How to Play Skull the Card Game

Playing with Official Skull Game Set

Divide the materials. Give each player one mat and a total of four cards: three flower cards, and one skull card. Any materials not used are set off to the side.

Place your mat dark side up. Each mat has a dark side and a light side. The dark side signifies that you have not gained a point yet.

Start the round. Each player will begin the round by placing one of their four cards face down on their mat. Once everyone has a card placed, determine who goes first. This can be done in any sort of way (who bought the game goes first, youngest goes first, roll a die, etc.)

Take your turn. Place another card. You can choose to place a card on top of the existing card(s). If you choose to do this, your turn ends and the turn order continues in clockwise order. Issue a challenge. Challenges are done to score points in skull. To issue a challenge, you must call out a number of cards starting with one. You can only call out the maximum number of cards that are down at the time you issued the challenge.

Play the challenge. Once a challenge has been issued, no new cards may be placed by any player. Players must choose to raise the number of cards or pass. If a player passes, their turn is skipped until the challenge has been resolved. Once all but one player passes or a player chooses to call out the maximum number of cards, that player must resolve the challenge. If you cannot place down another card, you must issue a challenge. Example: In a game with three players, each player puts down one card at the start of the game. Player one decides to put down another card. Player two decides to do the same, as does player three. Player one decides to put down one more card, but now player two decides to issue a challenge. Player two bets he can flip over two cards without revealing a skull. Player three bets she can flip over three cards. Player one does not feel confident enough to flip over more than three cards so he skips his turn. Player two raises the bet to four cards. Player three also decides to skip her turn, so player two must now resolve the challenge. See next step to see how to resolve a challenge.

Resolve the challenge. The player resolving the challenge must now flip over the number of cards he or she had called out. The challenger must flip over all of their own cards first before flipping anyone else's. Once they have flipped over their own cards and have not flipped over a skull, they may continue to flip over cards until they flip over the number of cards they had called out during the challenge phase. Cards must be flipped over from top to bottom only. As soon as the resolving player flips over a skull, do not flip over any more cards. See next step to see what to do in case of revealing a skull.

React if someone flips over a skull. When a skull is revealed by the resolving player, everyone returns their cards to their hand without revealing any cards that were not flipped over. The resolving player must then lose one of their cards. If the skull revealed was one of another player, that player will randomly choose which card is discarded. If the skull revealed was your own, you must randomly discard one of your own cards. A new round is started afterwards. The resolving player will go first in the next round.

Assign the winner of the round if they flip over no skulls. If the resolving player is able to flip over the number of cards they have called out and they do not flip over a skull, they win that round. All unrevealed cards are returned to their respective players' hands. The resolving player will then flip over their mat to show the light side, signifying they have won the challenge.

Eliminate people as game play continues. You get eliminated if: You fail four challenges. If a player reveals a skull in all four of their challenges, they will have lost all of their cards. This player will then set aside their mat and all their cards and will sit out the rest of the game. Even if a player had won a challenge before, they can still be eliminated. The last card in hand is a skull. If the only card left after discarding all other cards is a skull, you must issue a challenge as usual. Once you or another player reveals your last card, you are immediately eliminated from the game. If another player revealed your card, they lose the challenge and discard a card as normal.

Determine your winner. You win the game if: You complete two challenges. Gameplay continues until one player successfully completes two challenges (does not flip over any skulls). You are the last player standing. The game can also end if all other players are eliminated and only one player is left standing. A player can win the game even if they failed to resolve any number of challenges, so long as they are not eliminated.

Playing with Standard Playing Cards

Determine number of players. Give each player one ace (as their mat), one jack, one queen, one king (as their flowers), and one 2 card (as their skull). Make sure these cards are all of the same suit to avoid confusion.

Place your ace face down. This will signify you have not yet won a point and will take the place of a mat from the official game set.

Proceed with the game as normal. Follow the process of regular gameplay, above, to play the game with this method. This method of the game only supports up to 4 players.

Playing with Standard Playing Cards (Variant Two)

Separate the cards by numbers. Give each player a set of four cards with the same number plus a court card (Jack, Queen, King) that will double as the player mat.

Place your court card face down. Flip it when earning a point

Use the spade card as a skull and the remaining three as flowers. This method will boost the number of players up to 10 It is best to be careful though as the club card can be easily mistaken for the spade card which you may find annoying. Play with more than 6 players is not recommended as it's not supported by the original game.

Playing with UNO Cards

Determine number of players. Give each player one "Wild" card (as their mat), one "Reverse" card, one "Skip card, one "Draw two" card (as their flowers), and one "Wild Draw Four" card (as their skull). Make sure these cards are all the same color (excluding the "Wild" cards) to avoid confusion.

Place your wild card face down. This will signify you have not yet won a point and will take the place of a mat from the official game set.

Proceed with the game as normal. Follow the process of regular gameplay, above, to play the game with this method. This method also only supports up to 4 players.