Stories!
Stories! Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
100 story cards, 20 interjection cards, 10 playing pieces, 10 pencils, 1 scoring board, 1 pad, 1 sand timer.
Object of the Game
One player tells a story within one minute about a topic determined at random by a card. The other players have written down 5 terms that they expect to occur in the story. For each of their terms that is mentioned in the story, they receive points. By asking questions in between, the other players can try to steer the story in the direction they want.
Setup
The story cards are shuffled and placed in the middle of the table as a stack, green side up. The sand timer and the scoring board are placed next to it.
Each player receives 1 pencil and 1 sheet from the pad. Each player also chooses 1 playing piece and takes the 2 interjection cards matching its colour, with the numbers "-1" and "-2". Surplus interjection cards and playing pieces are not needed. Each player places their playing piece on the start space ("0") of the scoring board.
The biggest chatterbox at the table is the start player. If this cannot be determined, the oldest player is the start player.
Gameplay
Choosing a story and writing down terms
The start player draws the top story card and takes the sand timer. They are the storyteller of this round. On both sides of the card is the first sentence of a story. One story is rather normal (green border), the other rather quirky (purple border). The storyteller looks at both sides, chooses one side and reads this sentence aloud.
The other players now secretly write down on their sheet 5 terms that they think the storyteller will use in their story once they continue it.
Telling the story and ticking off terms
The storyteller waits until all the other players have written down their 5 terms. Then they read the sentence printed on the card aloud once more, turn over the sand timer and continue telling the story. How the story is continued is up to the storyteller. The pictures on the cards are only an (not always seriously meant) illustration and are not meant to be restrictive. The storyteller may tell the story however they like.
Each time the storyteller says one of the written-down terms, the player puts a tick after their term.
Asking questions
The other players may interrupt the storyteller and ask up to 2 questions per player per story.
To do so, on their first question the player throws their interjection card with the "-1" into the middle of the table and asks their question immediately.
The storyteller must answer the question adequately (only "Yes!" or "No!" is too little and not allowed).
Before using one of their interjection cards, the other players must give the storyteller enough time to answer the previous question before they in turn may ask a question.
If a player wants to interrupt the storyteller again, they throw their interjection card with the "-2" into the middle of the table and ask the question.
Which terms may be written down?
Allowed:
- Nouns, e.g.: dog, house, humus, ...
- Verbs, e.g.: laugh, babble, run, ... (except "have" and "be"). Verbs count in every form, e.g. "to freeze" = "frozen". "Freeze" and "frozen" then count as the same term.
- Adjectives, e.g.: fat, silly, buxom, brazen, ...
- Singular or plural makes no difference: "polar bears" and "polar bear" count as the same term.
Not allowed:
- Adverbs, e.g.: here, there, then, outside, right, tomorrow, etc.
- Pronouns, e.g.: the, this, I, you, he, she, it, etc.
- The verbs "have" and "be" in all forms, e.g.: have, had, had (participle), am, is, was, been, etc.
- All words that appear as text on the current story card.
- Compound terms do not count as separate terms. If the storyteller mentions the term "ice-cold" ("eiskalt"), the players may not also tick off the terms "ice" and/or "cold".
(Note: the German examples in the original, such as "Eisbären"/"Eisbär", "frieren"/"gefroren" and "eiskalt", rely on German word formation.)
The end of the story
As soon as a player has been able to tick off all 5 of their terms, they shout "Stop!" and the round is over immediately. Otherwise the round ends as soon as the sand timer has run out.
Scoring the terms
The player to the left of the storyteller now reads out their terms that they were able to tick off.
If other players also wrote down these terms, they say so. Each such player then receives 2 points for each of these terms. All players note the points next to their terms right away.
If no other player wrote down the term, the player receives 4 points for it as the only one.
Then the player subtracts the points for their question(s): for their first question there is 1 minus point, for their second question 2 further minus points (so a maximum of 3 minus points in total).
The player adds up all their points for this round, notes the total on their sheet and takes their used interjection cards back. They then move their playing piece forward on the scoring board by the total points of this round.
The remaining players check their written-down terms in the same way, one after another clockwise, and move their playing pieces forward accordingly.
The storyteller receives as many points as the player who received the most points in this round, and moves their playing piece forward by the corresponding number.
Next story
The storyteller then gives the sand timer to the player on their left. That player becomes the storyteller and draws a new card from the stack. Play continues in the manner described.
End of the Game
With 3-5 players, 2 rounds are played, so that each player is storyteller 2 times. With 6-10 players there is only 1 round and each player is storyteller once. At the end of the game, the player with the most points wins.
Example of a Round
Nina draws a card and decides on one of the two stories. She now reads it aloud: "When I was in the Arctic recently..."
Her fellow players now secretly write down five terms that they think Nina will mention.
Nina now reads the beginning of the story "When I was in the Arctic recently" aloud once more, turns over the sand timer and begins to tell:
"... I was on a big expedition there as part of a research mission. It was ice-cold and we froze terribly. Snow lay everywhere and so we often rode the motor sled. We also saw polar bears and seals..."
Suddenly she is interrupted by Sabine, who puts her "-1" interjection card in the middle of the table and asks: "Which countries did you pass through on the way to the Arctic?"
Nina answers: "We flew in from Canada and on the way back we were also in Russia. We were also in Alaska for a moment."
Nina then continues her story, is interrupted again by questions from Sabine and Melanie, continues telling, and so on...
After the minute is over, the other players have ticked the following terms:
| Sabine | Stephan | Melanie | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Snow (ticked) | 2 | Snow (ticked) | 2 | Snow (ticked) | 2 |
| cold | Greenland | Seal (ticked) | 4 | ||
| Polar bear (ticked) | 2 | Polar bears (ticked) | 2 | Canada (ticked) | 4 |
| Igloo | Eskimo | Ice | |||
The terms marked blue had been written down by only 1 player each. They are therefore worth 4 points each. The terms marked green were written down by several players. They are therefore worth 2 points each.
Note that Stephan may tick off the word "freeze" ("frieren"), because the verb form "froze/frozen" ("gefroren") also counts. Melanie, however, receives no points for the terms "ice" and "sled", because they were only mentioned by Nina as compound words ("polar bears" - German "Eisbären" - and "motor sled" - German "Motorschlitten"). Sabine therefore also gets no points for "cold", because Nina only said "ice-cold".
As storyteller, Nina scores the same number of points as Melanie, who received the most points in this round. Nina therefore also moves her playing piece forward 9 spaces.
German - a wonderful language
The German language offers manifold possibilities, not all of which can be covered in these rules.
Remember: the game is supposed to be fun. Therefore any questions or ambiguities should be settled within the playing group.
Notes
- There are no requirements for how the stories must be told. However, since the storyteller receives the same number of points as the player who received the most points, it is pointless to tell the story "past" the expectations and questions of the other players. In that case the storyteller also receives no or only a few points.
- Be creative and think up funny or quirky topics yourselves.