Tableau: Improv Playset ("Print-N-Play" Edition)

About Tableau and this Improv Playset

“The best stories are the ones we tell together!”

Ignite your “Yes, and…” spirit of improvisation to weave unique tales together, one scene at a time. Collaborate to create unforgettable narratives across genres, fostering unexpected bonds between characters. Hone your narrative skills with rules designed for spontaneous & unscripted storytelling. Perfect for roleplaying, improv, and creative writing.

Tableau is a GMless storytelling system for 2-5 players, played using poker-sized cards featuring rules & inspirational images. Each Playset includes everything you need to play except for your own index cards, markers and sheets of paper, and optionally one six-sided dice. The typical playtime is 2-3 hours.

• Tableau helps you create a satisfying cinematic storytelling experience over the course of just a few hours.
• Together you will build an intriguing & impactful story without the need for advance preparation or a designated gamemaster or narrator.
• The choices of different cards offer you “composable” rules, giving you a flexible framework to create and control your characters and explore a range of story genres and play styles.
• Tableau also offers a number of Playsets that package together specific rules & cards to create specific kinds of stories. Tableau: Improv, Tableau: Twilight Road, and Tableau: Gate Watch are the first of of a number of Playsets to come.

Using this Tableau: Improv Playset the players take the roles of writers & directors to portray characters and weave a story for all to enjoy. The cards facilitate telling a dramatic, character-driven, One-Act Story, in a collaborative and cinematic way. All the  Playset and  Tableau Core cards you need to play are included.

Though this Playset is “simple” as it doesn’t have as many Rules or Story cards as other Tableau Playsets, it isn’t necessarily “easy” as it is very unconstrained—it is probably best for a group comfortable with the traditions of improv.

In addition to the Tableau: Improv Playset, this deck includes 16 Tableau Reference cards that each offer 38 useful prompts to inspire both improv and storytelling (in categories for Genre, Mood & Tone, Theme, Setting, Desires, Relationships, Catalyst Scenes, and Plot Twists).

These Tableau: Improv Playset cards and the Reference cards may be mixed & matched with both the Tableau: Twilight Road and Tableau: Gate Watch and with future Tableau Games playsets.

We hope this deck inspires you to consider purchasing/backing our first two Tableau playsets — Tableau: Twilight Road and Tableau: Gate Watch.

This promotional deck includes:

• 4 Improv Playset cards for a simple one-act storytelling session.
• 18 Rule cards from Tableau Core
• 16 Reference cards

This is the "Print-N-Play" PDF version of the Tableau: Improv Playset, suitable for printing on US Letter Paper, manually using the cut-lines template (on the last page), for use with poker-sized card sleeves. If you want these Tableau: Improv Playset printed on US Poker Cards, there will be a version available separately, one with a Tuckbox, and another in a "Just the Cards" edition.

Reviewer Quotes

“Tableau is a versatile, flexible framework for collaborative storygames grounded deep in the fundamentals of story and character. Mix and match cards to shift what themes, rules, archetypes, and ideas are on the table, helping your group tell a compelling and satisfying story.” — Aaron A. Reed, author of the Archives of the Sky story game.

Credits

Tableau Written & Designed by:
Christopher Allen
<ChristopherA@DyversHands.com>

©2022-23 by Dyvers Hands Productions, LLC. All Rights Reserved — v1 2023-03

Images © original creators & are Permissively Licensed.

Tableau Games™ Dyvers Hands™  & Tableau Core™ are trademarks of Dyvers Hands Productions, LLC.