Once Upon a Time (game)

Each player is dealt a hand of cards that represent story elements: objects, people, events, and "aspects" often involved in fairy tales (for instance, there are cards for "crown", "key", "stepmother", "a death", "time passes", "sleeping", et cetera). These "Storytelling" cards represent ingredients of a fairy tale, i.e. words or phrases that are likely to appear in fairy tales.[5] From a different deck of cards, each player is also dealt a single "Happy Ever After" ending card, to be kept secret from other players until it is used.[2] The object of the game for each player is to use their cards in telling a story, finishing the story by using their Happy Ever After card.[5]

One player at a time is the storyteller. (The 2nd edition rules suggest the starting storyteller could be the "player with the longest beard", or any other method upon which the players agree.[7]) Whenever a story ingredient is mentioned, if any player has a Storytelling card for that ingredient, he or she can play it and become (or continue being) the storyteller.[1][2] A player may be required to draw extra Storytelling cards (for example, when they are the storyteller and are interrupted by another player who becomes the new storyteller, or if he or she hesitates for too long while telling the story[2][5]). If the storyteller ends the story with the ending on their Happy Ever After card, and is out of cards, he or she wins.[5] Players are expected to cooperate (to some extent) in order to avoid contradictions in the story as it develops, for the story to make sense, and (according to the rulebook) that any ending to the story is "satisfying".[5][6][7]

Expansions contain 55 additional cards. 2nd Edition expansions include:[8]

• Dark Tales, dark story elements, released May 2004
• Create-Your-Own Storytelling Cards, blank cards, released June 2004

3rd Edition expansions include:[3]

• Create-Your-Own Storytelling Cards, blank cards, released October 2012
• Enchanting Tales, prince and princess elements, released April 2013
• Seafaring Tales, aquatic elements, released August 2013
• Knightly Tales, medieval elements, released March 2014
• Animal Tales, animal elements, released May 2016
• Fairy Tales, fairy tale elements, released October 2016
• Fairytale Mashups, fairy tale elements, released November 2019

The 3rd edition also has a Writer's Handbook available, in trade paperback format. It was published by Atlas Games in January of 2013.[9]

Zy Nicholson reviewed the second edition of Once Upon a Time for Arcane magazine, rating it a 7 out of 10 overall.[10] Nicholson comments that "Although I'm well aware that the first edition (now sold out) did receive some rave reviews, I'm going to award this a respectable but cautious score."[10]

Spike Y. Jones reviewed Once Upon a Time for Pyramid #6 (March/April, 1994) and stated that "The rules are simple enough that children and grandparents can all play at the same time, and the game is so engrossing that even people who look down on your roleplaying activities would be willing to join you in a bit of this sort of storytelling. Whether you're buying Once Upon A Time for yourself, or to give to a gaming friend or non-gaming relative, this is one card game which won't sit on a shelf gathering dust."[11] Commenting on the second edition for Pyramid #18, reviewer Derek Pearcy said the game "is a brilliant example of what we should be getting in this new game market" and "not only is this game easy to learn, not only is it fast, fun, and an Idea Whose Time Has Come, but ... girls think it rocks" commenting upon "the occasional insulting lip-service [many game companies have paid] to their female readership."[12]

In 1999 Pyramid magazine named Once Upon a Time as one of The Millennium's Best Card Games[13] and also as one of The Millennium's Most Underrated Games.[14] Editor Scott Haring stated "the game's just as good for kids as it is for adults."[13]

In his 2007 essay on the game in Hobby Games: The 100 Best, British author and game designer Marc Gascoigne stated that Once Upon a Time is "one of the best ways [he had] ever found to grab a non-gamer by their imagination and fling them into our world".[2]

Other awards include:

• Once Upon a Time 2nd Edition was named to Games magazine's Best Family Card Game section in the 1997 Games 100 list.[8][15]
• In 2013 the 3rd edition of the game won a Recommended Parents' Choice Award.[15]
• The 3rd edition was featured on the Tabletop (web series) with Wil Wheaton in 2013.[15]
• Once Upon a Time 3rd Edition received the Tillywig Best Family Fun Award in 2013.[15]
• The cover art for the 3rd Edition was featured in Spectrum 20.[15]
• The 3rd edition was nominated for an Origins Award in 2013, in the Children's, Family, or Party Game category.[15]

• Shadis #27 (May, 1996)
• Casus Belli #84 (Dec 1994)

• The Extraordinary Adventures of Baron Munchausen - Another story-telling game, also designed by James Wallis.[1][2]
• Talecraft - A story-creating card game with some comparable game mechanics.
• Nanofictionary - Another story-creating card game; created by Looney Labs, the creator of Fluxx.
• Rory's Story Cubes— sets of pictorial dice that can also be used as a storytelling game

• Once Upon A Time 2nd Edition webpage at Atlas Games
• Once Upon A Time 3rd Edition webpage at Atlas Games
• Once Upon a Time at BoardGameGeek; 2nd Edition Dark Tales at BoardGameGeek; 3rd Edition Seafaring Tales, Enchanting Tales and Knightly Tales at BoardGameGeek