Dying Message

SCOUT is a ladder climbing game in which cards have two potential values, players cannot rearrange their hand of cards, and players may pass their turn to take a card from the current highest set of cards. More specifically, the cards are double-indexed, with different values ​​on each half of the card, with the 45 cards having all possible combinations of the numbers 1-10. During setup, whoever is shuffling the cards should randomize both the order of the cards in the deck and their orientation. Once each player has received their entire hand of cards, they take that hand without rearranging any of the cards; if they wish, they may rotate their entire hand of cards to use the values ​​on the other end of each card, but again they may not rearrange the order of the cards in their hand.

On a turn, a player takes one of the following two actions:

• Play: A player chooses one or more adjacent cards from their hand that all have the same value or have values ​​in consecutive order (whether ascending or descending), then plays this set of cards onto the table. They can only do this if the table is empty (as in the first round) or if the set they are playing is higher than the set currently on the table; a set is higher if it has more cards, or has cards of the same value instead of consecutive cards, or has a set of the same quantity and type but with higher values. In the latter case, when a player overlaps another set, the player captures the cards in this previous set and places them face down in front of him.
• Scout: A player takes a card from either end of the set currently on the table and places it anywhere in their hand in any direction. Anyone who played this previous set receives a 1 VP token as a reward for playing a set that has not been beaten. Once per round, a player may scout, then play immediately.

When a player has emptied his or her hand of cards or all but one player has explored instead of playing, the round ends. Players receive 1 VP for each face-down card, then subtract one point for each card in their hand (unless the player has been explored repeatedly to end the game). Play as many rounds as there are players, then the player with the most points wins.

HOW TO PLAY

Discover the game Tutorial BEFORE it arrives at your home through this Video Tutorial