Pirate Game: Party Ideas and Tips

A Few Other Tips to Turn Our Game into a Swashbuckling Party (Music, Dance and Slang)

Avast: Sound Tracks to Set the Scene for a Pirating Party 

Consider creating a soundtrack to play when guests are arriving, when guests are completing the Accusation Sheet and, optionally, during food breaks.

The most famous fictional sea song is "Fifteen Men on a Dead Man's Chest" from Robert Louis Stevenson's "Treasure Island" - different people have recorded versions of this. Sea Shanties include "What Shall We Do With the Drunken Sailor?",  "Ballad of Captain Kidd" and "Blow the Man Down". Some modern-day artists have also produced great sea shanties: "Wellerman - Sea Shanty" (Nathan Evans), "A Drop of Nelson's Blood" (Storm Weather Shanty Choir), "Blackbeard" (Theron Statler), "Away Rio" (The Jolly Rogers), "The Last Shanty" (Derina Harvey Band), "Johnny I Hardly Knew Ye" (The Irish Rovers), "The Mermaid" (The Clancy Brothers, Tommy Makem), Sam's Gone Away (Kimber's Men) and "The Last Shanty" (The Celtic Connection).

Or include soundtracks from a pirate-themed film of your choice.

The Sailer's Hornpipe is a fast-paced, catchy, well-known orchestral piece.

Optional Singing or Chanting

Use the placemat settings found in Zip 7 (Optional Menu and Place Settings zip). These placemats give each character the version of the famous  "Yo Ho Ho and a Bottle of Rum" song used in our game. (This song is adapted from the famous lines found in Robert Louis Stevenson's "Treasure Island".) 

Divide your party into two or more teams and see who can sing or chant best - or loudest.

Optional Dance

Optionally ask one of your guests to give a display of the Hornpipe during a break betwen the rounds - or even to teach it to those wanting to learn!

Impress Your Mateys With the Right Slang

We've found that experimenting with slang and accents can really add to the fun of a party; as host, it is a good idea to encourage this.

However, not every guest wants to spend time researching their role. Therefore, we provide appropriate dialogue suggestions as part of the pre-party and party booklets. These are tailored to the background of each character.

• For those guests who are playing pirate characters, the party booklets give dialogue suggestions written with amusing slang insults such as "bilge rat", "scurvy dog" and "scabby sea bass" already included - not to mention a few well-known phrases such as "shiver me timbers", "Yo ho ho" and "savvy that".  To ring the changes and keep guests interested, each pirate character has their own unique way of speaking. For example, One-eyed Shark insults people with fish names ("yer rotting catfish").
• For Lady Dorothy, Lady Desiree, Admiral and Parson, the party booklets are written with a few slang phrases common in the 18th century such as "blast your toplights" or "your evidence is enough to make a dog laugh."
• For Tempest and Torrent, the party booklets are written with a few suggestions of a Caribbean accent already included.
• In addition, as Captain Hugh is from Ireland and Maroon-'em Mary is from Scotland, their party booklets have the odd Irish and Scottish dialect suggestions.