Bid and score boxes for all ten rounds, with the zero-bid gamble and every capture bonus — pirates, mermaids, the 14s — printed where the table can see them.
| Round | P1 | P2 | P3 | P4 | P5 | P6 | ||||||
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| bid | score | bid | score | bid | score | bid | score | bid | score | bid | score | |
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| TOTAL | ||||||||||||
Skull King is trick-prediction with pirates in the rigging. Round one deals one card, round ten deals ten; each round every player bids simultaneously — fists out, fingers shown — on exactly how many tricks they'll take. Suits must be followed; the black suit trumps the others; and above the numbers sit the specials: escapes lose everything, pirates beat numbers, the Skull King beats pirates, and mermaids — beaten by pirates — capture the Skull King himself. That circle is the game.
Hit a non-zero bid exactly: 20 points per trick. Miss by any amount: −10 per trick off. The zero bid is its own gamble — worth 10 × the round number if you dodge every trick, and minus the same if even one lands on you. A made zero in round ten is a hundred points; a botched one is the story of the night.
Bonuses pay only alongside a made bid: a captured 14 pays 10 (the black 14 pays 20), the Skull King collects 30 per pirate he beats in a trick, and a mermaid taking the Skull King pays 40. Track them in the score box as you settle each round.
One honesty note, printed on the sheet too: bonus values have shifted between editions. These follow the current rules; if your box is older and the numbers disagree, the box wins.
What beats the Skull King? Only a mermaid — and she loses to any pirate. Pirate beats mermaid beats Skull King beats pirate.
Is bidding zero worth it? Early, modestly; late, enormously — and the risk scales just as fast.