Double Skunk

Double Skunk is a cribbage roguelite built around the standard game of cribbage. Between hands, you build an engine of powerups, pocket cards and pegs that change how the rules work and what each hand can score.

Build your engine

Powerups sit on your rail and alter the value of the count. One pays extra for every fifteen after the first; another knocks the rival back down the board the first time they show a pair. When a powerup pays off, its animal acts out the effect at the table: Fifteen Bell’s fox rings a brass bell over your show, while Drumline’s heron beats a snare drum beside the run you just pegged.

Pocket cards break the rules once. Playing the Four into the count walks the total back and slides the rival’s peg down the board; The Mine takes the crib whoever dealt. Pegs apply their own rule throughout the run: The Spy reveals what the rival threw into the crib, while the Hoarder gives you extra pockets. Each point moves your peg one hole, and landing on board tiles pays out gold, cards or powerups.

Learn the rules

If you are new to cribbage, the Coach teaches you in a short warm-up at the parlor table. In the first hand, the Coach points to each card and explains its count. In the next, you throw and peg, then count your hand by tapping its fifteens and pairs, with hints available when you get stuck. You can then start your first real match, or skip the warm-up if you already know the game.

Climb the mountain

The Long Tally is a campaign against 21 rivals, climbing from a back-room parlor to the top of the cribbage mountain. Each rival has a painted face and a distinct voice. Captain Blue plays one suit and tells you which, but still wins; Brother Saunders brings a thermos to the Tundra and has never offered you any.

Higher tables add house rules. Some use a chess clock, while tables near the summit can use muggins: points you miss when counting your hand go to the rival. Some rungs let you permanently mark a rank or suit; from then on, those cards have a tell on the backs of the rival’s hand.

A loss does not end the climb. At the campaign’s start, choose whether to keep your place and replay the same rival on a fresh board, or drop back one rung and win that trophy again. Reaching the summit opens the Beyond, which continues past the top. There, each match is one long game of duplicate cribbage, and a heat meter rises as you play. When it boils over, the rival gets a free hole; the meter boils faster the higher you climb.

Weekly challenge

Each week, everyone plays the same deal in a duplicate cribbage challenge. Every hand comes round twice, once from each side of the table, so the luck of the cards cancels out. Your build and the rival’s are fixed for the week, the rival plays at Expert, and the leaderboard ranks you by how far ahead of the rival you finish. Each challenge has its own twist, which Skip and Skat discuss before the match.

Multiplayer and offline play

You can invite a friend through Steam or find an opponent with Quick Match. Ranked matches affect your Peg Rating and your place on the season leaderboard. If a game crashes mid-match, both players can return to the same hand, and you can tip your hat when your rival makes a good play.

Offline, you can play against AI from Easy to Expert and set house rules before the deal. Options include best-of matches, duplicate cribbage, muggins and reverse, where the first peg home loses. Pure Cribbage turns off every new system for a game played by the standard rules.

People at the table

Skip and Skat host the weekly challenge. When you play a card from your pocket, they climb onto the table to act it out, shoving the rival’s peg back or staking a claim to the crib you took. The Pedlar runs the shop partway around each board, buys back things you have outgrown and has heard something about your next rival. The Coach remains on hand after the warm-up to comment on your throws.

Review each match

At the end of a match, a summary grades your play against the book. It shows what your throws and pegging gave up compared with the best possible play, how kind the cuts were and which hand cost you the most. You can open a review and replay any hand, comparing your keep with the book’s and the better card with the one you played.

Winning by a mile puts DOUBLE SKUNKED across the rival’s portrait; this is where the game gets its name.