Droggn, sometimes called French Tarock () is an extinct card game of the Tarock family for three players that was played in the Stubai valley in Tyrol, Austria until the 1980s. Droggn is originally local dialect for "to play Tarock" (in standard German usually "tarockieren"), but it has become the proper name of this specific Tarock variant. An unusual feature of the game compared with other Tarock games is the use of a 66-card deck and that, until recently, there was no record in the literature of a 66-card game and no current manufacturers of such a deck. The structure of the game strongly indicates that it is descended from the later version of Tarok l'Hombre, a 78-card Tarock game popular in 19th-century Austria and Germany, but with the subsequent addition of two higher bids.
History
During his research into The Game of Tarot, Michael Dummett learned that 66-card Tarock packs had been made during the 19th century in the Tyrol, but could find no record of any games played with 66 cards. Equally curious was that Piatnik had continued to manufacture 78-card packs into the 1980s, even though Austrian literature suggested that games played with more than 54 cards had died out in the early part of the 19th century. In 1992, card game researcher, Remigius Geiser, found out from Piatnik that, towards the end, 78-card packs had been sold exclusively in the Stubai valley near Innsbruck. In their follow-up work, Geiser and McLeod tracked down a number of players who had played the game of Droggn in the past and were able to demonstrate its rules. Some of the players called it French Tarock (Französisches Tarock).
Droggn players were divided over whether the game was introduced to the Tyrol by French soldiers during the Napoleonic Wars at the time of Andreas Hofer or was imported to the area from northern Italy. The game has a number of features in common with older forms of French Tarot and with Tarok l'Hombre, an Austrian descendant of the Italian game of Taroc 'Ombre. McLeod and Geiser conclude that "Stubai Droggn clearly belongs within the family of Tarok l'Hombre games which were current in the 19th century", but go on to acknowledge that there is "a strong possibility" that it was derived from a French game played by Napoleonic soldiers from eastern France.
Aim
To win the 37 of the 74 card points available as the declarer or 38 as the defending team.
Players
The game is played with three players. Four can play if the dealer "takes a holiday" (er feiert) i.e. when it is their turn players deal but do not participate in that hand.
Cards
The game is played with a 66-card French-suited Tarock card deck. In more recent times, players used a 78-card variant of the Industrie und Glück pattern deck and stripped out the lowest 3 cards of each suit. These packs are no longer made, but alternatives include the French Tarot Nouveau pattern deck, or, more appropriately, the facsimile Tyrolean Tarock (Tiroler Tarock) pack depicting historical Tyrolean battle scenes or the Russian version of the Bavarian Animal Tarot pack (Russisches Tiertarock). The last two are produced by Piatnik.
Card pack
The pack thus comprises:
21 trumps numbered XXI to I. 11 cards per suit as follows: K D R B 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 K D R B A 2 3 4 5 6 7 The Gstieß (the Fool, L'Excuse or Sküs)
The court cards are the King (König), Queen (Dame), Rider (Reiter) and Jack or Valet (Bube) hence the lettering.
Card values
The values of the individual cards in card points (Augen) are as follows: Trull cards (Gstieß, XXI and I) - 5 points Honours or Kings - 5 points Queens - 4 points Riders - 3 points Valets - 2 points Other tarocks and pip cards - 1 points
Card names
Card names, which sometimes vary from other Austrian Tarock games, are as follows:
Tarocks - Trümpfe ("trumps") or Addude (from the French atout) Trump XXI - Mond or der Große ("the big one") Trump I - Pagat or der Kleine / dar Kloane ("the littl' un") Sküs - Gstieß King - König or Honor ("honour") Queen - Dame / de Dam Rider - Reiter Valet - Bube / dar Bua Pip cards - leere / laare Karten Court cards - Mandlen Long suit - der Ritt Singleton - der Fuchs (normally a suit card in declarer's hand other than the King)
Dealing
The dealer is chosen by cutting the pack; the highest card wins. Dealing and play are clockwise, unlike other Tarock games. After shuffling the cards, the dealer offers the pack to the player on his right, who cuts. The dealer then deals 3 packets of 7 cards to each player and places the last 3 cards face down on the table to form the talon.