Scoundrel is a single-player dungeon crawl using a standard deck (minus jokers, red face cards, and red aces). You start with 20 health. Survive every room to win.

Rooms

Each room is four cards. Play three in any order; the fourth carries into the next room with three fresh draws.

Skipping (avoiding) a room

Before playing any card, you may skip a full room of four: scoop all four cards and put them face-down under the dungeon, then deal a new room. You may skip as often as you like, but never two rooms in a row.

This includes the last full room of the dungeon — skipped cards go under the (empty) deck and are dealt again.

Escape (partial final room)

If the dungeon is empty and fewer than four cards remain, you no longer have a full room. An Escape option appears in the empty fourth slot — take it to leave and win, or face the leftover cards for score/loot if you dare.

Card types

• ♠ ♣ Monsters — Clubs & spades. Value is rank (J=11, Q=12, K=13, A=14). Fight barehanded or with your weapon.
• ♦ Weapons — Diamonds. Equip one at a time (replacing the old). Damage taken = max(0, monster − weapon).
• ♥ Potions — Hearts. The first potion each room restores that much health (capped at 20). Extra potions that room do nothing.

Weapon durability

A fresh weapon can face any monster. After that, it may only fight monsters strictly weaker than the last one it killed. You can always fight barehanded even with a weapon equipped.

Winning & losing

Empty the dungeon and resolve the last cards to win. Reach 0 health and you die. If you clear at 20 HP and your last card was a potion, score is 20 + that potion’s value (official scoring bonus).

Original design by Zach Gage & Kurt Bieg (2011).