"I'M OPTIMUS PRIME AND I SHOT YOU IN THE FACE", "WELL I'M A NINJA TURTLE AND I BLOCKED IT THEN KICKED HIII-YAH", "WELL I USED MY FORCEFIELD TO STOP IT THEN TURNED INTO A TRUCK AND VVRROOMMM DROVE OVER YOUR LEGS".
That's how I remember most playground lunchbreaks beginning, and ending, when I was a kid. Sadly, that part of my brain has laid (mostly) dormant for decades, so it's great to see a game come along to change that.
Story War is a card game that gives you the building blocks for a fictional showdown between nerd armies. Two teams are given cards representing basic objects or character types; they then have to dream up strategies and exchange them, with a "judge" deciding the winner.
Each battle is moderated by a judge that rotates every turn (similar to Apples to Apples) so the shared pop cultural context of everyone in the room is very important! Harry Potter fans might play the Basilisk card differently than Percy Jackson fans. Pokemon fans can cite obscure typing match-ups to explain why you can't punch a bird. Dungeons and Dragons players will often overlay D&D rules onto the game—don't even try to convince a D&D-playing judge that the Giant can defeat the Dwarf!
Amazing. Story War began as a Kickstarter but has already been easily funded, so if you want a deck, you can pledge below. It should be shipping sometime around the middle of the year.
STORY WAR : The Storytelling Party Game [Story War]