Donsol

Full rules

1. Overview
2. Setup
3. The cards
4. Clearing a room
5. Escaping a room
6. End of the game
7. Tips for beginners
8. Variants

Overview

Donsol is a solo card game about exploring a dungeon. The whole shuffled deck, jokers included, is the dungeon; you go through it four cards at a time. Clubs, spades and the two jokers are monsters, diamonds are shields and hearts are potions. You start with 21 health. Deal with every card in the deck before your health runs out and you have won.

• Players: 1.
• You need: one standard deck with both jokers (54 cards), and paper and pencil to track your health.

Designed by John Eternal (2015); the rules are published by Hundred Rabbits, who made the Donsol app – official rules: Donsol – XXIIVV.

Setup

1. Shuffle all 54 cards and put them face down in front of you: this is the dungeon.
2. Write down 21 – your starting health. It can never go above 21.
3. Deal the top four cards face up in a row. These four cards are a room.

The cards

Clearing a room

Take the cards of the room one at a time, in any order you like, and resolve each one (see below). When all four cards are gone, the room is cleared: deal the next four cards as a new room. Instead of clearing a room you may sometimes escape it (see below).

Potions (♥)

Gain health equal to the potion's value (never above 21), then discard it.

Sickness: if you drink a potion right after another potion – without taking a shield or fighting a monster in between – you get sick, and the second potion heals nothing. This counts across rooms, too.

Shields (♦)

Put the shield face up in front of you. If you already have a shield, discard the old one (and any monsters lying on it). You can only ever have one shield.

Monsters (♣ ♠ and jokers)

You must fight every monster you take.

• Without a shield, you lose health equal to the monster's value.
• With a shield, the shield is used automatically: you lose only the monster's value minus the shield's value – nothing if the shield is as high or higher. Put the monster on the shield, overlapping so both numbers stay visible.

Shields break. A used shield only holds against monsters lower than the last monster lying on it. If you fight a monster that is equal or higher, the shield breaks: discard it (with its monsters), and you take the monster's full value.

Example: You have the 8♦ as your shield and 15 health. You fight the 10♣: you lose 10 − 8 = 2 (health 13), and the 10♣ goes on the shield. Next you fight the 6♠: 6 is lower than 10, and the shield absorbs all of it. Then comes the J♠ (11): 11 is higher than 6, so the shield breaks – you lose the full 11 (health 2). Had you taken a new shield before the Jack, it would have protected you.

Escaping a room

Instead of clearing the room, you may escape it:

• if you did not escape the previous room, or
• if no monsters are left in the current room.

To escape, put the room's remaining cards back into the dungeon, shuffle it and deal a new room of four. In the first room you may always escape.

End of the game

• If your health reaches 0, you have lost.
• If you have dealt with every card of the dungeon, you have won. (The last room may have fewer than four cards.)

Tips for beginners

• Order matters. In a room, fight the big monsters first while your shield is fresh, then the smaller ones – each one lower than the last.
• Take a new shield before a big monster if your old one has already stopped a smaller monster.
• Never drink two potions in a row. Put a shield or a monster in between – or save the second potion for the next room.
• Watch the jokers. Each deals 21 – a full-health hit. Try to meet them with a high shield.
• Save your escape. Running away from a room full of monsters is powerful, but you can't do it twice in a row.

Variants

According to Hundred Rabbits, the Donsol app offers three difficulty levels. The rule above – the one on the official rules page – is Easy.

• Normal: you may only escape if you did not escape the previous room.
• Hard: you may only escape once no monsters are left in the room.