Skull King Rules — How to Play and Keep Score
Skull King is an exact-bid trick-taking game with a pirate deck full of cards that break the normal rules. Ten rounds are played, the hand size growing from one card to ten. Every player commits to a bid, and the scoring is unusually violent: a good bid pays 20 a trick, a missed one pays nothing at all and costs you the capture bonuses you fought for. It is the bonuses that make it worth using an app — they are easy to earn and easy to forget.
Overview
Skull King is an exact-bid trick-taking game with a pirate deck full of cards that break the normal rules. Ten rounds are played, the hand size growing from one card to ten. Every player commits to a bid, and the scoring is unusually violent: a good bid pays 20 a trick, a missed one pays nothing at all and costs you the capture bonuses you fought for. It is the bonuses that make it worth using an app — they are easy to earn and easy to forget.
Setup
Shuffle the full deck. Deal one card each in round one, two each in round two, and so on up to ten. There is no trump suit to turn: the black Jolly Roger suit is always trump. Nothing is left over in a hand — every dealt card gets played.
How to play
All players bid at the same time, on a count of three, by holding up fingers. Bids range from zero up to the hand size and are never restricted by what anyone else bid.
The card ranking, from weakest to strongest, is: Escape cards, which always lose; the three coloured number suits, 1 to 14; the black Jolly Roger suit, 1 to 14, which beats any coloured card; Mermaids; Pirates; and the Skull King. The one twist is a loop — a Mermaid beats the Skull King even though it loses to every Pirate. If a Mermaid, a Pirate and the Skull King all land in the same trick, the Mermaid takes it. Players follow the suit led when they can; special cards may always be played. A trick led with a special card lets everyone play whatever they like.
Scoring
Bid of one or more, made exactly. 20 points for every trick bid. Bid four and take four, score 80.
Bid of one or more, missed. Lose 10 for each trick over or under. Bid four and take two, lose 20. The tricks won are worth nothing.
Bid of zero, made. Score 10 times the round number. Correct in round nine, that is 90 points.
Bid of zero, missed. Lose 10 times the round number, no matter how many tricks were taken. A failed zero bid in round nine costs 90.
Capture bonuses, added only when the bid was made: 10 for each coloured 14 won in a trick you took, 20 for the black 14, 20 for each Mermaid captured by a Pirate, 30 for each Pirate captured by the Skull King, and 40 for the Skull King captured by a Mermaid. Bonuses stack, so one huge trick can pay several of them at once. A player who misses their bid forfeits every bonus from that round.
Ending the game
After round ten the totals are added and the highest wins. Because a single made bid in the last round can be worth 200 points plus bonuses, the leaderboard often changes on the final hand.
Common variations
Loot cards create a two-player alliance that only pays if both partners make their bids. The Kraken wipes a trick from existence and the White Whale cancels every special card in one.
Scoring at a glance
| Who wins | Highest score |
|---|---|
| Rounds | 10 fixed |
| Score sheet | A bid and a result per player per round; the score is derived |
| Typical round score | -100 – 260 |
| Negative scores | Possible |
| Worth knowing | Three inputs per player per round — bid, tricks taken and bonus points. Bonuses are entered as a single number because a player can collect several in one hand. |
Skull King — score sheet
House rules and settings
Every table plays Skull King a little differently. These are the 12 rules groups argue about. Each one is a setting in the app — and changing it recalculates a match that is already in progress, which is the thing no other score keeper does.
Number of rounds: what is the default in Skull King?
How many rounds the game runs for. Round one deals one card each, round two deals two, and so on, so ten rounds is the full standard game.
Default: 10. Adjustable from 1 to 10 in steps of 1.
In the app: “Number of rounds”.
Points per trick on a made bid: what is the default in Skull King?
What each trick is worth when a player bids one or more and takes exactly that many. Bid three and take three at the standard value and you score 60.
Default: 20. Adjustable from 5 to 50 in steps of 5.
In the app: “Points per trick on a made bid”.
Penalty per trick missed by: what is the default in Skull King?
Subtracted for every trick a player is away from a non-zero bid, in either direction. No points are scored for the tricks themselves on a missed bid.
Default: 10. Adjustable from 0 to 30 in steps of 5.
In the app: “Penalty per trick missed by”.
Zero bid points per round: what is the default in Skull King?
A bid of nothing is worth this much times the round number. At the standard value, a correct zero bid in round seven scores 70 and a failed one loses 70.
Default: 10. Adjustable from 0 to 30 in steps of 5.
In the app: “Zero bid points per round”.
Zero bid scoring style: what are the options in Skull King?
Whether a zero bid grows in value as hands get bigger, which is standard, or is worth the same in every round.
Default: Multiply by the round number. Two options:
In the app: “Zero bid scoring style”.
Keep bonuses on a missed bid: on or off in Skull King?
The published rule is that a player who misses their bid forfeits every bonus they captured that hand. Turn this on if your group lets them keep the bonuses anyway.
Default: off.
In the app: “Keep bonuses on a missed bid”.
Mermaid captures the Skull King: what is the default in Skull King?
The bonus for winning a trick with a Mermaid that contained the Skull King. Current printings use 40; some groups and older score sheets use 50.
Default: 40. Adjustable from 0 to 100 in steps of 10.
In the app: “Mermaid captures the Skull King”.
Skull King captures a Pirate: what is the default in Skull King?
The bonus for each Pirate beaten in a trick won by the Skull King. Two Pirates in the same trick pay it twice.
Default: 30. Adjustable from 0 to 100 in steps of 10.
In the app: “Skull King captures a Pirate”.
Pirate captures a Mermaid: what is the default in Skull King?
The bonus for each Mermaid beaten in a trick won by a Pirate.
Default: 20. Adjustable from 0 to 100 in steps of 10.
In the app: “Pirate captures a Mermaid”.
Loot cards: on or off in Skull King?
Adds the Loot cards, which form an alliance between two players. Both score a bonus only if both make their bids that round.
Default: off.
In the app: “Loot cards”.
Loot alliance bonus: what is the default in Skull King?
The reward each allied player receives when a Loot card pays out.
Default: 20. Adjustable from 0 to 100 in steps of 10.
In the app: “Loot alliance bonus”.
Kraken and White Whale: on or off in Skull King?
Adds two chaos cards. The Kraken cancels the trick entirely so nobody wins it, and the White Whale strips all special cards of their powers so the highest number wins.
Default: off.
In the app: “Kraken and White Whale”.
Variants of Skull King
Rascal scoring
An alternative published scale that rewards accurate bidding on large hands more heavily and softens the early rounds.
No bonuses
Ignore capture bonuses entirely and score the bids alone. Faster to keep track of and much less swingy.
Skull King is also known as
Skull King the Ultimate Pirate Game. These are the same game — the rules and the score sheet above apply to all of them.
Keep score offline
The sheet above works in your browser. Cardzo for iPhone remembers your players, survives a closed tab, and works in a field with no signal.
Coming to the App Store.