Anyone into tarot?

[54kPlaya]

I don't know jack about tarot but I came across an animalistic deck of tarot and decided to go ahead and order it, just for the art work, anyone into tarot around here....Is it a game???

[Eddie Hughlett]

Not into tarot so much as I am into cards and if you are liking the art of some tarot decks go check out Ussi Otherworlds Tarot, which is a contemporary classic, imho. Also coming soon to kickstarter;  Lorenzo (Stockholm 17), will introduce his Keymaster Tarot, which is sure to be a hit.

-eh

[Don Boyer]

I don't know jack about tarot but I came across an animalistic deck of tarot and decided to go ahead and order it, just for the art work, anyone into tarot around here....Is it a game???

The really short answer to your question is yes...and no.

Most people think the 52-card deck developed from the 78-card tarot deck, but in reality, it was the other way around.  Tarot originated as a card game, where the "Major Arcana" were simply a trump suit in a trick-taking game.  You can still find the game version of tarot - I think it originated in France and is still played there and in some other countries, Italy in particular.  The "Minor Arcana" had simple French suit pips on them, not interpretive artwork.  But over time, that deck did develop (as did the International Standard/French deck) to be used for cartomancy, or making predictions of people's lives and future events through the use of cards.  Some artists started making versions of both tarot and French/standard/52-card decks for fortune telling - some were simple, like the Gypsy Witch deck, having images of the original card design and additional art and text explaining how to use it in fortune telling, while the more complex ones had unique art for every card, incorporating the card's rank and suit into the artwork in some fashion.  Arguably the most well-known version of that would be the Rider-Waite tarot deck - I'm sure a quick Wikipedia search of the term will produce lots of information about its origins.  That particular deck's design must be in the ballpark of a century old by now; many printers have reprinted it and it's no longer protected under copyright, to the best of my knowledge.

If you poke around, while most of the decks and designers around here work in the International Standard, you'll find a healthy contingent who are also making tarot decks.  Two noteworthy ones were previously mentioned - Uusi is a husband-and-wife team that used to be Chicago-based but now resides in the upper peninsula of Michigan, while Stockholm17/Lorenzo Gaggiotti is an extremely popular Italian artist who resides in Stockholm and uses it as his base of operations.  I've actually worked with both - I did consulting work for Uusi early in their card-designing tenure and I produced stripper decks for a Stockholm17-designed deck made for a Swedish magician.  Lorenzo was a double-winner at the 52 Plus Joker 2019 Diamond Awards, taking home both Artist and Deck of the Year, while Uusi won the 2017 Diamond Award for Artist of the Year.

[shimmering]

The original (Italian) form of tarot cards would be something rather close to (but not exactly the same as) what is now called the Tarot of Marseilles, and used for gaming. You can see the similarity between a Marseilles tarot and some regional Italian playing cards, including the characteristic layout of the curved swords and straight baton pips. The tarot deck is a modified playing card deck with the addition of a trump suit (and four court cards per ordinary suit). This trump suit has a sequence of characteristic illustrations. There are still regional Italian tarot decks produced in Bologna and Sicily that have a rather traditional appearance. But although tarot remains a very popular game in France, the older standard pattern (Tarot de Marseille) was replaced in the 1800s by a new pattern called Tarot Nouveau (or bourgeois). In tarot nouveau the suits were changed from the older Italian suits to the French (international) suits, and the pip cards are quite plain and look just like the pip cards of a standard deck of cards (but bigger). The traditional motifs of the trump suit were also replaced by rural and urban scenes that no longer make up a sequence in themselves, but now just decorate the numbered cards of that trump suit. It is very easy to find these decks in France. Decks with a similar appearance to the Tarot Nouveau but with shorter suits are available and widely used for gaming in Germany, Austria, and surrounding countries (called Tarock).

Most tarot decks that you will find in the UK and USA follow a parallel development that is based on divination and not gaming, they are descended from the Rider Waite tarot, which mainly follows the structure of the Tarot de Marseille ... the major visual difference is that the pip cards are all illustrated (what in a playing card context would be called semi-transformational illustrations), incorporating the pips into a scene. Of course as the structure of these decks are the same as Marseilles decks it is very possible to use them for gaming if you wanted to do that.

If you're interested in tarot games, you can read about the rules to several, as played in different countries in Europe, on this site:
https://www.pagat.com/tarot/frtarot.html

[the.asics.kid]

Tarot is indeed a game. Outside of France it is mostly called differently to make the distinction between game and cartomancy clearer. The art on Tarot decks is exceptional in a lot of cases. I try to refuse to buy tarot decks since I already spend enough money on poker playing cards. But the game of tarot is indeed pretty interesting and worth learning imo. For gameplay normal tarot decks like e.g. the standard one from Ducale is recommended though. It is easier to differentiate between the suits and the trumps.
Others mentioned it before and I can only concur, The Keymaster Tarot from Stockholm17 definitely is worth a look. The artwork is insanely good, imo and most importantly it is perfect for gameplay as well.

I produced stripper decks for a Stockholm17-designed deck made for a Swedish magician.

That means I own a Don Boyer original. Great to know.