I mainly focus on strategy games here, partly because those are mainly what I play and partly because the people I play with don't enjoy party games that much. I like them, but don't get to play them much. Last night I got to play a party game that quickly rocketed to the top of my favorites, and will certainly be played again many times. Does a combination of the telephone game & pictionary sound like fun? Well it is!

Telestrations is a simple game. You are given a laminated flip book and a card with 6 words or phrases on it. You choose one of the words, and have 90 seconds to draw it. As soon as everyone has drawn it, you pass your book to the person on your left. They look at the picture, and try to guess what it is, and then write that on the next page.

This cycle is repeated until your book is back in your hands. So, last night I started out with "pigs in a blanket" and when I passed it, she guessed "shrouded pigs" which led the next player to draw a hilarious picture that the next guesser somehow turned into "poodle." It stayed poodle all the way around back to me. The funniest one we had last night was the original word "cannibals" becoming "marriage" by the end.

This game had us laughing so much that I was worried the cafe would ask us to keep it down. One of the genius parts of the game is that you initial every drawing or guess you make, so you can always see where things went off track, and who to blame. At the end of the round (played in at most 15 minutes) you go through the flip book page by page and watch the transformation.

Sure, it's not a deep game, but we had 9 people laughing really loud for 2 rounds last night. It was a definite winner. Sometimes a good party game can be a great way to start or end an evening, even with hard core gamers. This is also a game that can be played with anyone, whether they like Die Macher or Connect Four. It's rules are very simple, and there is not a lot of brain burning. A great game for family or a group of friends. Definitely recommended!

Last 5 posts by Ezra

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