How to Play Skull -The boney betting game.
Watch the Video
Read the Rules
The aim of the game
To win skull, you’ll need to win 2 bets.
To set up
- Give each player a square mat and place it in front of them, colour side up.
- Deal everyone four matching coloured circular cards - three show flowers, one shows a skull - keep these hidden in your hand.
- Pick a starting player.
To play the game
To begin, everyone simultaneously chooses a card from their hand and puts it face down on their mat. Now the starting player has a choice
Either :Play another card face-down on top of their first one OR start a bid, by saying how many flower cards they think they can turn over in a row out of those placed down.If they place another card, the player to their left has the choice - place another card, or bid. This continues in a clockwise order, until someone bids. If you run out of cards to place, you must bid.
Once bidding begins, the next player has 2 options: Raise the bid, if they think they can turn over more flower cards in a row …OR… pass and sit out the round.
Bidding continues until all but one player has passed - they are the challenger.
The challenger turns over cards on the table, one by one.
- The challenger must turn ALL their own cards first, before turning other player’s cards.
- Cards on top must be turned first, before ones underneath.
- You don't have to turn all of another player's cards in a row, you can move between stacks as you wish.
- If the challenger turns over the number of flowers they bid, they win the bet. They turn their square mat over to show they’re half-way to victory.
- If they turn over a skull, they immediately lose the round and stop revealing cards. The skull’s owner picks a card at random to discard from the challenger’s hand, without anyone seeing it.
- If ever a player has all their cards discarded, they’re out!
Finally, everyone picks back up the cards they placed and a new round begins. The challenger is the new starting player.
Game end & scoring
The first player to win 2 bets, or the last player standing, wins the game!
That’s Skull: Bluff your way to victory, by winning bets, tricking others into turning skulls, and avoiding being stuck with the highest bid, when you’ve put one on the table!
Enjoy!
Sound interesting?
Buy a copy of Skull at Happy Piranha!