Scoundrel for Two

Full rules

1. Overview
2. The cards
3. Setup
4. A turn: leading a room
5. The help card
6. Weapons (♦)
7. Potions (♥)
8. Monsters
9. The end of the dungeon
10. Scoring
11. Tips for beginners
12. Variants

Overview

Scoundrel for Two is a cooperative dungeon game for two players: you form one team and win or lose together. The shuffled deck is the dungeon, which you explore four cards at a time. Black cards and the red J, Q, K and A are monsters that hurt you, diamonds are weapons, hearts are potions that heal you. Each of you has your own health and your own weapon, and you take turns leading the way through the rooms. Get through the whole dungeon with both heroes alive and you have won.

• Players: 2.
• You need: one standard 52-card deck without jokers, and paper and pencil to track both heroes' health.

Scoundrel for Two is a new game written for this site and not yet playtested: our own two-player cooperative version of the solo game Scoundrel by Zach Gage and Kurt Bieg (2011). The monsters, weapons, potions and rooms work as in Scoundrel; the bigger dungeon, the turns and the help card are new.

The cards

You play with all 52 cards. Compared with solo Scoundrel, the red face cards and red Aces are no longer taken out – they join the monsters, because two heroes need a bigger dungeon.

Setup

1. Shuffle all 52 cards and put them face down between you: this is the dungeon.
2. Each hero starts with 20 health. Write down both numbers. Nobody's health can ever go above 20.
3. Keep room for a face-down discard pile and for each hero's weapon in front of them.
4. Decide who leads the first room.

You may talk about everything at any time – all cards on the table are open. Whoever leads a room has the last word about it.

A turn: leading a room

Turn over cards from the top of the dungeon, one by one, until four cards lie face up in a row. These four cards are a room. The leader decides: avoid it or face it.

• Avoid: put all four cards together under the dungeon and deal a new room. The same hero leads it and must face it: the team may never avoid two rooms in a row.
• Face: the leader takes three of the four cards, one after the other, in any order. Each card works as described below – normally on the leader. The fourth card stays on the table and becomes part of the next room.

Then the other hero leads the next room: turn over three new cards to join the one that was left. You take turns like this until the end.

The help card

Of the three cards the leader takes from a room, the leader may give one to the partner. The partner uses it at once, as if they had taken it themselves:

• a weapon – the partner must equip it (their old weapon goes to the discard pile),
• a potion – the partner heals,
• even a monster – the partner fights it, bare-handed or with their own weapon.

Only one card per room may go to the partner. Nothing else can change hands: you can't give away a weapon you have already equipped, and you can't share health.

Weapons (♦)

When you get a diamond, you must equip it: lay it face up in front of you. If you already had a weapon, that old weapon and all monsters lying on it go to the discard pile. Each hero has at most one weapon.

Potions (♥)

Add the potion's value to your health (never above 20), then discard it. Each hero can heal from only one potion per room. A second potion for the same hero in the same room is discarded without effect – but the leader may drink one and give the other to the partner as the help card.

Monsters

Fight a monster bare-handed or with your weapon:

• Bare-handed: lose health equal to the monster's full value. Discard the monster.
• With your weapon: lay the monster face up on your weapon, overlapping so the weapon's number stays visible. You lose only the monster's value minus the weapon's value – nothing if the weapon is as strong or stronger.

Weapons wear out. Once a weapon has killed a monster, it can only be used against monsters no higher than the last monster lying on it. A stronger monster must be fought bare-handed. You keep the weapon for weaker monsters later.

Example: Anna leads. She has 9 health and her 8♦ with a Q♣ on it, so it now works only against monsters up to 12. Ben has 17 health and no weapon. The room holds 10♦, K♥, 6♥ and 4♠. Fighting the K♥ (13) would cost Anna the full 13 – she would die. So Anna takes the 10♦ and gives it to Ben as the help card; he equips it. She drinks the 6♥ (9 → 15) and fights the 4♠ bare-handed (15 → 11), so that her 8♦ still works against monsters up to 12. The K♥ stays. Now Ben leads: three new cards join the K♥, and Ben kills it with his fresh 10♦, losing only 3.

The end of the dungeon

With 52 cards the dungeon runs out exactly as a room is completed: the 17th room you face is the last one, and once it is dealt the dungeon is empty. Its leader can't avoid it and must take all four cards, not just three. The help card may still be used (one card).

With 50 or 54 cards (see "Variants") the last room is short: when the dungeon runs out, the room is no longer filled up to four cards. Its leader can't avoid it and takes all the cards in it.

• You win together when the last card of the dungeon has been taken and both heroes are still alive.
• You lose together as soon as either hero's health drops to 0 or below.

Scoring

If you like to compare your games:

• Won: add both heroes' remaining health – 40 is perfect.
• Lost: add up the values of all monsters still in the dungeon and in the room, and write that as a negative score.

Tips for beginners

• Two weapons are your big advantage. Keep one strong, fresh weapon for the Kings and Aces, and let the other hero deal with the small monsters.
• Give the fourth card some thought. The card you leave behind goes to your partner's room – leave a monster your partner's weapon can handle, not one that fits yours.
• Use the help card for weapons. A new weapon is often worth more in the hands of the hero whose weapon is worn out.
• Watch the weaker hero. One death ends the game for both of you, so heal the hero with less health first.
• Count the big monsters. With the red J, Q, K and A there are now four of each: plan weapons for them.

Variants

All optional – agree before you start.

• Easier: take out the two red Aces (50 cards) – a good choice for your first games, as two heroes face many more big monsters than a solo player.
• Harder: add the two jokers as monsters worth 15 each.
• Strict weapons: a used weapon only works against monsters strictly lower than the last one it killed.
• Silent leader: the partner may not advise the leader – each hero decides their rooms alone.