Apathy Sketchpad

Curiously, Tarot did start off as a card game: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarot_card_games

How they went from that to spiritual is a mystery.

Actually, I did know that.

But everyone knows Go Fish is the funniest card game.

It is, yet I’ve never seen anyone actually play it.

I do imagine there must be a lot of Death cards in Tarot, given that they seem to mean anything but Death.

Just for general info, I’ll butt in and say what it’s all about. Sorry to go all factual, I developed a minor obsession with Tarot at one point! It’s got none of the mystical tarot stuff, just the usual 4 suits, except with an added court card between the jack and the queen, called the chevalier. There is also a 5th suit, called the Trump suit (you’ll never guess what it does), which is simply numbered 1 – 21. There is also a sort of wild card, called l’excuse, but generally known as The Gay Banjo Player because, well, you can probably guess what’s on the card. You play it kind of like whist but for points, not tricks.

I’ll add to what KP says. Tarot cards were invented in 15th century Italy for playing card games – games that are still played throughout continental Europe today!

Most of the games are now played with a French suited tarot pack but the traditional Italian designs are still used in Italy, Sicily, and Switzerland.

The games are only like whist in that they are trick taking games with trumps. However, these are point trick games, so different cards carry different point values – it is therefore not the number of tricks won that matters but the card points in your tricks.