A game of sail and sword
Letters of Marque
Take a letter of marque, sail for a nation, and make your name at sea.
A modern successor to a classic pirate game of 1987, made to follow its rules. Begin with one ship, a small crew and a commission. Sail, trade and fight from 1560 to 1715, rise in rank, make political alliances, and retire with a fortune, if you live that long.
For Windows 10 and 11 · 15 languages · Keyboard, mouse and gamepad
A whole life at sea
Letters of Marque is an open career, not a list of missions. Where you sail, whom you fight and when you stop is up to you.
Your career, your way
Hunt merchant ships, chase pirates for the bounty, trade from port to port, or storm a rich town. Serve one nation loyally or play them against each other. Every choice changes how the governors see you.
Classic rules, made new
The careers, eras, nations, ships, sea battles, sword fights, governors and their families follow the 1987 original. The pictures, music, controls and screens are all new, in a smooth modern look.
Seven worlds to sail
Start in the Classic Caribbean, as the original did. Then sail the Americas, the Pacific and Asia, the North, the Mediterranean, the rivers of the Americas, or the whole world.
Easy to begin
Four difficulty levels, a first-voyage guide in which your mate suggests the next step, and a fencing lesson to learn the sword. The player’s manual explains every rule.
What you do
A closer look at the game. The player’s manual covers each part in detail.
Ships and sea battles
The wind decides everything at sea. Choose your course with care, keep your crew fed and paid, and know when to run.
- More than 25 kinds of ships, from pinnaces and sloops to galleons, junks and galleys
- Sea battles in real time: hold the wind, trade broadsides, aim at her sails, her hull or her decks
- Board an enemy ship, take her as a prize, or sink her
- The Spanish treasure fleet, pirate hunters and famous pirates to meet at sea
Spanish galleon
Frigate
JunkSword fights
When ships close to board, when you storm a town’s walls, when the crew mutinies, or when the guards catch you sneaking through a town at night, the captains settle it with the sword.
- Choose the rapier, the longsword or the cutlass: reach against weight
- Attack high, middle or low, slash, parry and give ground
- Fighters of many lands, each with the swords of their own culture
- Classic or modern controls, a fencing lesson and practice bouts
Ports and governors
Each town is painted as it looked in its own era and under its own flag. Every visit is a chance to sell, recruit, repair and hear the news.
- The tavern: new men, rumors, and old sailors with pieces of treasure maps
- The merchant: buy low, sell high, and sell the cargo of your prizes
- The shipyard: repairs, and ships to buy and sell
- The governor: the news of war and peace, rewards, and rank
- Divide the plunder when the crew grows restless
Ranks, fame and alliances
Serve a nation against its enemies and its governors promote you, from Ensign to Captain, Major, Colonel and Admiral, then to Baron, Count, Marquis and Duke, with land at each step.
- Fame that grows with your deeds, and a name for honor or for villainy
- Make alliances with a governor’s family
- Find your lost family, follow treasure maps, and hunt a great Inca treasure
- Retire when you choose, and take your place in the Hall of Fame
A governor, pleased with you
His family, perhapsFamous expeditions
Short games from history with fixed ships, men and goals. Command one from the main menu and see whether you can do better than the captains who were there.
More than fifty in all. A Weekly Challenge and a list of achievements wait on the main menu too.
- Francis Drake and the Silver Train, 1573
- Piet Heyn and the Treasure Fleet, 1628
- Henry Morgan at Portobelo, 1668
- The Great Relief of Malta, 1565
- Peter Easton and the Munster pirates, 1611
- Abel Tasman and the Southland, 1642
- Magellan and Elcano round the world, 1519
- Black Bart at Trepassey, 1720
Seven worlds
The Classic Caribbean comes first, as in the original. The expanded worlds bring new seas, nations, towns, ships and goods, each with eras of its own.
Classic Caribbean
1560 to 1700
The Caribbean, the Gulf of Mexico, Florida, the Bahamas and Bermuda, with the four original nations: Spain, England, France and the Dutch. Seven eras:
- 1560 The Silver Empire
- 1600 Merchants & Smugglers
- 1620 The New Colonists
- 1640 War for Profit
- 1660 The Buccaneer Heroes
- 1680 Pirates’ Sunset
- 1700 The Succession War
The Americas
1560 to 1715
Both coasts, from Newfoundland to Cape Horn: New France, New England, Brazil, the River Plate, the Spanish Pacific and the Manila galleon at Acapulco, and native nations to visit. The last era is the golden age of piracy.
Pacific and Asia
1560 to 1700
The Indian Ocean, the East Indies and the China Seas, from Mocha and Mozambique to Nagasaki, Manila and Acapulco: the trading companies, the Mughals and Marathas, and the great powers of China, Japan and Korea. Monsoon winds.
The North
1560 to 1640
Northern European waters from the Bay of Biscay to Shetland: the Channel, Ireland and the North Sea, from the Sea Beggars and the Elizabethan sea dogs to the Dunkirk privateers and the civil wars.
The Mediterranean
1560 to 1700
From Madeira and the Canaries to the Levant: the corsairs of Algiers, Tunis, Tripoli and Sale, the Knights of Malta, the Uskoks of Senj, Venice and the Ottomans.
The Whole World
1560 to 1700
Every coast from 60 degrees south to 72 north. Sail round the world east or west: the Americas, Asia, Atlantic Europe, the Mediterranean and the coasts of Africa.
Rivers of the Americas
Experimental
The Americas with the great rivers open. Your ships stop at each river’s mouth, and the men go on by canoe: to Montreal and Lake Ontario, the Illinois country, the Rio Negro, Asunción and more.
The details
Made to be comfortable to play today, in your own language and with the controls you prefer.
15 languages
Every word of the game, the towns and names included, in:
- English (US)
- English (UK)
- English (Australia)
- Deutsch
- Español
- Français
- Italiano
- Polski
- Português (Brasil)
- Türkçe
- Русский
- 日本語
- 한국어
- 简体中文
- 繁體中文
Four difficulty levels
The level sets how good your officers are, and how large your own share of the plunder is.
Saves
- Five save slots and an autosave
- Export a career to a file, and import it again
- In the Classic Caribbean you save in towns, as in the original; an option lets you save anywhere. The other worlds always do, with an autosave every week at sea.
Controls and options
- Play with the keyboard, the mouse or a gamepad
- Choose your own keys for each action
- Classic or modern sword fight controls
- Three text sizes, original music, and sound effects
Coming soon to itch.io
Letters of Marque will be released on itch.io soon. There is no download yet; this page will say when it is ready. The game is in beta: see the release notes for what is new in each version.
Letters of Marque for Windows
Coming soon to itch.ioSystem requirements
- Windows 10 or Windows 11, 64-bit
- About 600 MB of free disk space
- A screen of 1280 by 720 or larger
- A keyboard and a mouse, or a gamepad
- No account and no sign-in; the game plays offline
Your privacy
The game collects nothing about you. Your careers, saves and settings stay on your own computer.
The Windows app checks for updates from a server in Frankfurt, Germany. Nothing else leaves your computer.
Questions or ideas? Write to info@xn3tech.com.
In plain words
Is this the 1987 game?
No. Letters of Marque is a new game, written from scratch, that follows the rules of a classic pirate game of 1987. Its code, pictures, music and words are all new, and it is not connected with the makers of that game.
When and where can I get it?
Soon, on itch.io. There is no download here yet. When it is out, this page will say so.
Do I need the internet or an account?
No. There is no account and nothing to sign in to, and the game plays offline. The Windows app only checks a server in Frankfurt, Germany, for updates.
Is it history?
The places, nations, ships and famous captains are real, and with the historical timeline on, wars, treaties and new colonies come as they did in history. Your own career is yours to write.
How hard is it?
Choose Apprentice, Journeyman, Adventurer or Swashbuckler for each career. At Apprentice your officers warn you when food, morale or health run low, the sailing master estimates your longitude, and your enemies fence a little slower.
Does it run on a Mac or on Linux?
Not at first. Letters of Marque comes out for Windows 10 and 11.