The Basic Game Agree on how long the story will last. You can either end it after a fixed number of rounds (3 would be a good number to start with) or let it be open-ended. Deal out three cards to each player. The first player picks one of his or her cards and begins to tell a story, using some element of the image on the card in the story. The next player continues the story, picking a card from his or her hand, using it to tell the next bit of the story. After each turn, the player picks a new card, so that everybody always has three cards in his or her hand. Each player's part of the story can be any length, but if you're playing with children, it might be good to establish a rhythm of short, to-the-point turns. If you set a fixed number of rounds for the game to last, the players must bring the story to an end after that many rounds. If the story is open-ended, any player can end the story at any time. Variations Each player gets dealt three cards at the start of the game, but doesn't pick a new card after his turn. The game lasts exactly three rounds, with every player using every card eventually. This forces the players to look ahead and think about which cards they want to use for each part of the story. Instead of dealing out three cards per player, each player picks a card off the top of the deck when her turn comes around. This makes the game a little harder, because you have to somehow use the card you pick, rather than being able to select from three in your hand. On a player's turn, he doesn't use one of his own cards, but a card passed to him by the previous player. (The game begins with the first player passing a card to the next player, and then that player actually begins the story.) This variation can potentially add an element of competition to the game, by allowing you to pass the worst possible card you have to the next player to make her turn harder. (Or perhaps you'll pass her the best possible card instead. It might be interesting to see which way your group goes.)        Instead of players holding their own cards, a number of cards (say, 12) are laid out on the table, and players pick from those cards when their turns come up. This can be the easiest way to play the game if you also replace the used card after each turn, so that there are always 12 cards to choose from on any turn. If, on the other hand, you don't replace the used up cards and say that the game will end when all the cards have been used, a whole new element of group cooperation can enter into the game, as the group as a whole works to shape a good story from the available cards, looking ahead to where the story is headed and seeing which cards are left.