| What follows is an archive of various rules I've found hidden away on message boards and other hard to find locations on the internet. A few of these sites containing these rules are no longer to be found. These are rules for the old Italian games such as Scarto and Mitigati as well as rules for some Swiss games such as Troccas, as the Swiss games are quite similar and like the Italian games they are often played with an Italian suited pack. I was never able to find an English language account of the Sicilian Tarocchi game. But I can summarize by saying it is played with 3 or 4 players using 63 or 64 cards. The value of Trumps in the Sicilian games differ from other games of this type: The Matto, I, XX are valued at 10 points each and Trumps XXI, XIX, XVIII, and XVII, are valued at 5 points. By convention, in many Italian games the XX (Angel or Judgement) ranks higher than the XXI (World). |
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| SCARTO OR TARROCCHI ( A game for three players using the Tarot pack ) 1. The Cards Swords and Batons K,Q,C,J,10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,A Cups and Coins K,Q,C,J,A,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10 Tarrocchi ( Trumps ) 20( Angel ),21,19,18,17,...,5,4,3,2,1(Bagatto) The Fool ( Matto or Folle ) 2. The Deal The deal is anticlockwise. The player to the left of the dealer cuts the pack. Each player is dealt five cards at a time. The dealer discards three cards on his left ( these count towards the dealer's points ). The dealer cannot discard a King, The Angel (20) or The Fool (0). The dealer cannot discard the Bagatto unless it is the only trump in the hand. 3. The Play The player on the dealer's right leads. Play is anticlockwise. Each player must follow suit if possible; if not, then the player must follow with Trumps if possible; if not, only then can any card from the hand be played. Note #1 The Fool can never take a trick. When led, the next player can play any card, and this card is considered to be the card to follow suit. Although the Fool can never win tricks, it is always retained by the player who plays it and it counts towards that player's points. Note #2 The Angel (20) is higher than The World (21). 4. The Scoring The cards are divided into high cards and low cards. Points are counted three cards at a time: Cards Score 3 low cards 1 point. 1 high, 2 low the points of the high card. 2 high, 1 low the sum of the points of the high card minus 1. 3 high cards the sum of the points of the high cards minus 2. High Cards Points Angel(20) 5 Bagatto(1) 5 King 5 Fool 4 Queen 4 Cavalier 3 Jack 2 The points in a game is 78 and the average per player is 26. Each player scores relative to 26 e.g. a score of 30 should be converted to +4. MITIGATI ( A game for three players using the Tarot pack ) 1. The Cards Swords and Batons K,Q,C,J,10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,A Cups and Coins K,Q,C,J,A,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10 Tarrocchi ( Trumps ) 20( Angel ),21,19,18,17,...,5,4,3,2,1(Bagatto) The Fool ( Matto or Folle ) 2. The Deal The deal is anticlockwise. The player to the left of the dealer cuts the pack. Each player is dealt five cards at a time. The dealer discards three cards on his left ( these count towards the dealer's points ). The dealer cannot discard a King, The Angel (20) or The Fool (0). The dealer cannot discard the Bagatto unless it is the only trump in the hand. 3. The Play The player on the dealer's right leads. Play is anticlockwise. Each player must follow suit if possible; if not, then the player must follow with Trumps if possible; if not, only then can any card from the hand be played. Note #1 The Fool can never take a trick. When led, the next player can play any card, and this card is considered to be the card to follow suit. Although the Fool can never win tricks, it is always retained by the player who plays it and it counts towards that player's points. Note #2 The Angel (20) is higher than The World (21). 4. Declarations Ten or more trumps ( Tarrocchi )10 points plus 1 for each trump above 10 Four Kings 20 points Mitigati ( Angel, Bagatto and Fool together ) 15 points Honours ( 4 of Kings, The Angel, The Bagatto or Fool ) 10 points 5. The Scoring The Angel 5 points The Bagatto 5 points King 5 points Fool 4 points Queen 4 points Cavalier 3 points Jack 2 points The Others 1 point The total points in a game is 129 and the average per player is 43. Each player scores relative to 43 e.g. a score of 38 should be converted to -5. Phil ---=====================================================================--- Philip Chee Games Guild of Ealdormere Mitigati, by Master Rufus Mitigati (a 3-player card game) Mitigati is one of a series of card games which developed in Europe based on the Tarot deck (the fortune telling aspects of the deck came later). It combines the best parts of bridge and poker, and is a lot of fun once you remember the scoring system. The Deck The tarot deck consists of four suits (hearts, diamonds, clubs, spades or sometimes cups, coins, wands, and swords) of 14 cards each (1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10, page, knight, queen, king), plus a fifth trump suit of 21 cards and the fool. The trump suit is commonly illustrated, with some decks also giving a name to each card (eg the lovers). Scoring Mitigati is a trick taking game. At the end of play, each player will add up the value of the cards taken. However, knowing the value of the hand you were dealt is essential in the bidding process. Kings, 1 of trump, 21 of trump - 5 Queens , Fool - 4 Knights - 3 Pages - 2 Every other card - 1 This provides a total of 129 points available in the deck. There are also some additional honours points which are displayed and scored with the first card played by each player. All four kings - 20 points from each player 1 of trump, 21 of trump and Fool - 15 points from each player Any four of the above 7 cards - 10 points from each player (Any extra honours card scores an extra five points from each player) 10 or more trump (the Fool counts as a trump only if it is the 10th card) - 1 point each For exmaple: If a player holds 4 kings, the 1 and 21 of trump, they would score a total of 30 points from each player (20+5+5 for the two extra honours). This means they would go up 60 and each of the other players would go down 30. The Bidding The dealer deals out 10 cards to each player and the person to the left of the dealer will start the bidding with the bidding going clockwise. As mentioned above there are a total of 129 points available. This means an average of 43 points per person. As such, the bidding is done relative to 43. For example, if I were to bid +20, that means that I believe I will capture cards worth 63 points. Each player can bid positive, negative, zero or ask for more cards. The bidding continues around the circle until someone asks for more cards or the total of the bids equals zero. You may not bid higher if the bidding comes full circle, but you may lower your bid. If the total of the bids equals zero, it means that you have agreed on the value of your hands. At this point, the score would be written down and a brand new hand would be dealt - the hand is not played out. If someone asks for more cards, five more cards are dealt and the bidding is repeated. Again, you may ask for more cards. Another five cards are dealt and there is a final round of bidding. If there is no agreement on the score, the remaining cards are dealt out - five to each player with the dealer getting the extra three cards, and the hand is then played out. The bidding has no influence on the actual play, so feel free to bid "creatively" - bluffing is a big part of this game. The Play The play starts to the left of the dealer, after the dealer has picked three cards to discard (remember they had extra cards at the end of the deal). Those three cards are scored by the dealer at the end of the game. You may not discard any kings or trump. Remember that any honours need to be declared with the first card played. Each player must follow the suit led. The highest card takes the trick, and that player would then lead the next card. You may not play trump unless you are void in the suit led. If you do not have the suit led, you must play trump. If you do not have any trump either, then you may play any card remaining. The exception to this is the fool, it may be played at any time, but is always scored by the person who played it, even though it can never take a trick. If the Fool is led at the beginning of a round, the next person to the left is considered to have the "lead card". When all the cards are played, each player scores the cards in their tricks, and the deal proceeds to the next player. OK. The simplest is Scarto, which is played in Turin (Torino) using the 78 card Tarocco Piemontese. There are 3 players. Deal and play are anticlockwise. The pack has 78 cards: 14 in each of the four suits coins, cups, swords and batons, 21 trumps numbered from 1 to 21, and the fool (Matto). The cards is the long suits (swords and batons) rank from high to low: Re (king), Donna (queen), Cavallo (horse), Fante (jack), 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. In the round suits the pip cards rank the other way. From high to low the cards are: Re, Donna, Cavallo, Fante, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. The trumps rank from high to low: 20, 21, 19, 18, 17, 16, ... , 3, 2, 1 - in other words in numerical order except that the angel (20) beats the world (21). The fool is a special card belonging to no suit. Deal the cards out 5 at a time so that each player has 25; the dealer also takes the last three cards, making 28 in all. The dealer discards three cards face down which at the end count as the dealer's first trick. These discards must not include kings, the angel (trump 20), the bagatto (trump 1) or the fool. The player to dealer's right leads to the first trick. The other two players must follow suit if they can. A player who cannot follow suit MUST play a trump. A player with no cards of the led suit and no trumps can play anything. The trick is won by the highest trump in it, or if it contacins no trump by the highest card of the suit led. The winner of a trick puts the cards of the trick face down in front them and leads to the next. The fool is exempt for the above rules of following suit. It can be played to ANY trick, irrespective of whether the holder could have followed suit or trumped. The fool is the weakest card in the pack; it can never win a trick, but neither can it be captured. The person who played the fool puts the card face down in their own trick pile, and the other two cards go to the winner of the trick. If the fool is led to a trick the second player can play any card and the third player must follow suit to this. When all 25 tricks have been played each player counts the value of the cards they have in their trick pile as follows: Angel (trump 20) 4 Bagatto (trump 1) 4 Fool 4 Each king 4 Each queen 3 Each horse 2 Each jack 1 Each trick 1 (in addition to the value of the cards in it) The incomplete two card trick to which the fool was played counts 1 point, as does the "trick" formed by the dealer's discard. The total points available are 78 (7*4 + 4*3 + 4*2 + 4*1 + 26), which happens to be the same as the number of cards in the pack. Players who have more than 26 points receive payment for each point they have over 26, and those who have less than 26 points pay for each point by which they fall short of 26. > >A group of us wish to learn Tarrocco as we do alot of >ren faire work. One game is described above. For a more complicated kind see Tarocco Bolognese on my web site. >Any 15th Centuary French or Italian games >would be great. As far as I know the earliest serious attempts to record the rules of card games date from the 17th century, with the notable exception of Cardano's "De Ludo Aleae" of 1564. Any speculation on how card games were played in the 15th century has to be based on the assumption that games were played then by approximately the same rules that were recorded for games of similar names played a couple of hundred years later. In fact the word "tarocco" was not used before 1500, as far as I know. In the 15th century these games were called "trionfi". >What types of games are there anyway? For a short survey of current tarocco games see the Italian section of the "National and Regional Card Games" page of my web site - at http://www.pagat.com/national.html There are essentially three traditions still alive in Italy: in Piemonte games are played with 78 cards, and rarely with a 54 card subset; in Bologna they play with a 62 card pack of a different design; and in a few villages in Sicily they play with a 63 or 64 card pack of yet another design. From your mention of the 15th century I guess you may want to know what types of Tarocco (or rather Trionfi) existed then, rather than what exists now. In the 15th century there seem to have originally been three separate traditions, based in Milan, Bologna and Ferrara. They all used 78 card packs but with different designs and different orders of the trumps. The Bolognese game spread to Florence at a very early date, and was the ancestor of the games now played in Bologna and Sicily. Descendants of the Milanese game later spread to France and throughout Central Europe. The Ferrarese version apparently died out without progeny. The best references on all of this are: Michael Dummett: The Game of Tarot (Duckworth, London 1980) ISBN 0 7156 1014 7 Michael Dummett: Il Mondo e l'Angelo (Bibliopolis, Naples 1993) ISBN 88-7088-272-1 -- John McLeod For information on card games visit john@pagat.demon.co.uk http://www.pagat.com/ Greetings and good day to all those on Rialto from the White Parrot Inn. I have noted the discussions concerning the subject of Tarot or Tarocchi in recent days. At the White Parrot Inn (also known as "Mikie's Always Inn") at rare times certain Renaissance ladies of good family and high rank occupy the back parlor and there play a game called Tarocchi. This game is very fashionable among Italian ladies of wealth, particularly the Medichis. I have with great difficulty acquired both the rules to this game (from a copy of a letter from the French ambassador to Florenza to his king) and a deck (from the Visconti/Swortzas). It is a three person game. Among the four suits, all court cards have highest rank, and their rank is equal to each other. The numerical cards rank in descending numericalorder in swords and batons and in assending numerical order in cups and coins, although this excentric ranking is often abandoned in favor of straight numerical rankings for all suits. Of the 22 Major Arcana cards, those number 1 through 21 form a set of permanent trumps known as tarocchi. They are ranked in assending numerical order (that is, card 2 beats card 1). The fool, card 0, has a special role. to play, the dealer (usually chosen by cutting the deck, with the person cutting the highest card becoming dealer) deals out the entire pack, five cards at a time, to the three players, usually in an anticlockwise direction. The dealer now has 28 cards and the otehr two players 25 each. All now pick up their hands and arrange them in order and the dealer must discard 3 cards to bring her hand down to 25. These are placed face down on the table on her left and are not shown to the other players. She may not discard a king, the Angel (20) or the Fool, or the Mage (1). Play takes place in tricks, each consisting of one card from each player. The player to the dealer's right leads to start the frist trick and the play proceeds anticlockwise around the table. The highest card played takes the trick. If trumps are played, the highest trump wins. If no trump is played, the higest card in the suit lead at the start of the trick wins. The winer collects the cards, places them face down on her left, and makes the next lead. The person who leads may choose any card. Those who play on the trick are subject to the following constraints: If a trume is lead, each player must play a trump if she has one, but may play a higher or lower trump. If a suit card is lead, the other players must follow suit if they can. If they cannot, and if they have a trump, they must play that trump. If they have no trumps they may play any card. However, they must play trumps if they have them, even if they cannot win the trick thereby. The fool is special. It cannot win a trick. However, the player who holds it may play it at any time, even if she could follow suit or play a trump. Thus it is handy to save an important card that otherwise might be lost. It is lawful, although not recommended, to lead the Fool. The next player then can play any card and the third player must follow suit or play trumps based on the second card laid. Also, although the Fool cannot take a trick, it also cannot be taken. The player holding it merely shows it to the other players and then places it in her discard pile when she plays it. It can only be used once. The object of the game is to accumulate points (not numbers of tricks). Note that the dealer retains the three cards she discarded at the start of play and these count toward her total. Points are awarded as follows: The Angel (20) 5 points The Mage (1) 5 points The kings 5 points each The fool 4 points The queens 4 points The knights 3 points The pages 2 points However, scoring is a bit more cmplex than just totalling each of these cards. To score, each player counts out the cards they have won into groups of three (which do not have to be the original tricks but may be rearranged to best advantage.) A gropu of three cards containing one high scoring card listed above and two other cards (which ae called low scoring cards) has a value equal to the high scoring card (that is a king, 10 and 5 has a value of 5 points). A group with two high scoring cards and one other card has a value of one less than the combined values of the two high scoring cards (thus, the Mage, a Queen and another card has a value of 8 points). Three low scoring cards has a combined value of 1 point. Because of the special action of the fool. one person will have two cards left over after making up the scoring groups, while one person will have a single card. The person with the two extra cards counts those as if they were a full set of three. The player with the Fool normally counts it seaparetly for 4 points. By the way, no matter how they are arranged, the total number of points available equals 78, the same as the number of cards. These of course are the simple rules. There are variations, and there is a great deal of strategy. Those interested should acquire the tome "Twelve Tarot Games" by Michael dummett, copyright 1980, published by computacomp (UK ) Ltd., Fort William, Scotland. It has a reproduction of a famous painting of three Medichi ladies playing Tarocchi on its cover. I hope this lengthy message is of help to those seeking information on this subject. For more information, you are invited to visit the Inn of the white Parrot where persons of good character are invited to try their hand at Tarocchi. Good day to all, Alissondro, Innkeeper (G. Berton Latamore, burlington, VT, MCI ID Glatamore) [from http://users.aol.com/rudivale/private/troccas.html ] Rules for the game of Troccas. ____________________________________________________________ The game of Troccas has been played in Switzerland for centuries. The verson here was brought to us by an SCA member who learned it while visiting Romanch-speaking relatives in France. Rules to play Troccas The cards: There are 78 cards: 4 different suits, 21troccas and one fool (le mat). (We used a Swiss tarot deck.) The Suits : The suits are: sword, cup, stick and rose. Each suit has 14 cards: 4 figures (king, queen, knight, servant [valet]) and 10 cards numbered from I-X. X is best in swords and sticks, and I is best in cups and roses. ;(In other words, the I - X cards are counted backwards for cups and roses.) Figures are the best in all suits from King high to valet low. Troccas: Troccas cards are numbered XXI to I. XXI is the best. Troccas cards beat all of the suits. Think trump. The Fool (le mat): The fool is a neutral card. You can play it anytime. It beats nothing. It also can not be beaten. If someone plays the fool as the first card, the next player chooses the suit. If the point (trick) goes to the other team the losing team takes a card (no points) from the played pile and keeps the fool. The fool is placed face down on the played pile. If one team takes all the tricks, the fool and the scart also go to the winning team. This rarely happens. (Think 'shoot the moon') The Honors. All cards with a value of 5 points are called Honors. The kings, the fool (le mat), the XXI (le monde), and the I (le bateleur). Choosing partners and order of play. To play you need four people. Somebody shuffles the cards, his neighbor at the left cuts the deck. The shuffler lays the card from the top in the middle of the table. Then every player takes one card, beginning with the player on the shuffler's right. The players take a card until everybody gets a trocca. The 2 players with the highest troccas are a team and the 2 players with the lowest troccas are a team. Dealing the cards. The player who had the lowest trocca is the first "scartist", and deals the cards for the first hand. He shuffles, the neighbor on his left cuts the cards. The scartist takes the pile and deals, beginning with the neighbor on his right. Everybody gets 6 cards, then 6 more, and finally 7 cards, with the seventh card dealt face up. The scartist gets 9 cards at the end rather than 7. Three players have 19 cards and the scartist (dealer) has 21. Make the "Scart" The scartist has 2 cards more than the others. He must lay down 2 cards: make the 'scart'. This can give him an advantage. The scartist prefers to lay down cards of a suit, where he is' short'. That allows him to beat the king or queen of the other team with a Trocca. If he isn't able to eliminate a suit, he lays down figures of a suit in which he has lots of cards. The scartist puts the two cards in from of him on the table, the other players should not see the cards in the scart. The points in the scart are counted at the end of the hand with the other points taken by the team. Honors cards (kings, fool, XXI and I) may not be placed in the scart. Playing: The player to the right of the scartist begins. He puts one card on the table. Followed by the player on his right. The players must play the same suit if possible. If they can't play in suit then they must play Trocca. If they have neither suit nor Trocca, they can then play any suit they choose. When four cards have been played the team playing the highest card then takes that trick and places it in a pile in front of one of the team members. Troccas beats every suit and the face cards. Between the troccas the higher numbers always beat the lower. Watch the I, it is worth 5 points. The king is the highest card in every suit, the queen, the knight, the valet and for swords and sticks the X, but for roses and cups the I are the next highest cards. If a suit is played for the first time and the king is also played, the player laying tha king may call the valet to him. The player who has the valet of that suit must play him and take the next highest card of that suit to his hand, not a face card or Troccas. When all the cards have been played (one hand) you count the cards. The game is finished when each player has dealt (four hands) Scoring: After each hand one team counts the points. There are 72 points. King 5 Fool 5 XXI (le monde) 5 I (le bateleur) 5 Queens 4 Knights 3 Valets 2 4 cards not face/honor 1 You always have to take four cards to count. If there is more then one figure, subtract one point for each 1 king (5), 1 queen (4-1), 1 valet (2-1), 1 suit card (0) = 9 points [5+(4-1)+(2-1)] 1 trocca (not XXI or I), 1 queen (4), 1 knight (3-1), 1 suit card = 6 points 3 troccas (not XXI or I), fool (5) = 5 points XXI (5), I (5-1), queen (4-1), 1 suit card = 12 points 4 troccas (not XXI or I) = 1 point 4 suit cards = 1 point 2 troccas (not XXI or I), 2 suit cards = 1 point Points over 36 are 'goods', points under 36 are' bads' One team counts the points and has 32, that team has 4 bads and the other team has 4 goods. After each hand the teams count their 'goods' or 'bads'. After the game the team with more goods is the winner. Goods are positive points and bads are negative points. There will always be the same number of 'goods' and 'bads' in each hand. Top of page The Historical Games page has rules for many more period games for cards and dice. ____________________________________________________________ These rules were compiled by Nicolette Deplazes, from the shire of Rudivale, and formatted for Hypertext by Lord Berwyn Æthelbryght of Ackley. Last revision, Nov. 22, 1995 From: brgarwood@aol.com (BRgarwood) Newsgroups: rec.org.sca Subject: Re: Period card games (LONG) Date: 23 Nov 1995 07:10:14 -0500 Organization: America Online, Inc. (1-800-827-6364) OK, due to many requests, here are the rules for playing Troccas. This is a long one. Rules to play Troccas The cards There are 78 cards: 4 different suits, 21 troccas and one fool (le mat). The Suits The suits are: sword, cup, stick and rose. Each suit has 14 cards: 4 figures (king, queen, knight, servant [valet]) and 10 cards numbered from I-X. X is best in swords and sticks, and I is best in cups and roses. Figures are the best in all suits from King high to valet low. Troccas Troccas cards are numbered XXI to I. XXI is the best. Troccas cards beat all of the suits. Think trump. The Fool (le mat) The fool is a neutral card. You can play it anytime. It beats nothing. It also can not be beaten. If someone plays the fool as the first card, the next player chooses the suit. If the point (trick) goes to the other team the losing team takes a card (no points) from the played pile and keeps the fool. The fool is place on face down on the played pile. If one team takes all the tricks, the fool and the scart also go to the winning team. This rarely happens. (Think 'shoot the moon') The Honors. All cards with a value of 5 points are called Honors. The kings, the fool (le mat), the XXI (le monde), and the I (le bateleur). To begin the game. To play you need four people. Somebody shuffles the cards, his neighbor at the left cuts the deck. The shuffler lays the card from the top in the middle of the table. Then every player takes one card, beginning with the player on the shuffler's right. The players take a card until everybody gets a trocca. The 2 players with the highest troccas are a team and the 2 players with the lowest troccas are a team. Dealing the cards. The player who had the lowest trocca is the first "scartist". He has to deal the cards for the first hand. He shuffles, the neighbor on his left cuts the cards. The scartist takes the pile and deals, beginning with the neighbor on his right. Everybody gets 6 cards, then 6 more, and finally 7 cards. The scartist always shows the 7th card to all the other players. The scartist gets 9 cards at the end rather than 7. Three players have 19 cards and the scartist (dealer) has 21. Make the "Scart" The scartist has 2 cards more than the others. He can lay down 2 cards: make the 'scart'. This can give him an advantage. The scartist prefers to lay down cards of a suit, where he is' short'. That allows him to beat the king or queen of the other team with a Trocca. If he isn't able to eliminate a suit, he lays down figures of a suit in which he has lots of cards. The scartist puts the two cards in from of him on the table, the other players should not see the cards in the scart. The points in the scart are counted at the end of the hand with the other points taken by the team. There are certain cards that can't be placed in the scart. Honors (kings, fool, XXI and I) Playing The player to the right of the scartist begins. He puts one card on the table. Followed by the player on his right. The players must play the same suit if possible. If they can't play in suit then they must play Trocca. If they have neither suit nor Trocca, they can then play any suit they choose. When four cards have been played the team playing the highest card then takes that trick and places it in a pile in front of one of the team members. Troccas beats every suit and the face cards. Between the troccas the higher numbers always beat the lower. Watch the I, it is worth 5 points. The king is the highest card in every suit, the queen, the knight, the valet and for swords and sticks the X, but for roses and cups the I are the next highest cards. If a suit is played for the first time and the king is also played he can call the valet to him. The player who has the valet must play him and take the next highest card of that suit to his hand, Not a face card or Troccas. Triomphe Forcée http://www.greydragon.org/library/index.html This game is one of the earliest card games played with the tarot deck for which rules are known. The game uses the full 78 card tarot deck. Between 4-10 players may participate; my experience is that 4-6 players is optimal, and more than six players tends to make the game too much of a lottery, with no skill involved. Triomphe Forcée is a relatively simple gambling game. Each player puts up a stake (2 or 3 denaro is probably good) and is dealt five cards. If any player has La Mort (Trump XIII) in his hand, he declares it immediately and takes all the stakes, and another hand is dealt. Otherwise, each player in turn from the player to the right of the dealer declares whether he has one or more of Le Fou (the Fool), Le Basteleur (trump I), or La Force (trump IX in Vievil's deck; trump XI in others). Le Fou and Le Basteleur gain the owner a sum equal to their original stake; La Force is worth double the stake. A player holding more than one of these cards gets the combined sum for the cards held. If this results in all the stakes being taken, the hand is over and another one is dealt. Otherwise, the hands are played out in tricks under the usual rules. The player who obtains the greatest number of tricks wins the remaining stakes. If two players win two tricks each, the one who won two tricks first wins the stakes. If all five tricks go to different players, the player who took a trick first wins the pot. Order of Play: counter-clockwise Order of Cards: Permanent Trumps: in order as marked (XXI high down to I low) Swords, Batons: (high) K Q C J 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 (low) Cups, Coins: (high) K Q C J 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 (low) Play of a Trick: Winner of last trick leads any card. Subsequent players must follow suit if they can (including playing a trump if a trump was led). If they are void, they must play a trump if they have one. The highest trump played wins the trick; the highest card of the suit led wins if no trump are played. Le Fou (The Fool): The Fool may be played instead of following suit or being forced to trump. It never takes a trick. Counting Points: Only the number of tricks taken counts in this game. SWISS TAROT http://www.greydragon.org/library/index.html Sources: Dummett (interpreting rules from Maison academique, 1659) Deck Used: 78 card Tarot deck Number of Players: 3 The Tarot deck seems to have come to Switzerland from Italy at the same time it reached France, in the early 16th century (Durnmett, p. 217). It got to Germany later, apparently through France towards the end of the 16th century or the beginning of the 17th. It enjoyed a wave of popularity in both places. Order of Play: Counter-clockwise Order of Cards Permanent Trumps: As normal: XXI down to I Swords, Batons: (high) K Q C J 10 9 8 7 6,5 4 3 2 1 (low) Cups,Coins: (high) K Q C J 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 l0 (low) Play of the Game Each player antes an agreed upon stake before play. The dealer deals out 25 cards to each player, and takes the last three remaining cards to himself. He then chooses three cards to discard (they may not be any King, the Fool, or any Trump). These three discards count just as if a trick won in play. A game consists of three rounds, with a different dealer each round. The person with the highest score at the end of the game wins. Play is normal for Tarot games (follow suit if possible, must trump if void in the suit led). Le Fou (The Fool) The Fool may be played instead of following suit or being forced to trump. The Fool cannot take a trick, but neither is it captured with the rest of the trick by the winning card; instead the one who played it may exchange it for a card he has taken and lay it with his captured tricks. If the one who played the Fool has no card to exchange for it when he plays it, he may wait and exchange it later when he takes a trick. If the one who played the Fool takes no tricks through the game he may not exchange it. Point Value of Cards: The counting scheme is: Le Monde (the World, XXI): 5 Le Basteleur (the Magician, I): 5 Le Fou (Fool): 5 Each King: 5 Each Queen: 4 Each Cavalier: 3 Each Jack: 2 Counting Points: 1. A trick with three counting cards has a value of the sum of the card values- 2. For example, a trick containing the Cavalier of Swords, the Queen of Swords, and the Fool would be worth 3 + 4 + 5 -2= 10 points. 2. A trick with two counting cards has a value of the sum of their values - 1. For example, a trick containing the World, the Magician, and Death would be worth 5 + 5 - 1= 9 points. 3. A trick with one counting card has the value of that card. 4. A trick with no counting cards has a value of 1. |
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