Tableau: Accelerated (Core ꩜ Rules 📜 for Collaborative Cinematic Storytelling)

Ignite Your Creativity with Tableau: Accelerated Core ꩜ Rules 📜

“The best stories are the ones we tell together!”

Great tales are like wildfires—all they need is a spark to spread creative passion. Tableau: Accelerated Core ꩜ Rules 📜 provides that vital spark in two formats for printing at home: either our unique Print-n-Fold 📖 Booklet, or use Avery 10-up Business Card paper and punch out the rule cards.

Using these foundational Rules  📜, you and your friends can conjure any story you desire—from high fantasy kingdoms and gritty detective noir to intense of tales of personal growth, relationships, and major life changes. The story possibilities are endless!

Define complex characters motivated by their past experiences and life bonds. Bring these characters to life through cinematic scenes brimming with vivid details. Guide their dramatic and emotional journeys toward a satisfying climax. And embrace memorable stories filled with laughter, tears, and celebration.

Though these Tableau: Accelerated Core ꩜ Rules 📜 can provide a stand-alone storytelling experience, beginning without initial initial Story 📖 Elements ☯ can be daunting. To enhance your experience, we’ve designed these Rules 📜 to seamlessly integrate with Storysets 📚—carefully curated collections of Elements ☯ that streamline the storytelling process, guiding you into distinct sub-genres and narrative play styles.

“Name a Fair Price”

You can download these Accelerated Core ꩜ Rules 📜 for free, or Name a Fair Price to support the project. Get started today and ignite your creativity!

About Tableau

Tableau is a storytelling game system that emphasizes collaborative storytelling and character development. The game’s mechanics are designed to be flexible, allowing storytellers to create stories in just a few hours from a wide variety of genres and styles without the need for advanced preparation or a designated game master.

Tableau consists of composable sets of Rules 📜, Story 📖 and Character 👤 Elements ☯ to establish various genres, tropes and archetypes for stories. The storytellers use these Elements ☯ to collaboratively create their narrative, with each Scene 🎬 focusing on a single Question❓ to build toward a satisfying cinematic tale.

The system is designed to be approachable for storytellers of all skill levels and encourages creativity and player agency. Tableau is ideal for players who enjoy immersive role-playing and narrative-focused gameplay.

Whether you are a seasoned RPG veteran or a newcomer to tabletop gaming, Tableau is perfect for anyone looking to tell their own stories in a collaborative and engaging way.

Playing Tableau

The Accelerated Core ꩜ Rules 📜 guide the storytellers through two collaborative phases: "Setting The Table 𐃄" and "Telling Our Story 🗣️" . These Rules 📜 distill the storytelling process into essential steps that allow storytellers to collaborate in creating rich and immersive narratives.

Phase 1: Setting The Table 𐃄

In this phase, the storytellers collaboratively build the foundations for their tale. Using modular Story 📖 Elements ☯ and Character 👤 archetypes, the group chooses the core aspects for their story and characters, and decides on the focus and direction of the narrative before play begins.

This includes:

• Collaborative Worldbuilding: The storytellers together craft their narrative world on The Table 𐃄 , with each storyteller weaving in their unique contribution.
• Define Safety 🔴 Rules 📜: A number of options are included to ensure respectful play and a safe, inclusive environment for all players.
• Choose Story 📖 Elements ☯: Together, the storytellers create a Palette 🎨 of narrative aspects and specific Themes 💢, Tones 🎶, Settings 🏘️, Factions 🫂, and Beats 🥁 as a guide their story’s flow and nature.
• Cast Leads 👤: Define the main characters and their motivations from a set of various Character 👤 archetypes to shape their past experience and relationships.
• Create Truths ☥ and Questions❓: Establish important Truths ☥ about the world and characters, while posing open questions that will be explored during the story.

Phase 2: Telling Our Story 🗣️

Once the essence of the story is set, the “Telling the Story 🗣️” phase begins, where storytellers take turns directing cinematic Scenes 🎬, portraying their characters, and moving the story forward. Each Scene 🎬 focuses on a key question, building toward a dynamic, emotionally driven climax.

• Scene 🎬 Based Play: The Director 🗣️ role rotates among storytellers, shaping Scenes 🎬 by introducing challenges and opportunities for character development, and advancing Beats 🥁.
• Directing and Framing Scenes 🎬: Rotate the role of the director, shaping the narrative by introducing new situations and challenges.
• Character Moves ⇉: Use a flexible Moves ⇉ system to resolve actions, with opportunities for impactful successes and meaningful failures.
• Token-Based Drama 🎭 : Engage in character-driven drama with
  emotional stakes and narrative tension, using a token-based karma system to push the story forward. Inspired by “belonging outside belonging” games, this mechanic allows for player agency and interaction through tokens, which fuel character Moves ⇉ and consequences.

Flexibility in Storytelling

One of Tableau's greatest strengths is its flexibility. The system is designed to allow players to create nearly any kind of story, from epic fantasy sagas to intimate character studies, without the need for a game master or extensive preparation. By combining different Rules 📜, Story 📖 and Character 👤 Elements ☯ storytellers can collaboratively build a world and narrative that fits any genre or tone they wish to explore.

However, the real power of Tableau lies in its modularity—you’re not limited to using Elements ☯ from just one Storyset 📚. You can mix and match Elements ☯ from different Storysets 📚 to create unique combinations, allowing for even more creative possibilities and surprising narrative twists. Whether you're blending high fantasy with cosmic horror or weaving together personal drama with epic adventure, the potential for storytelling is limitless.

Two Formats

Get started with Accelerated Core ꩜ Rules 📜, available in two formats:

• A 1-page PDF in Avery 10-up Business Card 📄 format — just print, punch out the cards, and you are ready to play!

• A 2-page PDF in ‘Print-N-Fold’ Tableau Booklet 📖 format, a compact format that’s easy to print and assemble at home. The first Booklet 📖 "Setting The Table 𐃄" is used for the first phase of the game to define your story, the second Booklet 📖 "Telling Our Story 🗣️" is used to create Scenes 🎬, portray characters, and move the story forward.

Whether you choose the ‘Print-N-Fold’ Tableau Booklet 📖 or the Avery 10-up Business Card 📄, both formats are designed to make setup fast and hassle-free. This makes Tableau perfect for travel, conventions, or a quick evening of storytelling with friends.

‘Print-N-Fold’ Instructions

To assemble a Tableau ‘Print-N-Fold’ Booklet 📖, Print each page single-sided on US Letter (8.5" x 11") paper, and fold as follows:

1. Fold longways (11") with text out, then unfold.
2. Fold shortways (8.5") with text out, then unfold.
3. Fold short sides inward, ¼ and ¾, with text inside.
4. Cut along the center guide without reaching the edge.
5. Refold as per the guide, ensuring the cover is on the top.

   

Watch this video for a step-by-step guide:

Free Cultural Work using Creative Commons License

The text of Tableau: Accelerated Core Rules 📜 are available as a Free Cultural Work under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) 4.0 license. This means that the text of the rules can be freely shared, adapted, and redistributed by anyone, as long as proper credit (written by Christopher Allen) and link (https://DyversHands.com/Tableau) are included.

We believe in the power of community and collaboration, and by releasing these Rules 📜 under a Creative Commonslicense, we aim to inspire new creations, modifications, and extensions of the Tableau system. You are free to remix, edit, transform, or create derivatives—whether through translations, mashups, or entirely new versions—and share or even sell those derivatives just as freely as the original.

We've been inspired by the creativity of the gaming community, and this is our way of giving back to that spirit of openness and innovation. Our hope is that by providing this freedom, others will continue to build upon Tableau, expanding its possibilities in exciting and unexpected ways.

Whether you're an independent game designer, a fan who wants to share their favorite variant, or part of a community that enjoys collaborative storytelling, you can use these Rules 📜 as a foundation for your own projects.

Credits

Written & Designed by: Christopher Allen ChristopherA@DyversHands.com

©2022-24 by Dyvers Hands Productions, LLC.

©2022-2024 Dyvers Hands Productions, LLC — All Rights Reserved. Text available as a Free Cultural Work under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) 4.0 license.

Images © original creators, most of which are Permissively Licensed. More info & image credits at www.DyversHands.com/ImageCredits

Tableau Games™, Dyvers Hands™, Twilight Road™, and Gate Watch™ are trademarks of Dyvers Hands Productions LLC.

Creative Contributors: Shannon Appelcline, Aaron Reed