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

moons	suns	waves
wood/leaves	wyrms	knots

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. 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.) 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 Turtle Butt.) 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.)

The games Quincunx, Biscuit, and Quäsenbö 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.

The Decktet is presently available only as a digital document. You assemble it yourself.

• Download the basic version [PDF] containing bridge sized cards. It has colour suits and lineart illustrations, so as to minimize the drain on your printer ink. Scaled for Japanese size card sleeves.
• Download the deluxe version [PDF] containing poker sized cards and full colour illustrations. Scaled for American size card sleeves.
• Download reference cards [PDF] that summarize scoring for Biscuit, Quincunx, and Turtle Butt.
• Download a game box [PDF] that you can cut out and assemble. It is scaled to hold poker sized cards in plastic card protectors.

The Decktet is ©2003-8 P.D. Magnus. Some rights reserved. The deck, illustrations, and supporting text are offered as open content under a Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial ShareAlike 3.0 License. Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be negotiated.