Published by Fata Morgana
Copyright 1992, Fata Morgana Spiele
Translated by Dietmar Logoz
[Note: text that appears in the margins in the original rules is offset using square brackets [] in this translation - except for this bit, of course - ken]
Other Schraumen bits:
The game about scrolls and prunes for 3 to 8 players from 13 to 99 years.
The strange people called Scrunes assess their wealth with the means of prunes. But they do not trade and haggle with prunes - oh heinous deed! - as with filthy lucre. No, all the giving and taking is laid down by the holy scrolls. You will incorporate a Scrune. You will once on each turn have to carry the burden of the druid's authority: enacting bills using your scrolls, getting a new scroll from the temple and auctioning it for good prunes without revealing its content - as required by tradition. The one who is blessed with the biggest prune wealth at the end becomes supreme prune.
The origin of the word Scrunes lies in the dark. At least most of the etymologists today think of it as the words scrolls and prunes living in sin, an explanation that imposes itself in view of the morals in the land of the Scrunes.
The holy scrolls are lying in the elevated temple. The Scrunes acquire them from their spiritual leader, the druid, obeying wise rules, and cherish them like life itself until the final Holy Reading takes place. When the druid reads out a scroll, that order must be followed immediately. No Scrune (by the way: the concept is neuter) would dare to protest against the Holy Rules, since the faith in scrolls and prunes is deeply rooted in the people of the Scrunes.
The prunes are lying in the garden. They are the Scrunish means of payment. But it would be absolutely inappropriate to equate the prunes to - oh heinous deed! - the ordinary money of other people. No: among the Scrunes payment transactions follow the rules laid down in the Holy Scrolls. Scrunes take and give prunes only if the Holy Auctional Ceremony requires it or when a druid reads out the corresponding rule from a scroll.
3 to 8 Scrunes lusting for a game gather together round a table. The wise rule tells that the scrolls must first be shuffled and then kept in the temple next to the fire, face down.
[Shuffle the scrolls and put them in the temple, face down.]
The eleven uppermost scrolls are taken out of the temple at once and safely kept in a safe hiding place. The /Big 11/ are not meant to be seen by Scrunes' eyes. What a heinous deed playing with them!
[Remove 11 scrolls from the game]
The prunes are lying in the green garden. By His infinite grace the wise rulemaker enacted in old times that each Scrune shall receive seven prunes from the garden, and three scrolls from the temple.
[Each Scrune gets: 7 prunes, and 3 scrolls]
The scrolls are drawn back side up. Each Scrune is allowe look at its scrolls, but not read them in public yet. Scrolls with the order "SOFORT" (immediately) must be put back into the temple and be replaced (with another card) from there.
Nobody among the Scrunes has hogged the druid's authority - unlike it happens with other civilized people. Each Scrune becomes a druid one after another: round to the left, like we are used to do from profane dice and card games. The oldest and supposedly wisest Scrune takes this duty at first. It thereby has to obey the following ceremony:
[The druid's authority rotates among the players]
1. The Druid Scrune is allowed to read out as many from its scrolls as it likes to. All must follow the orders. The scrolls that have been read out must be thrown into the fire next to the temple and are discarded. The regulation of the /PRAISED 5/: The rules do not tell that the druid Scrune must read out from its scrolls, except if it owns more than 5 of them. It then has to decrease the number of its scrolls down to a maximum of 5 pieces (by reading them out and burning them).
[First the druid reads out as many of its scrolls as it likes]
2. The Holy Auction constitutes the culmination of its period of authority. The druid Scrune takes the uppermost scroll from the temple, reads it in secret, extols it and opens the auction. No other Scrune knows its contents. The auction otherwise goes off following the usual worldwide known ritual. The bids are made with prunes.
[Then the druid auctions the uppermost scroll from the temple]
3. The highest bidding Scrune gets the acceptance and receives this scroll. In principle, all Scrunes are allowed to bid, including the druid Scrune. The regulation of the /PRAISED 5/: Whoever already owns 5 or more scrolls may not bid. If noone bids for this scrol, it goes to the druid Scrune for free. It expresses its thanks with a "halleluja!". The regulation of the /PRAISED 5/: If the druid Scrune already owns 5 or more scrolls, the free scroll goes to the next Scrune to its left that does not yet own 5 scrolls. If it is the rare case that all Scrunes have at least 5 scrolls, the new scroll from the temple is burnt without being read out.
[The highest bidding Scrune gets the acceptance. All Scrunes are allowed to bid, as long as they have enough prunes and less than 5 scrolls]
4. Payment: If the druid Scrune itself has bought the scroll, it pays the bidden price in prunes as a fruit sacrifice into the garden. If another Scrune has bought the scroll, it pays the bidden price to the druid Scrune.
[The druid pays into the garden; the Scrunes pay to the druid]
5. A SOFORT scroll is subject to particular rules. It must be read out at once by the Scrune which has bought it at the auction.
[A SOFORT scroll must be read out immediately]
6. These wise rules too do not get on without punishment: If the druid Scrune sinfully violates the ceremony and publicly reads out the contents of the new scroll from the temple before the auction takes place, it loses its Holy Druid Authority at once! The scroll has no effect and is burnt, and the guilty Scrune atoning puts one half of its prunes into the garden as a fruit sacrifice.
[It is a punishable offence to read out scrolls subjected to an auction]
Bold underlined scroll texts express categorical requirements. Only if these are fulfilled, such a scroll may be read out. Whoever tries it all the same has to take it back. /Examples: A rule "All put three prunes into the garden" may not be read out if one Scrune owns less than three prunes (Scrunes do not know any debts). - A rule "The richest Scrune..." may only be read out if one single Scrune owns more prunes than every other Scrune and therefore clearly is the "richest"./
[Bold scroll texts are requirements!]
The regulation of the /PRAISED 5/ tells that no Scrune shall own more than 5 scrolls. Such an excessive possession can get accumulated due to gifts or unexpected additional scrolls. When this Scrune takes up the druid's authority the next time, it has to decrease its possession by reading out, as far as possible.
[No Scrune shall own more than 5 scrolls]
The number of prunes and scrolls a Scrune owns may not be kept as a secret. /The Scrunes are open minded and honest people, very much socially sensitized./
[No Scrune may keep its possessions as a secret]
The mathematics of the Scrunes is too complicated for many, but very simple: division remainders like one third or one half of something are used to round up.
[Round up: 1/2 from 11 = 6; 1/3 from 10 = 4]
The jackpot is an especially beneficial scroll. The Scrune who owns it is allowed to call - as a druid - "JACKPOT" and to throw down the card openly in front of itself. Each time it then - as a druid - auctions a scroll, 2 prunes from the garden are placed onto the JACKPOT scroll. This scroll furthermore belongs to this Scrune; it is subject to the regulation of the /PRAISED 5/ and it also might change the owner after the reading out of certain scrolls. If the Scrune later loses the JACKPOT scroll, the scroll is thrown into the fire, following an old custom. The Scrune is allowed to keep the prunes that have been lying on the JACKPOT card.
The end of this game can come up in many different ways and has been enacted by the wise rule maker as follows:
[The game ends by means of scrolls or if the temple is empty]
Usually the Scrune with the largest prune wealth has won the game. From this day on the people admire it as supreme prune. According to an old custom it - and it only - may put a "Lord" in front of its name, and a "Carl" or "Gloria", respectively, in front of its surname. Three cheers for it!
[The Scrune with the most prunes wins]