Sick of boring and whiny small talk? Smol Tok Breadcrumbs is a game that’s set to bring a new depth and meaning to conversations.
You’re sitting down with a bunch of friends and having a chat, but you find yourself thinking, “Why are we talking about work / current affairs again?” Or worse, you might find yourself trying to find ways to escape a conversation so shallow you fear for your IQ.
Here’s a conversation game-changer.
Launched this month, Smol Tok Breadcrumbs is a card game that spur conversations about faith and life. Creator Nick Pang, who recently transitioned from a career in corporate communications and marketing to full-time game creation, set out to kill small talk and get people intentionally engaged on subject that matter.
“Even in the Christian community, we hover around comfortable topics like work and travel,” says Pang. “And people often share the angsty parts of such topics. I thought we could shift the conversation to something that builds people up instead.”
There are house rules in place to ensure the game runs smoothly in a safe environment, where players can genuinely open up, share honestly and be vulnerable to others in the conversation. Players have to remain open-hearted and open-minded, maintain confidentiality, respect one another, be curious and ask follow-up questions. The deck consists of 72 question cards split into “head”, “heart” and “hand” categories, corresponding to how faith is lived out through thinking, feeling, and doing. There are also varying levels of difficulty.
Some questions include the easier “Describe someone in your life who inspires you to be a better Christian?” to the more introspective “If you could ask God one question, knowing that He would answer you right away, what would you ask?”
From his experimentation, Pang recommends a maximum group size of four to ensure that each participant gets sufficient time to share.
This writer had the chance to try out the game with her friends over light bites and coffee. One participant, Denis Ho, 26, an application engineer, said, “The questions were good in that there was sufficient scope to understand others better.”
In fact, the questions opened up such in-depth sharing that this group spent a whole hour covering only four questions! These were friends who had known each other for a good few years, but there was much they learned about one another’s perspectives on topics that typically do not surface in day-to-day conversations.
The game does call for a certain level of familiarity and trust among players so that conversation can flow in a more uninhibited manner.
The game is not a competitive, points-based one but the rewards of playing Breadcrumbs are highly fulfilling conversations and a closer bond with fellow players. Breadcrumbs is the third in a series of games launched by Pang under his startup brand starknicked.co. His first creation, Smol Tok is the key brand and basic deck. The second is Dun Tok Cok, a booster pack to Smol Tok based on Singaporean local culture. The three decks can be used interchangeably for more varied conversations as well.
Breadcrumbs ($32) is available at www.starknicked.com
