Stories!

About this board game

Stories! is a storytelling game for 3–10 players with a playing time of about 30 minutes. Released in 2013, it challenges players to shape an entertaining tale while listening closely for the words others expect to hear.

Players take turns telling stories, with each story’s topic determined by a random card draw. Before the storyteller begins, every other player writes down five terms they expect to hear during the telling. These predictions create a hidden set of targets for the storyteller to discover and weave into the narrative.

For every expected term mentioned in the story, the storyteller scores points. The challenge is not simply to keep talking, but to guide the story toward as many of those terms as possible while responding to the topic revealed by the cards.

• Draw a random card to determine the story’s topic.
• Have the other players list five terms they expect to hear.
• Tell a story and score points for each expected term mentioned.
• Ask questions to steer the story, while losing points each time you do.

Questions offer a way to influence the direction of the tale, but they come at a cost. Asking the right questions can help uncover the terms other players selected; asking too many, too often, can reduce your score and ultimately work against you.

In Stories!, success depends on finding the right balance between spontaneous narration and careful choices. Listen to the clues, steer the story when it matters, and decide when a question is worth its points.