Once Upon a Time (and Dark Tales) Review by Jabberwock
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So, it’s a card game/storytelling aid/role-playing/art collection. Essentially, it’s a deck of cards (albeit a big deck) with some wonderful illustrations, a word or two, and a fantastic ‘canvas’ feel. And a rulebook. And the box falls apart after a few playings, ‘cos not everything fits back in nicely (especially if you have got the expansion).
But it’s all so much more than that. The game itself can be broken very easily by anyone who is particularly competitive, and doesn’t appreciate what is really being done with the game. Each player has a hand of ‘Once Upon a Time’ cards, and one ‘Happy Ever After’ card. The ‘Happy Ever After’ card has the ending of the story written on it (for example “True love had broken the enchantment” or “And the parents were reunited with their long-lost child”) and the players will be telling a group story, with the eventual aim of finishing the story using their own ‘Happy Ever After’ card.
The ‘Once Upon a Time’ cards are all things that might appear in the story – and there are 112 of them in the basic game – from ‘A Well’, to ‘Wolf’ – from ‘Someone is Hurt’ to ‘This Animal Can Talk’. There are also Interrupt cards in the mix, with “Place” or “Event or “Character” and so on written on them. As a player tells his story, he will need to incorporate the elements on his cards into the narrative, displaying and discarding them as he does so (because you can’t play your ‘Happy Ever After’ card if you have any ‘Once Upon a Time’ cards in your hand). Each card use has to be distinct, and important to the story (so you can’t say “The prince travelled through the woods, past the mountain, stopping briefly to chat with the wolf, and found the castle”, discarding ‘Tree’, ‘Mountain’, ‘Wolf’, ‘This Animal Can Talk’, and ‘Castle’ in one sentence). And when you play a card, other players can use their Interrupt cards to stop you and take over the reins of the narrative. (So if you play Castle, someone could play the ‘Place’ Interrupt.)
Also, if the current storyteller mentions something you have on a card (for example, mentions a talking wolf and you have the ‘Wolf’ or ‘This Animal Can Talk’ card), you can play and discard that card to take over the story.
What you end up with (usually) is a very winding story, that takes several startling turns and plot twists as people try to wrest control and get the plot back to where they need it to be. And if someone kills of the brother of the prince that you need to finish the story with “So he realised how loyal his brother had been”, then you could be in for an interesting game!
The reason this game can easily become broken is if people play to win… An odd statement I know, but it is important to play this one in the right spirit, which is to tell a surprising and intriguing story first, and to win second. If people become aware of the cards in the deck, their stories become really stilted as they steadfastedly attempt to avoid mentioning anything that might appear on the cards held by their opponents. This makes the stories flat and uninteresting, as pretty much anything that might appear in a Fairy story is represented in some fashion.
Another reason it might be frustrating is that there aren’t enough Interrupt cards. So when you are only down to one or two cards, and someone snatches the story from you, the chances of you getting it back again (sitting with your meagre hand, hoping and wishing that a Fire is started somewhere so you can get the story back) are very slim.
A final caveat is that if you struggle with storytelling, then this might not be as much fun for you. I have to say, though, that the cards and ideas flung around the table can be quite evocative, so that even if someone can’t really narrate very well, everyone usually has an idea or two of how the plot should develop.
The expansion for the game, Dark Tales, adds some ‘Once Upon a Time’ cards and some ‘Not-So-Happy Ever After’ cards. These all have a darker theme to them than the original set, including such things as Diseased, Ghost and A Grave, as well as endings like “His wound was healed, but his heart was broken forever” and “It is said that he will haunt that place until she forgives him”. These cards are all meant to be shuffled into the original mix, making for more varied stories and endings, and also making it impossible to fit back into the box…
The expansion adds more variety to a game that thrives on variety, and so is not a bad thing; though I have yet to see it make a huge impact on the feel of the stories. It is cheap, and fits seamlessly in (despite the backs of the cards being a slightly different shade), and so is a no-brainer – if you like the basic game, get the expansion as well.
Summary
Presentation: It’s a big pack of cards. The feel of the cards is nice – a kind of faux canvas texture. The size of the cards is just right – standard playing card size. And the illustrations (Sophie Mounier in the base game – Scott Reeves, Florence Magnin join her for the expansion) are fantastic. 8.7/10
Clarity of Rules: The rules give you guidelines for your shared storytelling experience, and do a good job of illustrating the many wrinkles that might pop up in a game, and how to handle ‘silliness’. 8.6/10
Game Length: This can vary wildly, depending on the storytelling skills of the players, and the mix of cards. If you have a rambler in your group, then it could be many minutes before anyone else gets a look-in, and if everyone says a sentence or two and then dfries up, the game could drag even worse as people keep passing without playing any cards. Generally, however, games last about half an hour. 7.8/10
Value: For the variety of gameplay and enjoyment you get out of the box, this one can’t really be beaten. The high-quality cards and clear rules are all you need to get started, and the replayability is very good indeed! The only thing letting this down is the poor quality of the box. 7.6/10
Overall: This is a light game that will definitely not suit a lot of people. For those yearning to bridge the gap between RPGs and card games, or people wanting to sit round a table and tell a rip-roaring story, this is fantastic. I would play this a great deal more if my group would only let me… 9.1/10 (not an average)
So, it’s a card game/storytelling aid/role-playing/art collection. Essentially, it’s a deck of cards (albeit a big deck) with some wonderful illustrations, a word or two, and a fantastic ‘canvas’ feel. And a rulebook. And the box falls apart after a few playings, ‘cos not everything fits back in nicely (especially if you have got the expansion).But it’s all so much more than that. The game itself can be broken very easily by anyone who is particularly competitive, and doesn’t appreciate what is really being done with the game. Each player has a hand of ‘Once Upon a Time’ cards, and one ‘Happy Ever After’ card. The ‘Happy Ever After’ card has the ending of the story written on it (for example “True love had broken the enchantment” or “And the parents were reunited with their long-lost child”) and the players will be telling a group story, with the eventual aim of finishing the story using their own ‘Happy Ever After’ card.
The ‘Once Upon a Time’ cards are all things that might appear in the story – and there are 112 of them in the basic game – from ‘A Well’, to ‘Wolf’ – from ‘Someone is Hurt’ to ‘This Animal Can Talk’. There are also Interrupt cards in the mix, with “Place” or “Event or “Character” and so on written on them. As a player tells his story, he will need to incorporate the elements on his cards into the narrative, displaying and discarding them as he does so (because you can’t play your ‘Happy Ever After’ card if you have any ‘Once Upon a Time’ cards in your hand). Each card use has to be distinct, and important to the story (so you can’t say “The prince travelled through the woods, past the mountain, stopping briefly to chat with the wolf, and found the castle”, discarding ‘Tree’, ‘Mountain’, ‘Wolf’, ‘This Animal Can Talk’, and ‘Castle’ in one sentence). And when you play a card, other players can use their Interrupt cards to stop you and take over the reins of the narrative. (So if you play Castle, someone could play the ‘Place’ Interrupt.)
Also, if the current storyteller mentions something you have on a card (for example, mentions a talking wolf and you have the ‘Wolf’ or ‘This Animal Can Talk’ card), you can play and discard that card to take over the story.
What you end up with (usually) is a very winding story, that takes several startling turns and plot twists as people try to wrest control and get the plot back to where they need it to be. And if someone kills of the brother of the prince that you need to finish the story with “So he realised how loyal his brother had been”, then you could be in for an interesting game!
The reason this game can easily become broken is if people play to win… An odd statement I know, but it is important to play this one in the right spirit, which is to tell a surprising and intriguing story first, and to win second. If people become aware of the cards in the deck, their stories become really stilted as they steadfastedly attempt to avoid mentioning anything that might appear on the cards held by their opponents. This makes the stories flat and uninteresting, as pretty much anything that might appear in a Fairy story is represented in some fashion.
Another reason it might be frustrating is that there aren’t enough Interrupt cards. So when you are only down to one or two cards, and someone snatches the story from you, the chances of you getting it back again (sitting with your meagre hand, hoping and wishing that a Fire is started somewhere so you can get the story back) are very slim.
A final caveat is that if you struggle with storytelling, then this might not be as much fun for you. I have to say, though, that the cards and ideas flung around the table can be quite evocative, so that even if someone can’t really narrate very well, everyone usually has an idea or two of how the plot should develop.
The expansion for the game, Dark Tales, adds some ‘Once Upon a Time’ cards and some ‘Not-So-Happy Ever After’ cards. These all have a darker theme to them than the original set, including such things as Diseased, Ghost and A Grave, as well as endings like “His wound was healed, but his heart was broken forever” and “It is said that he will haunt that place until she forgives him”. These cards are all meant to be shuffled into the original mix, making for more varied stories and endings, and also making it impossible to fit back into the box…
The expansion adds more variety to a game that thrives on variety, and so is not a bad thing; though I have yet to see it make a huge impact on the feel of the stories. It is cheap, and fits seamlessly in (despite the backs of the cards being a slightly different shade), and so is a no-brainer – if you like the basic game, get the expansion as well.
Summary
Presentation: It’s a big pack of cards. The feel of the cards is nice – a kind of faux canvas texture. The size of the cards is just right – standard playing card size. And the illustrations (Sophie Mounier in the base game – Scott Reeves, Florence Magnin join her for the expansion) are fantastic. 8.7/10
Clarity of Rules: The rules give you guidelines for your shared storytelling experience, and do a good job of illustrating the many wrinkles that might pop up in a game, and how to handle ‘silliness’. 8.6/10
Game Length: This can vary wildly, depending on the storytelling skills of the players, and the mix of cards. If you have a rambler in your group, then it could be many minutes before anyone else gets a look-in, and if everyone says a sentence or two and then dfries up, the game could drag even worse as people keep passing without playing any cards. Generally, however, games last about half an hour. 7.8/10
Value: For the variety of gameplay and enjoyment you get out of the box, this one can’t really be beaten. The high-quality cards and clear rules are all you need to get started, and the replayability is very good indeed! The only thing letting this down is the poor quality of the box. 7.6/10
Overall: This is a light game that will definitely not suit a lot of people. For those yearning to bridge the gap between RPGs and card games, or people wanting to sit round a table and tell a rip-roaring story, this is fantastic. I would play this a great deal more if my group would only let me… 9.1/10 (not an average)
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