A card game that develops imagination
We’re going away for a few days next week and Alex suggested we bring our Scrabble set along. I told her that’s a big thing to bring along since our Scrabble board does not fold in half. Sam suggested the Monopoly set instead — which is smaller — but I still think that’s too big to bring along. I suggested playing cards. They didn’t look too thrilled. So I said, “Let’s bring Talecraft!” And that generated a lot of excitement.
What is Talecraft? It is a story-telling card game that, according to Wikipedia, was developed and published in the Philippines. When I checked out the Talecraft website, I was pleasantly surprised to find so many familiar names involved in its promotion — Kenneth Yu (publisher of The Digest of Philippine Genre Stories and with whom I’ve exchanged a lot of wonderful e-mails), Marcelle Fabie (oh, we go a loooong way!) and Dean Alfar.
Let me show Talecraft to you.
Ooops, sorry, wrong photo. We were in the bedroom earlier and the girls and I were were discussing how much, or how little, strawberry streusel cake we would set aside for their father…
Whoa! Wrong photo again… Yeah, yeah, I’m just kidding. I just had nowhere else to post the strawberry streusel cake photos.
Here are the real photos.
How does Talecraft work? Players pick cards randomly from three stacks. There’s the genre stack…
… which basically means adventure, horror, sci-fi, mystery… You get the idea.
Then, there’s the archetype stack — hero or villain?
And then there’s the key stack which means a player either gets a keyword or a plot line.
So, each player has five minutes to combine all cards to make a story. Each tells his story but since a beautiful story is something subjective (despite what stuck-up academics say), there are no real winners in Talecraft. What I really like about Talecraft is how it stimulates the mind — a mind game that is fun at the same time. You have to strive to come up with a story that makes sense in the context of the cards you picked.
So, if you’re looking for something new to while away the boredom during the summer break, check our Talecraft. Highly recommended for older children, teens and adults. A real family activity that everyone can enjoy.
No, this is not a product endorsement, just a personal recommendation. And I didn’t get my box of Talecraft for free. I bought it for P300 pesos.
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Some related discussions...-
[...] There’s a shop in Eastwood called Chills where Sam and Alex buy their emo and goth stuff. We were there one time and I can across boxes of Talecraft on the counter. I picked up a box, loved the description of the game, took out my wallet and got ready to pay for for it. Alex looked over my shoulder and declared that they used to play that in school. Her English teacher at the time, Teacher Ygy (one of the best the school ever had), used to bring her pack of Talecraft to school and turned it into a class activity. See a related entry for more on Talecraft. [...]
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[...] If you want to know what it’s doing on the bed and what those cards are, read my entry about Talecraft. And since we’re into the subject of cakes, I figured this is a good time as any to feature [...]
We feast everyday!
I like it! I can use it for my English teaching.
I have a set of Schubi cards with different images which players use to tell a story; there’s no winner as well. Players are just required to use their imagination. My students liked this game.
But I think Talecraft is way too cool! My sister and I should buy one.
That cake looks tasty…yum yum.
P.S. I recently bought mini versions (for travelers) of Scrabble and Master Mind here. There’s one for Monopoly, too. I wonder if they sell mini versions of popular game boards in RP as well.
Mini versions? I’ve never seen one but I’ll start looking. Thanks, Jayred. It’ll be good to have a bring-everywhere version of Scrabble.
That’s something my grandchildren can use. Where can I get one?
List of outlets. That’s from their website.
cool!
wow, iv been learning a lot from reading your page..been not updated for ages of what’s new..etc! 
reading your blog seems a must for me now i guess! 
Ooooh, you need to get the Diamond Anniversary Scrabble set. It’s very travel friendly. Talecraft sounds great. I’mma search on that one here.
I thought the cake was pizza! haha Made me hungry tuloy.
Can’t wait for the pictures of your summer getaway!
Anyways, I saw my former prof, Ambeth Ocampo like two months ago and I told him why don’t we modenize the National Artist Awards, say add a category in literature, like an award “blogs abd bloggers” for example.
Shempre I name dropped you. He was so petrified and said “gusto mo bang idemanda ka nya? ang bata pa kaya nya!”
That shut me up….
Sabihin mo okay lang kahit bata pa ako!!! Salamat ha!
Looks like a fun game. I think my daughter would really enjoy it.
wow! nice one mommy!
im playing talecraft too. 
I got my box of Talecraft at Powerbooks. They usually carry it in all their branches. I haven’t really started playing with it yet as I wanted to use it to generate new story ideas if ever I get stuck.