After a life of raids and robberies, Captain Morgan retired from piracy. He created a magic map that would remind him where he buried his ill-gotten gains. He tore the map in many pieces to foil those who would try to find his treasures. Unfortunately for the old pirate, he was cursed by a sorceress many years ago. This curse has turned his torn-up map into a guide for others to find his treasures!

You have come into possession of many pieces of Morgan's map. Every time the fragments are rearranged, they magically point to the right place to dig! But other pirates have found parts of the magic map as well, so now you must race your fellow pirates to see who can collect the most valuable treasures before the map fades to dust forever.

Morgan's Magic Map is played over a series of turns in which players use map cards to locate where Captain Morgan has hidden his treasures. To set up, place the twenty map tiles in a 4x5 grid, with water and land edges always being adjacent to one another. Most map tiles include a reference point, such as The Tomb, The 3 Columns, or Big Nose Bay. Each player starts with two doubloons and four map cards in hand; each map card shows a reference point, a distance from the reference point, and a bonus icon.

On a turn, you can take a map tile that has a free edge and move it elsewhere, as long as the map stays in one piece, water touches water, and no pirate is on the tile. Next, you can move your pirate — which starts in a corner of the map — up to two spaces orthogonally. Then if you meet the condition on any map cards in hand, you can play them since you've followed their directions to find treasure. If, for example, a map card shows The Tomb and has a 3 on it, then you can play that map card if you are three (orthogonal) spaces away from The Tomb. Treasure cards come in six colors, and five cards are available on a treasure board, with the more valuable cards being deeper on the board. If you play three map cards on a turn, then you can take any one of the topmost three cards. The deeper you dig, the more doubloons you earn along with the treasure!

Each map card has a bonus on it, and once you've played a map card, you keep it in front of you until you use the bonus, whether to move an extra map tile, walk farther with your pirate, or dig deeper when you locate treasure.

Once the deck of treasure cards is exhausted, the game ends. For each of the six treasure types, whoever has the most of that type earns a 6 doubloon bonus, with tied players splitting the bonus. Sum up the doubloons you collected during the game, bonuses, and the value of the treasures themselves to see who ended up the richest pirate.