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About Telestrations
Telestrations is the drawing game version of broken telephone. You sketch a word, pass the book, the next player writes what they think your drawing shows, passes on, and the next player draws that. By the time the book returns to you, "lighthouse" has become "angry candle". There is technically a scoring system and essentially nobody uses it.
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Is Telestrations Right for You?
Best for
Telestrations is the game for a large, loose group who are not really there to play a game. It handles eight players comfortably, needs no strategy, and works with a mixed-age family or with a room full of people who have had a drink. The reveal at the end is reliably the funniest thing to happen all evening.
Maybe skip it if…
There is no game here for anyone looking for one. Scoring is vestigial, skill is irrelevant, and a group that wants decisions rather than laughs should play almost anything else. It also needs at least six people to really work.
How to Play Telestrations
Setup
Give each player a sketchbook, a marker and a word card. Everyone rolls or picks a word secretly.
On Your Turn
- Draw your word on the first page, with a strict time limit.
- Pass the book left. The next player writes what they think the drawing is, without seeing the original word.
- Pass again; that player draws the written guess. Continue until every book has gone all the way round.
How to Win
Officially you score for correct guesses. In practice, everyone reads the books aloud at the end and that is the game.
💡 Strategy Tips
Draw fast and badly. Careful, accurate drawings are much less funny and score no better.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
- Taking too long on your drawing. The time limit exists to make everyone draw badly, which is where the comedy comes from.
- Writing an overly generic guess. "Animal" gives the next drawer nothing; commit to a specific wrong answer.
- Trying to fix an obvious misunderstanding. Drawing an arrow or writing a hint breaks the chain and the fun.
- Playing with fewer than six. The chain is too short for the drift that makes the game work.
Advanced Strategy
- Commit hard to your interpretation even when you suspect it is wrong. Hedged guesses produce boring chains.
- When you get a drawing you genuinely recognise, still write it plainly rather than cleverly. The chain needs a reset occasionally.
- Use the whole page. Small, cramped drawings are harder to misread in interesting ways.
- Read the books aloud in a random order at the end so nobody knows whose is coming. It noticeably improves the reveal.
Variants & House Rules
Telestrations Party Pack
A twelve-player version for larger groups, which is the format most people actually want.
Telestrations After Dark
An adult-themed word list. Same game, different prompts.
Video Guides
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Our Verdict
Telestrations is not really a board game and it does not care. It is a comedy generator that works on almost any group of six or more, and it has earned its place at family gatherings and parties for a decade. Buy the Party Pack if you regularly have more than eight people.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do you need to be able to draw?
Emphatically not. Bad drawing is the engine of the entire game.
How many players do you need?
Six or more. The base box handles eight; the Party Pack goes to twelve.
Does the scoring matter?
Barely. Most groups ignore it entirely and just read the books at the end, which is the intended experience in practice.