Troggu

Troggu is a tarot card game originating in Switzerland.

Number of Players

The game is played with 3-6 players.

Set Up

Any 78-card tarot deck will suffice
Something to keep score

Remove from the “red” suits the 7 through 10 and remove from the “black” suits the 4 through 1, or Aces. The high to low rankings are the same as French tarot.

Game Play

Each player will receive a number of cards in a grouping and to the “Tapp”, which is in the center. Deal to players a number of cards that depends on the number of players:

For 3 players, deal to each player 6 + 6 + 6 groupings of cards.
For 4 players, deal to each player 4 +4 +5 groupings of cards.
For 5 players, deal to each player 4 + 4 + 3 groupings of cards.
For 6 players, deal to each player 4 + 5 groupings of cards.

The remaining cards are placed in the Tapp. One player, called the Tappist, is chosen and the rest form a temporary team. Each player, starting with the Tappist, can say “ich nehm’s”, “ich gehe”, or solo. If no solo and someone says “ich nehm’s”, the game goes onwards.

Misere

If everyone says “ich gehe”, a Misere is played. No one receives the Tapp. The dealer leads the first trick and nobody is on the same team. The objective is to not get more than 58 points.

Exchanges

If there is no soloist, the Tappist takes the Tapp into their hand and discards that many cards face down. The exception is that no bouts or kings may be discarded. Another exception is if the Tappist holds all 4 kings, they may be discarded all of them if desired.

If someone said “solo” earlier, they are the Soloist and they may not look at or draw from the Tapp.

Play

Either the Tappist or the Soloist leads the trick with players to the right following the suit. A trick is won just like in French tarot.

End of the Hand/Game

Each side counts the cards in their tricks with Tappist and Soloist including the Tapp in their totals. The scoring is as follows:

Bouts are worth 5 points each.
Atouts 2- 20 are worth 1 point each.
Kings are worth 5 points each.
Queens are worth 4 points each.
Knights are worth 3 points each.
Jacks are worth 2 points each.
Pips are worth 1 point each.

The winner is the one with more than 58 points, in which the Rappen is given to them. If a tie, the Rappen is not given out. The basic stake is 10 Rappen. This means if the Tappist or Soloist win, they receive 10 Rappen from each player. If the rest of the players win, they receive 10 Rappen from the Tappist or Soloist. For example, a Tappist will receive 40 Rappen for winning a 5 player game. In a Misere game, the player with the most points must pay 10 Rappen to all other players. For example, if the dealer wins a 5 player game, they must pay 10 Rappen to all players.