Beautiful Trouble Strategy Cards
“Elegant and incendiary.” —Naomi Klein
“A crucial resource for change-makers.” —Archbishop Desmond Tutu
The key strategies and tactics that have inspired centuries of people-powered victories are now
in a deck of 100+ cards YOU can play!
Use this deck to get creatively unstuck, design an action that pops, flashcard your way through social movement history, learn & teach organizing, win grassroots victories, or just have fun staying up late with friends playing Cards for Humanity.
COMPONENTS:
132 cards
5 suits of cards: Tactics, Principles, Theories, Stories & Methodologies
Plus wild cards, eternal debate cards, game-play cards, and even three strategy cards to get your group’s strategic campaign planning process going!
Booklet
Bullhorn & 100,000 people not included
Everything you need to “think outside the box” is inside the box!
NOTE: Shipping options are currently limited to United States. Please contact team@beautifultrouble.org for special circumstances.
Includes the new games:
Cards for Humanity • Cardstorm! • Radical Charades • Design a Creative Action • Divine the Future • Eternal Debates
Each card includes a unique “pop-up code.” Use your smartphone camera to automatically pop up a link to the full version of each card in the Beautiful Trouble online toolbox.
(Fine print: If total revolution not completed within 30 days after commencement of game-play, we promise to refund the full price of purchase, or, er, suggest you try another tactic!)
Even more info…
A web of ideas
Every card in this deck is actually a chapter in Beautiful Trouble. You can read more about each card online or in the published books Beautiful Trouble and Beautiful Rising, written by over 170 grassroots activists from across 5 continents in 7 languages, and featuring notable movement strategists including Arundhati Roy, George Monbiot, Vijay Prashad, and Mark and Paul Engler.
How many people can play?
These games can be played solo, or by a group of friends, or at a workshop by many teams at once!
How long does it take to play?
Anywhere from 10 minutes to a lifetime!
What makes it a game?
You can use these activities as collaborative teaching tools or turn them into competitive games by keeping track of time, points, and winners.
What are the suits in the deck?
Tactics: Specific forms of creative action, such as a flash mob or blockade.
Principles: Hard-won insights that can guide or inform creative action design.
Theories: Big-picture concepts and ideas that help us understand how the world works and how we might go about changing it.
Stories: Accounts of memorable actions and campaigns, analysing what worked (or didn’t) and why. Useful for illustrating how principles, tactics, theories and methodologies can be successfully applied in practice.
Methodologies: Strategic frameworks and hands-on exercises to help you assess your situation and plan your campaign.
Debates: Eternal controversies (such as, change the world or change yourself?) that must be constantly wrestled with.
Product Specs
Weight: 1 lb.
Dimensions: 5″ x 3″ x 2″
Credits:
Designers: Gan Golan, Eduarda Aun, Cristian Fleming, Diana Haj Ahmad
Beautiful Trouble Team: Rae Abileah, Nadine Bloch, Andrew Boyd, Chelsea Byers, Adrian Carpenter, Juman Abujbara, Phil Wilmot, Dave Mitchell, Marcel Taminato, Mara Ranville, Sungu Oyoo
A huge shout out to: all the writers & photographers who contributed the ideas & images that made this deck possible, Søren Warburg, Katie Peyton Hofstadter, Community Printers, the playtesters who put this deck through its paces, our crowdfunder donors, ActionAid Denmark and the 20+ partner organizations who helped get this revolutionary tool into the hands of change-makers across the world, and all of YOU!
Published: 2019
Grassroots organizations are welcome to inquire for discounts for bulk purchases at team [at] beautifultrouble [dot] org.
