Scram!
Scram! Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
70 cards (5 of each number from 1-13 plus 5 [=] cards).
Setup
Scram! can be played with 4 or 6 campers. The following setup is for groups of 4 or 6 campers. For setup and special rules for 3 campers, see pg. 26.
Choose Teams: Divide into even teams and arrange yourselves around the table so that each camper sits between 2 opponents.
Components: Grab a pencil and paper to keep track of each team's score, or download the free Scram! app. If playing with 4 campers, remove 1 set of number cards (1-13) and 1 [=] card. The deck should have 56 cards in a 4-player game and 70 cards in a 6-player game.
Deal Cards: Determine a random start camper. The player to their right should shuffle the draw deck and deal 3 cards face down and 2 cards face up in a row in front of each camper, forming their campsite. No one should look at their face down cards.
Draw Deck: Place the rest of the draw deck in the center of the table, then flip the top card face up next to it to start the discard pile.
Goal
The face up and face down cards in front of you and your teammates (your campsites) represent the critters that have invaded your team's campsite. Each card has a value which represents the amount of damage that critter has done. The combined value of all cards in your teams' campsites is your team's score. The lower your score, the tidier your campsite.
Your team's goal is to have a tidier campsite (lower score) than your opponents. That means you need to discard high-numbered cards in your team's campsites to clear them as much as possible before the round ends.
Each round ends when either the draw deck runs out or a camper chooses to declare Scram (giving each other camper 1 more turn). After 4 rounds, the team with the lowest cumulative score wins!
Game Turns
Campers take turns in clockwise order, beginning with the start camper. On your turn, choose 1 of the following 3 actions to take:
Draw the top card from the draw deck
Draw the top card from the discard pile
Scram
Drawing a card
On most turns, you will draw 1 card and immediately play it. You can choose to draw from either the draw deck or the discard pile.
If you draw from the draw deck, you must secretly look at your card, then decide how to play it. You can either play it for its action, use it to replace cards in your campsite (see following sections), or simply discard it. You may not show or tell your teammates what you drew, unless you use an action to place it face up or discard it.
If you draw the top card on the discard pile, you may only use it to replace cards in your campsite (you may not use its action). Since it is already face up, you do not need to keep it secret.
Sometimes a camper will have no cards in their campsite. When it is their turn, they may only draw from the draw deck (and either use the card's action or discard the card); they may not draw from the discard pile.
Anatomy of a face up Scram! card: Value (points at game end) is the number shown on the card. Card Action (Only available when card is drawn from the deck and immediately discarded) is the effect described in the card's banner text — e.g. "View 1 card."
Playing a card for its action
Cards with the numbers 5 to 13 on them have actions on them. When you draw a card with an action on it from the draw deck, you may take that action instead of replacing cards in your campsite. Play the card for its action by discarding it to the discard pile and then perform the action completely.
Card actions may allow you to secretly view face down cards, flip cards face up, discard cards, or exchange cards in different campsites. Unless an action states otherwise, you can use that action on any campsite, OR you can use that action on the top card(s) from the draw deck.
See Clarifications on pg. 23 for details on specific actions.
Example: Misty draws a 6 card from the draw deck and decides to use its action, "View 2 cards" (A). She places the 6 card face up on top of the discard pile (B). Misty secretly views the card in her campsite (C), then she secretly views the card in her teammate Alex's campsite (D). After viewing each card, she returns them face down to their original location.
Replacing cards in your campsite
Regardless of whether you drew from the draw deck or discard pile, you can replace 1 or more cards in your team's campsites by placing matching valued cards onto the discard pile and placing the newly drawn card in your campsite. You can use this to get rid of cards in your team's campsites and lower your team's overall score.
You may not use the action of a card you drew from the draw deck if you are going to keep it and discard 1 or more cards in its place.
You can always discard any single card in your campsite and replace it with your new card. However, in order to replace more than 1 card at a time (and if you want to include cards in your teammates' campsites), you must correctly identify a set of cards that all have the same value. (This can be any value, regardless of the value on the card you drew.)
Since many cards will be face down, this can be trickier than it sounds — and if you choose a set of cards that don't match, you'll be penalized! See page 13 for details.
Steps to replace cards in your campsite:
- Draw a card from the draw deck or the discard pile that you would like to keep in your campsite.
- Choose any 1 card in your campsite (face up or face down) and slide it forward, without removing it from your campsite.
- You may then slide forward any number of other cards in your campsite and your teammates' campsites. You may not look at any face down cards while you are choosing them.
- Flip all cards you slid forward face up and check whether they match each other. If ALL of them match, discard all of them face up. If ANY of them don't match, you've failed to replace matching cards. As a result, leave all of them face up in their owners' campsites.
- Add your new card to your campsite, face down if you drew it from the draw deck, face up if from the discard pile. If you successfully discarded matching cards, use your new card to fill any hole in your campsite, then you and your teammates slide your cards closer together to fill any other holes. If you failed to replace matching cards, add your new card at either end of your campsite.
- If you failed to replace matching cards, check whether you receive any extra penalties:
- If 3 of the cards you slid forward were unique values, draw 1 extra card from the draw deck and place it face down at either end of your campsite without looking at it.
- If 4 cards were unique values, draw 2 extra cards and add them face down to your campsite.
- If 5 or more cards were unique values, draw 3 extra cards and add them face down to your campsite.
Example: Misty draws a 4 from the draw deck (A) and decides to replace cards in her campsite. She has a face up 8, and she knows that her teammate Alex does as well, since she looked at his card previously. She slides forward both cards (B, C), then flips Alex's card face up (D). Since they are both 8s, she discards them (E, F) and places her 4 face down in her campsite (G). Alex now has a face up 2 and 4, and Misty has a face down 4 that only she knows.
Example: Colin has an 11, and he thinks one of his teammate Rachel's remaining cards is also an 11. There is a 7 on the discard pile, so he draws it (A) and slides forward his 11 (B) and his teammate's card (C). He flips it face up — and it's a 10 (D)! Oh no! Without discarding, he adds the face up 7 to his campsite (E), slides his 11 back (F) and Rachel's 10 stays face up and slides back as well (G).
Discarding a card
Sometimes the card you drew isn't one you'd like to keep or to use its ability. In that case, you may simply discard the card to the top of the discard pile, ending your turn.
[=] Cards
A card with an equals sign [=] instead of a number always matches the other cards you choose. The first card you choose can have an [=] (as long as all other cards you choose match each other).
Whenever you discard 1 or more [=] cards, all discarded [=] cards must be placed below any other cards you discard.
Example: When choosing a set to discard after drawing from the draw deck (A), Misty selects a random card her teammate's campsite (B) and her own [=] card (C). She flips over Alex's card to reveal a 10 (D). Since her [=] card will match anything, she can discard her [=] card (E) and Alex's 10 card (F) with the [=] card at the bottom, and keeps her newly drawn card (G).
Declaring Scram
If you have 2 or fewer cards in your campsite at the start of your turn (and you believe your team has the lower score), you can choose to declare "Scram" and trigger the end of the round.
When you declare Scram, your turn ends immediately (you may not draw or play any cards before or after you Scram). Each other camper then has 1 final turn before the round ends and scores are tallied. Once a camper has declared Scram, other campers may not declare Scram during their final turn.
Careful! If you declare Scram, but your team doesn't end up with the lower score, there will be consequences during scoring!
Round End
The end of a round can be triggered in either of 2 ways:
- If a camper declares Scram, each other camper gets 1 final turn before the round ends.
- If the draw deck is empty at the start of any camper's turn, the round ends immediately.
After the round ends, each camper reveals any remaining face down cards in their campsite, then each team adds up the values on all their cards to determine their final score for the round.
If the round ended because the draw deck was empty, each team records their score and adds it to their scores from previous rounds. However, if a camper declared Scram to end the round, scores are modified as follows:
- If the team that declared Scram has the lower score or is tied for the lower score, they score 0 for the round.
- If the team that declared Scram has the higher score, they add +10 to their score for the round.
- The team that did not declare Scram scores normally.
The team with the lower recorded score wins the round; the camper on that team with the lowest individual score goes first on the next round. In case of ties, the lowest scoring camper to the left of the previous start camper goes first.
In a 4 camper game, play 4 rounds. In a 6 camper game, play 3 rounds.
Scoring [=] cards
During scoring, score each [=] card in your campsite as if it had the same value as the lowest numbered card in your campsite. If you have only [=] cards, then they each score 0.
Example: At the end of the round, the A Team scores 5 points (Misty's [=] card is worth 1 point) and the B Team scores 4 points. Because the B Team had the lowest score that round, and Colin had the lowest score on that team, Colin will begin the next round.
Game End
At the end of the last round, the team with the lowest cumulative score wins!
If there is a tie, the team with the lowest score in the final round wins.
If there is still a tie, the team with the lower score in the previous round wins, and so on.
If there was a tie in all rounds, the critters have gained control of the entire camp, and you all lose.
Communication
You may not discuss what is on any face down cards you have seen (including a card you have just drawn), even if you think your teammates have already seen it. You may not ask your teammates what is on a face down card.
You may not indicate or hint at which cards a teammate should select when replacing cards or using a card action.
You may discuss which cards you have seen or not seen. For example, you may point to a card and say "I know the value of this card."
You may discuss face up cards and their values.
You may discuss strategy if it doesn't reveal or imply any information about face down card values.
Clarifications & Reminders
When you replace cards in your campsite
You may not discard the card you just drew with any other cards.
When discarding, you must choose at least 1 card in your own campsite. If you only choose 1 card to discard, it must be in your campsite.
You must slide forward all cards you wish to replace before flipping any of them face up.
If you discard any [=] cards, place them below the other cards you discard, if there are any.
When you play a card for its action
If you view a face down card, always look at it secretly.
If you flip a card face up, it is revealed to everyone and remains face up for the rest of the round.
If you discard cards, place them face up in the discard pile. Do not use any actions on them. If you use card 9 to discard 2 cards with different numbers, discard the higher-numbered card first and the lower-numbered card on top of it. If one of the cards you discard is an equals sign, always discard it below the other card(s).
If you exchange cards, you may choose cards that are face up and/or face down. Each card a camper receives must be placed in the same position as the card it is replacing. Face down cards remain face down after being exchanged. When you play card 12, you may choose to "view" a face up card in order to exchange it.
If you place a card in a campsite (cards 9 and 13), place it face up at either end of their campsite instead of discarding it.
Tips
One of the best ways to remember face down cards you've seen is to silently repeat the cards you know from left to right. For example, if you've seen that your first 3 cards are 1, 8, and 1, repeat "one eight one" to yourself a few times.
It can be a good strategy to take a card that matches one of your team's existing cards so you can discard them as a pair (or larger set) on a future turn.
The 11 and 12 cards can be used to exchange the topmost card on the draw deck with a card in any camper's campsite.
You can use the 7 and 8 cards to view the top cards on the draw deck.
You can use the 12 card to view the top 2 cards on the draw deck and possibly change their order!
Declaring Scram is safer when fewer 11, 12, and 13 cards remain in the draw deck.
3-Camper Rules
When playing with 3 campers, assign 2 campers to one team (the "duo") and 1 camper to the other (the "solo"), and seat the solo camper in the middle.
Remove 1 set of number cards (1-13) and 1 [=] card (56 cards will be in the game). Deal 3 cards face down and 2 cards face up in front of the duo campers, and 6 cards face down and 2 cards face up in front of the solo camper. The solo camper is the start camper on the first round.
During the game, the solo camper takes a turn after each opponent.
If the solo camper declares Scram, the solo camper does not get another turn. Instead, each of the duo campers get 1 final turn in clockwise order.
If one of the duo campers declares Scram, the solo camper gets 2 final turns, and the other duo camper gets 1 turn.
Play 3 rounds. If the score is tied at the end of the game, the solo camper wins!
Game turns go in this order: Camper 1, Camper 2, Camper 1, Camper 3, Camper 1, Camper 2, Camper 1, etc., with the solo camper taking a turn after each of the duo campers take a turn.
Credits
Designer: Ted Alspach is the designer of many games, including Castles of Mad King Ludwig, One Night Ultimate Werewolf, Suburbia, Silver, Maglev Metro, Ultimate Werewolf, and the 2019 Spiel des Jahres finalist, Werewords.
Artist: Moeqit is a freelance 2D Digital Artist from Indonesia.
©2023 Bezier Games, Inc. Scram! and its logo are trademarks of Bezier Games, Inc.