Scoundrel

Full rules

1. Overview
2. Setup
3. The cards
4. A turn: entering a room
5. Weapons (♦)
6. Potions (♥)
7. Monsters (♣ ♠)
8. End of the game
9. Scoring
10. Tips for beginners
11. Variants

Overview

Scoundrel is a solo card game that plays like a tiny dungeon adventure. The shuffled deck is the dungeon; you explore it four cards at a time. Black cards are monsters that hurt you, diamonds are weapons that soften their blows, and hearts are potions that heal you. You start with 20 health. Get through the whole dungeon alive and you have won – your remaining health is your score.

• Players: 1.
• You need: one standard deck, and paper and pencil to track your health (or a good memory).

Designed by Zach Gage and Kurt Bieg (2011) – official rules: Scoundrel (PDF).

Setup

1. Take out the jokers, the red face cards (J, Q, K of ♥ and ♦) and the red Aces. They are not used. 44 cards remain.
2. Shuffle the rest and put it face down to your left: this is the dungeon.
3. Write down 20 – your starting health. It can never go above 20.
4. Keep room for a face-down discard pile on your right.

The cards

A turn: entering a room

Turn over cards from the top of the dungeon, one by one, until four cards lie face up in a row in front of you. These four cards are a room.

Now decide: avoid the room or face it.

• Avoid: pick up all four cards together and put them under the dungeon. Then deal a new room. You may avoid as often as you like, but never two rooms in a row.
• Face: take three of the four cards, one after the other, in any order you like. What happens depends on the card (see below). The fourth card stays on the table and becomes part of the next room: turn over three new cards to join it.

Weapons (♦)

When you take 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.

Potions (♥)

Add the potion's value to your health (never above 20), then discard it. Only one potion per turn counts: if you take a second potion in the same room, it is simply discarded without healing you.

Monsters (♣ ♠)

You fight a monster either 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, you may use it only against monsters that are not stronger than the last monster on it – equal is fine (the original wording reads "lower value (less than equal)"). A stronger monster must be fought bare-handed. The weapon is not lost, though: you keep it for later monsters that are not stronger.

Example: Your weapon is the 5♦. You fight a Jack (11) with it and lose 11 − 5 = 6 health. Next you meet a 6♣: 6 is lower than 11, so you may use the weapon and lose 1. Then a Queen (12) appears: it is higher than 6, the last monster on the weapon, so you must fight it bare-handed and lose 12 – or first pick up a new weapon from the room.

End of the game

The game ends when your health reaches 0 or less (you lose) or when you have made your way through the whole dungeon (you win). The original rules don't say exactly how the last few cards are handled when fewer than four are left. We suggest: when the dungeon can't fill a room of four any more, turn up what is left. This last room can't be avoided, and you take all its cards, one by one (the limit of three does not apply).

Scoring

• You won: your score is your remaining health. If your health is exactly 20 and the very last card you took was a potion, add that potion's value.
• You lost: add up the values of all monsters still left in the dungeon and subtract them from your health. The negative result is your score.

Example: With 3 health left you fight the K♠ bare-handed: 3 − 13 = −10, and you are dead. A 9♠ and the K♣ are still in the dungeon, so your score is −10 − 9 − 13 = −32.

Tips for beginners

• Don't waste a strong weapon on a small monster. Hit the biggest monster first – after that, the weapon still works on everything smaller.
• Leave the worst card behind. You only take three of four cards; the fourth waits for the next room, when you might be better prepared.
• Avoiding isn't free. The avoided cards come back at the end, and you can't avoid the next room.
• One potion per room. If a room holds two potions, take one and leave the other as the fourth card.
• Count the big monsters. Two Aces, two Kings and two Queens are out there – plan a weapon for them.

Variants

All optional.

• Strict weapons: a used weapon only works against monsters strictly lower than the last one it killed – harder.