LogFAQs > #964782525

44. Telestrations

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/46213/

Category: Non-competitive
Key mechanics: Drawing
Rules complexity (0 to 7): 0
Game length: 10-20 minutes
First played: 2021
Experience: 8+ plays over 5+ sessions with 4-8 players

Imagine Telephone and Pictionary - Telestrations is a hybrid, mass-market game where each player simultaneously draws a different secret word, then passes their drawing in the same direction and guesses what was handed to them. These drawings are then rotated yet again so the next player can also draw, based on the previous player's guess.

So, the thing about Telestrations is, it hasn't really made my past rankings lists because... it's not really a game. It's an enjoyable group activity. Its ruleset doesn't really provide opportunities to make it more of a game, and it (like many party games with looser rules) often is more fun when people aren't necessarily "doing the best they can" - i.e. they're putting in guesses that are wild even though they have little chance of being actually correct; or they're drawing vaguer pics instead of more accurate ones.

But play it with the right people and it's still fun. The reactions people have when they receive a picture, or the way you flip through things at the end, is always great.

The last time I played - well into 2022 at this point - I stumbled upon what I thought might be a cool variant (assuming I know the rules correctly). At the end of the game, instead of flipping through your book from front to back to show how it evolved, flip from back to front - i.e. show what the final result was, and then slowly reveal what each person was actually trying to reconstruct/guess until you hit the beginning. More mystery and tension, plus more opportunities for sympathy this way IMO.