Basics

Extras

Games:

. Ace trump

. Biscuit

. Turtle soup

: more games

Reading:

. cards

. spreads

Make a copy

Buy a copy

The Decktet is a deck of cards with suits, ranks, and named images. It is structurally unlike ordinary poker and tarot decks, meaning that you can do different things with it.

This page describes features of the basic deck and how you can get a copy. The menu bar on the left will take you to pages about some other uses for it.

Basic features

The basic Decktet is a deck of 36 cards. There are six different suits:

For each suit, there is an Ace and a Crown. Between them are other cards numbered 2 through 9. These each have two suits. For example, the Market is a rank 6 card with suits Wood and Knots. Suits are not repeated at a rank, so there are three cards of each numbered rank. For example, these are the 6s:

Cross-suited cards give the Decktet its structure. A set of cards showing one of each suit might be as few as three cards or as many as six. (This is exploited in the games Bharg and Terrapin.) It is possible to lay out a line of cards so that each one shares a suit with its neighbor, but the end cards do not share suits at all. (This is exploited in the games Biscuit and Quäsenbö.) In a trick-taking game, it is possible to trump and follow a non-trump lead with the same card. (This is exploited in the games Ace trump and Ransom trump.) In a resource management game, you may be forced to choose between using a card for one of its suits or the other. (This is exploited in the games Chancellors and Emu ranchers.)

The games Quincunx, Biscuit, Quäsenbö, and Varg bid were invented by other people, and you are encouraged to experiment. Let me know if you discover anything fun!

Since the cards have names and pictures, they can be used for fortune telling. I have written a bit about the structure of the deck and how it might be interpreted.

In addition to the resources here, there is a bunch of cool stuff at the Decktet Wiki. You can participate, either in the discussion forum or in the wiki itself.

The Decktet is presently available either as a digital document or as a printed deck.

• Download free stuff
• Order a printed copy

The Decktet is ©2008-9 P.D. Magnus. Some rights reserved. A version of the deck is offered as open content under a Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial ShareAlike 3.0 License. Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be negotiated.