The trull is a trio of three special
trump cards
A trump is a playing card which is elevated above its usual rank in trick-taking games. Typically, an entire suit is nominated as a ''trump suit''; these cards then outrank all cards of plain (non-trump) suits. In other contexts, the terms ''tru ...
used in
tarock
Tarot games are card games played with tarot decks, that is, decks with numbered permanent trumps parallel to the suit cards. The games and decks which English-speakers call by the French name Tarot are called Tarocchi in the original Italian, ...
games in Austria and other countries that have a much higher card value than the other trumps. The individual cards are known as trull cards (''Trullstücke''). The word ''trull'' is derived from the French ''tous les trois'' which means "all three".
In spite of its French roots the term is not common in the game of
French tarot, where the trull cards are called ''les bouts'' ("butts", "ends") or, in earlier times, ''les oudlers'', which has no other meaning.
Introduction
The games of the
tarot
The tarot (, first known as '' trionfi'' and later as ''tarocchi'' or ''tarocks'') is a pack of playing cards, used from at least the mid-15th century in various parts of Europe to play card games such as Tarocchini. From their Italian roots ...
(French) or
tarock
Tarot games are card games played with tarot decks, that is, decks with numbered permanent trumps parallel to the suit cards. The games and decks which English-speakers call by the French name Tarot are called Tarocchi in the original Italian, ...
(German) family are distinguished mainly in that, in addition to the
suit card
In playing cards, a suit is one of the categories into which the cards of a deck are divided. Most often, each card bears one of several Pip (counting), pips (symbols) showing to which suit it belongs; the suit may alternatively or additionally b ...
s, their decks have a series of 21 classical, permanent
trumps, most of which are numbered with
Roman
Roman or Romans most often refers to:
*Rome, the capital city of Italy
*Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD
*Roman people, the people of ancient Rome
*'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...
or
Arabic numerals. In games of German-language origin the trumps are also called ''tarocks''. The special role of the 'fool' (''Narren'') is described below.
Tarock games are
trick-taking card games, in which the cards have values in addition to their trick-taking power or ranking. In German these values are known as ''Augen'' which means "pips" or "card points". In most variants of Tarock there is, however, a complex system of scoring – the
Tarock scoring scheme
Tarot games are card games played with tarot decks, that is, decks with numbered permanent trumps parallel to the suit cards. The games and decks which English-speakers call by the French name Tarot are called Tarocchi in the original Italian, ...
– which usually involves counting the cards in threes and deducting two points each time, but may also use fractions (e. g. 4 1/3), which are subsequently rounded to the nearest
natural number
In mathematics, the natural numbers are those numbers used for counting (as in "there are ''six'' coins on the table") and ordering (as in "this is the ''third'' largest city in the country").
Numbers used for counting are called ''cardinal ...
.
Trull cards
The following three cards form the Trull:
Tarock I: the Pagat or Spatz
Tarock I, the smallest trump, is traditionally called the ''Pagat''. The name is derived from the Italian ''bagatto'', which has no other meaning, but is related to ''bagatelle'' which refers to "something... that is small and not important". The name probably alludes, therefore, to its status as the lowest trump card. It is also referred to as the ''Spatz'' ("sparrow"), a typical German term for a low-value card.
In French Tarock the card is called ''le petit'' ("the little one").
Tarock XXI: the Mond
Tarock XXI – the "Mond" – is traditionally the highest tarock. Its name is a false Germanization of the French ''le monde'' or Italian ''il mondo'' which mean "world" not "moon". In those variants where the Sküs is the highest tarock, the Mond is of course the second highest.
The Fool, Scüs, Sküs or Gstieß
The Fool (German: ''der Narr''; Italian: ''il matto'') is often compared to the
Joker in more recent card games. In modern Tarock variants, for example, it is represented as a
minstrel
A minstrel was an entertainer, initially in medieval Europe. It originally described any type of entertainer such as a musician, juggler, acrobat, singer or fool; later, from the sixteenth century, it came to mean a specialist entertainer ...
,
harlequin
Harlequin (; it, Arlecchino ; lmo, Arlechin, Bergamasque pronunciation ) is the best-known of the '' zanni'' or comic servant characters from the Italian '' commedia dell'arte'', associated with the city of Bergamo. The role is traditional ...
or
vagrant
Vagrancy is the condition of homelessness without regular employment or income. Vagrants (also known as bums, vagabonds, rogues, tramps or drifters) usually live in poverty and support themselves by begging, scavenging, petty theft, temporar ...
.
Traditionally, it is a special card that can be played to any trick, bypassing the suit rules. It can neither win nor lose the trick; if the trick is taken by the player with the highest card, the player of the Fool recovers it to his own pile of tricks. According to most, but not all rules, he gives the winner of the trick a blank (worthless card) from his own tricks instead.
In the French Tarot variants, the Fool is traditionally played with a ritualized excuse, comparable to a tennis player who says "Sorry" after hitting the ball into the net. Thus it is also called ''l'excuse'', from which developed its German name ''Sküs'' and other dialect expressions like ''Gstieß''. "Excuse" is also the technical term for the role of the special card in English tarot literature.
In most Tarock variants from the former
Habsburg monarchy the Sküs took over the role of the 22nd and highest trump card, retaining its name, despite its new role.
General role
The Trull plays a special role in the rules of almost all Tarock card games. The (rounded up) value of each card in the trull is five points, while all other trump cards (usually 19) count only one point each. This applies regardless of whether the Fool is the traditional special card or the highest trump card. Only in regional Italian variants can there be other trump cards that count more than one point. In some Tarock games, such as the Rhaeto-Romanic
Troccas, the trull has no meaning beyond its point value and sometimes no collective name. In many others, however, many additional roles are added to it.
Role in individual Tarot games
French Tarot
In
French Tarot (3-5 players), the ''bouts'' have a significance far above their nominal value. How many points a player needs to win the game depends on the number of ''bouts'' in his tricks. The cards together are worth 91 points, so a majority would be 46, but a player only needs 41 to win the game if he has two ''bouts'' among his tricks and only 36 if he has all three. Conversely, with only one ''bout'' he needs 51 points; and with none, as many as 56.
The ''Excuse'' plays its traditional role as a special card with some additional rules. It can also be lost if it is only played in the last trick; conversely, if a player has previously won all tricks, it can also exceptionally win the last trick.
Since the 21 cannot be lost at all and neither, ''de facto'', can the Excuse, it is of great importance to retain or capture the ''Petit''.
There is also a bonus when the ''Petit'' is played in the last trick for the side that wins the trick. In contrast to Austrian Tarock variants, the ''Petit'' does not have to be captured by oneself, but may also be won by a partner.
Königrufen
In the Austrian Tarock game,
Königrufen (4 players), the trull cards have several additional functions. The Sküs is the highest trump card.
Whoever has the complete trull in his tricks at the end receives an additional bonus in addition to the game points. This can be announced in advance and then counts twice. There is another (also announced) bonus if the Pagat wins the last trick (''Pagat Ultimo'').
Although it isn't in all rules, there is often is another bonus for capturing the Moon (''Mondfang''), if the Moon is taken by the Sküs. Rules vary as to whether this may also be declared in advance, whether it only counts if taken from opponents or when one's partner captures the Moon.
If players agree to a ''Kaiserstich'' ("Imperial Capture") or ''Märchenstick'' ("Fairytale Capture"), then the Pagat wins if the entire trull is played to one trick.
Analogous to trull, is the "Royal Trull" (''Königstrull''), when one side has all four Kings in its tricks. Usually this counts as much as the trull.
Hungarian Tarokk
It is in
Hungarian Tarokk that the trull cards, also called 'honours',
[Parlett, David. ''The Penguin Book of Card Games''. London: Penguin (2008). p. 373. .] have the greatest role (4 players). It is only possible for a player to
bid, and thus compete to become the declarer, if he has a trull card. The ''Skíz'', i.e. the Fool, is the highest trump card. The three cards together are called ''trull'', ''tuli'', ''trúl'' or, based on the original French expression, ''tulétroá'' (from French ''tous les trois'', "all three").
The game is primarily aimed at the bonus associated with capturing the Moon i.e. to seize the opponent's trump XXI with the Skiz. Nevertheless, the name of this card has been lost in Hungarian, it is simply ''huszonegy'' ("twenty-one"), and its capture is ''huszonegyfogás''.
As in Königrufen , it counts as a bonus, which may be declared beforehand, if a player has the trull in his tricks at the end of the game. In Hungarian Tarock, however, it is customary to declare them only to indicate that the two "high" trull pieces are with the same team, which can make expensive additional declarations possible.
The ''pagát'' can be played as a bonus to win the last trick (''ultimo''), either announced in advance or taken "quietly" for half the points.
;Illustrated Hungarian Tarokk
In the "illustrated" form of Hungarian Tarokk, which has many additional contracts, the trull cards acquired further roles. For example, the ''pagát'' can also be played in the penultimate trick (''uhu''), but this must be announced in advance if it is to count as a bonus.
Furthermore, there is a special bonus for winning the first six tricks and the sixth with the XXI (''kismadár'', "little bird"). Similarly, winning the first seven tricks, the seventh of which is Skíz, ''nagymadár'' ("great bird"), attracts a bonus. These two must also be announced in advance.
Cego
The
Baden
Baden (; ) is a historical territory in South Germany, in earlier times on both sides of the Upper Rhine but since the Napoleonic Wars only East of the Rhine.
History
The margraves of Baden originated from the House of Zähringen. Baden i ...
game of
Cego
Cego is a Tarot game for three or four players played with eponymous German Tarot playing cards. The game was probably derived from the three-player Badenese tarot game of Dreierles after soldiers returned from the Iberian Peninsula during the N ...
attributes no collective value to the trull and therefore has no name for it. The smallest trump - which has numerous regional names, such as ''der Kleine Mann'' (the Little Man), ''Pagat'', ''Babberle'', ''Geiß'' (goat) or ''Pfeif'' (pipe or whistle, also pejorative for "lame duck") - plays special roles. A special game called ''Ultimo'' can be declared, in which the sole object is to win the last trick with the ''Pagat''. In the highest normal game with a
talon known as the Cego, the player undertakes to play the Pagat in the first trick, i.e. to leave this high value card with the opponents and try to win the game with the rest of his cards.
In a local variant known as Ministrant's Version (''Ministrantenversion'') all three trull cards play an additional special role: In ''Geregelter Räuber'' (regulated Thief), where everyone plays against everyone for as few points as possible, the trull cards must be played in the first three tricks: the ''Stiess'' to the first, the ''Mond'' to the second and the ''Geiss'' to the third. To comply with this rule, players may ignore the requirement to follow suit.
Dreierles
There is a variant of
Tapp Tarock in Baden, known as
Dreierles
Dreierles is a three-handed, trick-taking Tarot card game that is popular in the German region of central Baden. It is very old and appears to be a south German cousin of Tapp Tarock, the oldest known 54-card Tarot game. Dreierles is played with ...
, in which the Trull ''does'' feature as a bonus. In Dreierles, the Tarocks are known in the local dialect as ''Drucks'' and the Trull is the ''Droll'' or ''Drull'' and the bonus is the ''Drullrolle''. The Fool is the ''Gstieß'', ''Stieß'' or ''der Alt'' ("the Old Man"), the Tarock 21 is usually just the 21 or 21-er but in one circle is known as the ''Eisen'' ("Iron") and, as in Cego, the Pagat is the ''Pfeif'', ''Pfeife'' or ''Pfiff''.
''Dreierles''
at pagat.com. Retrieved 20 July 2020.
References
{{List of trick-taking games
Tarock card games
Card game terminology
sl:Trula