Tarot Card... Games?
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- Опубліковано 8 лют 2025
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What's that you say? You can play games with Tarot Cards?! Like, these Tarot Cards? Oh ok, not exactly those Tarot Cards but... actually they still kind of are those Tarot Cards after all? #tarot #tarocchi #tarocco #tarocchino #tarocchini #tarock #tarokk #königrufen #cego #frenchtarot #sloveniantarot #cards #playingcards #cardgames #troccas
Interesting video! I worked in a restaurant for years with old school Italians, and the older guys always played a game with a fancy deck of cards that looked like tarot cards, but they were closer to playing cards in structure : )
Cool. Could have been a tarot game (Tarocchi in Italian) but could also have been a regular non-tarot Italian game. By "looked like tarot cards" do you mean with Latin suits (swords, cups, coins and batons)? Or did it also have the Trump series? If it was just the suits, they could have been playing Scopa, Briscola or another standard Italian game. They're all really fun too if you try them out some time.
@@learntarotcardgames54 , maybe it could be the Tarocco Piemontese ...
@@elieltonoliveira7862 yes, as I said they could have been playing tarocchi. But I think from his description of where he was working and the cards being more like 'regular playing cards' in structure, scopa or something is more likely.
About Rider Waite as a playing card deck, for those who never played tarot card games: It is definitely doable. The perk is that every card has a roman numeral over the artwork, and about the suits, they are drawn in such a way that you can at least see one element of the suit while fanning the hand, and the way you handle the deck is not much different than a Marseille deck, which is an older style of playing cards art. Apart from some very specific cards, almost all cards can be identified no problem.
What the real problem is with most divination decks is that the information is either at the bottom of the cards or no written information is at the cards at all, making it impossible to fan the cards and accurately draw any information of what are you holding at hand. So if you are like me, where finding proper playing cards outside Europe (especially here in Brazil, where these decks are almost non existent), here is my list of best alternatives:
1- Marseille deck - it is an historic option and it was meant for games anyway. For english speakers, the suits require a bit of used to;
2- Rider Waite deck, especially the original print artwork - the numbers might be small, but it is enough for you to identify the number, and the art can tell what suit is the card;
3- Adapting a 54-card deck (52 with the two jokers) for specific games - if you really want to save a buck, lots of tarot games use only part of a tarot deck, many German and Austrian games use a 54 tarot deck in specific, so you can put the top 8 suit cards as the "suits", and adapt the rest of the pile as the trumps, the order can be anything as long as it is fixed. Although people used to some German card games would be fine with this (Sheepshead and Doppelkopf uses queens, jacks and one of the suits as a very long "trump suit"), this is not recommended at all because it would be too much work when using a tarot deck makes it clear what the trumps and their numbers are.
Check out the rider waite Smith playing card deck where the knights are also jokers, the deck shows how to play tarot and tarot rummy
Jesus... you could summon demons with Marsile or Waite deck. Better don't do that.
@@plrc4593 Then I would be accidentally the best demonologist in the universe. The whole story and usage of Tarot wouldn't even make sense to summon one.
The Marseilles tarot is actually heir to one of THE first card decks ever used. The suits and artwork are directly borrowed from Renaissance-era playing cards, which were inspired by Mamluk decks that were traded in the region. The reason the trumps have these artworks is because of some noblemen in 14/15th century Milan (in modern day Italy) wanted to make playing cards an educative tool around morals - because even back then playing cards were associated with gambling. For reference, the earliest record we know is a letter by a noble named Marziano Da Tortona to the duke of Milan at the time, Filippo Maria Visconti. And the cards depicted in the Marseilles deck were budget renditions of this original Milanese project.
So if you ever heard about mystic, occult or black magic origin stories about the Tarot, the true story is that some noblemen wanted to make playing cards more intellectually and morally fulfilling. That's why the artwork and iconography of the trumps (major arcana) cannot be viewed with occult nor modern morality values in mind; it's a reflection of medieval values, like the Devil being more associated with sin (which is why the devil is always shown enslaving two souls in these old artworks, because sin enslaves us to desires of the flesh) rather than the Manichaeistic red figure that rivals God, which is a modern interpretation of it.
Rider Waite is just the consequence of 19th century revived interest to Tarot as an occult tool of "reading one's soul," or God forbid the future, but it's misinterpreting the allegory purpose of the cards, at best, to completely making up a mythology around playing cards, at worst. At least the main purpose of Waite was to expand on the imagery of the cards by giving an artwork to the regular suits.
Really enjoyed learning about this - thanks! I also stumbled across French Tarot on BGA and was curious about the connection.
Yep... I think this is a common way to end up getting into this family of games :)
I just got a deck of tarot cards that has the original rider Waite artwork but still have corner pips with the swords, cups, Wands, and pentacles and the number of the card as part of the corner pip, and it’s the standard playing card size. I love it.
Cool, that's probably the "Divine and Play" deck? The artist of that is also creating another one which looks interesting, which is sort of a mishmash of different styles of divination decks (as in, each card is from a different one).
@@learntarotcardgames54 it’s actually just called the Rider Waite Playing Card Deck. The cards are the size of a standard playing card.
@@learntarotcardgames54the key master tarot deck I saw at a shop has french suits
@@JacobMingerit has the perfect cardstock, kinda like casino quality lol
I learned so much from this video! This gives me some ideas on a potential Tarot game using regular Tarot decks. Thanks! 🌟🌟🌟
Glad you liked it! And if you create your own tarot games, I'd definitely be interested to find out more :) Maybe I should make some videos about new-school games being created with tarot decks...
@@learntarotcardgames54 Are there new games using tarot decks? Is there something more akin to bridge? :)
@@plrc4593 hi there - yes there are a couple. One is called "Tarocco Maggiore" made by someone I know from Italy. There are also some new games like Le Plateau, which is similar to French Tarot but also uses a board and does something a bit different to the older games. I'm sure there are more I'm forgetting right now :)
What annoys me about people who read tarot cards is they generally refuse to acknowledge it started out as a game.
*Raises hand*
I know it started out as a card, game as did Lenormand, and arguably that makes them MORE interesting, not less.
same
Ikr
I got two decks from Dead on Paper that combine a standard playing card deck with Tarot, so that the symbols in the corners are an artistic combination of both corresponding suits from either deck (so the Swords look kinda like Clubs, the Cups look kinda like Hearts, etc.) and I absolutely love the style! I have one in the dark style, and one in the light style, and they both look phenomenal and play excellently for both standard card games and ones that rely on a tarot deck!
I'll check it out. Yes, there are a few decks like this available now. If you have a look through some of my other videos I've got a few by various artists. P.S. if it's traditional, the swords should look like spades rather than clubs ;)
@@learntarotcardgames54 Oh I don't even know why I wrote that, the swords are spades and the wands are clubs 😅 Must be tired I guess
What a great Channel!! Thanks for sharing your knowledge 😀
Glad you enjoyed it :)
I appreciate the video! French Tarot decks are excellent!
I can't find french tarot on Amazon but there's the loka deck and the rider waite playing card tarot deck that has game rules.
They are beautiful.
So happy to have found this I kinda just started to use a regular rws deck as a playing game with my mom and son and I knew it started out as a game so we kinda did one like spades but we call it trumps and I can't wait to see how close we were to the actual games.
Well, the traditional tarot games are all trick-takers, so I guess they might be similar to your game!
Very informational video! Nice work
Thank you!
Had no idea it started as a game. I definitely want to learn them!
Fascinating material! So I have two questions: do people today know what card games were played by TdM decks? Are they still played anywhere in Europe? And do you have any sense when the more Italian tradition of decks being used for both card games and cartomancy began to diverge?
Hi mate. To the first question - yes, traditional Tarocchi was played with the TdM deck (or historical variants thereof). The closest thing left to that is the versions of Tarocchi played in Piedmont (especially the game of Scarto), although they use the Tarocco Piemontese these days, which is basically a TdM that's been made easier for gameplay. I have a video on that deck if you want to have a look at it. But also, French Tarot was historically played with the TdM also - a friend of mine still does :) As for where it diverged, in Italy they still use the same decks for both games and divination. In France, it started diverging when gameplay moved to using the Tarot Nouveau (the Bourgeois Tarot) so the TdM became more connected with divination, which led to things like the Rider-Waite divination deck that people know in English-speaking countries.
@@learntarotcardgames54 Thank you. There has seemingly always been a deep connection between divination and games. I feel both the gaming and the divining were diminished when they became separate. I would love to learn how to do play both "games" with the same tarot deck. Do you have any videos on this or could you pint me to others online?
@@davp1974 The videos I have that might be most useful to you are Grosstarock (aka Danish Tarok) and French Tarot. In both videos I'm playing online with the Tarot Nouveau deck, which is the usual one for those games these days - but a TdM works also. If you play Grosstarock on BoardGameArena.com you can choose the TdM as an option (it's the one labelled "Italian deck"). But also, send me an email on learntarotcardgames@gmail.com and we can maybe organise a time to play a round of Grosstarock online with the TdM cards to give you the traditional experience.
@@davp1974 Also look up the game Scarto - you can play online against bots using the Tarocco Piemontese, which is a derivative of the TdM -> scarto.sharpness.net/
Love your channel. Just discovering it. (Due to the Freud-Tarok connection)
Nice! I have a video on Königrufen, which was Freud's favourite game - the main Austrian version of Tarock.
Subbed.
Happy World Tarot Day! May 25th
I have been doing some similar research over the last few years, particularly during Covid times. I really like the Swiss cards, they are really nice and clear while retaining much of the original suits and trumps etc. (and they have a long history of being used both for games and for divination). I recently came up with my own rules, where I melded some Danish and Italian rules, and tweaked and simplified it a bit (the Danish game is excellent although a bit complicated). Not sure who to play it with though :)
I don't find Danish Tarok too complicated, it's just pretty different to most other games. I'll have a tutorial on it up on the channel sometime in the next month (hopefully!). You can join us on Board Game Arena if you want a game, a friend of mine created the Danish Tarok / Grosstarock implementation there, as far as I know that's the only place to play it so far.
As for Swiss Tarot cards, I really love them, but don't have a Swiss (1JJ) deck yet!! Will grab some online sometime soon. There are some interesting traditional Tarot games in Switzerland.
@@learntarotcardgames54 That's true, we just forgot some of the payments first time we played Danish Tarok, but that's learning. It's a very exciting game. Yes, Troccas seems fun. I was in touch with some of the players, and I have made a suggested English translation of all the expressions. Haven't tried it yet though.
@@trondsi I'll talk to my card playing Tarot-nerd programmer friends... maybe we can make an online implementation of Troccas somewhere :) It's on my list of things to try.
@@learntarotcardgames54 Cool! Are you in touch with anyone in the Danish Tarok scene? I emailed a few of them previously, and they are trying to spread interest.
Dungeon solitaire by Matthew Lowes. Lowes is THE dungeon master. Even the instruction manuals are special in their own way. The tarot deck is called Labyrinth of souls. The extra arcana deck is called the Devils playground. I recommend to anyone who enjoys complex solitaire card games or trafitional dungeon delve games. The art is weird, dark fantasy, so if that sounds cool to you, dont miss out its very cool.
Megamunden Tattoo Tarot is our nephews aged 8-11 favorite deck right now. We use it in playing Skull King rules. And named it new game called Tarot Thrones.
Instead of 5Pirates we have 5Thrones, 5 slave cards instead of escape cards, and we have the Assasin Card the Hermit instead of Skull King.
That's a really cool idea! I play Skull King with my kids a bit, I should break out the Tarocco Piemontese or something and play it with that. The Tattoo Tarot is one that I've had on my wishlist for ages but never gotten around to buying - it's a neat intersection of my interests in tattoo collecting and card collecting ;)
Mainly when I play a game with my kids using a Tarot deck, it's Whist 22 - which is a French game you play with just the Trumps/Majors. Basically Oh Hell or Skull King, but with only one suit. Usually I play it with the Tarot Nouveau (ie the deck for playing French Tarot) or the Cego animal tarock trumps.
@@learntarotcardgames54
We have our Skull King Deck but the kids wants the Tattoo Tarot Deck better because of each cards is so unique and more characters we incorporated. Its like the expanded version of Skull King.
In Tattoo Tarot, the cards of High Priestess, Hierophant, Emperor, Empress, and Justice are all sitting in a Throne. That is why we call it 5 Thrones.
The Magician is the Merchant equivalent to Loot Card while The Hanged Man is the Thief Card who would steal points to the person who win the trick.
The Tower is the Apocalypse equivalent to Kraken.
New Escape Characters Angel (Temperance), Grim Reaper (Death), and the Devil Card do special powers. Angels would make everyone choose if they lose or win the trick. Grim Reaper would make a dead round for the player who win it, no scores for him in that round. Devil would make everybody win the trick except slaves.
Chariot and Strength Cards are Heroes of the Thrones equivalent to Mermaids. They beat the Hermit who Assassins the Thrones (Skull King).
Fool is the Wild Card, a Throne Prince disguised as Beggar or Slave.
6 Slave Cards are Lovers, Sun, Moon, Judgement, Wheel of Fortune, the World all cards pictures peasants worshipping angels or heavenly bodies.
Swords are trump suits equivalent to Black Roger Suit. Aces are high and Deuces are lows. We call the Ace of Swords as *Escalibur* and worth 30 points bonus. Other aces worth 10.
@@learntarotcardgames54
We don't have Jeu de Tarot Deck of cards. But we have Tarot of Loka. We use it in playing French Tarot.
We want to buy a French Tarot/Jeu de Tarot ever since but its too hard to find here in Asia.
@@asmrjackunboxinggames4328 that all works - it's a clever way to incorporate the Tarot deck into the Skull King mechanics.
Re: French Tarot, I have a friend who is a bit of a traditionalist (he actually features as one of the other players in my Danish Tarok video) and insists on playing French Tarot with the Tarot de Marseille :)
I bet you could play five crowns with a tarot deck since it's five suited and plays like rummy.
Youd love the anima antiqua decks by lo scarabeo
Yeah, I need to check out some more of the repro decks :)
It was originally a game ofc there are games
I wonder what would happen if you sent Magic the Gathering cards 500 years into the past with a time machine.
Dunno, but I love that question...
As a Christian that clearly is forbidden in doing divination and fortune telling (thats what it is plain and simple with the readings) this is a fun thing to do with old tarot decks instead of screaming "DEMONS"
Yeah, I have a couple of friends who are fairly conservative Christians and find it hard to convince their friends that tarot games are ok to play :)
Probably worth remembering that some Christian sects (Puritans, Mennonites) will not use the standard pack of cards because of its associations with gambling and divination. In 1906, Parker Brothers introduced the game 'Rook', with a pack of cards with colors instead of suits (sorry if this makes no sense in French) and numbered cards replacing the Ace, King, Queen, and Jack (and Cavalier, since there are 14 cards in each color) to provide an acceptable alternative.
Thx for your video. Do you speak Hungarian?
egy kicsit... I have some Hungarian friends who I play Tarokk with, but we speak English together. I can't speak very much Hungarian!
Are there Tarot games for two players? So far I only found games for three players or more.
Some, but not many. One that I am hoping to cover at some point in the next couple of months is 2p Millone, which is a Bolognese tarocchino game. There is also a few 2p versions from Austria.
I was talking to some guys yesterday about that - because it's something that people ask so often, we might adapt a few unrelated 2p games that can be played with a tarot deck. So concepts like those in Fishing games (e.g. Scopa, Koi Koi etc), or set building games like gin rummy, but adapted to a 78 card tarot deck. Totally not traditional, but could be fun.
please help me find solitaire games with a 50 card baraja espanola deck
Hi there! I don't know any, but if you join our Discord (link above) I'm sure someone there could help you out.
@@learntarotcardgames54 cool
@@learntarotcardgames54 ever play baronetti? its an easy two player tarot game
Is it possible to play French Tarot with 6 players?
Yes it is, although I haven't tried it myself. It's not an "official" variant, but there are versions for all sorts of player counts... This website has ways to play up to 16p, as well as some 2p variants: vbeuselinck.free.fr/tarot/plus_de_joueurs.html
One thing I can't find answers for anywhere is WHY there are 22 cards in the trump suit. Is it important for gameplay? Were there always 22 trump cards? Do some games leave out some trump cards, like how most games leave out the Jokers from a standard 54 pack?
I don’t know if most games count the fool as a trump card so I’d say there are 21. Anyway, yeah French tarot and the bolognese one and more use the trump cards. If anything the fool is treated like a joker, and it’s probably where the jokers came from if I had to guess
@@nynthes Hi there - the joker in a regular deck of cards is actually not connected with the fool from a tarot deck, although many guess that. Jokers were a much later invention, from around the 1850s in the US specifically for Euchre.
As for the trumps, I'll put the answer in the reply above ^
Hi there - there's no specific reason why it's 21 (or 22 depending whether the fool is highest trump, or whether it's an excuse card), it's just the tradition. Many tarot/tarock games remove suit cards to shorten the deck down to 54 or even 42 cards (such as all the Central European games) but very few games remove any trumps. Some Austrian tarock games like Zwanzigerrufen remove a couple of the low trumps, but those are about the only ones I know.
As for whether it's important for gameplay - in some of the games in the family it actually creates the whole vibe. For example in Hungarian Tarokk you have 22 trumps, but only 5 cards in each regular suit. So the majority of the deck is trumps, which creates a very different game to regular deck games like Bridge etc.
@@learntarotcardgames54 thanks for the info!
What tarot deck can you actually play with
Hi Martin, there are a few different ones depending which game you want to play - the ones for playing do look a bit different than the ones used for fortune telling. If you have a dig in my channel, you'll find some more playing deck reviews - some look more like the fortune telling decks, some look totally different (and more like regular international playing cards).
@@learntarotcardgames54 cheers for the response. I will dig through the reviews.
Are there any two player tarot games?
@@martinobrien3165 Yep, there's a couple, but I haven't done tutorials on them yet. There is one called Strawman (Strohmann in German) which is traditional in Austria. Then there are a few traditional ones using the Bolognese deck also. I will describe some of them hopefully soon, as I get the question of 2p Tarot games asked a lot.
I'm suprised nobody's mentioned jojos in this comment section lmao
You did