Skully (also called skelly, skellies, skelsy, skellzies, scully, skelzy, scummy top, tops, loadies or caps) is a children's game played on the streets of New York City and other urban areas. Sketched on the street usually in chalk, a skully board allows a game for two to six players. A sidewalk is sometimes used, offering greater protection from vehicular traffic; however, the asphalt on a typical city street is smoother and provides better game play than a bumpy concrete sidewalk.
Game time varies, but a match of two to three players is usually completed in 20 minutes. Local variations in rules are common and make it difficult to document the game. Rule variations are agreed upon by players before starting a game, especially when players from different neighborhoods play against each other.
The skully board
The skully field of play, or board, is a large square approximately six feet (2 m) a side. This board is drawn on a flat surface, such as the pavement of a street or playground.
At each corner and along the edges of the board are drawn 12 smaller squares, called boxes, of about six inches (15 cm) a side each (see diagram). These boxes are labeled "1" to "12" in a pattern so that the path from one square to the next requires—as much as possible—crossing through a large center square called the skull or skully (hence the name of the game). Boxes "1" and "2" are in opposite corners of the board, as are "3" and "4".
In the center of the skull, a 13th box is drawn at the same size as the other boxes and is labeled "13". The areas around the 13 box are marked with skulls or numbers, and describe a penalty area where players are not meant to shoot their game pieces, called caps.
A short distance from the "1" box is found a start line approximately six inches long.
The dimensions of the skully board can vary depending upon physical restrictions and neighborhood game play practices. Earlier versions of the board had only 9 boxes, and boards used in the similar games like deadbox (played mainly in Philadelphia) have upwards of 15 boxes.
In some layouts, the central area is labeled "MUD" or "BURNS"; if your bottle-cap lands in the MUD you lose 3 turns. The game board goes up to 10 which is in a small circle in the middle of the MUD. Lines connect the corners of the central square with the 10 in a middle circle. There were no numbered squares in the corners of the board and the box labeled "1" is below the main area, with an attached "start" oval.
Game play
Players use caps—usually bottle caps, or similar items like checkers, or chair glides—to play. Many players use clay, wax, and most commonly crayons melted into the bottle cap (these having been referred to as "melties"), even a coin covered with tar or a bottle cap filled with tar that was dug from the streets to weigh down their caps for easier gliding. Caps were typically soft drink bottle caps. Some players took extreme pride in customizing their playing pieces.
On hands and knees, each player begins by placing his cap on the start line, and flicks a cap using the middle or index finger launched from behind the thumb. The object is to land it in the box labeled "1". If successful (the cap cannot touch a line), the player continues by flicking for the next number - and so on in the sequence: "2", "3", "4" etc., up to "12". If any flick is unsuccessful, the player's turn is forfeit and the next player is up. The cap remains where it lies. When all players have had their turns, the first player resumes by flicking for the square previously missed.
Flicking a piece into a square without touching a line allows the player to immediately take another turn. In addition, if a player strikes another player's cap, he is immediately rewarded with the next box he is going for, allowing him to pick up his cap, walk over to that number, and immediately take an additional turn from there. The player whose cap has been hit must play from where it now lies.
A complication in the game involves the space surrounding the square box "13". If, in flicking for any square (including "13"), a player accidentally lands on the area surrounding "13" (the skull), the player remains stuck there until freed by another player's shot. In one variation such good behavior is motivated by assigning each area a number of bonus squares which advance the player who frees a stuck player. In other variations, the freeing player gets a number of bonus turns equal to the last number in the number the stuck player had reached before getting stuck.
