Atheist Memes

Sorry, no link - read it from a library book about card game history.

From my recollection:

I do remember it was called "Oracolo" and was played in Italy, normally by family members for the younger kids. It's part of other "story games" people would play using the bigger tarot card decks especially (something played since Mamluk deck days). You'd basically start a story about how the person is a traveler, and make up the story on the fly based off what you drew from the deck, and the kid would respond as well and then a dice would be rolled to see if they're successful.

With Oracolo, the goal was to make it to old age and die peacefully as you go through life. You'd do this by going through the entire deck, with pips being bonuses or negatives that would be used (like, if you had chosen to be a carpenter, and got a 3, then that might be how much furniture you sold and how successful you currently are).

Every card you passed through would get set aside, with the exception of Death, which would always get shuffled back in if you survived. Death would always be the final card.

There's other story games too people would play too. This is where the idea of using Tarot decks for divination came from actually during the Victorian era (as these story games were primarily played in Latin descendant speaking countries such as France, Spain, and Italy).

My own dad would sometimes play a story game his dad taught him using an old Tarocco Siciliano deck we had (the one that uses cups, clubs, coins, and swords). Although his was a Christian version where the goal was both survive and to go to heaven, and used more as a morality type game.