Welcome to Skull! One of the purest, simplest games to play that involves bluffing.

Gameplay

• There are 2 ways to win the game:
  • Win 2 challenges OR
  • Be the last player in the game after everyone else has been eliminated
• Each player gets their mat and 4 discs. The backs of the discs are identical. The fronts of the discs show either a flower or Skull. Each player received 1 Skull and 3 flowers. The mat starts blank side up.

ANTE PHASE

• Each player places a disc on their mat face down (at the same time).
  • By playing a flower, you give yourself a better chance of winning a challenge.
  • By playing a Skull, you make it more difficult for your opponents to win a challenge.

DISC PHASE

• Once everyone has placed their first disc, starting from the first player choose an option:
  • Add another disc OR
    • Discs should always be played face-down, slightly offset from previous discs this round, so that all players can see how many discs all players have played this round.
  • Issue a challenge.
    • If a player cannot add a disc, they must issue a challenge.
    • You can always choose to issue a challenge when it's your turn, even if you have more discs that you could play.
    • Once a player has issued a challenge, no other players may add discs this round.

CHALLENGE PHASE

• The challenge consists of bidding a number. When bidding, players are claiming they can flip that number of discs without revealing a Skull
  • Bid must always be at least 1,
  • Bid can never exceed the total number of discs in play this round.
  • Bluffing is a key part of the game! e.g. Bidding 1 when you have played a Skull will make other players believe you have played a flower, which may tempt them into flipping your disc, revealing a Skull!
• After the challenge started, players may:
  • Increase the bid (up to the total number of discs in play) OR
  • Pass/Fold. Once passed, a player can no longer do anything this round. If playing in person, the mat, with all discs on top, is pushed to the center of the table.

FLIP PHASE

• Once all but one player has passed, or the bid has reached the maximum, the challenger (person who bid the highest) must flip a number of discs equal to their bid, according to certain rules:
  • Discs must always be flipped from the top down (most recently played is revealed first)
  • Challenger must flip all of their own discs before flipping anyone else's discs.
    • Challenger is only required to flip the number of the bid, even if challenger bid less than his played discs (e.g. if Challenger bid 2, but he himself has played 3 discs, challenger only needs to flip the top 2)
• When flipping, if a Skull is revealed, flipping ends immediately, and the challenger loses a random disc. If the challenger revealed his own Skull, he may choose which disc to lose. Which disc the challenger lost is kept secret and is only known to the challenger. The lost disc is removed from the game. (Place it back in the box.)
• If the challenger successfully reveals all flowers according to his bid number, he wins the challenge, and flips his play mat to the flower side. If the flower side was already up, this player wins the game!
• Next round:
  • If the challenger was not eliminated from the game, the challenger is the first player for the next round.
  • If the challenger was eliminated, the person whose Skull the challenger flipped becomes the first player.
  • If the challenger eliminated himself, he chooses the first player for the next round.