What we’re about
We are a group of folks interested in playing (and learning!) card games - with a focus on Tarock, Tarot, and Tarocchi games. These games are all point-trick games (like Pinochle) where the goal is to take point cards as well as tricks. They currently flourish in the former Hapsburg Empire and France, and are still played in Italy, Germany, Switzerland and Denmark as well - but have never been well-known in English-speaking lands.
Tarot began in about 1420 as an extra set of cards - Trumps - attached to the ordinary deck. The face cards, the highest and lowest trumps, and an extra card called the Fool or Excuse all earn points as well as the tricks themselves. As the game spread south through Italy it added scoring through melds of cards taken; as it spread through France and Germany it added bonuses for taking the last trick with Kings and the 1 of Trumps. But the most lively branch was to introduce bidding to play alone against the other players combined. This game, with a shortened, more modern looking deck, is what still flourishes throughout the old Hapsburg empire.
If you're interested in learning more, or if you'd like to play but the current meetup times don't work for you, feel free to shoot me a messages. I'm always happy to talk about the history or to play!
Rules to many of the modern games may be found here. Rules for the games we have played, or hopefully soon will are found here, in a format hopefully convenient for pulling up on one’s phone or tablet. More information about tarot card games in general may be found here.
