Uh-Oh: Ingenious Escapes Cards - Instructions

Welcome! Below are the full instructions for the single cards PDF package.

___________

How to use our Uh-oh! Ingenious Escapes Cards 

In this card pack, you’re tasked with taking on the role of the writer. You’ll need to maximize your creative thinking and problem-solving skills and fully unleash your imagination.

Here’s how it works:

On each card, we give you – the writer – a scenario in which your character is somehow trapped. Most often, they’re trapped physically, but sometimes they’re trapped by a set of circumstances. It’s then up to you to figure out how your character will escape.

When inventing your escape plan, you can have your character rely solely on their ingenuity or you can give them some help.

For instance:

  • You can give your character friends, allies or a set of skills that will help them escape. You can create an event or situation that will open up an escape opportunity.
  • You can devise a backstory that explains why they have a unique ability that they can use to escape.
  • In some instances, you might bring in magic or elements of fantasy to aid your character. But don’t just say your character used their magic powers and escaped. That’s boring. Be specific – and be creative! 

Keep in mind: You can come up with a single idea or you can push your creative thinking skills to imagine multiple possibilities.

Here’s an example of what to do:

In scenario six, a mermaid is trapped in a fishing net. A possible escape could be that her scales are razor sharp and removable – so she’s able to cut her way out of the fishing net. You can leave it at that, or you can add some backstory around why she has scales that make handy weapons.

The option to increase the challenge:

If you want to further test your creative abilities, there is a reminder on the bottom of each card that asks if you want to add to your character’s problem before you solve it. If so, then you need to come up with a way to make things even worse for your character.

So, in our mermaid scenario above, while she’s stuck in the net, you might then come up with an idea to have sharks start to circle her in the waters. Now you must figure out how she will get out of the net – and ensure she won’t become shark food.

Maybe she uses her razor-sharp scales to escape the net, and then once free she climbs on the back of one of the sharks because this mermaid belongs to an ancient line of mermaid shark wranglers. Maybe her scales bear the crest of this lineage, and when she holds it aloft to the sharks, they allow her to climb aboard.

You get the picture. The story – along with how simple or elaborate it may be – is entirely in your hands.

There are 75 scenarios in total.

Push your imagination

To get the most out of these cards, you’ll really want to use your storytelling skills to push your imagination. Think of things that audiences or readers would cheer or be astonished by. Use your creative genius. Be clever. Most of all, strive to have fun.

And remember, no matter how bleak the character’s circumstances look, there is always a way out. It’s up to your imagination to discover it.

Keep going:

As with our other story-based cards in this series, you can take your ideas further.

  • You can transform your escape idea into a drawing that shows the predicament and/or the escape.
  • You can make your drawing into a diagram with text that details the escape plan.
  • You can imagine a story based on the escape scenario and then create a comic or write a short story.
  • You can use your idea as inspiration for a video game. Or you can do whatever else you can think of.

About our Think Like a Storyteller series

This multi-faceted series seeks to build imagination, critical thinking, strategic thinking, problem-solving, lateral thinking and idea generation through different aspects of storytelling. You can view our items at FuriousThink.com.

What to know about this PDF package

Our Uh-oh! The Ingenious Escapes Cards package comes with two PDFs.

This PDF features 4 cards per page and is intended for printing. The pages can be printed on standard letter size paper (8.5” x 11”). Once printed, you can cut the pages into cards if you choose. For sturdier cards, you may want to print on cardstock.

There is also a PDF containing single page cards/slides that can be easily viewed on devices.