Atlas Once Upon A Time 3rd Ed, Multi-Colored, Kid Game

Great game. I've played a handful of games with different crowds. You'll notice a tendency for people to merge story elements together that repeat, but other than that it is a fun challenging game. We typically spend about 30 minutes a game to finish unless someone gets a nice story going and no one can interrupt. The premise of the game is really simple. You get some story elements: Places, People, Aspects (Think adjects, describing words) Things, and Events. You start telling your story, with the cards you have... and no cheating and using three cards at once. Its one part of the story, per card. What is nice is the interrupts, because everyone is aiming to get their "Ending Card" so they have to shape the story their way... so at times when you are trying to cure the prince from a curse, you get interrupted and the prince ends up dying... that puts a damper in your plans. Very fun game, and I see many people recommend it as a great games to teach English skills, but it also is a great family game. Everyone gets involved and silly, and my church youth also have a blast telling wacky stories. If I had to complain about anything, it would have to be the lack of a card holder. So many cards and the box they are in doesn't keep them organize, and they bounce around in there. I'd like maybe a box or something smaller and more compact to hold the cards in. For now, rubber bands will do. Also, the artwork is top notch. Really nice touch to the story elements is the colorfully drawn art on the cards.

This is a game of telling stories. Each person has a hand of plot points and an ending, and someone starts telling a story. Players can use their cards to take over the storytelling. The first to fluidly incorporate their plot points into the story, and then to get to their ending wins that particular story round. In the games I've played, the stories are so entertaining that I sometimes can't break the flow with one of my cards, because I'm more interested in how the story is going than in winning. That's one of the keys to winning -- be a fantastic storyteller. If a story starts rambling, then people are more likely to take control. I've reviewed previous versions of the game, so I'll start with a comparison of versions. The art is very good in both versions: 2nd has bolder art, and the 3rd is softer with more emphasis on color than line, more storybookish. The card layout is much better in the 3rd edition, with the card type and name in the upper corners. These cards are easier to play with. Here are the changes to the main decks, listing the cards that were replaced or changed in the new edition. I approve of all of these changes. Some of them make the game more friendly. or more in tune to fairy tales. Character 2nd: Bird, Old man, Old woman, Sheperdess Character 3rd: Dragon, Guard, Old person Event 2nd: A trap, Dream Event 3rd: Found, Imprisoned, Lost, Making mischief, Returned, Sleeping, This comes alive Item 2nd: Boat Item 3rd: A trap, A well, Cauldron, Clothes, Stairs, Wall Place 2nd: At sea, Chapel, Island, Prison, Stairs, Town Place 3rd: Church, City, Dungeon, Garden, In the sky, Swamp Aspect 2nd: Evil, Insane, Lost, Sleeping, Stupid, This animal can talk, This item can talk Aspect 3rd: Brave, Crazy, Foolish, Healed, Sad, This can talk, Wicked The second edition had 23 ending cards, the 3rd edition has 51 ending cards (such as "Which meant they would become king and queen in the course of time"). The box looks much nicer, but it's also about three times larger than it needs to be, which makes the game less portable. If you have a previous edition, these are all factors to think about when considering whether to upgrade. I recommend all editions of this game. The cards are better in the 3rd edition, but the box is unnecessarily huge, and thus won't be brought to as many conventions.

This is a great product to play with people who are not too into a tactic and strategy games. It is just fun to have people telling stories and see how everything goes. The packaging is great and i love the case, but it would be nicer to have a harder cardboard on the outside. The case looks like its not going to last long if you don't take care of it. The pictures are very nice and beautiful! I love the game mechanics. Pros: - It is to have fun not to win (though it is a it satasfying). - quick thinking game. - beautiful Art work. - quick games time. - help to build creativity. Cons: - casing seems to be a bit too thin - if too many people it is chaotic. - sometimes rules are not clear (it is to help in force creativity though). over all: If you like reading books and make just have fun time telling stories with friend it is a great game. If you are a strategic and are very competitive it might not be for you since the rules are not clear in some spots and it will make the competitive people angry.

I love this game...but calling it a game might be the wrong way to describe it. It's an experience that other games cannot give. If you go into this expecting a card game in the line of Magic the Gathering or any other big name fantasy games you'll either be sorely disappointed or pleasantly surprised. That said, I've always loved the game where a group of people sits around and tells a story together and this is basically what this is, only with cards and some rather lenient rules that add to the experience. Because of the nature of the cards you have many ways to create your own games and rules as well. Quality: ♥ ♥ ♥ The cards are decent, nothing special and standard sized, about as big as playing cards. The art is nice and has a rather soft, fairy tale feel to it. It suits the mood very well and doesn't force its own opinions into the story you tell. The box was a huge disappointment though. Paying for a premium card set like this I was expecting a decent housing for my collection. Instead what I got was a thin, basic card board box with heavy brown card board shoved inside to make the box sturdier. There was no where inside that the cards to be stored after opening. No compartments or anything of the sort. I was hoping for a chest design or at least something to keep the cards in place. This is one of the main reasons I can't give the game five stars. The box is pretty on the outside with its flap and all, but totally useless on the inside. (think cereal box or old PC game box). The same applies to the expansion boxes. They are smaller but still not made to store cards in. I would give the cards a three out of four but the box is just bad as a storage unit. Fun: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ For me and my friends this game is a load of fun! How fun it will be for you depends on your friends and their ability to use their imaginations. The game can get very long and sidetracked though, if you don't have some rules laid out early on. We have so much fun that we laugh until we cry. Re-playability: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ With good story tellers (or at least imaginative ones) this game can last forever and I can see it being something a group can go back to many times over a life time. It's even good for getting ideas for actual stories that will be written down. The fact that there are customizable cards in an expansion makes the amount of fun to be had limited only by your imagination. We've already expanded ours to include other genres such as Arabian Nights lore, Classic Mythology and even horror! Educational: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ It's for fun...who cares! But no, really, this game is a good tool for learning about story structure and giving ideas. Even kids can get in on it with proper guidance and motivation. Just be gentle with their stories. ;) Kids, after all, are the ones who will be telling stories next, so let their imaginations blossom and guide them when you need to.

I will admit I have not gotten fully used to this style of gameplay. At times we end up in tricky situations where we don't remember some detail or went on some difficult tangent. I think with more careful moderation and adherence to the rules, we will be past that. It is still fun, even playing and explaining the rules to my 5 and 9 year old children as we play. There is just enough chalnenge in the rules, I think, to keep it from feeling boring or a waste of time to someone who is goal oriented. I would highly reccommend this to anyone liooking to use your imagination to create a fun experienc with your kids, friends, or family!

I usually don't write reviews but I absolutely felt obligated to do so for this game. To give you a little history on me I am quite the board and card game player ranging from your simple games like clue to more intricate games like dungeons and dragons; I am 25 years old and play with friends ranging from ages 21 to 29 every Tuesday. I bought this because it sounded intriguing and thought "hey, it's only 18 bucks if I don't like it." Well, I got the game and like usual when I get new things I was eager to play so I gathered a few friends and we gave it a shot. After about midway through the first game the feeling was mutual throughout the table, "This Game is Incredible!" It started off with only three of us playing by the time we got to our second game we had a group around the table of about 10 just observing and enjoying the game. I've only been playing it for a little while but this game's enjoyment level was higher than any game I have ever played. This game is a great creativity builder for kids and adults because the story is up to you; you can make it as PG or X rated as you want to because you tell the story. There are a few game that I have on a "Must have" list and this clearly has made this list because this game is absolutely one hundred percent incredible.

Really fun to play, but we did modify the rules a bit to create our own version. My two daughters (8 and 12 yrs old) didn't like the idea that the storyteller could have their story "taken away" from them, so when we play, we make it so one person is the storyteller and just use one Ending card. The other players can play their cards at the usual times, but they don't "interrupt" or take over the storytelling role; the storyteller just has to incorporate that element into their story. They found this more satisfying, so we just take turns being the storyteller. These cards would also work great for creative writing "warm ups" or prompts. I've also played with a whole classroom full of people using the proper rules, and that was fun as well. The cards themselves are sturdy and the art is lovely. Plenty of combinations available to keep playing this for a long time. My one suggestion would be to have a better tray or box to keep them in. The packaging comes with a cardboard tray you slide out of the box, but it's just three equally sized wells to hold the cards. It'd be great if there was a way to separate out the Interrupt and Ending cards (of which there are many fewer cards) from the rest of the deck in a tidier way. But that's a minor thing, so I wouldn't take off a star for that.

I bought this game for my brother who isn't the competitive type. We opened it up and the rules were really straight forward. As gameplay ensued we noticed the others in the house gathered closer to listen to the four of us playing, often wanting to join in. The end of the game is challenging, getting your ending to be satisfying. We laid the played cards out in a spiral to reference cards in play when a storyteller took a character in a direction that seemed mismatched with previous deeds and didn't have to police each other too often in terms of delaying game or stretching the tale too far. Toward the end of the game everyone was so drawn into the story that it became easy to know when a player's ending wasn't the "right" one or didn't fit. We had to work through a few players' endings to get one that was satisfying. This game is great with people who are willing to be creative and use their imagination. I imagine gameplay could suffer from inhibited or "boring" players.

This is a very clever game, and great for teaching kids and adults all sorts of useful skills. Performance, imagination, communication, creative writing, team spirit and cooperation. It can take a little effort at first to get kids into the spirit in which this game is intended to be played, but once it clicks you can have hours of fun making up awesome fairy tales and stories. The game mechanics are pretty simple and flexible too which makes it a breeze to play. I played it with a friend and her ten year old and we had a whale of a time.

Really nice to see that it is exactly the right version as shown on the page, the 3rd edition with the great artwork. I am very happy with this one.

Wonderful game, very creative, easy to learn, and extremely easy to simplify so you can play with little ones. I've been playing with my 7 year olds, and though we're lax on the rules, we've never had any issues at all.

La idea es bonita y las cartas son preciosas, muy épicas y de fantasía. Las uso para las clases de inglés con los adolescentes de nivel B2 :)

Excelente, lo compre para hacer mas dinámicas las clases y a mis alumnos les encanta, lo recomiendo para iniciar y mejorar la practica del inglés hablado en los estudiantes y como forma de entretenimiento para los hablantes del idioma