Greetings,

I sent this as an email also to Atlas Games in hopes of official answers. However I would like other player's input as well.

If you would please help me with a few questions. I have ordered online a box of expansion cards that will allow me to make my own cards.
1- What makes a interrupt card different from a normal card when I go to design a card (not the rules difinition)? I guess I am asking is how do I know if what I want to design is an interrupt type or a normal type.
2- When I design my cards, what should be the ratio of normal cards to interrupt cards for each of the 5 catagories (Places, Items, Aspect, Character, & Event). I do not want to unbalance the cards when drawing cards.
3- Do you have suggestions for cards in the 5 catagories that you would have placed in the game but did not?
4- Are there any fan websites you know of? I can not find any. I found a few alternate or optional rules.
5- Last question, I want some not so nice endings sometimes. The Dark Tales still did not give bad endings too well. Do you know of some not so "they lived happily ever after" that you could suggest?

Thank you for your time,
Doc Halloween

I'll see if I can help a bit. I certainly encourage others to pipe up, too! And keep in mind that I'm not one of the game's designers...but I've played more than a couple of games over the years.

> 1- What makes a interrupt card different from a normal card
> when I go to design a card (not the rules difinition)? I guess I
> am asking is how do I know if what I want to design is an
> interrupt type or a normal type.

There doesn't *have* to be any difference, but interrupts are probably better places to use less common story elements, in my view. Since it has dual-use as an interrupt, it's not as big a deal if the element on the card is harder to use.

> 2- When I design my cards, what should be the ratio of normal
> cards to interrupt cards for each of the 5 catagories (Places,
> Items, Aspect, Character, & Event). I do not want to unbalance
> the cards when drawing cards.

I think the proportions of the original game work pretty well. Don't have a card list handy, but it should just be a matter of counting 'em up (or sorting the deck into piles of each type and then counting).

> 3- Do you have suggestions for cards in the 5 catagories that
> you would have placed in the game but did not?

No help there, not being one of the designers. :)

> 4- Are there any fan websites you know of? I can not find any. I
> found a few alternate or optional rules.

That's my experience, too. Once Upon A Time sells year after year, and I think is our #2 seller across history after Lunch Money (and not counting On the Edge, which is hard to measure in terms of quantity just because of the whole CCG format). But sometimes it seems to fly a bit under the radar... But then, I don't think I know of any Lunch Money fan sites either. I guess part of it is that the games don't really scream out for fans; another part is that the games seem to appeal far beyond the gamer/fan community. Maybe someone should start one.

> 5- Last question, I want some not so nice endings sometimes.
> The Dark Tales still did not give bad endings too well. Do you
> know of some not so "they lived happily ever after" that you
> could suggest?

"As he had promised, the giant ground up her bones and used them to make bread."

Heh. It occurs to me that you could take all of the death cards from GLOOM and use them for dark OUAT endings.

-John

Thank you for your input and help.

Duh, I should have figured out question #2 without having to ask. I liked that ending you also gave and it sounds great to include.

Thanks for your time.

Peace be with you,
Doc Halloween

I did the ratio math if anyone wants to know. It is done using both the orginial OUAT and Dark Tales Expansion. The ratio is Normal:Interrupt
Place 7:2; Aspect 26:7; Character 26:7; Event 11:3; Item 18:5

While I am waiting for my blank cards to arrive I have started writing down the possibilities I want to include. I am wanting to make a more darker and grittier deck (much more than DT did). I may order more to keep the deck balanced. Anyway, here is what I might include.
Place cards:
Underground (Interrupt)
Dungeon (Interrupt)
City (Normal)
Country (Normal)
Desert (Normal)
Ocean (Normal)
Jungle (Normal)
Swamp (Normal)
Temple (Normal)

Item Cards:
A Body Part (Interrupt)
Map (Interrupt)
Poison/Drug (Interrupt)
Artifact (Normal)
A Message (Normal)
Money (Normal)
Herb/Plant (Normal)
Ordinary Item (Normal)
Tool (Normal)

Character Cards:
A Friend (Interrupt)
Coward (Interrupt)
A God (Interrupt)
Madman (Interrupt)
Aristocrat (Interrupt)
Artisan/Craftsperson (Normal)
A Animal (Normal)
Knight (Normal)
Official (Normal)
Merchant (Normal)
Fisherman/Hunter (Normal)
Dragon (Normal)
Elf (Normal)
Dwarf (Normal)
Stepfather (Normal)
Slave/Servant (Normal)
Peasant (Normal)
Priest/Priestess (Normal)
Stranger (Normal)
Wizard/Sorceress (Normal)
Woodcutter (Normal)

I was also thinking about the role of Interrupt cards. The rule is:
1- If the storyteller mentions something in his/her story which is on a card held by another player, that player can Interrupt.
2- When a storyteller plays a card, he/she may be interrupted by any player who has an Interrupt card whose group matches that of the card that has just been played. *This rule is the one I want to discuss for a moment*

I think Interrupts are special (to me anyway) when designing them. I think when they are played that is a critical juncture in the story for the person playing it. So when I design an Interrput it should represent something spatacular in order for the story to alter the path to a their new ending. It should represent by saying "this card WILL change the story toward my ending". You can look at my examples so far above. I hope you all can understand what I am try to convey.

When I have made progress on my list of possibilities for Events & Aspects I will post them up. I will probably add to the Items and Character list but Place cards are pretty much what I want.

I would also like to here from other OUAT fans with their thoughts, suggestions, comments, or what I had mentioned above. Also maybe you all have card suggestions you would like to share.

Just remember, the word on an Interrupt is an alternative. When you interrupt with an Interrupt, you do NOT have to use what's on the card in the story -- you just pick up and take off wherever you want the story to go, with other cards in your hand. The Interrupt cards just need to have a word so that you have a way to get rid of them if you're already the storyteller (otherwise, you could get stuck as storyteller with a hand full of interrupts, unable to ever finish and win the game!). A lot of people are confused and assume that when you play an interrupt you must also introduce it as an element of the story. (There's nothing to stop you from doing so, just as you could make up and add any element to the story, of course.)

To my mind, this means that you can put words on the interrupt cards that are a little tougher to use, on the theory that if someone is using them not as an interrupt but as a regular card, theyr'e probably doing well in the game.

-John

I did not know that. We have always played it thinking we had to use the word on the Interrupt card. Dang! This rule will be corrected for now on.

Thank you again for the explanation and your reply John.

Oh heavens. Yeah, that should change the way your game moves quite a lot. It's a trump card - but it allows you to use it as a standard card if you're on a story-telling tear.

Of course, you can house-rule something as much as you want; I've just found over the years that adding 'importance' to the Interrupt card just breaks the pace of the communal story.

Doc, if you and your friends enjoy OUaT a good deal and have multiple decks, I'd like to suggest a variant that gets used from time to time by serious freaks o' the game. Mark each of the decks seperately so you can easily tell who owns which card (no, it's not OUaT OMNI...), then shuffle all the cards together. Grab a piece of paper or playing card or something, and put it in the middle of the deck somewhere. You then begin the game as normal. However, you cannot win the game until the cards are below where you put the piece of paper. Whenever you are down to one card, you redraw to the number of cards that you started with.

Also, for those who like playing in a visual style, I suggest playing in a story-board format; whenever a card is played, put it next to the last one until - by the end of the story - you have a grid of cards. This is particularly useful when you play while drinking, as it's easier to remember what characters are out there. When characters get killed off (standard gambit in my games), we tend to crank them 90 degrees to remind us that they're dead at the moment.

And that reminds me. For those of you who can't help being Control Freaks just a little in OUaT games, what strategies do you like to use when you play?

My favorite is probably 'story-within-a-story'. There are a lot of times in which a single person amidst the players has been unable to play during the majority of the game despite her best efforts. Finally, she gets an Interrupt or the Wicked Stepmother shows up, starts telling the story, and notices that many people are down to their last two. This is where you heartlessly introduce a new character who has a story of their own to tell that has bearing on the greater story. Most other players feel compelled to finish that smaller story first if they interrupt, then finish up the bigger one with their 'Happily Ever After' card.

However, by seeding the smaller story with subjects from your own cards THAT YOU DO NOT PLAY UNTIL LATER, you have a great chance of interrupting back into the storyline if you get interrupted yourself.

In fact, seeding the story is a great way to play; say you look at your opening hand and see the Prince. Add the Prince as an element in the story early on without playing the card so that later you can use him to get back into the story.

-Drew Johnson,
proud Atlas Games control freak for almost a decade.