Designed by: Uncredited
Telestrations is a drawing game where the focus is definitely not on winning, but on the inadvertent comedy the game conjures.
Each player gets a wipe-clean board and a non-permanent marker with which to draw. At the start of the game everyone is given a card with a different selection of words (six) and a number is chosen by rolling a die, determining which word you are to draw. Players write the word on the first page, then pass the pad to their left. The next player must draw their interpretation of the word, then pass it on again. That player must write down what they think the drawing is, and the process repeats until each pad has gone around the table and back to the original owner. At that point everyone flips back to the start and reveals the progress of their ‘word’ around the table – which is very rarely straightforward.
The game comes with an optional timer – and also has instructions of how to score (points for correct guesses, bonus points if a word successfully makes it around the table without being misinterpreted) but whenever we’ve played, we have never bothered scoring it. The focus here is definitely in the absurdity, rather than the ‘winning’.
None, although the game does seem to invite debate over what a certain drawing is meant to be...
None. All players are involved at all times.
You can occasionally get a word or phrase that's harder to draw than others, but really this game is very simple.
There's no tactics or strategy here and the game is very one-note. But it's a lot of fun.
4-8
Players
8+
Years
15-30
Mins
Sam says
A very different 'game' from most on GNG in that it's more of an activity - a silly one! - but worthy of inclusion, because it's a bundle of fun.