Astounding Tales and the Gods who Sing Them

From momatoes comes Astounding Tales and the Gods who Sing Them, a competitive 3-5 player storytelling game where the winner’s tales are remembered throughout time, while the rest fade into obscurity. In Astounding Tales, you play a God whose name and identity are at risk of being forgotten by the community forever. Armed with a standard deck of playing cards, 3 tokens per player, and a sheet of paper, you and your friends/competition are ready to sit down and tell the best, most fantastic, most awesome tales ever to spark the interest and imagination of the community. Astounding Tales is available on Itch as a PWYW product [here]. 

Each God is associated with three domains. Every round, a set number of domains and playing cards are chosen at random. These domains, and the words associated with the playing cards, make up the themes for the round. The winner of a given round is determined by the person with the most story tokens, and is based on impact, and incorporation of the themes. Each game is made up of five rounds, with each having specific conditions attached, including how many sentences a story can be. Stories can be influenced and changed by wagering Story Tokens, and players can even choose to make costly sacrifices to extend their stories.

I love this premise. I have always enjoyed the idea that deities exist only for as long as they are remembered/stories are told about them. That this game sits you down and goes “okay, you want to be remembered? Tell the best stories of your existences” delights me. I think it also really allows for the creativity and spontaneity of a table to shine as there really isn’t much time to prepare these stories, or sentences with which to tell them!

I also enjoy how story tokens work. The person with the most of them at the end of the round chooses the first place winner of that round – but they cannot choose themselves. Each round, then, part of what you are weighing is whether you want to try and win the round or be the person choosing the victor. It encourages each player to make use of their story tokens, as your chances of being remembered increase by not being the person with the most tokens at the end of the round!

Astounding Tales also provides a foolproof system for when ties are encountered. Very simply, the person with the most objectively beautiful hair wins. It’s delightful and, to me, fits so beautifully with the overarching image of the antics several deities gathered to try and outdo each other in storytelling conveys.

With a simple and elegant design, Astounding Tales and the Gods who Sing Them is beautifully written and produced. The title itself reminds me of some of my favourite novels, and the idea of combatting forgetting through stories – of keeping something alive through the power of story, will always strike a chord with me.

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