Pyramid Review
Dark Tales & Create Your Own Storytelling Cards (for Once Upon a Time)
Published by Atlas Games
Designed by Richard Lambert, Andrew Rilstone, & James Wallis
Edited by Michelle Nephew
Art by Scott Reeves, Sophie Mounier, & Florence Magnin
Dark Tales: 56 full-color cards, $9.95; Create Your Own Storytelling Cards: 56 full-color blank cards (16 Happy Ever After cards, 40 Storytelling cards), $7.95
The most annoying thing about Atlas Games' card game Once Upon a Time? All those infuriating happy endings. The solution? Kill 'em all, and let your fairy godmother sort them out. That means telling Dark Tales.
A quick recap of the story so far: Once Upon a Time is a storytelling game in which players use cards as the jumping-off point for fanciful stories in the tradition of the Brothers Grimm or Mother Goose. Everyone has a hand of cards with standard story elements on them -- the prince, the king, the palace, a sword, courage -- and an ending. You have to tell a story that incorporates the components from your cards (which lets you play those cards), eventually leading to the particular ending you've been dealt. While you're doing that, others will be waiting to hijack the storyline from you. If, during the course of your narrative, you mention an element that appears on one of their cards, they can step in with that card and pick things up from there. The first to empty their hand and get to their ending wins.
To this, add a pack of blank cards. Like the DIYs that came with the . . .
This article originally appeared in the second volume of Pyramid. See the current Pyramid website for more information.
Article publication date: December 24, 2004
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