Calling the King (Königrufen) is the UNESCO-listed Austrian tarock for exactly four players; Dappen is the Black Forest game that deals one 54-card deck to six, seven or eight. The King is a deep game of hidden partners and wide contracts; Dappen sends one open hero, the Dapper, against the whole table. Count your chairs first; both answers are good ones.
One earned its place on that UNESCO list through three centuries of Viennese coffeehouse polish. The other survived in a handful of Black Forest villages and had its rules first written down in 2024, by the players saving it. They are the family’s furthest-apart cousins in temperament: the quiet four-player masterpiece and the loud big-table specialist. We wrote in the book that Dappen is loud where Königrufen is quiet, and broad where its games are narrow. Here is what that means for your table.
By the numbers
A trick, before the stat lines: one round where each player plays a card face up and the best card takes them all (new to trick-taking? start here). The King: 4 players, 12 tricks per hand, 7 basic contracts, a 6-card talon (a face-down reserve), three difficulty dots, 36 of 70 Card Points to win (Card Points are what you capture in tricks). Dappen: 6 to 8 players, hands of just 7 tricks (six players) or 6 (seven), 2 contracts plus the Challenge, a 12-card Dapp, two difficulty dots, and the target of holding the entire table under 40 Card Points. The deal simulations tell you what a crowded table does to the cards: at the King’s table a color-suit lead survives all followers in about 58 percent of tricks; at a six-player Dappen table, about 5 percent, and at seven, almost never. The King is a game of developed suits. Dappen is Taroks (the permanent trump suit, the 22 cards that beat every color card), immediately and always.
Four players, or eight?
Calling the King is built for exactly four. Its geometry depends on it: one caller, one secretly called partner, two defenders slowly working out the seating chart of loyalties.
Dappen deals one 54-card deck to six, seven or eight players (with eight, the dealer sits the round out), and this is close to a superpower. Games with real decisions for seven people are rare; a card game for 6 players or more with this much structure is nearly unheard of. If your evenings routinely overflow four chairs, this comparison may already be over.
Hidden partner or one against all
The King’s central pleasure is deduction. A King is called, its holder stays silent, and for tricks on end the table is a whodunit. Contracts range wide, from partnered games to solos to the negative contracts where winning means losing tricks, and the bonus flock adds announcements worth as much as the contracts themselves.
Dappen skips the mystery entirely. One player, the Dapper, claims the twelve-card pot in the middle (the Dapp), rebuilds their hand from it, and stands alone against everyone. The defense knows itself from the first card. The Dapper’s goal is ruthless and countable: hold the entire table under 40 Card Points, and the lower you hold them, the higher your reward tier climbs.
Two auctions, two philosophies
The King runs a classical ladder auction: bids climb, seniority speaks, and the lowest bid guarantees someone will lead the hand as Declarer. Dappen gets to the same guarantee with two of the family’s bluntest rules: you may not pass while holding real trump strength (strong trumps owe the table a game), and if everyone ducks, the second-to-last speaker is drafted as Dapper, whatever their cards. Someone always plays. There is no score-doubling Kontra either; instead, a defender can issue a direct Challenge. Dappen replaces etiquette with plumbing, and the plumbing works.
Since Dappen leans hard on trump strength, from the stop duty to the Dapper’s endgame, the deck’s animal ranking earns its place at the long table: the stronger the alpine animal, the stronger the Tarok, readable at arm’s length without counting numerals. And Dappen evenings happen where the crowd happens: someone’s kitchen, a holiday cabin, the back room of a pub. Our deck packs smaller and lighter than the competing decks we have put on a scale, which sounds trivial until the game night is not at your house.
Which one is for you?
Choose Calling the King if you have a steady four and want the family’s deepest single game: decades of discovery, tournament culture, endless nuance. It is a game you study.
Choose Dappen if your player count is big or unpredictable. It is a game you host: medium difficulty, huge personality, and everyone at a crowded table gets a real hand and a real stake, every deal.
The two barely compete in practice. They solve different rooms.
If your table looks different: four players who find the King heavy should step back to Calling the Twenty, the family’s entry game and the one our deck arrives presorted to teach. Dappen fans with only four players can get their one-against-everyone fix from the King’s solo contracts. And a big table that falls for Dappen should eventually try a Slovenian Tarok evening when it shrinks to three or four; the counting instincts transfer beautifully. The full set is at all fifteen comparisons.
Quick answers
What tarock game works for 7 players? Dappen; it deals all 54 cards into 6-trick hands at seven players and gives everyone a real stake in every deal.
Is Dappen easier than Königrufen? Yes; Dappen rates two difficulty dots of three against the King’s three, mainly because it has 2 contracts against the King’s 7-plus.
Both games, and four more, are taught from zero in the Tarok Exploration Book, played with one deck.