Storytelling Fun with StoryLine: Fairy Tales

Once upon a time, there was a _______ who lived in a _______.

What would you fill in the blanks with?

A Troll who lived in a Palace?

Or maybe a Grandma who live in a Dungeon?

Would it be different if we asked your kids?

If your kids enjoy fairy tales or making up their own stories, you’ll definitely want to check the new game from Asmodee, StoryLine: Fairy Tales.

It’s a creative game we think you’ll enjoy playing with your kids.

How to play StoryLine: Fairy Tales

In StoryLine, players collectively create a fairy tale as they contribute cards to the progressive story.

The players who contribute the most creative responses along the way will claim point tokens which will ultimately determine the winner.

But in a game like this, points feel ancillary, because the joy is in the journey.

 

Set Up

Shuffle each of the 5 story element decks separately (Character, Place, Feature, Object, and Action) and have every player take one card from each deck.

Place all the point tokens face down on the table and mix them around. (Or you could place them in a draw bag if you prefer. You’ll just have to provide your own drag bag.)

Choose one of the narrative Story decks and make sure the cards are stacked in order with #1 on top and #15 on the bottom.

Lastly, choose one person to be the Narrator for the first turn of the game.

 

Playing

At the start of each turn, the Narrator draws the top card of the Story deck, reads it aloud, and places it face up on the table.

The colored banner on the story card indicates which type of element card is to be added to the story.

Then each player draws one card from the matching deck. For example, if the story card indicates a Character, then each player draws a card from the Character deck.

Now each player (other than the Narrator) has two cards in their hand that match the story element. They select one and pass it face down to the Narrator who shuffles the cards received and reveals them on the table.

The Narrator then selects one of the cards to go in the story and places it next to the drawn story card. The Narrator can also embellish the story at this point to add more flavor to the element added.

The player who contributed the selected card collects a random face down point token from the supply. One of the game rules is that players can’t look at the tokens they collect during the game. This way none of the players know what their score is throughout the game.

The cards not chosen are shuffled and placed at the bottom of their respective deck.

Sometimes Story cards indicate two elements be added to the story. When this happens, each player draws a card from each corresponding deck and submits a card for each type. The Narrator then also selects one card for each story element to advance the story.

The role of Narrator then shifts to the player to the left and the game continues in the same manner.

 

Game End

The game continues until the final card in the Story deck is drawn. Appropriately enough, like any good fairy tale, it says “The End”.

Players then reveal their point tokens and add up their scores.

The point tokens have values of 1, 2, or 3 points. In addition, there are 4 special tokens that have special effects.

• The Old Boot: This token is like drawing a zero. This token has no effect.
• The Scales: If there’s a tie, the person with this token chooses who wins.
• The Bear Trap: This person randomly puts one of their other tokens back in the supply.
• The Crown: This person takes two additional tokens from the supply.

The player with the most points wins.

Alternatively, the rules suggest a “Family Variant” where the value on the tokens doesn’t matter. Whoever collects the most tokens wins.

 

Can the whole family enjoy StoryLine: Fairy Tales?

Absolutely!

We’d guess that’s exactly why StoryLine was created – for families to play together.

And even though we just finished telling you the player with the most points wins, in our games of StoryLine we don’t really care about a winner.

StoryLine is a game where the fun is the journey itself.

It’s the silly stories that come out of the game that make playing it fun.

Sure one person will have their card chosen each round and they’ll get some points for it. But we don’t care so much if our cards get chosen as long as the funniest one gets picked to advance the story along.

It kind of reminds us of the story games we used to play when camping. While laying in our sleeping bags, we’d take turns adding to a continuous story. And we’d go on and on with each person adding crazy twists along the way.

Young kids will also enjoy playing StoryLine multiple times to see how different the story can be from different selections.

The game may only include two main narrative story decks, but depending on which cards come up, the nature of the story will be different each time. One time the hero may be a Hunter and another time a Piglet.

As such, kids can appreciate the familiarity of the story while giggling at the different twists along the way each time they play.

And they’ll happily play StoryLine on their own as well.

 

How does StoryLine: Fairy Tales score on our “Let’s Play Again” game meter?

The replay value of StoryLine will totally depend on the age of your kids.

We’ve definitely had fun watching our stories play out in StoryLine. However, with only two storylines included in the game, there’s a limit to the number of times we’ll enjoy playing it.

It’s not a “once and done” experience. But once players are familiar with the flow of each story, there’s less anticipation in what will happen in the story.

That being said, younger kids will play it many more times than older kids and adults.

Just like young kids enjoy reading the same book over and over or enjoy having the same bedtime story read to them night after night, they’ll get a kick out of playing through the same storyline time and time again with different outcomes.

Thanks Asmodee for a creative storytelling game for families!

Pick up a copy of StoryLine: Fairy Tales for your family.