A trivia and storytelling card game where you uncover the real story behind enduring legends, identify popular misconceptions as fact or fiction, and one-up your friends with the biggest whopper of a story you can tell with a straight face.
Tall Tales Pocket Edition shipped in early 2003 and went out of print years later. What’s here is what’s left — a small remaining stock from the original print run, sealed in their original shrink-wrap, available while supplies last. When they’re gone, this page stays up as a piece of Stalefish Labs history.
How it plays
The game uses a die and three card types, themed to three legendary creatures — Bigfoot, the Loch Ness Monster, and an alien.
Tall Tale cards ask multiple-choice questions about strange-but-real phenomena (does a 15-mile-deep hole in Washington state really have strange powers?). Players answer secretly and reveal at the same time. Correct answers earn Creature cards.
Zinger cards are fact-or-fiction trivia. Is the Patterson Bigfoot video a hoax? Do red M&M’s cause cancer? Get it right, take a card.
Topper cards give you a topic — the strangest thing you’ve thrown out of an automobile window, the most embarrassing purchase you’ve made — and everyone tells a one-up story. Best story takes the round; bluffers can be challenged. The challenged player either takes a card from the challenger or surrenders one.
First player to collect a complete creature (head, body, feet) wins. Optional rule: hybrid creatures — the dreaded Alien Bigfoot from Loch Ness is a real possibility.
What’s in the box
- 120 cards: Tall Tale, Topper, and Zinger types
- Color die for round-type selection
- Answer tokens (Fact/Fiction/A/B/C)
- Creature cards for scoring
- Original instructions
- 4+ players, ages 10 and up
- Pocket-sized box (4.5″ × 4.5″ × 2.5″) — Stalefish called it a “lounge game”
From the archive
Tall Tales was the first product released by Stalefish Labs, on February 16, 2003 — designed in Nashville by the founders, pitched as a lounge game for cafés, road trips, and any situation where unrolling a board game wasn’t going to work. Original retail was $12.95.
The game cards were originally designed in three types: Tall Tale, Topper, and Humdinger. Shortly before the second print run, Stalefish received a cease-and-desist letter from Cranium, Inc. — they had a trademark claim on “Humdinger.” Rather than fight it, the cards were renamed Zingers, the box art was updated, and the print run continued. The cards in the boxes you’ll receive say Zinger on them. If you ever come across a card that says Humdinger, congratulations — you have a first-printing collectible.
The original Tall Tales website ran until the early 2010s, complete with Bigfoot banner ads, an alien named Roz, and a wallpaper download page. Some of those graphics live on in the look of this page.
Specs
| Players | 4 or more |
| Ages | 10 and up |
| Play time | 30–45 minutes |
| Format | Trivia + storytelling card game |
| Box dimensions | 4.5″ × 4.5″ × 2.5″ |
| Card count | 120 |
| First released | February 2003 |
| Status | Out of print — final stock |
| Designer | Michael Morrison, Stalefish Labs |
Get a copy
Use the buttons at the top of the page to order a single sealed copy or a wholesale carton of twelve. Domestic orders ship USPS Ground Advantage; international orders to select countries via USPS First-Class Package International. Questions, custom orders, or international destinations not on the list — contact us.
When the last copy ships, this page stays up. Tall Tales is part of how Stalefish Labs got started, and it’s worth keeping the history visible.