How to play the Once Upon A Time Game:

Shuffle the cards.  Deal out five cards to every player.   The first player MUST start by saying "Once Upon A Time..." And then they lay down a card and begin the story with the person, place, or thing on that card.  For example, they could begin with "Once Upon A Time, there was a beautiful golden fan".  That player then draws a new card from the deck so that they have five cards in their hand again.

The next person in the sequence has to start at the very beginning and tell the story from there again.  "Once upon a time there was a beautiful golden fan..."  then they lay down one of THEIR cards (on top of the previous one) and add to the story.  Perhaps they might lay down a "Princess" card and continue with "... That belonged to an even MORE beautiful princess."  The player draws a new card so that they have 5 in their hand.

The play continues around the circle, with each person telling the entire story over again from the very beginning and adding one more card.  Each player does not have to repeat the story EXACTLY as told before, actually, embellishing and expanding is encouraged.  BUT, they have to get the right elements in the right order.  If they forget any element in the story, then the game is over and you must start again.  After each person plays a card, they always draw a new card so they always have five cards in their hands.

Now, we have found that most people who like telling stories have good enough memories that the stories can go on to the point that the repetition gets tedious instead of fun.  The solution is to pick a "Story Limit".  Once that many cards have been played in the story, you can either start over with a brand new story, or continue with the same story, but instead of retelling from the very beginning, the retelling starts over from the new beginning point (The first card that was played after the story limit was reached).   OR, you can just end there.   We recommend a story limit of 15 or 20 cards.   But experiment with it and set it at whatever you want!

There are 9 "Wild Cards" in the set.  Any player who plays a wild card can add any kind of person, place or thing they wish to the story at that point.   Other players may not reassign some other item to that wild card when they are retelling the story, for the rest of the story it stays as the same item it was declared to be.

Remember, the stories are the real point of this game.  Elaborate, add interesting details, use funny voices even, and tell a great story!  We hope you'll find that a bit of time playing the Once Upon A Time Game will exercise your imagination, bring you closer to your family and friend, and be so much fun that you will remember it LONG after the game is over.

After you are done playing, perhaps you would like to EXPAND the game with your own customized cards?