The Connection Deck
Three acts. Warm up, go deeper, land it. Built for partners, daters, old friends, and therapy rooms. Free to play.
No signup. Free forever. Optional $0.99 tip if you love it.
With your partner
When the conversation has gone domestic. Bills, laundry, logistics. Use this to get back to the people you were before all that.
Early dating
Cut the resume questions. Find out if there's a real person behind the profile. Most of these go places a third date can't.
Rekindling a flame
For couples who love each other but feel a little glassy. The deck is a controlled way to be vulnerable on purpose.
Couples or relationship therapy
A structured warm-up between sessions. Therapists tell us they assign it as homework.
Long distance
Works over FaceTime. Each of you opens this page, agree on the same card, take turns answering.
Old friends
Two people who used to know each other, catching up on a Sunday. Skip the small talk.
Closeness is a choice you make on purpose.
The deck is the structure. The rest is on you.
The Connection Deck
Sixteen cards. Take turns. Phones down.
Tap a card to reveal. Read it out loud. Both of you answer before turning the next one.
The Method
In 1997, the psychologist Arthur Aron ran a study where two strangers exchanged thirty six escalating personal questions and then stared at each other for four minutes. Several of those pairs reported a level of closeness usually reserved for years of friendship. One of them got married.
What Aron actually proved is mechanical: structured self-disclosure plus structured reciprocity equals intimacy. The questions are not magic. The ladder is. Each card sits a notch above the one before it, and because both of you answer, the risk is shared. Nobody is alone on the limb.
This deck is a tighter sixteen-card version. Five to warm up, four to go a bit further, seven to land it including two challenges that make you stop talking and look at the person in front of you.
How to play
Questions
What is the Connection Deck?
Sixteen cards in three acts. Warm up, go deeper, land it. Distilled from Arthur Aron's 36 Questions and a few classic intimacy prompts. You play it with one other person, phones down, taking turns.
Who is it for?
Couples trying to feel close again. People on a third or fourth date who want to skip the small talk. Old friends who've drifted. Long-distance partners on a video call. Therapists and coaches looking for a structured opener.
Does it really build connection?
The underlying research (Aron, 1997) found that strangers who exchanged escalating personal questions for forty five minutes reported significantly higher closeness. The deck is the same idea, paced for a single sitting.
Is it really free?
Yes. The whole deck is free, no signup, no email. If you love it, we ask for an optional ninety nine cent tip. That's it.