Guest Author - Lynn Little

Ages 8 and up

Players 2 to 6

Playing Time

Storytelling is at the center of the card game Once Upon a Time. If you can weave a story together with the cards in your hand then you can win the game. This is one story you will know the ending because that is one of the cards you have but what happens between Once Upon a Time and living happily ever after is up to the storyteller.

Once Upon a Time features cards with common elements found in fairy tales. Cards cover characters such as the Queen, items such as spells, places such as the forest, aspects such as happy, and events such as an argument. Happily Ever After cards are used to finish the story. The attain such phrases as "which is how the Kingdom got its name," or "his dedication had broken the spell."

One person is the storyteller. Each time he uses an element from one of his cards, he can lay that card down. He should use the story element in a natural flow of the story and not just say what the card is about to be able to play it. If he uses a story element from another player's cards, then that person can interrupt and continue the story using their story cards. There are also some special cards called interrupt cards that can be played to interrupt the storyteller.

Because of the freestyle storytelling narrative, each game of Once Upon a Time is different than the previous one. Once Upon a Time has expansion sets that adds new cards to the mix of fairy tale elements. Once Upon a Time: Dark Tales can help storytellers weave together a story more along the line of the Grimm fairy tales with cards such as "hard times" or "greedy."

Another expansion set lets players create their own storytelling cards to use in a game. If there is any elements you would like to see in the game then you can add them easily with these blank cards.

Once Upon a Time is a great exercise in imagination. Making up stories is something we probably all have done at some time in our life. For the aspiring writer, Once Upon a Time cards can be a fun exercise in honing fiction writing. Draw your cards and create your own story. Cards can help focus your writing by giving you a subject to write about as well as "plot points" to a story.

Once Upon a Time is fun and can be a great exercise in creativity. Use your imagination by weaving a fairy tale together. If you aren't the storyteller, wait for your opportunity to interrupt and take control of the story. We all love a good story; now here's our chance to tell one.