Once Upon a Time: The Storytelling Card Game - Tips & Strategies

(this is mostly nonsense, but I find it funny.)

The player who looks most like a storyteller gets to play first. If you find the first turn to be an advantage, which it certainly can be, or you simply want to have the first chance to influence the story, which I often do, then here are some strategies for looking the part of a storyteller:

1. Gentleman: grow a formidable, well-groomed salt-and-pepper beard; Ladies: grow out long, silver locks of hair.
2. Wear distinctive spectacles: round, half-moon, or tortoise-shell are good candidates.
3. After the cards are dealt but before the rules are explained, change out of your cardigan and dress shoes, and put on a zip-up hoodie and sneakers.
4. Don a cabbie’s hat or a conductor’s cap when you pull the box off the shelf.
5. Smoke a long, wooden pipe.
6. Drink tea instead of coffee.
7. Keep a writing utensil visible on your person: behind your ear, stuck in your hair, clipped in your chest pocket, etc.
8. Begin taking notes immediately in a small moleskin journal, as if you’ll be recording the game’s proceedings for your Work-in-Progress, a collection of contemporary, nonsense fairy tales.
9. Subtly clear your throat before you speak, as if you’re in the habit of orating.
10. Scrutinize your starting hand, roll up your sleeves, and mumble things like, “clever” and “brilliant,” as if the story is already coming to life in your mind.

Use even two or three of these strategies, and not only will you have a good shot at being the first player to establish the scene and characters for your group’s story, but the atmosphere of the game will be heightened for everyone. Go for it!