Dungeon Solitaire: Tomb of Four Kings

Full rules

1. Overview
2. The cards
3. Setup
4. A turn
5. Monsters (♠)
6. Traps (♦)
7. Sealed doors (♣)
8. Hit points
9. Torches
10. Delve and retreat
11. Scoring
12. Tips for beginners
13. Variants

Overview

Dungeon Solitaire is a solo adventure played with an ordinary deck. You explore a dungeon one turn at a time: each turn you turn over cards until you meet an encounter – a monster, a trapped treasure or a sealed door – and then turn over more cards to overcome it. Along the way you gather treasure, skills and the blessings of a goddess. The aim is to find the hoards of the four Kings, collect as much treasure as you can and get out alive – before your hit points or your four torches run out.

• Players: 1.
• You need: one standard deck plus one joker (53 cards).

Designed by Matthew Lowes (2015) – official rules: Dungeon Solitaire: Tomb of Four Kings (free PDF).

The cards

Setup

1. Take out the 2–10 of hearts. Stack them face up in order, with the 10 on top and the 2 at the bottom. This is your hit point counter.
2. Shuffle the other 44 cards (with the joker) and hold them face down. You play every card from the top of this deck.
3. Keep room for the spread: a row at the top for burnt-out torches, the dungeon in the middle, and below it, from left to right, your discards, the hit point counter and your hand (face-up cards you collect).

A turn

Turn over cards one at a time and lay them overlapping in a column – this column is the turn.

• The first 2–10 of spades, diamonds or clubs is the encounter of this turn. Its suit says what you face: ♠ monster, ♦ trap, ♣ door.
• Every later 2–10 of those suits is an action card: an attempt to beat the encounter. For an action card, only its number counts, not its suit. It succeeds if it is equal to or higher than the encounter.

Whenever other cards turn up – before or after the encounter – deal with them at once and keep turning:

• Ace: a torch has burnt out. Put it face up in the torch row.
• Jack: a skill. Take it into your hand; you may use it right away or later. Each skill works once: afterwards it is stacked face down with the turn in which you used it.
• Queen: a divine favour. If the encounter is already there, you win it at once. If not, keep turning until the encounter appears – it is won immediately.
• King or joker: treasure. It stays in the turn; you get it if you win the encounter.

Winning an encounter: take all treasure of the turn into your hand – every 2–10 of diamonds in it (encounter or action card), every King and the joker. At least one card must stay behind to mark the turn; if the turn holds nothing but treasure, leave one treasure card there. Stack the rest face down: the turn is over.

Losing an encounter: you get no treasure; the whole turn, treasure included, is stacked face down.

Monsters (♠)

Keep turning action cards until one is equal to or higher than the monster. Every action card that is lower hurts you: you take damage = monster − action card. The fight goes on until you win with an action card, a Queen or Go Berserk (J♠).

Example: The encounter is the 6♠. The next card, the 4♣, is too low: you take 6 − 4 = 2 damage. Then comes the K♦ – treasure, it stays in the turn. Then the 9♦: 9 beats 6, the monster is dead. You take the K♦ and the 9♦ into your hand; the 6♠ and the 4♣ mark the turn.

Treasure drop: if you don't think you can win, you may escape once per fight – instead of turning the next card – by dropping a treasure card from your hand onto the turn. Its value must be at least the monster's; a King counts 10, the joker 6. The encounter is over, but the dropped card is lost and you collect no treasure from this turn.

Traps (♦)

You get one attempt: a single action card, a Queen, or Disarm Mechanism (J♦) played before it. If the action card is high enough, you pass and collect the treasure – including the trap card itself. If it is too low, you take damage = trap − action card, and the turn ends without treasure.

Sealed doors (♣)

You get one action card. If it opens the door (or a Queen appears, or you play Pick Lock (J♣)), you collect any treasure. If the action card fails, you may still play Pick Lock at once. Otherwise you must discard cards from the top of the deck: door − action card of them. Look at each: any Ace is placed in the torch row as usual; the rest go face down on your discards and are lost. The turn ends without treasure.

Example: The door is the 8♣ and your action card is the 5♦. You have no Pick Lock, so you discard 8 − 5 = 3 cards from the deck. One of them is an Ace: another torch burns out.

Hit points

When you take damage, turn over that many cards of your hit point counter. If the 2♥ is turned over, you are dead – you can take 8 damage in all and survive. Dodge Blow (J♥) cancels one blow: play it on your turned-over hit points instead of taking that damage.

Torches

When the fourth Ace appears, you are lost in the dark forever – the game is over. The joker (Scroll of Light) saves you once: if it is in your hand when the fourth Ace appears, put the scroll in the torch row and the Ace at the bottom of the deck. If that Ace turns up again, you are lost. You are lost in the dark, too, if the deck runs out before you are out of the dungeon (the rules leave this open; it rarely happens).

Delve and retreat

Your first turn goes in the top left of the dungeon area, the next turns to its right – this row is the delve, deeper and deeper into the dungeon. After any finished turn, before turning the first card of the next one, you may decide to turn back.

The retreat is played in a row below, from right to left: the first retreat turn goes under the second-to-last delve turn, and so on. So you need one retreat turn fewer than you had delve turns. When you finish the retreat turn below turn 1, you are out of the dungeon. Retreat turns work exactly like delve turns.

Scoring

• Out alive: add up your hand – each King 10, each diamond its number, the joker 6 (if still in your hand). Write the score as Kings / points, e.g. 3/41. At most 4/100 is possible.
• Won: you got out alive with all four Kings – whatever your points.
• Dead or lost in the dark: your score is 0.

Tips for beginners

• Know when to turn back. Every delve turn costs a retreat turn on the way out. With a couple of Kings in your hand and few hit points left, head home.
• Count the torches. Each Ace that has appeared brings the fourth one closer; discards from failed doors burn torches too.
• Keep the skills for big threats. Go Berserk against a 9 or 10 of spades is worth far more than against a 3.
• A treasure drop is a lifeline, not a bargain. It costs a card and the whole turn's loot – use it when the next blow might kill you.
• Hold the joker. As long as it is in your hand it is both a spare torch and 6 points.

Variants

All optional.

• Series: play three, five or ten games and add up your points, so surviving matters even when the four Kings are out of reach (suggested by the designer).