Scopa is a traditional Italian card game that's been around for more than 400 years. Tho' it can be played using regular playing cards (1-10 of each suit), this edition from Cheatwell and Outset comprises two 40-card custom decks in suits of Coins, Clubs, Cups and Swords, replicating the cards used in Italy since the late Renaissance period.
Scopa is primarily a two-player game but it can be played with four players as a team game (two teams of two, with partners adding their capture piles together at the end of each round). The second deck in this box can be used if you're playing teams of three or more.
Regardless of whether you're playing with two or as a team game, four cards are placed face-up on the table and each player has a hand of three cards. On your turn you can play a card from your hand to capture a card of identical rank or cards whose values add up to that of the card you play. You can only use a card to capture multiple cards if that card doesn't have an exact match on the table.
If you can't capture a card or you choose not to, you add a card from your hand to the display. Players only draw new cards when their hands are empty (so every three turns) and play continues in this way until the draw deck is exhausted.
Scopa means 'sweep' and the term is used when you play a card from your hand to sweep all the cards from the display (ie: you play a card equal to the total of all the cards in the dsiplay). The rules in this edition don't make it clear but our interpretation of the Scopa rule in the traditional game is that it's scored whenever you clear the display - so even if there's just one card left and you match it. It's best to flip a card in your capture pile face up whenever you collect a Scopa to help you keep score.
At the end of a round (ie: when the draw deck is exhausted) players score one point for any and each Scopa they collected. A point is scored by the player with the most cards (ie: captures) and the player who captured the 7 of Coins (Sette Bello) gets a point. There is a point for the player with the most Coins cards (Dinaro) and there is a point for the player who has the most cards of the highest scoring rank (Primera). Tho' it's only worth one point, the Primera calculation is the fiddliest aspect of the game because card scores are counted in a counterintuitive way, with 7's worth 21, 6's worth 18, 1's worth 16. You basically just compare who has the most of the number 7 cards and then only move on to comparing 6's et al if the players are tied for 7's.
The game is won by the first player/team to score 11 points. This version comes with a pad of handy score sheets that go up to six rounds but you'll typically find a player gets to a winning 11 points in three or four rounds. That's especially the case if players apply tactics to their play in an attempt to set up and score points for clearing-the-table Scopas.
With all it's idiosyncrasies - most notably in the mega value awarded to the 7 of Coins (a guaranteed point for Sette Bello plus contribution to both the Dinaro and Primera scoring), Scopa is a charming card game that deserves to be better known outside Italy, so it's great to see Cheatwell and Outset bringing it to a wider audience. The game also comes with rules for a Scopa variant (Scopa d'Assi) and another quite distinct card game Briscola, which is a trick-taking game which uses the Scopa deck and has its own eccentric scoring.
(Review by Selwyn Ward)