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Got a deck and ready to use it? Here are some games for you!
Well, y'see... (1-11 players)
A game of small talk questions and tall tale answers.
Each player draws a card. The person who draws the lowest card shuffles the deck and deals five cards to each player (including themselves) and chooses a question (or makes up one themselves) for everyone to answer with a story.
Sample questions include:
- “Why were you late?”
- “How'd you get that scar?”
- “How'd you meet your spouse?”
- “Why are you in handcuffs?"
The players each then tell a short story about a fictionalized version of themselves, starting with, “Well y’see,” and referencing as many of the cards in their hand as possible. (In all of these games, referencing or being inspired by a card DOES NOT necessarily mean using the exact word on the card. But if someone challenges you as to how the card you played is relevant to what you said, please have a response ready.) Start with the player to the left of the dealer and go around until everyone has had a chance to tell a story.
Competitive version: Each card in your hand which you reference earns you a point. Every round, the players vote on the best story of the round. Each vote your story gets earns you another point. You may decide to leave out some of the cards you'd otherwise reference to tell a clearer narrative, if you think that would get more votes.
Flashbacks (2-11 players)
Each player draws a card. The person who draws the lowest card shuffles the deck and deals five cards to each player (including themselves), and sets the rest of the deck to the side until the next round. The person to the left of the dealer plays a card and references that card to describe a character in a situation. The next player plays a card and references that card to explain one element of how the character got into that situation. The next player plays a card and references that card to explain one element of the previous card. The round ends when you run out of cards, or ideas of what to do with the cards.
Example of play:
Player 1 (plays the 5 of Hawks; Destruction): Jack escapes his house as it burns down.
Player 2 (plays the 8 of Swans; Judgement Error): Jack’s house burned down because he lit a match at the
wrong time.
Player 3 (plays the Champion of Doves; Family): Jack lit the match because his father asked him to.
Player 1 (plays the Ace of Swans; Want): Jack’s father wanted a fire because he was so cold.
Player 2 (plays the 3 of Owls; Secret): Jack’s father was so cold, because he secretly was an
alien from a very hot planet.
Player 3 (plays the 6 of Hawks; Abduction): Jack’s father had been kidnapped from his home planet.
Et cetera, et cetera.
Higher difficulty version: Every time you play a card, draw another card from the deck to replace it. Also, every time you play a card, you have to tie it into every card that was played before yours, starting with the card played immediately previous to yours, and working all the way back to the first card played. If you can’t tie a card into your explanation, you sit out for the rest of the round. The round ends when everyone is sitting out, or every card has been played.
Playout (2-11 players)
Each player draws a card. The person who draws the lowest card shuffles the deck and deals five cards to each player (including themselves). The player to the left of the dealer starts the story by laying down a card, and stating a sentence inspired by that card. If anyone else has a card that was referenced in that sentence, they can lay it down, too, but they must be prepared to explain (to the satisfaction of the other players) how that card was referenced. Each player can only lay down a maximum of one card per turn. Going around the group, each player plays a card and adds a relevant statement to the story (relevant to the card they lay, but also to the context of the story). The first person to play all their cards, wins the round.
Storyteller’s Solitaire [the troll bridge] (1 player at a time)
Shuffle the deck and deal out nine cards, face down, in a 3X3 square. Practice improvising stories in a format like:
Once upon a time, three adventurers wanted to cross a bridge that was guarded by a troll.
The first adventurer was (flip over first card in top row, and invent a defining characteristic for the first adventurer, inspired by this card).
The first adventurer asked to cross the troll’s bridge. The troll said, “You cannot cross the bridge because (flip over second card in the top row, and invent a reason the adventurer cannot cross the bridge, based on this card).
The adventurer was not ready to give up, and (flip over the third card in the top row, and invent a way for the adventurer to try to get past the troll). This did not work.
The second adventurer, who was (flip over first card in middle row, and invent a defining characteristic for the second adventurer, inspired by this card) tried next.
The second adventurer asked to cross the troll’s bridge. The troll said, “You cannot cross the bridge because (flip over second card in the middle row, and invent a reason the adventurer cannot cross the bridge, based on this card).
This adventurer was also not the type to give up, and (flip over the third card in the middle row, and invent a way for the adventurer to try to get past the troll). This did not work.
This left one adventurer who hadn’t tried yet. The third adventurer was the youngest, and was known to (flip over first card in bottom row, and invent a defining characteristic for the first adventurer, inspired by this card).
The third adventurer asked to cross the troll’s bridge. The troll said, “You cannot cross the bridge because (flip over second card in the bottom row, and invent a reason the adventurer cannot cross the bridge, based on this card).
The third adventurer wanted to give up. This looked impossible. But deciding to give it just one more try, the third adventurer (flip over the third card in the bottom row, and invent a way for the adventurer to try to get past the troll).
And what do you know, it worked! Either that, or the troll left just then for a lunch break, but either way, the (defining characteristic) third adventurer made it all the way across the bridge.
Suits me (1-4 players)
Each player draws a card from the deck. If more than one person draws the same suit (dove, hawk, owl, swan) those who drew the same suit keep drawing until each player has a different suit. The person who ends up with the lowest number of cards will be the first storyteller.
Separate the four suits in the deck into four piles. Each player takes the suit they'd drawn during the paragraph above this one. Each player randomly chooses a royalty card (Youth, Hero, Champion, or Legend) as the motivation of the story, then randomly chooses 5 cards from Ace-10, to create the story with.
Doves are for stories of charity, compassion, or desperation. Hawks are stories for justice, redemption, or supremacy. Owls are for stories of wonder, curiosity, or conviction. Swans are for stories of ambition, desire, or repulsion.
Writing Prompt (any number)
This is less a storytelling game than a writing exercise for people wanting to make a habit of creative writing.
Shuffle the deck and draw 3 cards. The first describes the main character, the second describes your character's goal, and the third card describes an obstacle between your character and their goal.
Give everyone 10 minutes to write the story, then invite people to share what they wrote.