Tarot card games

Tarot games are fun card games.

They use a special pack of cards. These packs have four regular suits. They also have a set of trumps. Trumps are very strong cards.

You play to win points. You get points from the cards you take. Some cards are worth many points. Other cards are worth only one point.

You can play with two to eight people. It is a great way to play together.

Tarot games are a special family of card games.

They use a unique deck of cards. Most decks have four suits like hearts or spades. Tarot decks also have a permanent suit called trumps. Trumps are very powerful cards used to win tricks.

In many games, some trumps are more important than others. These are called "honours" or the "Trull." They include the Fool, which is an unnumbered card. The Fool can be the strongest card or a card that lets you skip a turn. Other special cards include the Mond and the Pagat.

Players try to win points by taking tricks. Each card has a different point value. Kings and the Fool are worth many points. Other cards are called "low cards" and are worth very little. You can play with two to eight people. Some people play in teams. In many parts of Europe, these games are very popular. In France, it is a very common game to play with friends.

Tarot games are a special family of card games played with unique decks.

While most card games use four suits, tarot packs include a permanent suit called trumps. These trumps are very powerful and help players win tricks. In many parts of Europe, these games are quite popular. French tarot is the second most popular card game in France. In Austria, players love games like Königrufen and hold big tournaments. People also play these games in Italy, Hungary, and Slovenia. They even play them in Switzerland, Denmark, and parts of Poland.

Playing a tarot game involves a specific way of working.

Most rules are made for three or four players. You can play alone or join a fixed partner. The play usually moves in an anti-clockwise direction. If a player leads a suit, others must follow that suit if they can. If they do not have that suit, they should play a trump card. After the hand ends, players count points from the cards they won in tricks. The winner is the person who collects the most points.

These games have a long history that started in northern Italy.

Around the year 1425, the tarot pack was invented. Some early records show a set of 16 trumps ordered by Filippo Maria Visconti around 1420. These cards featured images of Greek and Roman gods. For a long time, people used these cards only for gaming. It was not until the 18th century that people began using them for fortune-telling. This idea of using cards for divination became very widespread in France and Bologna.

A full French tarot deck has 78 cards. This includes four suits with 14 cards each. These suits have numbered cards and four court cards: a Jack, a Knight, a Queen, and a King. The 21 trumps act as a separate suit. Some special trumps are very important, like the Fool, the Mond, and the Pagat. In other regions, like Austria, players use smaller decks. These might have only 63, 54, 40, or even 36 cards. These smaller decks help make the game faster.

Scoring can seem tricky, but it follows a simple logic. Originally, cards were worth one less point than their number. For example, a King was worth 4 points. Players eventually combined counting tricks and card points into one step. In 54-card games, players often count in packets of three. They group one high-value card with two low cards. That whole group then scores the value of the high card. This makes calculating the final score much quicker and easier for everyone.

Tarot games are a family of card games played with specialized packs.

Unlike standard decks, these packs include a permanent trump suit alongside the usual four suits. In many languages, these games are called tarocchi in Italian or Tarock in German. They remain highly popular across Europe. In France, French tarot is the second most popular card game after Belote. Austria is also a major center for the games, particularly for Königrufen. National and international tournaments are held there every year. The games are also played in Italy, Hungary, Slovenia, Liechtenstein, Czechia, Slovakia, Switzerland, Denmark, southern Germany, and southern Poland.

The mechanism of play relies on trick-taking and specific suit rules.

Most rules are designed for three or four players. Players can compete as individuals or in fixed partnerships. Play typically moves in an anti-clockwise direction. When a player leads a suit, others must follow that suit if they have it. If a player cannot follow the suit, they must play a trump if possible. After all cards are played, players count points from the cards captured in their tricks. The winner is the player with the highest total score.

Tarot decks vary significantly in size and composition based on regional rules.

A complete French tarot deck contains 78 cards. This includes 14 cards in each of the four suits. These suits consist of numbered "pip" cards from one to ten and four court cards: a Jack, a Knight, a Queen, and a King. Additionally, there are 21 trumps that act as a permanent suit. Some regional games use smaller subsets. Austrian-Hungarian Tarock and Italian Tarocco decks may use only 63, 54, 40, or 36 cards. These smaller decks remove certain ranks to increase the chance of a "void" or short suit.

The history of these cards began in northern Italy around 1425.

An early example of a trump suit was ordered by Filippo Maria Visconti around 1420. This set included 16 trumps featuring images of Greek and Roman gods. Martiano da Tortona provided a basic description of these cards in a manuscript before 1425. From Italy, the games spread to France and Switzerland in the 16th century. They reached Belgium in the late 17th century. By the 18th century, they had spread to most of Europe, except for the British Isles, the Iberian peninsula, and the Balkans.

It is important to distinguish the history of gaming from the history of divination.

For many centuries, tarot cards were used purely for gaming. The association with the occult and fortune-telling did not become widespread until the 18th century. In 1781, Court de Gébelin published an essay linking the cards to ancient wisdom. Although these ideas were later debunked, they led to the use of cards for cartomancy. Today, many fortune-tellers use specially developed decks rather than the decks used for traditional games.

Scoring in tarot games can appear complex due to its historical evolution.

Originally, card values were one point lower than their current standard. For example, a King was worth 4 points instead of 5. Every trick taken also scored one point. To simplify things, players eventually fused these two processes into one calculation. In 54-card Tarock games, a common method is counting in packets of three. A player groups one high-value "counting card" with two "low cards." The entire triplet then scores the value of the counting card. For instance, a Queen and two low cards would score exactly 4 points.

Special cards, known as the "Trull" or "Honours," hold significant value in many versions.

In Central European Tarock, these include the Fool (also called the Sküs or the Excuse), the Mond (Trump XXI), and the Pagat (Trump I). These three cards are particularly important for scoring. In many games, the Fool can act as the strongest trump or excuse a player from following suit. The ranking of cards can also be archaic. While Kings are usually high, the specific order of other cards depends on the regional rules being used.