This is a much briefer overview rather than the full review that this game deserves. That's because the prototype only just washed up on our shores and the Kickstarter for the game is already underway. We were keen to get something out about the game while the KS was still live and people still had a chance to get in on the campaign. That means we've only had an all-too brief chance to play the game. Suffice to say, however, we were left wanting more and we'll hopefully run a much fuller review when the finished version of the game is published.
You'll have guessed from the title that Shiver Me Timbers is a pirate game. Of course, there are already pirate games aplenty. What sets Shiver Me Timbers apart from most of the others is that it's a sandbox game. It's a game where you can follow whatever course you choose on your path to infamy and fortune: raiding, trading, treasure-hunting, duelling and completing open and secret missions. Think of Cody Miller's Xia: Legends of a Drift System (Far Off Games) set on a 'Pirates of the Caribbean'-style supernatural High Seas rather than Deep Space and you'll have a fair idea of how it feels to play Shiver Me Timbers.
In Shiver Me Timbers, 2–4 players each control their own ship. They are competing to be the first to meet the various objectives randomly selected for each game but they will at the start of play secretly choose which objectives they especially want to focus on and for which, if they are successful, they will score bonus points. The playing board is modular, so will vary with every play of the game. It's made up of sea lanes and islands - looking somewhat like the layout you end up with when playing GF9's Star Trek Ascendancy.
Shiver Me Timbers is designed by Michal Vitkovsky and published by Weltflucht Verlag. The art and design is by Andy Monks and Unique Litani Soparie and it incorporates ingenious modular pirate ships that are physically upgraded. It's so much more viscerally exciting to physically adds cannons, sections and sails to your ship model as compared with merely slapping an upgrade card onto a player board (tho' this game has shipshape player boards as well). It helps too that players each have their own treasure chests in which to stash their booty.
Check out Shiver Me Timbers at https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/shivermetimbers/shiver-me-timbers?ref=discovery&term=shiver me hearties while the campaign is still up and running. The creators are so confident that backers will enjoy the game that they're offering a full money back guarantee! After our initial plays of Shiver Me Timbers at Board's Eye View, however, we doubt that any of you landlubbers will want to return this game once you've got your hands on it.