Käp'tän Buddel features a 6x6 grid of large dice, which represent a treasure-filled island. Players use the rolls of regular dice to place pirates on the island, move them around, and dig (by turning the island dice to higher numbers). Digging far enough gets you treasure chips and the object is to be the first to get chips valued at 15 gold. There is a "tactical" variant in which players get action points to spend each turn instead of rolling dice. The game was originally published in 1989 under the slightly different title of Käp'ten Buddel (in a limited edition of 100 copies), and then re-released in 1992 in Abacus' white-box series. In the later version the treasure chips are pulled from a bag, in the earlier version they are picked up with a magnet on a stick (the chip colors are also a bit different).