Description

Taotl is a trick-taking game using a 72-card deck that consists of the traditional 52-card deck (1-13 in four suits) along with the "magical cards": a Taotl (the highest card), four Skulls (the lowest cards), a yellow trump suit called Totems, a Red God "Quetzalcoatl" and a Black God "Tezcatlipoca" that can be either high or low situationally.
s) along with four Wizards (high) and four Jesters (low).

Players compete over multiple rounds based on the number of players, and whoever ends with the highest score wins. In each round, players are dealt a hand of cards — one card in the first round, two cards in the second, three in the third, etc.

The playing and winning of the tricks uses mostly standard trick-taking rules. If a player leads a suited card, then all other players must follow suit or play a magical card. If a player leads a Skull, then the second player determines the suit led. If a player leads a Taotl, then those who follow can play whatever they want.

After each player has played a card, determine the winner of the trick as follows: If the Taotl was played, that player wins, collects the cards, and leads to the next trick. If not, whoever played the highest Totem wins the trick, unless someone played a Red God on a red-suited trick or a Black God on a black-suited trick, in these cases the player has the option of declaring their god as higher than a Ten of Totems, but lower than a Jack of Totems. If not, whoever played the highest card of the suit led wins the trick. If all players played Skulls, whoever played the first Skull wins.

After all tricks have been played, players tally their score for the round. If a player matched their bid, winning exactly as many tricks as stated at the start of the round, they score 10 points, plus 3 points for each trick taken. If a player missed their bid, they lose 5 points for each trick that they were off, whether they took more or fewer than predicted.

The total number of tricks bid in a round cannot match the round number, thereby forcing (at least) one player to be off each round.

The booklet attached to the papers was written by the well-known author Alfonso Del Bello, and in 64 pages he explains in the first part the meaning of the cards (which, as far as the traditional suits are concerned, is almost always modeled on the classic one of Etteilla) and a short divination game, and in the second the real game.