Port Royal Solo: Turning the AI Into a Deck of Cards

 

Making Port Royal Solo Easier – Printable AI Cards, Event Cards and Deployment Deck

One of the few things that slowed down my solo games of Firelock Games' Port Royal was constantly flicking through the Opposing Forces rules. The AI itself is actually very straightforward once you understand it, but the presentation in the rulebook can interrupt the flow of a game.

So I decided to turn the solo system into a deck of printable cards. Now I simply draw a card whenever an Opposing Force activates and leave the rulebook on the shelf.

These are unofficial player aids for personal use. You'll still need the Port Royal rules, but I find the cards make solo games much faster.

The printable pack contains:

• 12 Opposing Force AI cards
• Matching card backs
• 10 Event cards
• 10 Scenario Variation cards
• 5 Deployment cards
• 10 spare Deployment backs
• Quick Reference Sheet

The Solo Rules cards

Once you strip it down, the AI only has three steps.

1. Who activates?
2. Draw a card.
3. Follow the instructions

This is a 12 card spread.  They come out quite small.  I actually printed them for myself as two 6 card groups on A4 sheets to make them easier to read!

I like streamlined solo systems, and actually replaced the cards entirely with my own.  These are the size of playing cards.
Draw it. Read it. Do it.

Everything needed is printed on the card.

The Scenario variations cards.

The Scenario Variation cards are better suited to cards than the Event Table, because you only need one Scenario Variation each game and can simply shuffle and draw one instead of rolling a d10.

I made a set of 10 Scenario Variation Cards in exactly the same style as the Event Cards:

Each card has:

• Large number in the corner.
• PORT ROYAL title.
• Red SCENARIO VARIATION subtitle.
• A simple black icon (warning sign, angry mob, gold ingot, crossed pistols, blazing sun, hourglass, fog, crossed swords, treasure chest, yin–yang/skull, etc.).
• The rules rewritten into concise bullet points rather than copied verbatim, making them much easier to use during play.

you simply:

Shuffle → Draw one card → Place it beside the table.

That fits perfectly with the Solo AI deck.

The Event Cards

The ten event cards speak for themselves

An event is rolled, or a card draw here, in Port Royal only when there is a tie on an initiative roll in the opening turn. If the players tie for initiative on the very first turn, you can roll a d10 on the Event Table to determine a random, thematic effect.

Or just draw one of my event cards!

Be aware that this is a one off.  In standard gameplay, events are not checked or rolled in every subsequent round. This differs slightly from the sister game, Blood & Plunder, where random events are typically generated by drawing a "Joker" from an activation deck

Lastly the scenario deployment cards.

I did these with the card backs on the same sheet, again ten cards.  I think these deployment maps are actually much more useful as cards than as pages in the rulebook. Rather than finding the page each game, you can simply draw one and place it beside the table

Each card contains:

• PORT ROYAL
• DEPLOYMENT
• Large deployment diagram reproduced in colour.
• Deployment name.
• The special deployment rules beneath the map.
• Small reminder:
  • Blue = Active Player
  • Red = Reactive Player
  • Yellow = Objectives/Plunder (if used)

Backs (5 Cards)

Matching my grouos of 10 cards:

• White background.
• Centre title: PORT ROYAL DEPLOYMENT
• Small engraved flintlock pistol beneath.
• Thin Victorian-style divider.
• Black & white only.

After a few solo games, I found I was hardly opening the rulebook at all. Draw a card, resolve the activation and carry on playing. That's exactly what I wanted.

If you're a solo Port Royal player, I hope you find these as useful as I have. Feel free to download them, print them out and let me know how they work in your own games