Live or Blank
The Purser, a drowned diver in a copper helmet, holds a lever-action gun across a candlelit card table.

Live or Blank

A wager at the bottom of the sea.

Across the card table sits the Purser, a drowned diver in a copper helmet. Between you lies a lever-action gun loaded with live shells and blanks. You know how many of each. Never the order.

Download on the App Store Coming soon to iPhone How a night goes

The wager

Live or blank. Your call.

  1. The load

    The shells are laid out and counted, red for live, bone for blank. Then they go into the gun in an order nobody sees.

  2. Your turn

    Fire at him, or at yourself. A blank at yourself keeps your turn. A live shell blows out a candle and passes it.

  3. The tide

    Candles are lives. Three rounds, and the water rises with each one. Win all three and you surface.

From a real night

Every shot is a reveal.

Shells counted on the table before the load
One live. Two blank. In what order?
The Purser holds the gun on you
He holds it on you.
Through the spyglass, the chambered shell is live
The spyglass shows the chambered shell.
An octopus arm reaches across the table for one of his items
The octopus steals from his side.

The manifest

Nine things salvaged from the wreck.

From round II, a sea chest deals items to both sides of the table. Use as many as you like before you fire.

Spyglass
See the chambered shell.
Compass
Learn one shell further down the gun.
Hook
Pull the chambered shell out.
Match
Relight a candle.
Grog
Even odds: two candles back, or one gutters out.
Black Powder
The next live shell takes two candles.
Shackle
The other side skips its next turn.
Octopus
Fetches one of their items, and you use it at once.
Tide Glass
Turns the chambered shell over. Live becomes blank, blank becomes live.

Three ways to play

Sit down. Go deeper. Bring a friend.

A night

Three rounds against the Purser. Lose round III and the night is over.

Deeper

Double or nothing. Win a set, then surface with your salvage or dive again and it doubles. Lose one round and the sea keeps everything. Dives played online are checked move by move and ranked on a board.

Play someone

An online duel against another person, refereed by the server. Quick match, or invite a friend with a six-letter code.