Boy Scouts Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Rules for Playing
• Another Way of Playing

Rules for Playing

The pack consists of 5 Patrols of 10 cards each, each Patrol being printed in a distinctive colour. In each Patrol there are nine Scouts and a Patrol Leader. The Leader is Number One, and the others are numbered from 2 to 10.

1. Draw for deal, the player drawing the lowest card dealing.

2. When three or four play, it will be found convenient to use only as many Patrols as there are players; and in this case (as also when five play with the entire pack) each player will receive ten cards. When more than five are playing, deal the entire pack, one card at a time (although this may give some players one more card than others.)

3. After the deal each player should assort his cards according to colours, placing the cards of the various Patrols together and being careful that the faces of his cards are visible to himself only.

4. The player on the dealer's left hand is the Scoutmaster, and has the privilege of playing first. He lays down, face upwards, any card he chooses, placing it well out in the middle of the table. Let us suppose that he plays Owl 3. It then becomes the turn of the next player on his left, and he may play either Owl 4 or Owl 2 or the 3 of any other Patrol, but no other card. Suppose he plays Owl 4, then the next player to him can put down Owl 5 or Owl 2 or the 3 of any other Patrol and so on. If the Scoutmaster had led off with Wolf 10, the next player could play Wolf 9 or any other 10. As soon as a new Patrol is started, it can be built up or down the same as the original lead. If a player, however, has not a proper card to play he loses his turn; he must say "I pass" and it becomes the turn of the next player. But one must always play if he can.

5. The cards are laid down as shown in the following diagram, somewhat after the style of dominoes, each player playing in turn, if he can, one card, but only one, even if he holds others which could be played.

   Diagram: a row of 4s (Owl 4, Wolf 4, Lion 4) with each Patrol built in a column above and below it: Owl 5 above Owl 4, and Owl 3, Owl 2 and Owl Leader below; Wolf 3 and Wolf 2 below Wolf 4; Lion 5 and Lion 6 above Lion 4, and Lion 3 below. In this illustration the play began with a "4," three of which have now been played, and the other "4's" may be played at any time when it is the turn of the player who holds one of them. It will be observed that the Owl Patrol has been finished in one direction, down to the Leader or No. 1 card.

6. Thus the play continues until one player has played all his cards. As soon as a player puts down his last card he immediately cries "Halt!" and play stops. The numbers on the unplayed cards remaining in the hands of all the other players are then added together and the total counts towards "Game" for the player who got out first. The "Leader" cards, although No. 1 in playing count 15 for score if unplayed.

N.B. The right which the Scoutmaster possesses of playing first is a very valuable one. The card he first plays is the starting point of each Patrol. They can be begun only by the cards of corresponding number.

Thus a good hand for him is one in which there are two or three cards of the same number. He will lead one and retain the others as long as he can to cause his opponents to miss as many turns as possible.

Such a hand is especially good if all the cards are either high or low; to hold both the Leader and Scout 10 of the same Patrol makes the play more difficult.

Another Way of Playing

Players provide themselves with counters, beans or cowries, each player having 100 to begin with, and when a player plays his last card, the others must pay him as many counters as the numbers on their unplayed cards indicate, 15 for each leader, 2 for each two, etc. The Scoutmaster may, if he chooses, sell his right of first play to another player. Frequently when the Scoutmaster has a poor hand, he disposes of his right at auction to the player who bids the highest number of counters for it. If a player makes a mistake and says "I pass" when he has a card in his hand which he can play, he has to pay 5 counters to each player as a penalty.