More weird card game notions

I had another vague idea for a card game today. I was thinking about the grotesque Victorian collector cards I saw at the Slocum exhibit this weekend, and I was thinking about what you could actually do with them besides collect them. These cards had pictures of people on them, and instead of suits, these characters belonged to families. These were frequently indicated by occupation, like butcher or barber. The objective, according to the informative label in the exhibit, was to trade and collect an entire family.

I was thinking of a game in which one (or more?) of the cards in the deck were randomly chosen and hidden from all players. Then, each player would have a certain number of cards in their hand, which is hidden from the other player(s). The objective is to figure out the identity of the hidden card, and this is done by everybody taking turns telling stories which incorporate the characters in their hands. The trick is not to name the characters you're holding, but use their "personality" and a made-up history. You want to give enough information for someone else to successfully build on your story, but you're also trying to be the first to guess the hidden person. Each turn has to reveal another character in your hand. By process of elimination, someone can guess which card is hidden from everyone.

Since I haven't actually tried to play such a game, there are things I'm not sure about. Maybe it would be easier to have someone actually represent the hidden card and participate by giving clues. I also see that this game would require a great familiarity with the deck, so maybe there could be a "cheat sheet" with names and pictures of everyone in the deck, or maybe people could look at the deck beforehand.

I realize this could be so difficult as to not be fun, but I'm still thinking about it. I like the idea of collectively telling a story, and I like the artistic possibilities of the character deck.

I also just realized it reminds me of "Clue," which I honestly have never, ever played. I suppose people just like figuring things out before everyone else around them.

©The ideas and objects presented in this blog are copyright Marcela Poffald 2008.