If you need a little icebreaker game, one that you can grab out of a bag or stocking stuffer, Rory's Story Cubes is the one for you.
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Contents of the box
The little, nicely printed, magnetic box contains tiny manuals explaining how to play and nine personalized dice. The faces of each die are covered with various images. The faces of each die are entirely different, with images such as a castle, a bee, a shooting star, a man with a parachute, etc.
How to play Rory's Story Cubes?
The rules of Rory's Story Cubes are simple: there are none. But there are some guidelines you can follow. It's simple: you take the nine dice and you roll them. Quickly examine the dice to see which one stands out the most and start telling a story. Use the image of three of the dice to tell the beginning of the story, three more for the middle, and the last three for the conclusion.
You can also roll three dice alone to describe the protagonist of your story, then roll all the dice together to create a story for them to continue.
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The third rule suggestion is “Epic Stories.” To do this, each player rolls the nine dice in turn and weaves a chapter of the story, in which the next person constructs the next chapter with their own roll of the dice. The final player is responsible for tying up all the loose ends and wrapping up all the stories.
There are also plenty of opportunities to create your own rules. In our family, we decided that the person who starts the story would roll all the dice and be the first to choose where the story begins. At the same time, the rest of the table moves clockwise, choosing a single die to turn it into a part of the story, all working together and collaborating on the story. We loved working on the story together, and I highly recommend changing the rules.
Final Thoughts
Rory's Story Cubes are a fabulous icebreaker or tool for unlocking storytelling potential you may not have known you had in you. The little box is perfect for storing in an easy-to-access place so you can take it out at any time and find a story to tell your children around the table or during an evening where you want to tire them out so that they are less difficult to handle.
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As you can probably tell from the number of times I've mentioned kids, I think this game is great to play with kids or adults in a family setting. I enjoyed playing this game with my family at the after-dinner table more than with a group of adult friends, but your experience may be completely different. Either way, I highly recommend giving this lovely little game a try.