Telestrations
Review

Telestrations (2009) is a drawing, guessing party game that combines Catchphrase and Chinese Whispers. Using a wipeable game book, players work in series to sketch a secret word, guess the word, turn the page and sketch again. If the final player's guess matches the starting word, you win. More likely (and more fun) the result is creative, confusing and hilarious rather than accurate.

Each player starts with a book and rolls a dice to select a secret word. You each write it in your book for the next player to hurriedly draw. The limited time, space and drawing skill (and no words or symbols rule) make this a considerable challenge. The books continue circulating like this until you are back to where you started. You then take turns to reveal the chain of drawings and guesses that have resulted from the first word.

Although there are ways to score your efforts in the rules, it's more about the silly and funny miscommunications that happen along the way. Mostly, you are too busy laughing to really keep track of the score. What starts as a simple drawing challenge, becomes a game about interpretation, deviation and creativity. The real joy of this game is getting to know the other players through their unusual and often bizarre artistic and written choices.

Our examiner, Rob Prior, first checked Telestrations 19 months ago. It was re-examined by Jo Robertson and updated 10 months ago.