Swindler

A Solo Dungeon Crawl
Based on the card game Scoundrel by Zach Gage & Kurt Bieg
Swindler
44 cards
20 HP
Room 1
Weapon
None

How to Play

You are a swindler delving into a dungeon made of cards. Survive to win.

Setup

A 44-card deck is used (standard 52 minus red face cards and red aces). You start with 20 HP.

The Dungeon

Each room reveals 4 cards. You must play 3 of them in any order. The 4th card stays, and 3 new cards are dealt to form the next room.

Card Types

♣ ♠ Monsters — Black cards deal damage equal to their value (2–10, J=11, Q=12, K=13, A=14). Fight barehanded to take full damage, or use your weapon to reduce it.

♦ Weapons — Equip a diamond card as your weapon. It reduces monster damage by its value. But each monster slain with a weapon must be strictly weaker than the last monster that weapon killed. Equipping a new weapon discards the old one.

♥ Potions — Hearts heal you by their value (max 20 HP). Only the first potion per room has effect; additional potions are discarded with no healing.

Fleeing

At the start of a room (before playing any card), you may flee — shuffling all 4 cards back into the dungeon. You cannot flee two rooms in a row.

Winning

Clear every room to win. If your HP hits 0, you perish. Your final score is your remaining HP.