Scoundrel

Overview

A solo roguelike with a 44-card deck. You are an unarmed adventurer trying to survive an endless dungeon, room by room.

Preparation

• The dungeon deck uses only black cards (clubs and spades, all 13 of each) plus the red suits from 2 to 10 (hearts and diamonds) — no jacks, queens, kings or red aces. That's exactly 44 cards.
• You start with 20 health (maximum 20) and no weapons equipped.
• 4 cards are revealed forming the current "room".

Table at the beginning of the game

Dungeon and room

Dungeon40 cards

You

Health 20 / 20 · no weapon equipped.

What each suit means

• ♣ Clubs and ♠ Spades — Monsters. Value: numbers are worth the number itself, Jack=11, Queen=12, King=13, Ace=14.

What each card means

Monsters ♣ ♠

7

11

12

13

14

Weapons ♦ (2 to 10)

weapon 6

Equip a weapon to take less damage from monsters.

Potions ♥ (2 to 10)

cure 8

Heals life for the value of the card, up to a maximum of 20.

• ♦ Diamonds — Weapons. Equip replaces current weapon. A weapon can only be used against monsters of lower value than the last monster it defeated. Fighting unarmed preserves the weapon and its limits.

Fight with the weapon

Weapon and monster

weapon 6

monster 10

10 − 6 = 4 damage (without a weapon it would be 10). The weapon is now only useful against monsters with a value of 10 or less.

Rusty weapon

less than 10

monster 12

The Lady (12) crosses the limit: face her unarmed. The weapon remains for monsters smaller than 10.

• ♥ Cups — Potions. Heal life equal to the value of the card (up to a maximum of 20). Only the first potion used in each room has an effect; a second potion in the same room is wasted.

Potions

First in the room

+8 health (up to a maximum of 20).

Second in the same room

No effect: The second potion in the room is wasted.

Solving a room

• You need to deal with 3 of the 4 cards in the room; the 4th remaining card remains in the next room along with 3 new cards.

Solving a room

Room

next time

You resolve 3 cards; the 4th goes to the next room, along with 3 new cards.

• To fight a monster: with an eligible weapon, the damage received is the value of the monster minus the value of the weapon (minimum zero); Without a weapon (or choosing to fight unarmed), you take full damage from the monster.
• Escape: while the room still has the original 4 cards, you can escape from it in one piece — the 4 cards return to the bottom of the deck and a new room is revealed. It is not possible to escape from two rooms in a row.

Escape

Room

Escaping returns the 4 cards to the bottom of the dungeon and reveals a new room. You can't run away twice in a row.

Victory and defeat

• You win by completely emptying the dungeon deck and room, with health above zero.
• You lose if your life reaches zero.

Score

• Victory: your remaining life. If you ended up with 20 life and the last card was a potion, add its value as well.
• Defeat: the negative of the sum of the monsters not yet resolved in the room and in the dungeon.
• The score and personal best are saved in the statistics; They do not award coins.

Source: Scoundrel v1.0, Zach Gage and Kurt Bieg (2011), copy of the manual consulted.