Estimated reading time: 7 minutes

Published at: 2022-06-29

Let me start by quoting the product description:

I was so excited when I read these lines! Rory's Story Cubes is already brilliant, and now there's a framework on top of it? Take my money and sign me up! 😄💸

By the time of writing, I've played Untold twice. Once by myself and once with a "party".
I hope to have the opportunity to play it with a group again soon.

But there's a catch. Untold comes with a densely packed, 8 pages long ruleset too. Unless you're coming from other RPGsWe are well accustomed to
reading hundreds of pages of rules.
🥲🤣, this may feel daunting or outright scary.

But fear not. The best way to learn the game is to read the relevant section, then start playing. Once you're done with the scene, read the next relevant rules section. This way, you'll get to play sooner and the rules will make more sense as you actually get to play them.

The game developers did a great job of incorporating narrative RPG aspects into those templates while still maintaining a board game-y atmosphere. The questions help fleshing out both the setting and also the characters. I've found them to be quite similar to the questions that I ask of myself when creating characters and NPCs for RPGs.

The "After the episode" section of the Episode Guide is a great reminder for everyone to do some book-keeping at the end of the session. It is so easy to forget about writing down the summary of important developments just to later realize that you forgot about half of it. These summaries do come in handy if you pick up the series after a longer hiatus.

A limit on questions and actions helps to keep gameplay time manageable. You can only ask a certain number of questions or take a certain number of actions before you run out of tokens and are taken to the next scene. An entire solo session/episode took me 2 hours from start to finish, though I also took notes for the APActual Play, which slowed things down somewhat compared to if I were simply playing the game.

The varying ratio of actions and questions adds a unique flavour to each scene. Additionally, when you can only ask questions, your character takes a back seat; you are not in control and can only observe as the story unfolds.

Reintroducing dice in later scenes is a great idea to include recurring elements in your story. They can help to reinforce certain aspects of your adventure and make the story feel more cohesive.

Asking questions is a great way to sprinkle some lightweight worldbuilding into your story and add small details to your setting. Just roll the dice and let yourself be inspired or even surprised by what you come up with.

I've been using Story Cubes successfully for a while now as an oracle for my solo games, but I mostly use them for more concrete things, like actions, items or locations. For more abstract things, I usually turn to Mythic tables or Tarot cards. However, to stick to Untold rules, I also used dice to answer questions like:

I must say, finding a way to answer these questions opened my eyes to new ways of interpreting Story Cubes.

#CREATIVITYUNDERCONSTRAINTS   #PRESSUREMAKESDIAMONDS💎   🤣

At first, outcome cards seemed like a step back for me, since I'm used to RPG skill resolutions that typically give you more agency over the outcome. But then I realized the cards approach makes sense within the confinements of a board game. It's a nifty solution to cut back on complexity in order to keep the game running, the actions flowing, and to retain focus on the narrative.

Initially, I was hesitant to use faces for reactions, but I was surprised to see how well they worked! 🤘 They forced me to think differently and accept the outcomes with a more open mindset.

#YESAND #IMPROVISATIONPRINCIPLES

Although Untold is not an RPG, it has certain aspects which make it similar to one. The way you create and play your character is not that different from RPGs.

In my group game, no-one other than me had any roleplaying experience at all. At the beginning, we had those typicalI mean "awkward" 🤣 … it's so strange to roleplay my character… moments that some RPG newcommers experienceI was definitely one of those people
back then too. However, after the ice broke, we had a great time. We created a weird setting filled with over the top actions and whacky turns of events. 😄

Untold is an all-in-all awesome game. It's a good choice if you like free-form association and narrative focused storytelling. It is also a useful tool to help work on your creative muscles.

For solo purposes, I personallyYou may feel otherwise,
which is fine. need more dice rolling and mechanics in my games, yet still, Untold's scene structure is something that should not be completely dismissed either!

For group games, Untold is a clear winner if you're looking for a slightly RPG-like, playful and narrative focused game.

Published at: 2022-06-29