Review: Skull King

Introduction & Overview

Freshwater greenhorns! Your delicate hands give away that you have never in your life climbed rigging, swabbed decks, or brandished a cutlass. Well, I hope you learn quickly, because on this perilous journey, I need all the hands I can get. A treasure awaits, but only for the bold, for mermaids and pirates are hunting it as well! Will your sails swell with the winds of victory, or will they end up torn upon the jagged reefs of defeat?

This is the premise behind Skull King, a design by Brent Beck (Cover Your Assets). First published in 2013 by Grandpa Beck’s Games in an English edition, it was later published by Schmidt Spiele with artwork by Eckhard Freytag (The Princes of Florence, Ave Caesar).

It is published in Spanish by Devir (the game is completely language-independent, except for the rulebook). It accommodates 2 to 6 players, with a recommended minimum age of 8 and an approximate playing time of 30 minutes. The MSRP is €20. A copy of the multilingual version of Skull King by Schmidt Spiele was used for this review.

Important: if you already know the game and/or are only interested in my opinion about it, you can go directly to the Opinion section. The Content and Mechanics sections are especially intended for those who do not know the game and prefer to get a general idea of how it works.

Go to Personal Opinion

Components

Inside a two-piece cardboard box (lid and bottom), measuring 11.9 × 9.4 × 2 cm (a small rectangular box similar to Seas of Strife), we find the following components:

• 66 Cards (56×87 mm):
  • 52 Suited Cards
  • 5 Escape Cards
  • 5 Pirate Cards
  • 2 Mermaid Cards
  • 1 Scary Mary Card
  • 1 Skull King Card
• Scorepad
• Rulebook

How to Play

Skull King is a trick-taking game played over ten rounds. Each round consists of as many tricks as the round number (that is, each player is dealt that number of cards). Before starting to resolve tricks, players must place a bid on the exact number of tricks they believe they will win (a bid made simultaneously). In each trick, the lead player determines the lead suit, and the remaining players must follow suit. If they are unable to follow suit, they may play any card, keeping in mind the game’s card hierarchy. In addition to suited cards, there are also special cards that can be played on any turn, regardless of whether the player can follow suit or not. The player who played the highest-ranking card according to the hierarchy wins the trick. At the end of the round, players score or lose points depending on whether they hit their bid. The player who has accumulated the most points at the end of the tenth round wins.

Key Concepts

Let’s begin with the main element of any trick-taking game: the Suited Cards. The deck contains four suits differentiated by color (yellow, red, blue, and black). These cards have values ranging from 1 to 13. As in most trick-taking games, the lead player sets the suit to follow; players are required to play a card of that suit if they hold at least one in hand (with the exception of special cards), and the highest-ranking card of that suit wins the trick. If a player has no cards of the led suit, they may play any card from any suit. The black suit acts as the trump suit; meaning that if it is played when unable to follow suit, its value beats any card belonging to the led suit.

On the other hand, we have the Special Cards. These cards can be played on any turn, regardless of the suit led. Escape (white flag) cards represent conceding the trick (unless all players play an Escape card), while Mermaids, Pirates, and the Skull King outrank any suited card, possessing their own internal priority (Mermaids beat any standard suit, Pirates beat Mermaids, and the Skull King beats Pirates—though if both the Skull King and a Mermaid are played in the same trick, the Mermaid captures the Skull King). There is also a unique card, Scary Mary, which can act as either an Escape or a Pirate (as chosen by the player).

The Scorepad is an essential element, as in each round, players make a simultaneous bid on how many tricks they will take. Making the exact bid awards 20 points per trick won. Missing the bid costs 10 points for each trick difference between the bid and the actual number won. It is possible to bid zero tricks, which rewards or penalizes the player with points equal to the current round number multiplied by 10. Bonus points can also be earned by capturing certain card combinations.

That is enough to get started.

Preparación de la Partida

1. Gather the deck of cards and place it in the center of the table.
2. Write the name of each participant on the scorepad.
3. Randomly select the starting dealer, who places the deck in front of them.

We are ready to begin!

Game Flow

A game of Skull King takes place over ten rounds.

At the beginning of each round, the dealer shuffles the deck and deals each player as many cards as the current round number (1 card in round one, 2 in round two, and so on).

After inspecting their hands, players must bid on how many tricks they think they will win in the current round (between 0 and the current round number). Once everyone has settled on a number, one player counts down, and all players simultaneously extend their hand or hands, indicating their bid with their fingers. All bids are then recorded on the scorepad.

Players now proceed to play as many tricks as the current round number. In each trick, starting with the lead player (in the first trick of a round, this is the player to the dealer’s left) and proceeding clockwise, each player plays one card from their hand. The first player to play a suited card establishes the lead suit; subsequent players are required to play a card of that suit if they hold at least one in hand. If a player holds special cards, they may always play a special card instead of following suit. When playing Scary Mary, the player must declare immediately whether it acts as a Pirate or an Escape card.

Once all players have contributed a card, the winner of the trick is determined:

• If no Mermaids, Pirates, and/or the Skull King were played, the highest-ranking card takes the trick according to these conditions:
• If the lead suit was not black (the trump suit), the highest card of the led suit wins.
• If the lead suit was not black but at least one black card was played, or if black was the led suit, the highest black card wins.
• If at least one Mermaid, Pirate, and/or the Skull King was played, apply the following hierarchy:
• If the Skull King was played, it wins the trick. However, if at least one Mermaid was played, the first Mermaid played wins instead.
• If at least one Pirate was played and no one played the Skull King, the first Pirate played wins.
• If at least one Mermaid was played and no Pirates were played, the first Mermaid played wins.
• If every played card is an Escape card, the first Escape card played wins.

Whoever played the winning card gathers all the cards from the trick and places them in a stack in front of them to the right of their previously won trick, forming a row. Furthermore, they become the lead player for the next trick.

The round concludes once all cards have been played. Players now tally points based on their bids:

• A player who bid at least one trick and met their bid scores 20 points per trick won.
• A player who bid at least one trick but missed their bid loses 10 points for each trick difference between their bid and the number of tricks won.
• A player who bid zero tricks and succeeded scores points equal to 10 multiplied by the current round number.
• A player who bid zero tricks and failed loses points equal to 10 multiplied by the current round number.
• If a player met their bid, won a trick with the Skull King, and the trick contained one or more Pirates, they score an extra 30 bonus points per Pirate captured.
• If a player met their bid and captured the Skull King with a Mermaid, they score 50 bonus points.

After scoring, all cards are gathered, and the deck is passed to the player on the left, who becomes the new dealer for the next round.

Game End

The game ends upon completing the tenth round. The player who has accumulated the most points wins.

Personal Opinion

One of the card game subgenres that has experienced the greatest surge in recent years is trick-taking. From being a format almost exclusively tailored for three or four players, it has expanded to offer a wide array of options, including two-player designs that work like a charm, such as Claim (tocho-review here) or The Fox in the Forest (tocho-review here), and even cooperative formats like The Crew.

This mechanism has also found its way into heavier board games, blending with other systems to deliver highly original experiences. Notable examples include Brian Boru: High King of Ireland or Arcs by the daring Cole Wehrle, where tricks function as a mechanical tool rather than an end in themselves.

Yet before this explosion of titles, and beyond the most traditional card games, one particular title stood out as the undisputed genre benchmark, recommended by everyone who tried it. I am talking, naturally, about the game in front of us today. Let’s see how well Skull King has stood the test of time.

Skull King is essentially a souped-up version of the traditional card game known in Spain as La Pocha, which is widely believed to have evolved from the British classic Oh Hell! For those unfamiliar with trick-taking mechanics, here is a brief rundown.

A trick-taking game is a card game where players play one card per turn following specific rules, and the strongest play (determined by rank and trump rules) wins the trick. Typically, the goal is either to take as many tricks as possible or to predict your exact trick count. The lead player establishes the suit to follow, meaning anyone holding that suit must play it. Only when a player has run out of cards in that suit may they play other cards (which is where suit hierarchies and trump priorities come into play).

In that regard, Skull King is a fairly traditional trick-taker that adheres to all the fundamentals. We have a deck with four suits, one of which is trump. If a trick is led with another suit and a player cannot follow suit, playing a trump card will beat any card of the led suit. Thus, a 1 of trumps (the lowest card of that suit) will defeat a 13 of the led suit (the highest standard card).

A core characteristic of Skull King (shared with Oh Hell!) is that the game unfolds over a fixed series of rounds, dealing players an expanding hand in each round (equal to the round number). In round one, every player receives just a single card, ramping up to ten cards in the tenth and final round.

The crux of the matter is that players must estimate how many tricks they will take across the entire round, as their score hinges entirely on this prediction. The catch? It is a blind, simultaneous bid, so everyone reveals their numbers at once, relying solely on the information held in their private hands.

While this might sound straightforward, it is anything but; even knowing your exact values, you often cannot tell if a specific card is strong or weak without knowing what your opponents are holding.

This dynamic becomes obvious right from the opening round. You might receive a 1 in an off-suit and assume it is completely safe to dump, expecting someone else to hold that suit or trump it. That is precisely when the unexpected happens, leaving you alone as no one can follow suit or beat your card, forcing an unwanted trick onto you.

As the match progresses, the landscape shifts: with more cards dealt into hands, fewer remain out of play, making hand strength easier to gauge, yet hitting an exact bid becomes significantly harder. Failing a bid results in a sharp penalty, deducting points instead of adding them.

All of this already exists in Oh Hell! What sets Skull King apart from its traditional ancestor is the inclusion of special cards. These can be played into any trick, regardless of the suit led and whether the player can follow suit.

These special cards fall into two categories. First are Escape cards, which allow you to forfeit a trick since their rank is lower than anything else (though if every player throws an Escape card, the first one played takes the trick, usually to that player’s dismay).

Second are the super-trumps, which outrank any standard trump card. These include Mermaids, Pirates (which beat Mermaids), and the Skull King (which beats Pirates). However, if a Mermaid is present in a trick containing the Skull King, the Mermaid takes precedence over every other card, creating a Rock-Paper-Scissors dynamic that reliably sparks lively debates whenever a Mermaid, Pirate, and the Skull King collide in the same trick.

These additions inject tremendous energy into the game, making hand evaluation much trickier while setting the stage for lucrative scoring bonuses if specific card combinations are captured on a successful bid.

Another notable twist is the zero-trick bid. Bidding zero is one of the most thrilling gambles in the game due to its scaling reward-and-penalty structure, fueling dramatic comebacks as well as catastrophic blunders.

It remains one of the trick-taking games I enjoy playing the most, though it does have a few rough edges. The primary issue is the weight of luck at specific points in the game. On one hand, it can feel unfair when a player scores a massive bonus simply because the stars aligned in a single trick, provided they hit their bid.

While this mechanism encourages cautious play when powerful cards remain unaccounted for—since leading blindly risks handing a mountain of points to an opponent—it is impossible to track everything, which can occasionally leave players feeling that a large bonus was unearned.

On the other hand—and this is my biggest gripe, common to many trick-takers—a bad hand leaves you completely helpless. In the worst-case scenario, regardless of hand size, you might receive the Skull King alongside bottom-tier off-suit cards. This virtually guarantees you can take no more than that single Skull King trick (unless you manage to feed it to a Mermaid, which simply hands bonus points to an opponent).

A player dealt such a hand has little choice but to bid one trick, capping their ceiling at twenty points. Meanwhile, other players with stronger hands will comfortably take more tricks and rack up higher scores. While a terrible hand can throw off the table’s predictions and cause others to miss their bids, experienced groups rarely fall into that trap, leaving you with little room to close the scoring gap.

A third, milder issue lies in the trump and priority hierarchy. Newcomers often struggle to internalize the card interactions when determining trick winners, creating friction during early bidding phases. While this smooths out after a few plays, it can dampen the initial experience for players encountering the system for the first time.

Like most traditional trick-takers, Skull King shines brightest at four players, where the game feels most balanced. At six players, the added chaos can be entertaining, though it might frustrate anyone looking for tighter tactical control. Below four, I would reach for a different game.

In terms of replayability, it hits the table effortlessly and accommodates a wide player count. Because perfect card counting is impossible, it is remarkably welcoming to casual players who prefer not to track every discarded card to calculate their odds.

Turning to component quality, the Schmidt Spiele edition features sturdy card stock with a linen finish and good elasticity. The included scorepad is convenient, though scoring apps have made it somewhat redundant today. The rulebook is clearly organized and includes plenty of examples to resolve edge cases.

Visually, Eckhard Freytag’s illustrations do the job well, lending distinct character to the cards—especially the specials—with an art style reminiscent of Steve Purcell’s work on The Secret of Monkey Island (if you are unfamiliar with that graphic adventure masterpiece, take a look at the cover art).

And let’s wrap this up. Skull King is a definitive staple within the trick-taking landscape. It is genuinely fun, thanks in large part to the partial deck deal (which keeps card counting in check) and the inclusion of special cards that disrupt hand evaluation during bidding. On the downside, luck can occasionally feel swingy, whether by handing out arbitrary bonuses or dealing unplayable hands that force you into a purely defensive crouch just to avoid point penalties. Even so, it is a delightful game that consistently generates thrilling moments that border on the epic. Just bordering, mind you. For all these reasons, I give it a…