Mastering the Deck Builder

Our standard conversation decks cover the essentials, but every community is unique. The Deck Builder hands the creative power to you, allowing you to craft custom questions tailored to your specific group, theme, or occasion—turning your unique ideas into a playable game in seconds.

Why Build a Custom Deck?

The standard decks are great, but sometimes you need something specific. The Deck Builder gives you the power to become a game designer.

• Tailored Events: Create a unique game for a wedding, a "Best Friend Trivia" for a birthday, or specific topics for a team retreat.
• Team Building & Meetings: Craft HR-approved icebreakers for your next offsite or weekly sync. Use the AI's "Work Safe" filter to generate professional, engaging questions that build psychological safety without crossing boundaries.
• Offline Privacy: Going camping? Use the "Direct QR" mode to create a game that works entirely offline with no data stored on any server.
• Rapid Prototyping: Test out new conversation starters instantly without waiting for an official app update.

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1. The Creation Workflow

Creating a game is a simple 3-step loop. You don't need an account or login.

2. Four Ways to Draft

You don't have to type everything by hand. We offer four powerful ways to populate your deck:

A. The AI Generator Popular

Stuck for ideas? Click the "AI Gen" button. Simply type a topic, or click one of our curated Quick Topic Pills (like "Childhood Nostalgia" or "Unwritten Rules of Life") to instantly cure blank-page syndrome and get questions perfectly tailored to the Curious Souls vibe.

• 🌍 Global Languages (Pro/Host Feature): Unlock the ability to translate questions in over 20 languages, including Spanish, French, Tagalog, Dutch, and Japanese!
• 🧠 Sticky Settings: Generating multiple decks? The app automatically remembers your preferred Vibe, Audience, and Format between sessions.
• ⚠️ Smart Limits: If you're building a deck for offline play (Direct QR mode), the generator will gently warn you if you try to generate more than 10 cards at once, keeping your QR code perfectly scannable.

B. Bulk Paste

Already have a list in Excel, Word, or ChatGPT? Simply paste your questions or import from a file. You can paste a raw list of text, and the builder will automatically split them into separate cards.

C. Manual Entry

For fine-tuning, simply type your question. You can drag and drop cards to reorder them or use the trash icon to delete specific ones.

D. Pre-Made Curated Decks

Don't want to start from scratch? Click the "Import" dropdown in the main toolbar to instantly draw cards from our existing collections:

• Core Decks (Requires Pro/Host Passcode): Access over 30 fully fleshed-out decks to import, mix, and remix.
  
  
  Just want to play? If you don't need to make any custom edits, you can skip the Builder entirely! Expand any Core Deck and click the "Open in Player" shortcut at the bottom to launch it instantly in a new tab.
• Load Samples: Pulls a random batch of icebreakers from our curated starter list.
• Load GitHub: Pulls community-sourced questions, Global Curiosities, directly from our open-source GitHub repository.

3. Choose Your Mode (Important)

The builder has two distinct modes depending on how big your deck is.

Option A: Direct QR Mode (Default)

Best for: Small decks (approx. 15 questions).
How it works: All the text data is compressed inside the QR code image itself.

• Offline Friendly: Works without internet once loaded.
• Privacy: Data lives in the link, not on our servers.
• Soft Limit: If you exceed ~1200 characters, the QR code becomes too dense to scan.
• Privacy-First: Just like our main app, Direct QR mode creates a link that contains all the data. Nothing is stored on our servers, making it 100% private.

Option B: Hosted File Mode (Power User)

Best for: Large decks (50+ questions) or permanent lists.
How it works: You upload the text to a cloud clipboard (like Pastebin), and we generate a QR code that points to that file. (How do I get a free passcode?) This reveals a text box under each saved action where you can:

4. Refining & Organizing

Use the toolbar buttons to organize your questions. Note that on smaller screens, some options might be grouped under the "Import" menu.

Add Smart Tags (Lite, Deep, Action)

You will see buttons for 🌱 Lite, 🌀 Deep, and ⚡ Action in the toolbar. Using these adds a special prefix to your question.

Advanced: Using [Sub-Categories]

If you want to group specific questions together (like topics for a trivia night or destinations for a travel deck), you can use Sub-Categories to unlock powerful sorting and printing features.

• The Syntax Rule: Simply type your category inside brackets at the very end of your question text. For example: "What is your favorite local dish? [Food]"
• The Print Magic: When you print your cards, the app automatically detects these brackets. You can use the new Sub-Categories dropdown in the Print Settings to neatly extract them and use them as the card's main Title, append them to the Footer, or completely replace the default footer branding for a minimalist look.
• The Digital Magic: If you share your deck digitally, the player app will automatically detect these tags and build beautiful, clickable pill filters at the top of the screen. Players can even cross-filter (e.g., selecting "Love" AND "🌀 Deep")!

Reorder with List View

Need to change the flow? Switch the toggle at the top right from "Text" to "List / Blocks". This view lets you:

• Drag and Drop (or use up/down arrows) to reorder specific cards.
• Delete specific duplicates easily.

Remix Cards with AI

Have a question that is *almost* perfect but needs a different vibe? On the Remix Cards (List) tab, you can use AI to improve existing questions directly in the app. Just click the magic wand icon () next to any card to shift its tone, change its format, or adjust its depth. You can even select multiple cards and click Bulk Remix at the bottom of the screen!

Randomize with Shuffle

If you've mixed multiple lists together (e.g., some Samples, some Global Curiosities, and some AI generations), you can click the Shuffle button in the Text Editor toolbar to instantly randomize the order of your entire deck.

Backing Up (Important!)

Your draft is saved in your browser's temporary storage. To keep your work safe forever (or to move it to another computer), click the "Export" button.

• This downloads a simple .txt file to your computer.
• You can reload it later using the "Load File" button.

5. Sharing Your Deck

Once your deck is ready, click the "Share via QR" (or "from Link") button at the bottom.

This generates:

• A QR Code: Perfect for presenting on a screen. Friends can scan it to open your deck instantly.
• A Magic Link: Send this link via WhatsApp or email. Anyone with the link has the full game.

6. Printing Cards

Prefer an analog experience? We have a built-in print layout perfect for physical workshops.

1. Click the "Export > Print / PDF" button in the main toolbar.
2. A print-friendly view will open, arranging your questions into a grid (3x3 or 2x4).
3. Eco Mode: Toggle this to save ink (black & white).
4. Custom Branding (Facilitator Only): Unlock the app to uncheck "Hide Footer". You can then type your own text (e.g., "Team Building 2024") to appear at the bottom of every card.

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Ready to create? Open the Deck Builder and start creating your own conversation experience today.

Launch Deck Builder

🛠️ Explore Other Tools

Enhance your gathering with our other facilitation tools.

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Curious Souls Café aims to foster a collaborative and reflective environment where dialogue and shared experience create meaning and build connections. The methods discussed here are flexible and can be adjusted to fit your group's needs.