Troggen Abaroque Game of Tarot from Solothurn
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1 TROGGEN A BAROQUE GAME OF TAROT FROM SOLOTHURN Troggen is a tarot game played with an Italian suited tarot deck of 78 cards, commonly known as «Tarot de Marseille». If no such deck is available, any Tarot deck of 78 cards may be used. The card game tarot and its characteristic cards originated around 1430 in northern Italy. The oldest surviving cards were made in Milan. They were hand-painted in 1441 on the occasion of Francesco Sforza's marriage to Bianca Maria Visconti. In the early 16th century, French and Swiss mercenaries got to know the game in northern Italy and brought it back to their home countries. The Solothurn region was a centre of playing card production in Switzerland in the 18th century. The oldest surviving tarot cards in Switzerland were designed in the city of Solothurn in 1718. We know from historical sources that Troggen, as Tarock was called in Solothurn at that time, was very popular. In the course of the 19th century, other card games with French suits such as Whist, Bridge and finally the originally Dutch Jass replaced Troggen in Solothurn. In Switzerland, tarot has survived as a card game in Visperterminen and in the Surselva. Since the rules of Troggen originally applied in Solothurn are not documented, the Historical Museum Blumenstein in Solothurn redefined the rules of the game in 2015. In doing so, we relied on the very original rules of Troggu still played in Visperterminen and supplemented them with some elements of the modern French tarot. Our Troggen rules are designed to make it as easy as possible for new players to get into the game, while maximising the fun. The Cards Troggen was developped for a tarot deck of the type «Tarot de Marseille». It consists of 21 trumps, the Excuse (Le Mat) and the four suits Batons (Bâ- tons), Swords (Épées), Cups (Coupes) and Coins (Deniers) of 14 cards each. We use the cards, designed in Solothurn by Francis Joseph Heri in 1718. These cards are once again available as a facsimile well suited to play. Blumensteinweg 12 · CH-4500 Solothurn · +41 32 626 93 93 · www.museumblumenstein.ch · www.troggen.ch 2 The Order of the Cards Troggen is a trick-taking game for four, five or six players with 56 suit cards, 21 fixed trumps and a special card, the Excuse. The highest card played in a suit or the highest trump played wins the trick. Each suit has the four court figures King (Roi, R), Queen (Reine/Dame, D), Knight (Chevalier, C) and Jack (Valet, V) and ten numeral cards. In the «dark» suits Batons and Swords, the cards rank in descending order: King (R), Queen (D), Knight (C), Jack (V), 10, 9 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 (Ace). In the «dark» suits the King is thus the highest, the 1 the lowest card. R D C V 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 In the «fair/golden» suits Cups and Coins however, the cards rank in ascending order: King (K), Queen (D), Knight (C), Jack (V), 1 (Ace), 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. The King stays the highest card in the »fair/golden« suits but the lowest card now is the 10. R D C V 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 8 10 Blumensteinweg 12 · CH-4500 Solothurn · +41 32 626 93 93 · www.museumblumenstein.ch · www.troggen.ch 3 The 21 trumps are numbered with Roman numerals (XXI to I) to indicate their ranking from the highest trump 21 to the lowest trump 1. The trumps in Troggen are permanent trumps. This means, that, unlike in most other trick-taking games, none of the four suits may be declaired trump. 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 The only card which never wins a trick is the Excurse (Le Mat). It is neither suit nor trump and follows its own rules and is comparable to a Jocker. Excuse Of particular importance for the game are the seven cards with the highest point value of 4 points each: The trump 21 (XXI - Le Monde), the trump 1 (I - Le Bateleur) called Pagat, the Excuse (Le Mat) and the four Kings. These seven cards are called Tarots or Troggen. Trump 21 Trump 1/Pagat Excuse King of Batons King of Swords King of Cups King of Coins Blumensteinweg 12 · CH-4500 Solothurn · +41 32 626 93 93 · www.museumblumenstein.ch · www.troggen.ch 4 The Point Values of the Cards Trick: Each trick won counts 1 point. King: Kings count 4 points. Queen: Queens count 3 points. Knight: Knights count 2 points. Jack: Jacks count 1 point. Excuse: The Excuse (Le Mat) counts 4 points for the player who plays it out unless it is played in the last trick. In this case, the 4 points count for the player who wins the last trick. Trump 21: The trump 21 (Le Monde) counts 4 points. Trump 1: The Pagat (Le Bateleur) counts 4 points. If the single player wins the last trick with the Pagat, the defenders have to pay him directly 2 tokens each. But if the single player looses the Pagat in the last trick, he has to pay every defender 2 tokens direc- tly. If the Pagat is played out in the last trick by a defender or in a Misère, no such direct payments are allowed. Blumensteinweg 12 · CH-4500 Solothurn · +41 32 626 93 93 · www.museumblumenstein.ch · www.troggen.ch 5 The General Rules There are no fixed partnerships in the game. If the game is played with four players, the bidder plays against three defenders. If the game is played with five or six players, the bidder chooses a partner for each hand. At the beginning of each dealt hand, bidding determines who will play the game as the bidder alone (or together with a partner in the case of five or six players). If a bidder's bid stands, the remaining players form a team as defenders against the bidder for the duration of the hand (in the case of five or six players against the bidder and his partner). If none of the players wants to play the hand alone, a Misère is played. The first card played in the trick determines the suit of the trick. The other players must serve this suit (compulsion to follow suit) as long as they have cards of this suit in their hand. If a player cannot follow suit, he must play a trump (compulsion to trick). If a player can neit- her follow suit nor play a trump, he may discard any card. If a trick is led by a trump, the other players must follow with trumps. If a player has to serve trumps, he must play a trump card that has a higher trick strength than the highest trump card already played in this trick (compulsion to trick trumps). If this is not possible, he may play any lower trump card. If this, too, is not possible, he may discard any suit card. To win a hand, the bidder has to achieve 35 points out of the 70 points possible. The Excuse The only exception to the necessity to follow suit or trump offers the Excuse, the card showing a roamer, labeled «Le Mat». The Excuse is neither a trump nor a suit, but can be played anytime instead of a trump or a suit. However, the Excuse does not win a trick. The trick goes to the player who played the highest suit card or the the highest trump. Yet with the exception of the last trick, the Excuse is not lost: If the trick goes to the other party, the player who played the Excuse may take the valuable card back and add it to his pile of tricks. As compensation, the other party receives any card without a point value from the player's trick pile. If the player of the Excuse has not yet taken any trick, he surrenders a card as soon as he is able to. Excuse If the Excuse is played in the last trick however, it is taken by the team who wins the trick and thus may be lost. The Excuse may also lead to a trick. In this case the next player can play any card, and this se- cond card defines what suit must be followed. Blumensteinweg 12 · CH-4500 Solothurn · +41 32 626 93 93 · www.museumblumenstein.ch · www.troggen.ch 6 The Deal The first dealer is chosen at random. Thereafter the turn to deal passes to the player to right of the dealer. After the cards were shuffled thoroughly by the dealer, the player to dealer’s left cuts. The dealer then deals the cards anticlockwise to the players in deckets of three, starting to the dealer’s right. With four players, in each of six rounds one card is placed face down in the center of the table: 3-3-3-3-1, 3-3-3-3-1, 3-3-3-3-1, 3-3-3-3-1, 3-3-3-3-1, 3-3-3-3-1. Each player thus receives 18 cards and the 6 face down cards in the middle of the table form the talon. If there are five players, every second round one card is placed face down in the center of the table: 3-3-3-3-3-1, 3-3-3-3-3, 3-3-3-3-3-1, 3-3-3-3-3, 3-3-3-3-3-1.