Once Upon a Time (game)

Once Upon a Time is a collaborative storytelling card game designed by Richard Lambert, Andrew Rilstone, and James Wallis, first published by Atlas Games in 1994, with a second edition in 1995 and a third edition in 2012. Two to six players share the telling of an improvised fairy tale, with the player acting as storyteller holding a hand of Story Cards depicting characters, objects, places, and events drawn from familiar fairy tale tropes, which must be worked into the tale as it unfolds. Every other player also holds Story Cards along with a secret Ending Card, and may interrupt the current storyteller by playing a matching card from their own hand, taking over the role of storyteller if the interruption is accepted. The competitive aim beneath the shared story is to be the first player to use every card in hand and steer the tale toward one's own secret ending, so that the story concludes on those exact terms. A typical game lasts around fifteen minutes, and its light rules place nearly the entire weight of play on the players' storytelling improvisation.