The promise of wacky drawings and bizarre guesses gives it the edge in our opinion.There are two decks of cards, this deck or that deck, and only one is played so you choose at the beginning.Įach player selects a card which has a numbered list of words and then a dice is rolled. Telestrations is more of a guessing game combined with a drawing game. Double Ditto is more of a word association game, prompting players to come up with a list of items in response to a prompt in just 15 seconds, and then see if anyone else in the group thinks the way they do. Both cost around $20, both are more concerned with having fun than keeping score, and both can be played for as little or as long as you like, with most rounds lasting just 20 minutes. Granted, the components of the game aren’t expensive to produce-some pens, some sketchbooks, a deck of word cards-but the price is in line with other card-based party games, like Double Ditto, and cheaper than more adult card-based games like Cards Against Humanity and What Do You Meme? And considering how easy it is to play, how well it works with a range of ages and schedules, and how much we laughed while playing, it’s really a small price to pay for a lot of fun.īoth Telestrations and Double Ditto are award-winning card-oriented games aimed at families or groups with young players around 8 and up. Telestrations costs around $30, which is a bargain for a game that can accommodate a large group of players. You just don’t want to lose the sketchbooks and secret word cards. If you lose a pen or it dries out, any other medium-tip dry erase pen will work. The die and the pens are totally replaceable. Telestrations doesn’t rely on such things. Some games rely so heavily on their tiny bits and pieces that they become nearly unusable if anything gets lost. The instructions emphasize how important it is to wipe the books clean before storage because the dry erase ink can eventually stain them if left on. The dry-erase sketchbooks are easy to clean with the enclosed silky cloths. We played with adults, elementary-aged kids, tween, and teens-and everyone had a blast. We found (thanks to one of the kids) it was actually better to be a little subversive rather than painstakingly accurate in our drawings. But if this kept happening, it would get old really fast. Though this didn’t inspire peals of laughter, it was still fun to chuckle at everyone’s attempt at drawing. When we played with four people, which is the minimum, we would sometimes end up with answers not that far from the original (for example, “eye patch” became “pirate”).

We played in groups of four, five, and six and found that the more people playing, the more fun it is because there are more opportunities for misinterpretation. There were some really ridiculous pictures and far-out guesses. There were times when some of us couldn’t speak because we were laughing so hard it was hilarious to see how everyone’s minds worked as they tried to interpret the words and pictures. For example, during one of our rounds, the secret word “coffee break” somehow morphed into “cup of noodles with chopsticks”, and then into “bad French fries.” No one could resist laughing when they’d see everyone else’s silly sketches and how far from the original word the guesses would get. It’s very easy for a sketch to get misinterpreted, which then sends things in an unpredictable direction. No one could resist laughing when they’d see everyone else’s silly sketches and how far from the original word the guesses would get.įor as simple as this game is, it really provides a ton of laughs-especially when playing with larger groups. Plus, it helped keep the younger players on track. At first, we didn’t think we’d need this, but we quickly found the artists in the group couldn’t resist going overboard with their drawings. The game also comes with a sand timer to give everyone a limit when it comes to sketching. Luckily, the books will work with any dry-erase pens. The dry-erase pens have a versatile medium-sized tip, but they can dry out quickly. The numbered tabs are helpful too, so we knew what page to flip to when it was our turn to guess or draw. We found this was really handy for knowing when our book had come back to us after making its rounds through the players. The books have a spot for each player’s name, and the spiral bindings are color-coded. The game comes with either eight or 12 laminated sketchbooks, depending on if you get the “original” eight-person game or the larger 12-person. There’s no board to move players around on, but the components of Telestrations are all really smart. The Spruce / Danielle Centoni Design: Well-thought-out The Spruce Home Improvement Review Board.

Scrawl and telestrations