Fib started when I was managing a pizza store. In fact, it was a Papa Johns. One night, while making pizza, I was thinking about something Trey Parker from South Park said in the documentary *6 Days to Air* about outlining episodes during the writing process: Instead of saying "this happens, and then this happens," you should change "and then" to "Therefore," "But," and "So." (This happens, *therefore* THIS happens, *but* THIS happens, *so* THIS happens.) As a story-person, I marveled at how "but" and "so" create a Three Act Structure. You can say anything before, in-between, and after those words, and you have a beginning, middle, and an end... a setup, an obstacle, and a resolution.
I thought, wouldn't that be a fun game, where hundreds of past-tense phrases can be mixed and matched to tell stories. I started playing with this idea: "She came over and we made kielbasa, but I'm a vegetarian, so I had a case of the hot sloppies." Hundreds of phrases could create millions of hilarious combinations. The game lies in the Fib cards; a quarter of the cards say "Fib." If a storyteller plays a Fib card in their story, they need to make something up at that part of their story and convince everyone else that they are just reading off of a story card. At the end of a turn, everyone must either say "pass," or call out "Fib!" and try to guess which card was a Fib. Points are earned by successfully calling out a Fib, having a card falsely accused of being a Fib, and by Fibbing successfully with no contest. You can also steal points, but if a thief is caught, they lose all the points they've earned in the game.
The game started as an idea, and within two weeks I had a three hundred card deck in my hands. Within a year I had brought along my closest creative allies and created a robust 500-card game, had traveled to two of the largest tabletop game conventions in the world, and released a free print and play. We are still working on raising the money we need to order our first run of games, but I invite you to visit https://fibgames.com/play/ and download the full game to make at home. Making the Print and Play is quick, easy, and fun. It's the perfect project for the current stay-at-home order, and will yield you the very first edition of what I hope and believe will be a benchmark of adult tabletop games.
Fib turned one year old last month from the time I first embarked on this project. The journey to proliferate the game for liars and thieves has only just begun. I invite you to be an early adopter, download the free PDF and follow the instructions to make your own game. After playing it with your housemates, or at a safe distance from your friends, reach out to us and share your thoughts. Visit FibGames.com to learn more.
More info: fibgames.com