# Scoundrel ## Overview Scoundrel is a **single-player roguelike dungeon card game** originally designed by **Zach Gage** and **Kurt Bieg** in 2011. You play as an adventurer exploring a dangerous dungeon, represented by a deck of playing cards. Your objective: **survive the entire dungeon** without your health reaching zero. The game can be played with a physical deck of cards or right here in your browser. This page covers the complete rules for both versions. ## Setup ### What You Need - A standard 52-card deck of playing cards - Something to track your health (pen and paper, a die, or a phone) ### Preparing the Deck Before playing, **remove the following cards** from the deck: - All **red face cards**: Jack, Queen, and King of Hearts and Diamonds (6 cards) - Both **red Aces**: Ace of Hearts and Ace of Diamonds (2 cards) - Both **Jokers** This removes 8 cards, leaving you with a **44-card dungeon deck**. Shuffle the remaining cards thoroughly — this is your dungeon. ### Starting Health You begin the game with **20 health points** (on Normal difficulty). Your health can never exceed this maximum. ## The Cards Each card in the dungeon has a specific role based on its suit:
Card TypeSuitsValuesEffect
Monsters♠ Spades, ♣ Clubs2–14 (Ace = 14)Deal damage equal to their value
Weapons♦ Diamonds2–10Reduce damage from monsters
Potions♥ Hearts2–10Restore health equal to their value
**Monster values:** 2 through 10 are face value. Jack = 11, Queen = 12, King = 13, Ace = 14. Black face cards and Aces remain in the deck, making them the strongest monsters. ## Gameplay ### The Room Deal **four cards face up** from the dungeon deck. These four cards represent a "room" in the dungeon. In each room, you must **interact with exactly three cards** — the fourth card remains and carries over to the next room. After resolving three cards, deal **three new cards** from the deck to bring the room back to four cards. The card you left behind is still there, giving you some control over what you carry forward. ### Interacting with Cards ### Fighting a Monster When you choose to face a monster, you have two options:
- **Barehanded:** Take damage equal to the monster's full value. A 12 Monster deals 12 damage. - **With a weapon:** The weapon's power is subtracted from the monster's strength. You take the remaining difference as damage (minimum 0).
Example You have a 8 Weapon and face a 12 Monster. Damage taken = 12 − 8 = **4 damage**. If your weapon was a 14, you'd take **0 damage**.
### Equipping a Weapon Click/tap a weapon card to equip it. If you already have a weapon, the **new weapon replaces the old one**. Your previous weapon (and its kill history) is discarded. ### Drinking a Potion Potions restore health equal to their face value. However, there are two important restrictions:
- You may only drink **one potion per room**. Additional potions in the same room must be left behind or resolved without healing. - Your health **cannot exceed your maximum** (20 on Normal). A 10 Potion at 18 health only heals 2 points.
## Weapon Binding This is the most important rule to understand. When you use your weapon to defeat a monster, the weapon becomes **"bound"** to that monster's strength level. After being bound, the weapon can **only be used against monsters of equal or lower strength** than the last monster it defeated. This means:
Example — Good Chaining You have a 10 Weapon. 1. Kill a 13 Monster → weapon bound to 13 (can fight ≤13 next) → take 3 damage 2. Kill a 8 Monster → weapon bound to 8 (can fight ≤8 next) → take 0 damage 3. Kill a 5 Monster → weapon bound to 5 → take 0 damage **Result:** 3 monsters killed, only 3 total damage taken!
Example — Bad Chaining You have a 10 Weapon. 1. Kill a 3 Monster → weapon now bound to 3 (can ONLY fight ≤3) **Result:** The weapon is nearly useless now. The remaining 11, 12, 13, 14 monsters must be fought barehanded.
Key Takeaway Always use your weapon on the **strongest available monster first**, then work your way down. This maximizes the number of kills you can get from a single weapon.
## Avoiding a Room If you don't like the current room, you can choose to **avoid** it (also called "running"). This puts all four visible cards back into the dungeon deck bottom and deals a fresh room of four cards. **Restriction:** You cannot avoid two rooms in a row. If you avoided the previous room, you must face the current one. ## Winning & Losing - **You win** when all cards in the dungeon deck have been resolved — you've cleared the dungeon! - **You lose** when your health drops to zero or below at any point during the game. ### Scoring If you win, your **remaining health** becomes your score. A perfect score of 20 means you cleared the entire dungeon without taking any net damage — an extremely rare achievement. Most winning runs end with a score between 1 and 10. ## Quick Reference
- Start with **20 HP** - Rooms have **4 cards**, resolve **3**, leave **1** - Monsters deal their face value as damage - Weapons absorb damage; become bound after killing - Potions heal face value; **1 per room**; max HP cap - Can **avoid 1 room**, not 2 in a row - **Win:** clear all cards. **Lose:** HP reaches 0 - **Score = remaining HP** after clearing the dungeon