Newsgroups: rec.games.board,rec.games.frp.misc
From: [s--s] at [oz.plymouth.edu] (Steffan O'Sullivan)
Subject: REVIEW: Once Upon a Time
Date: Sun, 29 Aug 93 19:06:51 GMT

Review of _Once Upon a Time_, a card game from Atlas Games.  (Address
at end of review.)

I'm finally getting around to playing some of the games I picked up at
GenCon, so will be posting occasional reviews.  This is the first.  I'm
crossposting to r.g.frp.misc because Atlas Games is fairly well known
to the RPG crowd, and this game will appeal to many of them.

Once Upon a Time (OUaT) is a card game for all ages, from 2 to ?
players.  (The rules mention "7 or more" when discussing dealing cards,
but no maximum figure is ever given.)  The game components consist of a
four-page rule booklet, which is roughly 50% examples, and two decks of
cards.  One deck of cards is called the "Happy Ever After" deck (36
cards), and the larger deck is the "Once Upon a Time" deck (108
cards).  The card artwork, while not spectacular, is pleasant and
always clear as to what is being represented.  The cards are mono-color
on white, which is fine, and are already separated with clean edges -
no need to tear along perforations.  The card stock is not quite as
sturdy as playing crad quality, but better than many cards found in
board games.  The box available at GenCon turned out to be too flimsy
for Atlas Games' standards, and they have ordered a sturdier box for
distribution to stores.  This means it may not be at stores yet, even
though it was available at GenCon.  Soon.

The game plays quickly - we played half a dozen games in a short
evening last night - and consists of each player contributing to a
single ongoing story that all of the players are telling.  The catch is
that each player is trying to get the story to have a different
ending!

At the start of the game, everyone is dealt a single "Happy Ever After"
card, which is kept secret until the end of the game.  This is the
story ending each player is trying to achieve.  There are enough
different cards that even if you play for a while, you'll never be
quite sure what ending your opponent is trying to drive the story.  In
fact, we found that the more we played and got to know the deck a bit,
the *harder* it got to tell what ending the other player had in mind!
This is because we would throw in red herrings to confuse the trail.  I
might toss in a riddle early, for example, to make my opponents think I
have the card "So the riddle was finally answered." In that game, I
*really* had "But it had vanished as mysteriously as it had appeared."
I was going to have a magical something-or-other appear regardless of
whether the riddle was solved or not, but the other players kept trying
to keep the riddle unsolved so I wouldn't win, wasting all their
energy!

After each player has his Happy Ever After Card, they are dealt a
number of OUaT cards, the number ranging from 6 cards each to 10,
depending on the number of players.  These cards are divided into two
basic types (Storytelling cards & Interrupt cards) and five different
groups within each type: Characters, Items, Places, Events, and Aspects
(descriptive words, such as "sleeping" or "evil").  Each group is
clearly marked with a symbol in the upper left corner, and the name
down the left hand side, so the whole hand can be scanned quickly by
card name and group type.

The one rule I don't like in the game is who starts: "Tradition
dictates that this is the person with the longest beard . . ." I can
think of a number of traditions in which women are prominent
storytellers, and I don't think this rule adds anything to the game.

However, once the game starts, things get hopping quickly.  As you say
a sentence in the story, you lay down a card that represents something
in that sentence.  For example, if your goal is to have someone forgive
his brother by the end of the story, you'd best introduce brothers
while you have a chance.  So if you have the character card "Knight",
you might lay it down and say, "Once upon a time, there was a knight,
ruler of all the lands around, who lived with his younger brother."
You can only play one card per sentence, so you don't want to go on and
on with each sentence: you can't play your Happy Ever After card until
*all* of your  OUaT cards are played.  So if you also have the "Witch"
card, you might then play that as you say, "One day, while riding in
the forest, the knight met with an old woman in the wood - he didn't
know it, but she was an evil witch."

At this point, if anyone has the Aspect card "Evil", they can play it
because you mentioned it.  You lose your turn, draw one more OUaT card,
and the same story is continued by interrupter.  Let's assume this
happens.

Let's say her Happy Ever After card reads, "And she was reunited with
her family."  Obviously, she has to either introduce a female
protagonist, or have the witch be reunited with her family.  But since
the witch has already been labelled as evil, she can't change that.
Best to introduce a new character (though she *could* have the evil
witch reunited with her family, mind you), so she says, playing the
"Castle" card, "The witch told the knight about a castle deep in the
woods, in which a beautiful princess was sleeping under an
enchantment: only a brave knight could break the spell."

There are plenty of opportunities for others to interrupt here: since
the Castle card is a place, if you had an "Interrupt any Place" card,
you could simply play that.  The player mentioned the words "sleeping,"
"princess," "enchantment," "brave" - if you had a card with one of
those words on it, you could interrupt.

And so on, until someone manages to play their last card and bring the
ending around to their secret objective.  You can also pass your turn,
which allows you to discard a card, if you think you just can't work a
Blacksmith into the story, for example.

The game works a lot better than my rather lengthy description states.
I've played two-player and multi-player, and both were a heck of a lot
of fun.  It can get pretty cut-throat, believe it or not - if someone
has the "Death" card, you can be sure some character you've been
nursing along the whole storyline will be killed off by somebody else
who thinks you may need him to achieve your ending.  Fortunately, in
the world of fairy tales, you can always introduce a magic staff to
resurrect someone . . .  It's also one of the few games that works well
with three players: it's not really possible for two players to gang up
on the third, the bane of most three-player games.

There is a rule about Sillyness in the story that is essential: if
someone takes the story line and turns it into something absurd, the
other players can veto this, and force him to lose his turn.  However,
challenging someone about sillyness and not being supported by the
group means you have to draw another OUaT card yourself - don't do it
lightly.  Of course, if everyone *wants* absurd stories, there is no
need to evoke this rule!  Likewise, if all players are hard-bitten
garbage-minded cynics, the story can be pretty gruesome and even
disgusting - but some folk consider that fun!

With children, this game is much less competitive.  It can be a good
tool to awaken creativity and even foster cooperation if done right.
The adult in the game (parent or teacher or babysitter) can set the
tone by only playing one or two cards then asking who else can continue
the story, and making sure everyone contributes.  Rules can be
basically ignored in such a game, as the goal is different than with
all adult gamers.

All in all, I'll give this an "A" rating, recommended for any but the
least imaginative gamer, parent, teacher, etc.

Disclaimer: I have no connection with Atlas Games, though I met John
Nephew at GenCon and thought he was a very nice guy even if he is only
half my age and president of his own company already.

Once Upon a Time Storytelling Card Game $17.95

Try your local retailer first, if they can't get it, write:
Atlas Games
P.O. Box 406
Northfield, MN 55057
 
Net: [A--sG--s] at [aol.com]

-- 
	-Steffan O'Sullivan		 [s--s] at [oz.plymouth.edu]
"When you realize that what love is all about is heartbreak, you're all 
right.  But if you think it's about fulfillment, happiness, satisfaction, 
union, all of that stuff, you're in for even more heartbreak."  -J.Hillman