How to Play SCOUT: Show, Scout, Fixed Hands & Combos
SCOUT is a climbing card game with one defining constraint: after you pick up your hand, you cannot rearrange its cards. You may choose which end of the dual-number cards faces up for the round, then must work with that order.
Choose your hand orientation
Before play begins, inspect the full hand and decide whether to keep it as dealt or rotate the whole hand 180 degrees. Once chosen, the order and orientation of existing cards is locked for the round.
Show: play adjacent cards as a legal combination
A Show is either matching numbers or a consecutive run made from adjacent cards in your hand. To beat the active Show, play a stronger legal combination using the hierarchy in the rules: more cards is stronger; with equal length, sets beat runs; equal-type Shows compare values.
Capture the previous Show
When you successfully beat the cards on the table, take the previous Show face down into your scoring area. Each captured card will be worth a point at round end.
Scout: take one card from an end of the active Show
Instead of Showing, take one card from either end of the current Show. Insert that card anywhere in your hand and choose its orientation. The player whose Show you scouted receives a Scout point token.
Scout & Show once per round
In multiplayer play, your Scout & Show token lets you Scout and then immediately make a Show in the same turn. Use it once during the round.
Round end
The round ends when a player empties their hand through a Show, or when a Show survives because every other player Scouts instead of beating it. Then score captured cards, Scout tokens and cards left in hand.
Game end
In standard multiplayer play, play as many rounds as there are players, rotating the starting player. Highest cumulative score wins.