A game of trickery and deception, Skullduggery is a game with a pirate theme that’s quick to learn and quick to play.
Basics
Each player, plays a pirate looking to build and keep the largest hoard; the one with the highest value hoard at the end of the game wins.
Each player begins with four cards dealt face down and then secretly looks at the middle two cards. The cards have a value from 1 to 9 and the ideal is to have the left most card as high as possible, as the value of your hoard is based on the four-digit number shown on your four cards at the end of the game.
Each turn you draw a card and decide to keep and swap it with one of your existing cards, discard it or swap it out with a neighbour’s card; in the latter case, you can only swap with each neighbour once and there are tokens to use to record this. In addition, when a new card is placed, it is placed face up or down based on the card being replaced.
There are also Spyglass cards and when one of these is discarded, every player must reveal one of their middle two cards, so as the game progresses, more information is revealed about each players’ card set.
Strategy
Now here’s the deal. When you discard a card, it triggers an action based on the card discarded. The actions include passing your leftmost or rightmost card to your neighbour, or looking at one of your cards or a neighbour’s or switching cards around.
As a result, your four-digit number will change during the course of the game. So, the core of the game revolves around taking your chances with exchanging cards and knowing what the score might be.
Your opponents will be doing the same and clearly there is a heavy luck element, but equally you still have choice, trying to increase the value of your cards whilst passing on your low value cards or at least switching them around.
Game end
The game will end when either a third spyglass card is revealed or the deck runs out. This can happen quite quickly which adds to the luck of draw element of the game.
Overall
The game is simple and easy to learn. The components and artwork are decent enough. It is a quick game to play which means you could easily get several rounds in should you wish. It is aimed at a younger audience as the game is rated 8+, but it could easily be played as a party game. Skullduggery is not a game to take seriously and the randomness of the card draw and player choices is such that the game has a fair degree of replayability. I’d also recommend more than two players to add more difficulty and varied play, but essentially, it’s an easy going and fun game for children or simply a nice little party game.
About the Author:
As well as playing board games, Neil has been playing a variety of roleplaying games since 1982, including creating campaigns as a GM and espousing the art and craft of being a good GM and the therapeutic value of games generally.
