Fireside Chats™ Conversation Starter Playing Cards

Somebody always says the thing that makes the night. The trouble is you can't plan for it, and most fires end with everyone talking about work.

This is a deck of cards for getting past that. The questions start easy and run to the kind that get a story out of someone you've known thirty years — the one they never told at a dinner table because nobody ever asked.

Three ways to play, so it works with four people or fourteen. It's also a full standard 52-card deck, so it earns its place in the drawer either way.

There's nothing in it you wouldn't read out loud at a family fire. Made in the USA.

As a gift it's the easy one. You don't need to know somebody's taste, because it isn't really about taste. It travels to cabins, campsites and back porches, and it's the rare present that gets used the night it's opened.

Worth knowing before you check out: Walden-made gear ships free at $50. The deck is $24.99, so adding a box of Sure-Fire™ Starters costs less than paying to ship the cards on their own.

Want to try it tonight? Fireside is our free companion app, with a Fireside Chats deck you can pull up in a browser. No account and no download. Pass one phone around the circle, or hand out a four-letter code so everyone follows along on their own screen. The cards are the version that works when the phones are put away, which is usually the point.