The ultimate geek collectable card game: “Triptych! Anything vs. Everything”

When we say “ultimate,” we mean it in the way that it’s a card game where it’s not a singular theme of fantasy or science fiction or anime, but rather as the name suggests, it’s a mix of anything and everything. This is the game where all the favorite schoolyard debates can be played out – George Washington, the Ark of the Covenant, and a housecat can find themselves pitted against the Artful Dodger, Cthulhu, and Santa Claus. It’s here that Freddy Krueger can make an assassination attempt on Ronald Reagan, only to be foiled by the Lone Ranger.

Triptych! Anything vs. Everything, is actually a game that’s been in development for a few years by a team calling themselves Talking Cartoon Rabbits, led by concept creator Luke Harris. They’ve been refining the game balance mechanics, and bringing together a great collection of artists to create the initial art for 180 cards (That’s 90 in the basic pack which has three pre-built decks – Heroes, Forces of Evil, and Church & State; then there are three expansion sets of 30 cards each – Sci-Fantasy, History, and Literature).

Those initial decks will begin to be tailored by players from the very first game as they mix them up and try various combinations. The game mechanic is a combination of card management, dice rolling, roshambo, and invoking card special abilities.

Similar in marketing approach to the wildly successful Cards Against Humanity, Triptych’s 180 cards are all available for download for home printing from their website. Their Kickstarter campaign has just commenced so that they can do a full print run of the physical cards / get it all boxed up and produce something to be sold online and in stores. Contribution levels range from a few bucks to get access to high-res versions of the downloadable art, to the physical version of the game, to custom cards (they’ll do more than just drop in your photo onto a card, they’ll adjust the name and stats as well). If the campaign succeeds their intent is to keep it fresh by producing a new deck every three months.

To download the free decks, go to their website and to contribute to help make it a reality, head on over to their Kickstarter page. As of this writing, there’s still 24 days to go. For me, I’m prepping a deck even now, I really want to see what this combination of a tyrannosaurus rex and a ninja hanging out in a bar with a flux capacitor will do…