How to play Scoundrel

30 Oct, 2025

What is Scoundrel?

Scoundrel is a solo dungeon-crawler played with a single deck of cards. It was originally created by Zach Gage and Kurt Bieg in 2011. I thought it was intriguing enough to make a post summarizing the game here so I don't forget that it exists in a week. You can find the full rules by Zach and Kurt here.

The game is pretty tough. The ratio of monsters to not monsters is almost 1:1, however the top 8 cards are removed from your potion+weapon pool. That puts the totals at 26 monsters to 18 positive cards (which are weighted lower). Odds are definitely stacked against you which makes it tricky to win until you've figured out some strategies to tweak the luck for yourself.

How to play

Setup

To prepare the deck you must set aside the following cards:

Jokers
Red face cards
Red aces

Then, shuffle the remaining cards and place them face down in a pile on the left. This pile will be the dungeon.

Take a piece of paper (or d20) and mark 20, this is your starting health.

Rules

Each type of card has a different function.

Clubs and Spades are monsters with damage equal to their values (10 is 10, Jack is 11, Queen is 12, King is 13, Ace is 14)
Diamonds are weapons and do their value in damage. Picking up a weapon automatically equips it and discards your previously equipped weapon.
Hearts are health potions. You can only use one per turn, any others used in the same turn are discarded and do not heal you. You can only heal up to, not beyond, 20 health.

The game ends when you reach 0 life or complete the entire dungeon.

Gameplay loop

If a room does not have 4 cards, draw from the top of the dungeon until it reaches 4.
If you did not flee the previous turn, you may flee the room. Take all remaining cards in the room and place them on the bottom of the dungeon.
If you do not flee, you must face 3 of the 4 cards of the room.

If you choose a weapon: equip it by placing it under the room cards. Move any currently equipped weapon and any monsters on it to discard.
If you choose a potion: add its' value to your health (capping at 20) then discard it. If you use a second potion the same turn it is discarded and does not heal you
If you choose a monster...

Combat

When fighting a monster you can use an equipped weapon or fight it bare handed.

When fighting bare handed, subtract the monster's full value from your health then discard it.
When fighting with a weapon, place the monster face-up on your weapon. Subtract the value of the weapon from the monster and take any necessary damage.

Monster 5 - weapon 7 = 0 damage Monster 5 - weapon 5 = 0 damage Monster 9 - weapon 7 = 2 damage

After fighting with a weapon you can only use that weapon on monsters of a lower level than the previous monster.

If you killed a queen with a weapon then you can use that weapon on a monster 6 However, if you killed a monster 6 with a weapon then you must fight the queen bare handed (ouch)

Once only one card remains the turn is over. Leave the card in the room and draw 3 additional cards to bring the total back to 4.

Scoring

After the game is over you can tally a score using net health or net monsters. If you won, your score is your remaining life. If you end with 20 life and a health potion, add the value of the potion. If you lost, find the remaining monsters in the deck and subtract their values from your health to produce a negative score.

Example Game

Start

Dungeon         Room         Discard
  52      Xxx Xxx Xxx Xxx       0

HP: 20    Hand: n/a

Flip for the room

Dungeon         Room         Discard
  48      S8  SJa D10 H5        0

HP: 20    Hand: n/a

I don't like this room, I'd rather save the best weapons like 9s and 10s for later. I'll flee and redraw:

Dungeon         Room         Discard
  48      CKi C10 D9  D5        0

HP: 20    Hand: n/a

This isn't as bad. Equip the Diamond 9:

Dungeon         Room         Discard
  48      CKi C10     D5        0

HP: 20    Hand: D9

Attack the king using my weapon. 13-9=4 damage:

Dungeon         Room         Discard
  48          C10     D5        0

HP: 16    Hand: D9 CKi

I'll attack the 10 too. 10-9=1 damage:

Dungeon         Room         Discard
  48                  D5        0

HP: 15    Hand: D9 CKi C10

Redraw the room:

Dungeon         Room         Discard
  45      S10 S3  D3  D5        0

HP: 15    Hand: D9 CKi C10

I'll flee again to try and save the 9 for a bit longer:

Dungeon         Room         Discard
  45      S5  C3  C2  D2        0

HP: 15    Hand: D9 CKi C10

That didn't really work. I'll fight all 3 of those barehanded, odds are decent I'll get a potion soon and I can't flee again. 5+3+2=10 damage.

Dungeon         Room         Discard
  45          C3  C2  D2        1

HP: 10    Hand: D9 CKi C10

Dungeon         Room         Discard
  45              C2  D2        2

HP: 7    Hand: D9 CKi C10

Dungeon         Room         Discard
  45                  D2        3

HP: 5    Hand: D9 CKi C10

Redraw the room:

Dungeon         Room         Discard
  42      H9  C5  SQu D2        3

HP: 5    Hand: D9 CKi C10

Not ideal. Use potion:

Dungeon         Room         Discard
  42          C5  SQu D2        4

HP: 14    Hand: D9 CKi C10

Flee:

Dungeon         Room         Discard
  41      S4  H5  D8  D4        4

HP: 14    Hand: D9 CKi C10

And so on.

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