Skull King

Edition and deck: Follow the publisher-linked English manual whose credits run through ©2024, for 2–8 players. Use Green Parrot, Purple Map, Yellow Chest and Black Jolly Roger suits numbered 1–14, plus five Pirates, one Tigress, one Skull King, two Mermaids and five Escapes. Remove blanks, Loot, Kraken and White Whale, distribute reference and bid reminders, and shuffle the rest. Unique Pirate powers and Rascal scoring are optional and are not active here.

Rounds and deal: Standard play lasts ten rounds. Each player receives one card in round one, and the number usually increases by one per round. When the player count and available cards prevent another increase, follow the rules' card-count cap for the remaining rounds; in an eight-player game, each player receives eight cards in rounds nine and ten. After the deal, everyone examines their own cards and simultaneously makes a secret bid for the number of tricks they expect to win. Once revealed, a bid cannot be changed for that round.

Leading and follow suit: The dealer’s left-hand player leads the first trick and each winner leads the next, with one card per player clockwise. If a numbered suit leads, a numbered play must follow when able, but any special card may be used instead. An Escape or escaped Tigress defers the lead decision: the first non-Escape play sets a suit if numbered, or makes the trick unrestricted if a Pirate, Skull King or Mermaid. Declare Tigress as Pirate or Escape immediately when played, before seeing later cards.

Ranks and equal characters: Black trumps all other numbers; without a trump only the led suit can win, regardless of higher off-suit numbers. Pirates beat numbers and Mermaids, with the first Pirate winning among Pirates. Skull King beats Pirates and numbers. Mermaids beat Skull King and numbers but lose to Pirates; the first Mermaid beats a later one. If all three character kinds appear, Mermaid wins regardless of order. A trick consisting only of Escapes or escaped Tigress is won by its first Escape, so Escape cannot guarantee avoiding a trick.

Standard scoring: A correct non-zero bid scores 20 points per trick bid. If the player takes more or fewer tricks than bid, subtract 10 points for each trick of difference. A correct zero bid scores 10 points for every card dealt to that player in the round. If a zero bidder takes at least one trick, the bid fails and costs 10 points per card dealt. Rascal is an alternative scoring method in the rulebook and must not be mixed into standard scoring.

Capture bonuses: The rulebook awards additional points for captured 14s and character combinations: each captured 14 in a regular suit is worth 10 points, while a captured black 14 is worth 20. A Pirate capturing a Mermaid earns 20, the Skull King capturing a Pirate earns 30, and a Mermaid capturing the Skull King earns 40. These bonuses are added only when the player's bid for the round is correct; they do not rescue an inaccurate bid. If all three characters appear together, the Mermaid wins and receives the applicable Skull King capture bonus without stacking the other capture combinations.

Round scoring: After all tricks in a round are played, count each player's tricks and compare them with their bids. Apply the standard bid score or penalty, then add any capture bonus for a player whose prediction was accurate. A miss and a zero bid use different calculations, so do not score either as a simple number of tricks won. Add each result to the cumulative total, gather the cards, and deal the next round; larger hands increase both the information available and the uncertainty of predicting outcomes. The player who led first this round shuffles and deals the next, passing its first lead clockwise.

Two-player Graybeard: Deal three hands; keep the ghost’s hand face down, and alternate the human who leads each round. When a human leads a trick, flip Graybeard’s top card second without following suit. If Graybeard wins, he leads the next trick by flipping first, and the human who led that round plays second. His Tigress always acts as Escape and two players never use Loot. Do not turn the usual second-position rule into a claim that the ghost can never lead, or let a human inspect and select his cards.

Game end: After round ten in the standard game, compare cumulative scores; the highest total wins. If two or more players tie for the highest score, the official rules call for further rounds until the tie is broken. Follow the rules for dealing and scoring that tiebreaker instead of treating a shared victory as the default. If an advanced module or separate expansion is used, apply its own instructions and identify it as an optional module rather than a universal base-game rule.