I'm thinking about trying out a card game with no text, just images. I have a couple different mechanical models in mind, but the simplest is the Apples to Apples model: all players turn in a card, and the judge for that round shuffles them and picks the one he likes.
The difference is that each image that gets chosen is kept on the table in sequential order, and after each image is chosen, either the judge or the player who submitted the card has to narrate how this image progresses the plot that the images form.
The images would most likely have to have a regular cast of characters, a consistent world, and be able to be interpreted in several ways, while also providing ammo for storytelling.
Perhaps a voting system to determine the best interpretation of the cards would be good too...
Ideas? Comments? Has this been done before? The only other game that looked similar is Once Upon a Time, and the rules for that game are pretty different.
Those are some great ideas, I especially like the perpendicular plot twist one. I'll have to try out the basic game first though. The trouble with a game like this, is that in order to playtest it, you need a full complement of a couple hundred cards with full art.
My solution to that is simple. Comic books. Right now I'm using the Adventures of Asterix books, which provide a ton of free art and avoid the superhero cliche. I'm mostly just taking images from in and around the village in the story, so that there won't be any big inexplicable scene jumps. We'll see how that plays out.
The final theme could be anything, of course, but I'm leaning towards space-opera/adventure.
I hadn't thought of entering it in the TCG contest, but I might now. I did come up with this idea because I love the idea of RPGs, but they are very difficult to get into, and force you to do a lot of the work on your own. A game like this would be so image driven that it would maintain visual excitement and give constant and varied story prompts. The volume and quality of art I would have to commission to make it complete would be daunting though. On the bright side, the cards would all look great in themselves...
Which gives me the idea of publishing it as a CCG, as foolish as that sounds. Still, a CCG with no text. It would certainly stand out, and the deck construction strategy would be totally different. And if I set up the game right, the most frequent winners would be the best storytellers, not the best at math.