Players take on the roles of infamous pirates such as “Calico Jack” Rackham, Anne Bonny, Blackbeard (a.k.a. Edward Teach), Mary Read, and Charles Vane in YOHO: You Only Hang Once. In this competitive card game of hidden treasure, stormy seas, and pirate politics, players attempt to dodge the accusations of the other players as to who has stolen the loot. Don’t be the pirate with the greatest blame or walking the plank will be your fate! YOHO (You Only Hang Once), or YOHO for short, is a game for 2-4 players that will have you talking like a pirate as you sail the high seas in search of the guilty in no time!

YOHO is a new game put out by Sabrewolf Games and reimplements mechanics from the Game of Blame. Both games were designed by Richard Wolfrik Galland and focus on take-that tactics mixed in with some card counting. Galland has also designed Jane Austin’s Matchmaker, Jane Austin’s Revenge, and the upcoming game VERSA. Kenneth Anderson provided the illustrations for the game and Gavin Tyler did the graphic design.

Regardless of player count, all five of the Pirates will be used during a game of YOHO. All players will choose a Pirate card and any remaining Pirates are placed in the center of the table in a row to be used later. All Pirates start LOYAL side up. Players must choose a Captain and the Captain will assign the remaining ranks amongst all Pirates. It is important to note that the Quartermaster Rank must go to an actual player. The Captain also shuffles the Blame deck and deals five cards to each player. While players may look at their hand of cards, they are meant to be hidden from all other players. The remaining cards are placed face down as a draw deck within reach of all players. The top card is flipped over to begin the Blame Pile. The Captain takes the Course card with PORT side up and takes the first turn.

Players begin their turn by drawing back up to a hand of five cards if they have fewer than that in their hands. They next need to play a card from their hand and the action on that card will be carried out, though it should be noted that they cannot play a card with the exact action as the one atop the blame pile currently. Possible actions include CHANGE COURSE!, DEMOTE, TURN, LAND HO!, STORM!, and ACCUSE. CHANGE COURSE! alters the order of play and affects what will happen during other actions based on whether is it set to port or starboard. DEMOTE cards will swap the rank of two Pirates. TURN cards will cause a Pirate to change their current loyalties to the Captain of the ship. LAND HO! allows the Captain and rebel Pirates to bury cards from their hands. Storm cards will cause players to exchange hands. ACCUSE, possibly the most important to the changing of power and to the winning of the game, will let one player enter an argument with another in an attempt to deface them in front of the crew. The resolution of this process is done by looking at each card in the Blame Pile and assigning a point of blame to the two Pirates engaged for each card that has a number matching their current rank. Loyal Pirates may avoid blame if the ship is heading port, but ultimately the player who holds the most blame will be made to take the pile into their hand. If the Captain loses an accusation attempt he will be demoted to the lowest rank and the loyalty of every other Pirate in play will shift.

The game continues in such a manner until the last card is drawn from the deck at which point the game immediately ends and goes into final scoring. Each player must count the cards from their own hand in the same manner as an accusation: counting one point of Blame for each card matching their rank. If they are caught with the treasure in their possession they will add even more points The Captain will add even more points for each unloyal pirate in his crew. Finally, the ship’s course is taken into consideration again and final scores are determined. The player with the highest blame is shunned by the crew as the culprit and made to walk the plank while those that remain consider their rank as their score with an extra five points to any player holding or having buried the treasure card. The highest score wins and will be the Captain when starting the next game.

We found that the play is quick-paced and will actually go faster when there are more players in the game as several Pirate abilities draw the deck down quicker and the game ends when the deck runs out. Many of our games took as little as 10 minutes for a round up to just over half an hour. Even at a two-player count, the game still plays well though the treasure card becomes moot as one of the two will walk the plank regardless. I really like the range of pirates represented in the game as it allows for both male and female inclusion while also having several of my favorite pirates from the Golden Age of Piracy: Anne Bonny, Charles Vane, and Edward Teach. Pirate games, in general, are a huge thematic draw for me and we own quite a large collection of them, but none of them really fills the niche that YOHO seems to. This makes YOHO an excellent choice when looking for something different within the pirate genre. We found this game to be fun, quick, thematic, and unique. These qualities attribute to making YOHO a definite recommendation to add to your game shelf.

All photos of Saberwolf Games product were taken and edited by Krista.