Pas Assez

French for “Not Enough”. A card game for 2-6 players.

I came up with this little number after buying my first French Tarot deck.

For those unfamiliar, a French Tarot deck has much of the same structure as a Rider Waite deck: 56 “minor” cards and 22 “major” cards. In the more general parlance it would be “suit” cards and “trump” or “tarot” cards, but I digress.
The suit cards come in the standard four suits Clubs, Hearts, Spades, and Diamonds, while the Tarot cards are simply numbered 1 to 21 with an extra 22nd “excuse” (The Fool) which often acts as the deck’s joker.

In essence it’s a regular 4 suited deck with an extra long 5th suit slapped on top.

What I ended up creating was a climbing/shedding game where instead of creating the usual melds of cards you’d see in games like Big Two, Haggis, or Scout, you instead create sums of cards.

On your turn you can play either a single Tarot or 1-2 Suit cards with the aim of beating the previous player’s total.

For example, if someone played out an 8 Tarot, the next player would then either need to play a single card or a combination of cards that add to 9 or more.

The round ends once all but one player have either passed or are out of cards.

When the round ends, everyone’s tricks are scored, and a new hand of cards is dealt out.

Game ends once someone has reached the target score.

What You Need to Play This

  • A standard 78 card French Tarot deck
  • A block of paper and a pen to keep score

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