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paul canosa
Japan
shizuoka
Shizuoka
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Well for starters I sent an email to Bill Jacobson over at Braincog inquiring about shipping prices to Japan. Bill was not only professional but a pleasure to deal with. Big thumbs up on the care and handling of the game. Thanks Bill.
So I heard about the game from Scott Nicholson and thought it would be a nice tool for my upper level ESL classes.
I wasn't disappointed ~!
Components.
I won't go into detail about the timer, but now we use a sandclock which is not only more reliable but more fun to watch. I suggest future versions of the game go with the low tech option of sand. Add a dollar or two to the price of the game if you need to, its well worth the "extra" cost.
The game comes with a large stack of black and white pictures printed on good quality card stock. The pictures are clear and easy to see. There are also a varied number of numbered "bullet" points which are listed on the bottom of the cards. They were also easy to read, although the vocabulary was a bit tough for some of my lower level students. No problem there as it presented an opportunity to learn what words such as Canvas, Visible and Invisible meant.
The game also comes with a large number of player scoring cards. I felt that while its great to have the scoring cards, the drawing area provided was a bit scanty and added a significant amount of weight to the game box. My class used notebook paper and in fact I haven't used one set of scoring papers yet with about 10 games played so far.
I would have preferred to have had more pictures to play with. I guess I will have to wait for the "expansion" set. Right Bill ? 
The "art" sleeve is well glued and fits the picture well.
Further the box seals very well and in fact requires a certain manual dexterity to "wrench" open. No major complaints there, although I don't use the box at all as I need to save space in my bag for books and other materials. The art cards and art sleeve are very compact. I would suggest the game include some sort of bag that would allow easy transport of just the cards without the worry of bent edges.
I would also suggest a few blank art cards... so you can add your own.
The game comes with a 10 sided die, but mine had a slight wear on the edge thus tweaking its effectiveness. No worries as I have plenty of 10 sided dice but I can see it would be an issue for someone who wishes to strictly adhere to the rules and doesn't have an extra 10 sider hanging around.
overall components B-
Game play
In a word ? Outstanding. We played this game in approx 10 different classes over the period of a week and it was a big hit.
Here in Japan there is an issue with shyness and folks just being plain old quiet. After a round of two of this game, this was not an issue. Students who rarely if ever speak without being called on where laughing and cheering when they received a point. (here in japan we say "YA-TA" which basically translates to hooray) Anyway there were plenty of YATA's going around. Smiles, laughing, giggling.
There was a little confusion when they didn't understand a word, but what I found surprising is that many of the higher level students actually explained the word in question to the lower level students. In my classes this is often never seen. Students frequently seek their electronic dictionaries when they cannot understand a word. To see students helping other students was very encouraging.
It really was a team building experience, on top of being fun and entertaining. I think there is a lot of room to expand this product for use as a training tool in addition to its already prevalent fun factor.
I used a variety of methods to rotate game play. Whomever had the most points, a straight rotation, rolling of a die. All went over well.
An improvement I would suggest would be for the pictures to be rated from easier to more difficult. Some of the students stared at their cards and had a very hard time describing things, while others had no problem. Clearly some of the cards are more difficult than others. I have gone through the deck of art cards and placed them into two separate piles. (easy and challenging)
Overall game play ? A
So how do I feel about this game ?
Its very enjoyable and a solid game overall. I use quite a few games to facilitate English conversation in class including but not limited to Apples to Apples, Attribute, Pictionary and Wits and Wagers. Portrayal will play an important part of my lesson plans in the future.
I will probably end up making a series of my own cards that improve targeted vocabulary and are ranked in difficulty. Its very important to have leveled cards for different level speakers... obviously not so important for native speakers.
Portrayal is well worth buying. I suggest you buy one from Braincog pronto. Tell em scott nicholson did them a solid, I know I did.
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Great review, I also love this game. I've reviewed it over at my blog at: http://www.stuffedashes.com/2010/10/25/review-of-portrayal/
Here is the start of my review:
Portrayal is a board game by Braincog that would fit into the family or party game category. I found this game at Mrs. Tiggy Winkles in Ottawa, but I’m certain it can be found at any game store or online.
This game can be played with as many people as you’d like, which is first off, very good when you have large extended families. It’s always nice to be able to include everyone at a family or social gathering.
This game is a tremendous amount of fun. It is a very simple game, but will provide you with many memorable laughs....
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