Shipwrights of Marino is a simple economic game for 2 to 5 players. Players build airships, using resources from an ever-changing marketplace: Metal, Wood, Crew, Food, Rope, and Canvas. Prices for these resources fluctuate constantly, and your goal is to buy them cheaply, and finish the game with the most profit.

Along with basic resources, you can also invest in shipping expeditions that bring resources into the Market. Investors get the best deals on new deliveries, but sometimes those ships can bring back almost nothing!

Every contract earns money and launches a ship, and many finished contracts grant a special effect or ability. Collect the right mix of abilities, and your shipyard can work faster, racing ahead of the competition.

Buy the Deck and Board: You can order the 54-card Shipwrights deck, and the one-page game board, from DriveThruCards. You will also need some other basic components, listed below.

• Shipwrights Deck at DriveThruCards

• Shipwrights Board at DriveThruCards

Printing Files:

• Shipwrights Rules, PDF Version 3.6, 4/13/25

• Shipwrights Market Board (One Page), V 3.5b, 2/5/24

• Shipwrights Deck (54 cards), 3.5, 11/29/23

Components: You will need the board and cards above, as well as the following:

• Resource Tokens: 20 each in Black, Red, Blue, Green, Yellow, and White

• Dice: Six 6-sided dice

• Pawns (Explorer Ships): Six pawns matching the resource colors, and two more of any other color

• Money: Paper money or poker chips, roughly $100 per player

All of these items are basic and easy to find. See below for our Lego ship plans. For the resource tokens, we’re using Koplow chips, though those can be hard to find in orange (or brown). This is why Wood is a reddish orange, so red chips also work. We love the micro poker chips from Discount Poker Shop, though sadly they don’t come in white.

Lego Models: For fun, we’ve created instructions for the Lego sailing ships and airships we used in playtesting this game:

• Lego Sailing Ship (PDF)

• Lego Airship (PDF)

Videos: For help in playing the game and in assembling the game components above, James has made some helpful videos.

• How to Play Shipwrights of Marino

• How to Make Cards: Video showing three ways to make your own deck of cards.

• How to Make Game Boards: Video showing several ways to make your own game boards.

Where Did This Game Come From?

Shipwrights of Marino has been in development since October 2017, and was one of the ideas that led to After the Fog. This game is set in the Dew Point Universe, which you can read more about at World Anvil and also at the Library.

Old notebooks reveal an evolution from this core concept, which was first imagined in the Arsenale in Venice, into a game focusing on the exploring ships as they traversed the continent, and finally a game about territory control in the Highlands. Shipwrights is a return to the first of those concepts, After the Fog is the last, and the middle game called “Against the Sky” is stalled in development, but might get a new version soon!

You will see a few elements of traditional engine-building games in Shipwrights, with cards that work together to give players an advantage. You will also notice specific elements from another James Ernest game called Fish Cook. If you like the style of the marketplace in Shipwrights you should check out Fish Cook for a different take on the same idea. At the moment FIsh Cook is on sale along with the rest of the Cheapass Games catalog at Greater Than Games.

What Happens Next?

James is always trying to get publishers to pick up his new games, so you might also see this game bought, re-branded, and re-themed. It might end up back in Venice, or in outer space, or the North Pole in the time of the dinosaurs. Anything is possible.

In the meantime, please enjoy our latest version, and send us your feedback. If you enjoy our offerings, and want to keep us in the pink, you can support Crab Fragment Labs on Patreon.