[November 22, 2009] TELESTRATIONS Tweet Nov 22, 2009 (The Dominion Post - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- Telestrations is just the kind of board game I like -- simple, funny and, if you so choose, the score can be little more than an afterthought. The game's box describes what awaits you inside as "The telephone game, sketched out!," which is a pretty apt description. Instead of passing a whispered phrase around a group of friends, each player is assigned a word, writes that word down in a dryerase sketchbook and passes it to the person next to them. Once the books have been passed, players open the sketchbooks, see the word, flip to a clean page and try to draw what they see -- all while being timed. Once the time runs out, players flip to a clean page and pass their work on. The next person flips back, looks at the drawing and writes what they think they see. This pattern continues until all the books are returned to their original owners. Then everyone shares their beginning words and flips through their respective books to see what each morphed into. Points are given if the word managed to stay the same throughout the round, and for categories such as funniest drawing and best phrase. The person with the most points at the end of three rounds is declared the winner. I was hesitant about this game in theory, being a particularly ungifted visual artist. But the wonderful thing about Telestrations is that no matter what your skill level, you're bound to have fun, because lack of artistic ability produced hilarious results. For instance, in one round a warthog became an undead vampire pig, while in another round a cheetah morphed into Tom Waits (don't ask me to explain). Telestrations is the best evening in I've had in a while and, at $30, is a cheaper, warmer alternative to cold winter nights out on the town. To see more of The Dominion Post or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.dominionpost.com/. Copyright (c) 2009, The Dominion Post, Morgantown, W.Va. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email [email protected], call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]