Once Upon a Time (game)

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This article is about the card game. For other uses, see Once Upon a Time.

Cover of "Once Upon a Time" (second edition) by Atlas Games.

Once Upon a Time is a card game produced by Atlas Games, released in December, 1995. The object of Once Upon a Time is to tell a fairy tale as a group. Each player has a hand of cards that represent story elements: objects, people, events, and "aspects" often involved in fairy tales (for instance, there are cards for "crown", "key", "stepmother", "a death", "time passes", "sleeping", et cetera). The story cards represent ingredients of a fairy tale. One player at a time is the storyteller. Whenever a story ingredient is mentioned, if any player has the card for that ingredient, they can play it and become (or continue being) the storyteller. In certain circumstances, a player may be required to draw extra story cards. Each player also has a single "ending card," which is supposed to be used to end the story. If the storyteller is out of cards and ends the story with the ending on their ending card, they win. Additional player cooperation beyond the basic rules is necessary for the story to be coherent and interesting. In this way, Once Upon a Time is similar to a role-playing game.

Once Upon a Time was named to Games magazine's Best Family Card Game section in 1997.