How to play Once Upon a Time

(The official rules kinda suck, I have included on the back of this page two much better variants
according to the internet people)

Lame Official Rules

Deal the cards. One Happy Ever After card should be dealt to each player and then the following
number of Once Upon A Time cards, depending on how many players there are in the game:
2 players 10 cards each
3 players 8 cards each
4 players 7 cards each
5 players 6 cards each
6 or more players 5 cards each

Choose a player to be the first storyteller. That player begins to tell a story. Whenever they mention
something which is shown on one of their cards, they may play that card face up on the table. Each
card should be mentioned in a separate sentence, and should be of some importance to the story. It
is not acceptable to mention things for no reason just so you can play your cards.

If the storyteller wishes, she can end her turn at any time by saying “Pass.” A player who passes
must pick up a card from the Once Upon A Time deck, but may also discard a card from her hand.
Play then moves on to the player on her left.

INTERRUPT
There are two main ways for the other players to interrupt the storyteller.
1. If the storyteller mentions something in her story which is on a card held by another player,
that player can interrupt. The storyteller does not have to use the exact words that are written
on a card in order to be interrupted with it.
For example: “...And the King fell in love with the woodcutter’s daughter [plays “Two People
Fall in Love card”].
2. When the storyteller plays a card, she may be interrupted by any player who has an Interrupt
card whose group matches that of the card that has just been played.
For example, the card “Interrupt; Any Object” can be played when the storyteller plays any
“Object” card.
When the storyteller has been interrupted, their turn ends, and they must pick up an extra card from
the top of the Once Upon A Time deck.

OTHER WAYS THE STORYTELLER CAN CHANGE

If the storyteller pauses in their story for more than five seconds, then their turn ends, they must pick
up a card, and the player on their left becomes the storyteller.
If the storyteller starts to ramble, stops making sense, tries to make something happen which is
foolish or which contradicts something that has gone before, then the group shouts “No! Silly!” and
their turn ends. They must pick up a card, and the player on their left becomes the storyteller.

When the storyteller has played all their Once Upon A Time cards, they can then play their Happy
Ever After card to end the story.
Short Cooperative Storytelling
Draw 1 ending card, face-up, for all to see. This is the shared goal of the game for all.

Deal 5 story cards to each player.

Each player takes a turn choosing 1 card from their hand to use to tell part of the story. They can tell
the story as long as they like, although it is recommended to be brief (a few sentences) and let the
story pass along after the newly introduced card is firmly established in the plot.

The story simply passes from one player to the next. Interrupting can only be done by whomever's
turn would be next if the current storyteller were to pass. Also rules about rumbling still apply.

Play goes from player to player, one card at a time, until one-by-one each player tells their last card.
It is up to the final player with the final card to tie up everything into the ending card with their last
story card.

There's no real win or lose, only variety in story quality. This method of playing is easy for creating
mad-cap stories but is also a fun and challenging way to tell a solid story that the whole group can
be proud of.

Longer Kinda Competitive Storytelling

Divide the cards into six decks (Characters, Items, Places, Aspects, Events, Endings).

Draw 1 ending card, face-up, for all to see. This is the shared goal of the game for all.

Each player is dealt one card of each of the remaining 5 types of cards.

The first player plays only one card with a brief description, which starts the story.

Each player plays one card from their hand along with a brief description in turn advancing the story.
No fair encroaching on another type of card. For example, if you play the Princess card, you can
describe her, but you can't include a Location, Event, Aspect, or Thing in your description.

A player who can't play a card that makes sense, draws one card from any of the 5 non-ending
decks instead and passes. If a player has no cards, she draws one of each of the 5 cards and plays
one of them.

The player who plays a card along with a reasonable description that connects the story with the
Ending card wins.

(You can also play that way cooperatively, when a player connects the story with an ending card, the
game is over and everyone wins (yay))