News: Unlock your storytelling with the โPrint-N-Foldโ Tableau Core ๊ฉ Rules Booklet! The essential rules available in PDF at โName Your Own Priceโ! More details here!
You are fellow travelers on the Twilight Road ๐ฃ. Together your journey will take you through choices & transitions, quests & trials. What will you discover on your way? Will you find your destination or return home? Either way, you will arrive changed. These are the stories of the Twilight Road ๐ฃ. Every game session is different, every road, every journey is unique.
Embark on a journey of self-discovery and personal growth. Unravel the themes of identity, purpose, and belonging as you navigate The Road filled with choices, challenges, and intriguing characters. Experience a transformative journey filled with choices, challenges, and intriguing characters as you navigate the winding path of Twilight Road ๐ฃ.
Tableau offers cinematic storytelling in 2-3 hours, with no prep or GM required. Composable rules on poker-sized cards provide multiple playsets for versatile gameplay with 2-5 players, ages 14 and up. Explore the opportunities for collaborative storytelling and thrilling cinematic adventures possible with Twilight Road ๐ฃ and the Tableau Games system.
Available fromโฆ
Twilight Road 🛣
Tableau: Twilight Road ๐ฃ playset is available print-on-demand from 
in three different versions: Cards w/Tuckbox! version contains 72 poker-sized Playset & core cards; Just the Cards! version banded in a plastic wrap without a tuckbox; or a Print-N-Play! PDF version suitable for printing on US Letter-sized card stock and cutting out manually using the cut-lines for use with poker-sized card sleeves.
Video Overview
Discover the rich narratives possible with the Tableau: Twilight Road๐ฃ layset ๐ in this detailed 14m video overview!
Overview of Play
There is only rule required for Tableau Games: Tableau Core ๊ฉ which is described on three poker-sized cards:
After review of these Core ๊ฉ rules, the players will either choose a pre-defined Playset ๐ of cards that works well together or combine specific Rules ๐ cards to define the mechanics of collaborative storytelling, Story ๐ cards to describe the elements of the narrative, and optional Character Traits ๐ค to create unique and complex characters.
Here is an example of a specific Rule ๐ that might be placed on the table: Drama Tokens ๐ญ, where the storytellers do not use dice for tension, but instead use a form of good & bad karma to balance the different Moves available to Lead characters. But the storytellers might instead have chosen the Declare ๐ญ or the *Push ๐ญ card, which uses dice to determine outcomes and is useful for different kinds of stories.
During the game, most selected Rules ๐ will stay on the table, but some will be taken up and held by the storytellers. Typically each storyteller will have four cards in their hand, such as:
A Player Role ๐ฃ, such as The Director ๐ฃ, who is used in GMless-style games, or The Narrator ๐ฃ, who is a storyteller with a unique perspective or a player who has been given narrative authority for a full act or a session. These are the most common Player Roles ๐ฃ, but there are others such as The Spotlight ๐ฃ or this optional one: The Mapper ๐ฃ, who is used in both Twilight Road ๐ฃ and Gate Watch ๐ช.
A Story ๐ card that gives a storyteller authority over an element in this story. (This one is from Twilight Road ๐ช but could be chosen by the storytellers for any story):
One or more of Character Trait ๐ค cards to help define the unique character that a storyteller portrays. This one is Charming, an Approach ๐ from Twilight Road ๐ฃ but it can used as a Character Trait ๐ค in other stories:
Here is an example of a second Character Trait ๐ค. This one is a Face ๐ง๐ผโ๐ฆฒ, which it is an archetype associated with a particular type of story. This one is The Runaway ๐ง๐ผโ๐ฆฒ from Twilight Road ๐ฃ, but like all the other cards, could be used in other Tableau games.
Storytellers can have a huge numbers of options available for play in the game, but they will only use a few during any scene in the story.
Kinds of Twilight Road ๐ฃ Stories:
Types of Stories
Tableau inspires players to be creative, supporting a nearly infinite variety of potential stories.
While playtesting the Twilight Road ๐ฃ Playset ๐, the cards collaboratively selected by storytellers resulted in a wide variety of settings & genres:
- a historical fantasy, where a river journey across the Viking lands of ancient Russian followed the trail of Uncle Ingvar, lost while he was searching for the Silk Road and a lost city and treasure;
- a 90s paranormal fantasy, in which a spring-break car trip led free-spirited students across America, each trying to find a lost icon on Route 66, looking for answers to a secret in their family history.
A game mixing storytelling cards from both Twilight Road ๐ฃ & Gate Watch ๐ช Playsets ๐ was:
- a dark historical fantasy, where a water well located in a German farming village at the end of WWII was the only escape from invading Russians, but led the villagers into a perilous journey through the lands of the fae, with no way home.
Weโve found the mechanics of Tableau work well for experienced gamers as well as those who are completely new to collaborative story games. From improv actors to experienced role players, a wide range of people have found the instructions and mechanisms easy to understand and fun to play. The resulting stories were imaginative, the settings and genres intriguing, the play dynamic, and most importantly, all had a satisfying ending in just a couple of hours of play. Tableau is a fun eveningโs entertainment.
Inspirational Quotes for Twilight Road ๐ฃ
โIt is always darkest before the dawn.โ ~ Thomas Fuller
โIf you donโt know where you are going, any road will get you there.โ ~ Lewis Carroll
โRoad movies have always been songs of the doomed, warnings that once you enter the open hinterlands between cities, youโre on your ownโ ~Michael Atkinson
โTake a walk on the wild side.โ ~ Lou Reed
โAs nightfall does not come at once, neither does oppression. In both instances, there is a twilight when everything remains seemingly unchanged.โ ~ William O. Douglas
โAs the world fell, each of us, in our own way, was broken. It was hard to know who was more crazy: me or everyone else.โ ~ โMad Maxโ Rockatansky
โIt is easy to go down into Hell; night and day, the gates of dark Death stand wide; but to climb back again, to retrace oneโs steps to the upper air - thereโs the rub, the task.โ ~ Virgil, Poet
โAll he needed was a wheel in his hand and four on the road.โ ~ Jack Kerouac
โAs nightfall does not come at once, neither does oppression. In both instances, there is a twilight when everything remains seemingly unchanged.โ ~ William O. Douglas
โMy paintings always feature trails that dissolve into mysterious areas, patches of light that lead the eye around corners, pathways, open gates, etc.โ ~Thomas Kinkade
โStill round the corner there may wait, A new road or a secret gate.โ ~ J. R. R. Tolkien
Mailing List
To stay updated on the latest news, including announcements about future products and Kickstarter campaigns, sign up for our Tableau Games Announcements Mailing List. Youโll be the first to know about exciting developments, promotions, and more.
Credits
Written & Designed by: Christopher Allen ChristopherA@DyversHands.com
ยฉ2022-23 by Dyvers Hands Productions, LLC. โ All Rights Reserved
(no license is granted for redistribution or derivation without permission, however, our goal is CC-BY-SA after a successful Kickstarter stretch goal)
Images ยฉ original creators & are Permissively Licensed. More info & image credits at www.DyversHands.com/Tableau
Tableau Gamesโข, Dyvers Handsโข, and Twilight Roadโข are trademarks of Dyvers Hands Productions LLC.
Creative Contributors: Shannon Appelcline, Aaron Reed
Other Tableau Playsets
