Pyramid Pick
Nanofictionary
Published by Looney Labs
Created by Andrew Looney
Illustrated by Alison Frane
110 cards and rule book; $17.00
The latest card game from Looney Labs (the creators of Fluxx and Chrononauts) takes a decidedly different road from their previous card games, while retaining some of the Looney flavor fans have come to expect. Nanofictionary is a story-telling card game where players build their tales using a deck of 110 cards, recite their sagas to one another, then award points for the best stories. At the end of a game, whichever story garnered the most points wins. Nanofictionary is not about winning, however. The scoring system is inherently subjective, and the mechanics do not allow for much competitive card play. Instead, Nanofictionary is a tool that helps groups of friends sit around and entertain each other with stories.
The name of the game comes from a type of fiction practiced by the game's author called "Nanofiction." A nanofiction story contains exactly 55 words and a title. Players are not limited to a specific word count, but their stories should be short enough to fit on the back of an envelope. There are two examples to help players get in the spirit of the game.
The 110 cards are the same size as standard playing cards, and are as sturdy. While the cards are printed in color, each card features a simple, black-and-white line drawing. The art is reminiscent of the strange Morgan's Tarot, printed back in the 1970s. . . .
This article originally appeared in the second volume of Pyramid. See the current Pyramid website for more information.
Article publication date: December 6, 2002
Copyright © 2002 by Steve Jackson Games. All rights reserved. Pyramid subscribers are permitted to read this article online, or download it and print out a single hardcopy for personal use. Copying this text to any other online system or BBS, or making more than one hardcopy, is strictly prohibited. So please don't. And if you encounter copies of this article elsewhere on the web, please report it to webmaster@sjgames.com.