally known or readily a ...

, breaching their

fiduciary duty A fiduciary is a person who holds a legal or ethical relationship of trust with one or more other parties (person or group of persons). Typically, a fiduciary prudently takes care of money or other assets for another person. One party, for examp ...

and conspiring to seize control of the company. The board members

counter-sued In a court of law, a party's claim is a counterclaim if one party asserts claims in response to the claims of another. In other words, if a plaintiff initiates a lawsuit and a defendant responds to the lawsuit with claims of their own against th ...

and, in 2009, a Mendocino County jury ordered Scott Peterson to pay $791,000 to investors and members of the company’s board of directors in

restitution The law of restitution is the law of gains-based recovery, in which a court orders the defendant to ''give up'' their gains to the claimant. It should be contrasted with the law of compensation, the law of loss-based recovery, in which a court ...

and punitive damages for defamation.

Critical reception

Forrest Johnson reviewed the original 1978 version of ''Privateer'' in ''

The Space Gamer ''The Space Gamer'' was a magazine dedicated to the subject of science fiction and fantasy board games and tabletop role-playing games. It quickly grew in importance and was an important and influential magazine in its subject matter from the ...

'' magazine, no. 39. He commented on the game by saying, "Simple, but not dull, ''Privateer'' takes almost no thought at all. A good game to bring out after the

bottle A bottle is a narrow-necked container made of an impermeable material (such as glass, plastic or aluminium) in various shapes and sizes that stores and transports liquids. Its mouth, at the bottling line, can be sealed with an internal stop ...

has gone around a couple of times." In 1996, Pirateer was one of just five board games to win the

Mensa Select Award Mensa Select is an annual award given by American Mensa Mensa is the largest and oldest high-IQ society in the world. It is a non-profit organisation open to people who score at the 98th percentile or higher on a standardised, supervised I ...

. It was also named "Game of the Year" by John Kovalic of the

Wisconsin State Journal The ''Wisconsin State Journal'' is a daily newspaper published in Madison, Wisconsin by Lee Enterprises. The newspaper, the second largest in Wisconsin, is primarily distributed in a 19 county region in south-central Wisconsin. As of September ...

, while film critic Mick LaSalle of the

San Francisco Chronicle The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and Michael H. de Young. The ...

called it "addictive" and Phil Bettel of the

Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television a ...

gave high marks to the instructions.

Reviews

*1985 Games 100https://archive.org/details/games-69-1985-november/page/n45/mode/2up

References

Board games introduced in 1978 Board game publishing companies Game manufacturers {{Board-game-stub

Gameplay

Mendocino Game Company and lawsuit

Critical reception

Reviews

Further reading

References