About Show & Tile
Show & Tile is a party game for 3 to 6 players by Isaac Shalev and Matt Loomis, published by Jellybean Games with art by Tania Walker. It is Pictionary for people who cannot draw: instead of a pen you get two sets of tangram tiles (the seven-piece Chinese dissection puzzle of triangles, a square and a rhombus), a secret word and 90 seconds. When time is up, everyone writes a guess for every other player’s artwork, the words are revealed and points are scored.
A game is four rounds, about 30 minutes, and the box age is 8+; younger children can join in with easy words. All players build at the same time, so nobody waits, and a group that likes Dixit or Codenames will pick it up in a minute. The print-and-play is the full game: tile sheets, 105 word cards, the rules and a scorepad. The files are free for personal use on jellybean.games, so the download button goes there.
How to play in one minute
- Give every player a set of 14 tangram tiles in two colours (front and back), a scoresheet and a pen. Shuffle the word cards into a deck.
- Each round, draw two word cards, choose one word in secret and put that card face down beside your mat.
- Start the 90-second timer. Everyone builds their word with their tiles at the same time; you may layer tiles and you need not use them all. When time is up, hands off.
- Everyone writes a guess for every other artwork. Reveal one player at a time: each correct guesser scores 1 point, the artist scores 2 points if anyone guessed it (plus 1 for a starred word), and nobody scores if nobody did.
- After four rounds, add up the points; the highest score wins. Writing down your favourite artwork of the game is part of the rules.
What’s in the PDF
- Rules and tiles: 18 Letter pages. Pages 3–14 hold 12 sets of double-sided tangram tiles in six colour pairs (print duplex on card stock), page 15 is a blank set to colour by hand if you print in black and white, and page 16 has two scorepads.
- Word cards: 4 Letter sheets, 105 unique nouns, some starred for a bonus.
- You add a 90-second timer and pens.
In the PDF
- Rules, tangram tile sheets and scorepad (18 pages, Letter): 12 double-sided tangram sets
- Word cards (4 pages, Letter): 105 words