Boy Scouts (1910)

Overview

This is an old Parker Brothers card game with a Scout theme. The deck contains 5 Patrols (suits) of 10 cards each with the cards numbered from 1 to 10. The 1 card is called the Patrol Leader. The player to the dealer's left starts by playing any card between 1 and 10 from his hand to the center of the table. The next player must either play a card from the same Patrol whose number is 1 greater or 1 less than the card on the table, or play a card from a different Patrol whose number is the same. For example, if an Owl 4 card is led, the next player may play an Owl 3 below it, an Owl 5 above it, or a 4 card from a different patrol (say a Wolf 4) adjacent to it (thus allowing Wolf cards to be played). The lead card designates the number that all other patrols must start on (in this example number 4). If a player has no legal play he must pass. The first player to play his last card scores points equal to the numbers on all the cards still in the other players hands. A Patrol Leader card counts as 15 points for scoring. The first player to score 250 points wins.

According to the Dutch rules from publisher Goliath Games, the number of Patrols used in a game is equal to the number of players (e.g. only use 3 Patrols in a three player game).