Well, here's a list of all the ideas for coins I've come up with. Any comments, esp. on balance, as well as other ideas are entreated.
My ideas for coins for Pieces of Eight as of 2/6/07
Themes for Ships: Military, Merchant, Ghost Ship, Swashbucklers
-Military: Mates, Cutlass, Pistol, 1+ Cannon(s), Boarding Party, Rally, Raid/Bring Her About
-Merchant: 1-2 Cannon, Bribe, Sabotage, Flying Silverware, Cutlasses, Pistols, Mates
-Ghost Ship: Ghost Ship, Traitor, Haunting
-Swashbuckers: Mates, Cutlasses, Pistols, Swinging in the Rigging, Deadman’s Turn, Barrel of Grog, Sabotage/Hijack, Boarding Party
Rally: When active, use to secretly turn your back and rearrange your deck and crow’s nest. (reusable Call to Quarters, give up pull from hold to not destroy it)
Bribe: When any opponent’s coin in destroyed, reactively destroy this coin to take into your aft (return as per Pillage) [maybe allow it to be put in fore or aft]
Sabotage: When one of your active coins is destroyed, reactively destroy this coin to destroy any coin of that opponent, except his Captain.
(might limit to reacting to destruction of open coins, or to just destroying any active coin, instead of any, but I think ANY fits the mood and makes this coin worth it and interesting)
Boarding Party: If there is an active Mate, destroy this coin to destroy any pair of fore and aft coins. (of one opponent; variation on a bomb)
Raid: Destroy this coin to randomly take a coin from any hold into your aft (variant on Pillage: any opponent’s or yours; maybe make it of choice…seems too much though)
Ghost Ship: If active [open?], reactively prevent the destruction of any one of your coins, except for itself. [an “external†monkey, protecting everything else, even from Broadside]
Pulley(s) [System?] / Swinging in the Rigging: When active, allow coins to be brought from the crow’s nest to the fore or aft during any of your Crow’s Nest phases. (a bit of a stretch, but allow things to be done during the Crow’s Nest phase; I’ve thought about having this done with a Monkey covering a Broadside/Captain, but I still think it could be balanced as it would take up an active [non-crow’s nest] spot.)
Anchor Drop / Drop Anchor / Deadman’s Turn / Bring Her About: Destroy this coin to destroy your crow’s nest coin [maybe any of your active coins] and then take another turn immediately after this one. [ever wanted to get something out of the crow's nest, but needed to do something else too....]
Pots and Pans / Scatter Shot / Flying Silverware: If there is an open cannon, destroy this coin to destroy any two coins, except the Captain. [a 2-for-1 combo with the cannon, in an interesting way] (yes….inspired by Pirates of the Caribbean (orig.), but com’on it’s a neat idea)
Traitor / Turncoat / Hijack / (Bribe??): Destroy this coin to use an opponent’s coin against himself or another opponent. (need a better name….hm?) (a one shot Pillage with a twist; could also have it destroy the coin it hijacked)
Haunting: Destroy this coin to force an opponent to not take an action, though he can destroy a crow’s nest coin without effect or call to Captain. (a weaker Black Spot, but any time you want to use it)