Tarocchi, also known as tarock, is a trick-taking game, and one of the oldest card games known. It is played with a tarot deck of playing cards. "Esoteric" decks are usually ill-suited for playing, for example the corner symbols are missing; thus there are regular playing decks in the countries where tarocchi is popular.
The original 78-card deck contains:
- the four Latin suits of swords, batons, cups, and coins, numbered one through ten, with four court cards, a page, a knight, a queen, and a king
- the twenty-one tarots, which function in the game as a permanent suit of trumps
- the Fool, also known as the Excuse, an un-numbered card that in some variations excuses the player from following suit or playing a trump, and in other acts as the strongest trump.
After the hand has been played, a score is taken based on the point values of the cards in the tricks each player has managed to capture.
Though some people believe the tarot deck was originally designed to play this game, the traditional tarot images have no effect in the game itself. For the purpose of the rules, the numbers on the trumps are the only thing that matters. As such, in tarot decks made for playing the game (as opposed to those made for divination or other esoteric uses), the four Latin suits are often replaced with a deck using the more familiar French suits of hearts, diamonds, clubs, and spades; and the old symbolic tarots are often replaced by cards that bear only numbers and whimsical scenes arbitrarily chosen by the engraver. Some variations of the game is played with a 54 card deck (5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10 of spades and clubs and 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 of hearts and diamonds are discarded).
Variations of the game are still played in France , Germany , Italy , Austria and Slovenia .
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