Nostalgia. A Storytelling Game

Nostalgia is a fast-paced and exciting storytelling game for two or more players of all ages. The participants take the roles of old, retired heroes who have lost most of their greatness (and parts of their wits), but whose minds are still filled with the thrilling adventures and wonderful journeys of their youth.

Look at them, how they sit by the fire with the children spell­bound all around them, bickering over who is the greatest hero among them, indeed the greatest hero of all time. As we all know, the egos of old heroes grow big at the same pace as their mem­ories grow dim. A long time ago, they did things that are now the stuff of legends, but see how they argue over who really killed that dragon!
     Adding to and exaggerating the story to make it more inte­resting for the children is of course necessary, indeed only nat­ural. Listening to their arguments, it’s easy to believe that the true purpose of telling stories is to show off and what actually happened comes second. It’s as if they are taking part in a storytelling game, where the goal is to win the admiration of the children gathered around them.
     Nostalgia is just such a game, a game in which you and your friends tell a story together, but you do it as if you were retired heroes and the story took place so long ago that nobody remem­bers what happened. Vivid imagination and a silver tongue are a lot more useful than accurate recall!
     The goal is to show off and boast, convincing every­body that you deserve the undivided admiration of the younger generation. To do that you need the ability not only to highlight your own great­ness, but also to make the others look bad if you get the chance. This is an ability that every human possesses, but which is often kept in check by social rules and proper upbringing. When playing Nostalgia, open those closed gates and let the primal need to boast flow freely. Let everybody know that you are the best!
     Playing Nostalgia is very easy. In fact, the only things you need to play are this book, pencils, paper and a deck of normal playing cards. You also need a small pile of tokens to keep track of points. Anything goes, from pebbles to sapphires.
     A round of Nostalgia takes up to an hour to play, but if you like the game, it’s certainly possible to play longer. Conversely, if you’re in a hurry, you can wrap it up in about half an hour; it all depends on what you want.