Ready for a controversial take here on Blood & Pigment? Here goes.

You should read your Blood & Plunder rulebook.

There. I said it.

The Curious Problem

The Blood & Plunder community is helpful and friendly, and a lot of players learn the game through being taught in person. Maybe you get a demo at your local game store, or a convention. This is a fantastic way to learn how to play a game like Blood & Plunder. You get the basics down, quick and easy, and you can see everything on the table right away.

This is probably the best way to get the basic rules down and get rolling.

But don’t forget to read the rulebook.

This may not be as widespread as it sometimes feels, but there is is a significant segment (I won’t say minority) of the Blood & Plunder player base that hasn’t actually read through the Blood & Plunder rulebook. While there’s no rule (in the rulebook at least) that you got to read the rulebook, I would like to propose that you will enjoy your wargaming hobby more, and be able to help other players enjoy their hobby more, if you take the time to actually read the rule set.

Disclaimer

If you’re just getting into the game and did your first demo yesterday or last week, this isn’t aimed at you. But if you’ve been playing Blood & Plunder for a few months, or a year, or several years, this is written to help you (make you feel guilty)

This article should read in the light-hearted manner in which is was written. This is a game and you should approach it in a way that you can enjoy. But I still have an axe to grind!

The Vast & Complex Wargaming Hobby

Wargaming is a multifaceted hobby. Each player of Blood & Plunder has a different amount of interest in various parts of the hobby, the wargaming through Blood & Plunder can include:

• Painting Miniatures
• Study of History
• Kitbashing or Sculpting Miniatures
• Crafting Terrain
• Studying Ships & Rigging
• Learning to Rig Model Ships
• 3D Printing and/or Sculpting
• Theory Crafting Forces
• Designing scenarios or campaigns
• Social Interaction with Like-Minded People
• Playing Blood & Plunder

Some players actually enjoy the hobbying and painting more than actually playing the game, Or you might even enjoy the history more than playing the game.

But, if you are playing Blood & Plunder, you should really read through the full set of rules.

Reasons to Read Your Rulebook

Do you need more convincing? Here’s some good reasons to read your rulebook.

You’ll Enjoy the Game More

If you know what’s going on, you can more fully enjoy the game in front of you. You’ll be referencing stuff less, having to make random coin flips less, and you’ll be able to explore the game deeper if you have the core rules set down well.

You’ll be Able to Teach Others

If you know your ruleset really well, you will be able run a demo, and, very importantly, answer the oddball questions that new players ask.

You Can Enjoy Competitive Events

You’ll be able to enjoy a competitive event a lot more if you have read through and digested your full ruleset. Three advantages here:

1. You’ll have a better chance of winning
2. You’ll have the ability to help a new player enjoy the tournament
3. You’ll be able to help people with n rules errors they might be making

This final point is important. Some players have an overabundance of confidence, or have an objective and they sometimes have more drive than they do knowledge of the rules. This can result in a confident player making some significant mistakes that tend to be to their advantage. If you know your rules and someone starts to pull some fishy 8-action,-double charge-super ruthless-legendary gunner activation shenanigans on you, you can call them on it and make sure it’s legit!

I’ve seen some pretty big mistakes happen within games that made one party feel pretty bad about things. If both sides know the rules well, that kind of thing can be avoided!

You Can Get Into the Real Fun of Force Building

Blood & Plunder has a wealth of force building options. With nearly 100 factions, a multitude of unique commanders and units, and lots of little choices to make.

If you know your basic rules really well, all those choices tend to have more meaning and you can find fun combos, and create a wide range of forces and that be very rewarding.

You Owe it to Your Opponent

If you’re playing a game, you’re playing with (or technically against) someone. I would like to suggest that you owe it to that person to know the basic rules at a reasonable level. You’ve both spent a lot of time and effort to come out and commit time to playing a game, you’ve both spent time building and painting an army. Knowing the rules would be treating them as you would want to be treated. Smack ya with the Golden Rule!

It Is Fun

Well, it can be. Set aside some time, make a cup of your favorite beverage, and sit down and read 70 pages of nerdy rules about pirates. You’ll have a good time. Almost guaranteed.

Maybe you’ll find a rule that blows your mind you can annoy all your gamer friends by pointing it out to them over and over. That’s always fun.

Yeah, But…

I don’t like reading. I don’t learn well by reading off a page. It’s boring. I already know this.

Maybe that’s all true. But I would like to cheerfully suggest that its probably not.

You will not die if you buckle down and read it.

Reading through the rulebook takes a couple hours. About the same time as playing one game. Less time that painting a handful of models. It’s a foundational part of your wargaming hobby and I would enthusiastically encourage you to not skip it! Go read your rule book! There’s only about 70 pages of actual rules! Seventy pages. You can do it.

Not to be holier-than-thou, but I make a point of reading the full rule set from cover to cover (well, maybe not all the not-rules part of the book) every year. I read through in prep for Adepticon, because I know it will help me have all the rules fresh for helping run games, participating in tournaments, or answering questions during events. I bring it in my backpack and just read through the book on the plane.

Which Rulebook?

There are several books out for Blood & Plunder now. Read the core rulebook. The Revised Edition or the softcover from the Blackbeard vs. Maynard are the best choices right now. The original black-covered rulebook has some material that has been replaced (Cannons and Bows are notable examples).

The “Revised Edition” and the soft cover Blackbeard vs. Maynard have the same rules pages in them with the forces included being the only significant difference (17th century vs 18th century forces.

For a helpful overview of all the different Blood & Plunder books out there, check out this great article on the Dead Man’s Chest blog.

Errata

As with most competitive games, the ruleset is regularly being tweaked to improve the game, and that can be annoying because it adds another document to read, and another place to reference to look for rules. I recommend reading it in its entirety, then printing it and keeping it with your rulebook for reference.

Important and relevant erratas include:

• 2026 Unit Update
• Core Rules Errata 1.4
• Raise the Black Errata Errata1.0
• No Peace Beyond the Line Errata 1.1

Or, for your convenience, we’ve combined all the errata docs into one mega pdf!

The FAQ isn’t always as important, but can be very helpful to review.

There’s also some useful new rules contained within the expansion books:

• Subsections, optional rules, and misc. material is contained within No Peace Beyond the Line. It’s worth a read, but some of it has been included into the new Revised Rulebook.
• Expanded Fortification rules are included in Fire on the Frontier.

I’ll use this opportunity to give people a heads up regarding another round of errata coming in the next few months!

Do It Now

It takes a little discipline, but setting aside some time to read through your rule book will very likely pay dividends and help you enjoy your Blood & Plunder hobby at a new level. If you haven’t read through the whole rule set in detail, do it now.

If you have read through it before but it’s been a good while since you read through it, its probably worth running through the book again and refreshing your memory.

Additional Recommended Reading

• Rulebook Guide on Dead Man’s Chest
• 2026 Unit Update Errata
• Errata 1.4 Explained
• Podcast Episode on Errata 1.4 (December 2024)
• 8 Rules You Might be Playing Incorrectly
• 8 MORE Rules You Might be Playing Incorrectly