Casey Ann Beck, author of our weekly “Clean Plate” column, was out at the Trenton Ave Arts Festival on May 16 promoting a game invented by her and her family, Top That Toast. A card game of the same breed as Cards Against Humanity, the Beck family has been working on producing and promoting the game for about a year now, and things are finally beginning to come together in the form of a card game brimming with possibility and packaged in an attractively-designed box. Having seen the game spread like wildfire within their circle of friends, the Beck family is now hoping that it will catch on with the public as well.
The first seed of the game that would blossom into a family tradition and a potential tabletop game success story was planted at a wedding.
“We had a lot of time before we got [to the wedding in 2008,] and we decided to go around and toast to the couple. So we went around, and someone did a really good toast, and then they said top that toast. At that point those words clicked,” said Joe Beck, Casey’s husband.
Casey and Joe played a huge round of Top That Toast with their friends in their backyard when they got engaged and the game began to spread throughout their group. Soon, people were calling them saying that they had just played Top That Toast again.
A few examples of topic cards that also show off the Top That Toast’s polished look.
The rules are pretty simple: The game is led by the “Facilitoaster,” an honor bestowed upon the eldest person in the group and then passed to the left each round. The Facilitoaster draws a tone card, reading something like “humourous” or “tearjerker,” that dictates the mood of the coming toast. Each player then puts down a face-down topic card from their hand on the table. The Facilitoaster then reads off all the topic cards and then chooses which one they like best when paired with the tone card. The person who placed that card down delivers a toast to the table reflecting both the topic card they picked and the tone card flipped over at the start of the hand.
Assuming everything goes according to plan, that person then receives the tone card and therefore one “point,” but there are cards which throw a wrench into the works. One great example is the “Top That Toast” card, which turns the toasting into a competition where the Facilitoaster chooses which toast they liked the most.
At its core, Top That Toast isn’t so much about the points you score in the game as the connections you build with the people around you.
“We always loved playing games like Cards Against Humanity, but after awhile you start to feel really bad and negative. This brings out the positive side of everything, and makes you think about the little things in life and celebrate them…it’s an easy way to get to know [other people],” said Casey.
“There’s a connection in our game that may set it out from, say, Cards Against Humanity,” said Joe. “After playing two hours of our game you’ll have a connection that’s unique.”
Top That Toast also relied heavily upon the talent and trades in the immediate region to transition the game from something casually played with the family to a polished card game ready for the retail shelves. Admagic, famous for printing games like Exploding Kittens, printed the cards and packaging for the game. Random Embassy, located on Belgrade Street in Port Richmond, did all the graphic design work. Philadelphia Woodcraft Company, based out of Fishtown, is also creating the custom collector’s boxes offered as part of the Kickstarter reward system.
Interested in Top That Toast? Head on over to https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/top-that-toast/top-that-toast-card-game/video_share to contribute and lock down one of their great rewards for supporting the game. Better move quickly! At the time of writing Top That Toast has already received a third of the funding needed only four days after being launched.
