Tahiti
Published by Franjos
Design: Ralf zur Linde & Ralf E. Kahlert
English Translation by Chris Mellor
Transcription by Andy Daglish
Distributed from The Rules Bank by Mike Siggins

Contents

1 board; 
4 Yachts in player colours; 
4 stamped sheets in player colours, each with
1 Treasure Chest for money
1 screen to conceal cash-on-hand
15 Pearl Boats
1 Special Dice, 1-4 and two blank sides;
24 glass pearls, 6 each in colours: green, white, black, blue;
1 marker disc, Treasure Chest on one side, Ò$Ó symbol on the other.
Money in 1s and 5s.

Idea of Game

The board represents the surroundings of the South Sea island Tahiti. 
You try to occupy the most valuable pearl Banks with your Pearl 
Boats. Each player throws the dice in turn. After each die roll there is 
an auction amongst all the players. The winner of the bid moves his 
Yacht around the border track and deals with the space reached. At 
the end of the game your score is determined by the amount of 
money in the Treasure Chest and the value of the pearl Banks your 
pearl Boats occupy. The winner is the player with the highest score.

The Board

The Yachts are moved clockwise around the border track. Each of the 
12 spaces has a letter and a pearl colour marked on it. This shows 
what colour of pearl you have found OR where you have found it. 
The letters on the border track spaces correspond to the lettered 
rows and columns on the inner board.

Preparation

Each player places a Yacht on a border track space, and receives 15 
in money and a colour set of Pearl Boats, Treasure Chest, and screen. 
Each player in turn chooses a Pearl, all taking different colours. The 
Pearl colours have no connection with player colours and no player 
controls any Pearl colour. The marker disc is placed on Tahiti with 
the dollar [$] sign face up. The player with the most nautical 
appearance is the first player.

The Game

The first player throws the die. When a blank is thrown, what 
happens is determined by which side of the marker disc is face-up:

$ side: each player receives one dollar in money for each Pearl Boat 
he has on the board.


Treasure Chest side: each player in turn can stash between zero and 
ten dollars in the Treasure Chest, stating how much he is placing 
therein. This money counts for points towards winning the game, but 
is no longer available during the game and cannot be counted.

After either action, turn the marker disc to the other side.

In both cases the die is thrown once again by the same player, 
ignoring further blanks, until a number is thrown. If a number is 
thrown, this is auctioned amongst the players, each player bidding in 
turn, the player with the die making the first bid.

The Auction

You can only pass or raise the bid. The player who makes the last 
[winning] bid pays the bid to the player who passed first. The payer 
then moves his Yacht around the track a number of spaces equal to 
the die roll. If this player has neither pearl nor Pearl Boat, he can 
either take a pearl of the colour in the space on which his Yacht has 
landed, or he can place a Pearl Boat on that space to mark the letter 
row/column where a pearl can be found.

If you have either a pearl or a Pearl Boat [and you start with a pearl], 
then you must take the second component of a pearl/Pearl Boat pair 
and place it on the board in the Pearl BoatÕs row/column in an empty 
space.

Then the next player to the left of the die roller rolls the die for 
another round.

Pearl Depletion

If one colour of pearl runs out, then players allowed to take that 
colour can choose any of the three other colours instead.

End of Game

The game ends as soon as two colours of pearl are used up. If the last 
pearl taken can be placed in a Pearl Boat on the border track, then it 
is placed. Otherwise the game ends immediately.
						
Scoring

Points are scored on the board as well as dollars in the Treasure 
Chest [one point per dollar].

A Pearl Bank consists of pearls of the same colour, linked 
orthogonally, but not diagonally. The colour of Pearl Boats does not 
matter at this stage. 

The value of a Pearl Bank is the number of same colour pearls 
multiplied by the number of unoccupied spaces adjacent to any of 
those pearls, here diagonally counts as adjacent. The single island 
space in the middle of the board is counted as occupied.

The player who owns most Pearl Boats in a Pearl Bank gets full 
points for the Bank. All other players who own any Boats in the Pearl 
Bank gets half [rounded down] points. The player with most Treasure 
Chest money plus Pearl Bank points wins.