Ten rounds, one more card each time. Look at your hand, bid exactly how many tricks you'll win — then make it come true. Pirates beat numbers, the Skull King beats pirates, and the mermaids beat the King. Nail your bid for glory; miss it and walk the plank. 2–8 players, peer-to-peer: no accounts, no server, just a room code. Short on crew? Add bots.
Ten rounds: round N deals N cards. Everyone secretly bids how many tricks they'll win (0 to N); bids are revealed together — yo, ho, ho! With 8 players the 74-card deck runs short late, so the last rounds deal the same, capped number of cards to everyone (per the official note).
Following suit: the first number played sets the suit, and you must follow it if you can. The black Jolly Roger suit beats the other three — but it's still a suit: you can only play black when you're out of the led colour (or when black leads). Special cards may be played anytime.
Specials: Pirates beat all numbers. The Skull King beats the pirates. A Mermaid beats the Skull King — even if pirates are there too. Between equals, first played wins. The Tigress is played as a pirate or an escape — your choice, declared as you play her.
Escapes always lose — that's the point. If everyone escapes, the first card takes the trick.
The Legendary menu is in the deck too:
· Loot (×2) plays like an escape, but allies you with whoever wins the trick — if you BOTH hit your bids exactly, you each pocket +20.
· The Kraken devours the trick: nobody takes it, nothing is captured, and whoever would have won leads the next one.
· The White Whale swallows every special card in the trick; the highest number wins, suits be damned (first played breaks ties, and only the numbers are captured). If there are no numbers at all, the trick is destroyed like the Kraken's.
· Kraken and Whale in one trick? Whichever splashed down last takes precedence.
Leads: a pirate, mermaid, Skull King — or the Kraken or White Whale — lead makes the whole trick suit-free. An escape (or Loot) lead passes suit-setting to the next player.
Scoring — the host picks one of the three official systems in the lobby:
· Skull King's scoring (classic): hit your bid exactly for +20 per trick; miss it for −10 per trick off. A zero bid pays ±10 × the cards dealt — brave in round nine.
· The Rascal's scoring: every round is worth 10 × the cards dealt for everyone, whatever they bid. A direct hit earns all of it, off-by-one earns half, off by 2+ earns nothing. Never negative.
· Cannonball: 15 × the cards dealt on a direct hit — and nothing at all if you're off, even by one.
Bonuses (with an exact bid — or halved on a Rascal's glancing blow): each captured 14 is +10 (the black 14 is +20); the Skull King earns +30 per pirate played before him; capturing the Skull King with a mermaid is +50.