innovative tarot concept seeking feedback

Because I've noticed an increase in the number of people creating rules to play card games with tarot decks; Tarot Rummy, Tarot Auction, Gnostica/Zarcana, Wizard's Tower etc. along with an interest in traditional Tarock card games, I believe there may be a market for a deck suited (no pun intended) for such a purpose.


This deck is composed of restored and colorized images of 19th century Swiss and German designs. Although intended primarily for gaming purposes, the majors carry images derived from traditional tarot themes and to some extent may be used for readings if reversed meanings are not used. It's a concept similar to the notorious LOTR "tarot deck and card game" which partly inspired the idea for my design, but in my opinion it is better executed as it uses traditional European images and graphic design elements instead of LOTR's "magic the gathering" type of appearance.

I've included a poll on the website as well as a guestbook so readers may submit their opinions.
http://www.freewebs.com/theplayingtarot/

Hi there,

I'm not sure if I really understood your concept.

What exactly is the difference to the Tarot playing cards common for example in France? They also consist of a 56 "playing card" part and 22 trumps.

Maybe I'm just a little thick this sunday morning...

There's very little difference actually. The basic concept is an Americanized version of a European gaming tradition. As a German, you might have noticed the Cego influence on the panels of the trump cards. The French decks you've mentioned are not widely available in the US. The traditional trump images of Italian suited decks from which I've borrowed from an old Swiss deck were chosen because I think it would have more of an appeal to an American market.

Ah! Thanks for explaining!

Since the game of Tarot is really interesting (I learned to play it before being aware an esoteric tradition even existed!) and deserves to be widely spread, I wish you lots of luck for you endeavour.