Tall Tales

Tall Tales is where Stalefish Labs started. A trivia and storytelling card game built around three legends, Bigfoot, the Loch Ness Monster, and the Roswell alien: uncover the real story, call the popular misconceptions as fact or fiction, then one-up your friends with the biggest whopper you can tell with a straight face. No board, no dice, no writing. It fits in a coat pocket.

It debuted at Toy Fair 2003 in the Javits Center during the President’s Day blizzard, at booth 6250 in the corner where the indie makers were tucked away, while the big companies took appointments in private suites in other buildings. A Fox 5 reporter picked up the box, asked what made it different, and told the camera it was “the cell phone of games.” I pitched it to 113 retailers by letter and got two real conversations out of it. Starbucks evaluated it and passed. Cracker Barrel went as far as a custom edition before passing too.

The Lab has the whole story, letters included, along with three expansion decks that never made it to print until this year. What’s left of the original run is sealed in its shrink-wrap and available until it isn’t.