RULES
For 2 to 8 players
Discover the rules 👇
What is Crack Story ?
Crack Story is a card game where players use their imaginations to concoct crazy stories together, with the cards they are dealt dictating the first letter of each new word that is added.
Object of the game: the first player to get rid of all their cards wins the game. It’s as easy as that! Well, almost...
Before adding your own word to the story, you’ll have to recite the whole story from start to finish without making any mistakes... But beware! If your memory fails you and you shorten it, forget or change a single word, you’ll have to pick up a card instead!
Not to mention the ACTION cards that can change the course of the game.
1 PECK OF CARDS:
The LETTER cards (basic, play again, covert, +1, joker) and ACTION cards (Story, Reverse Swap).
GETTING STARTED
The chosen dealer shuffles the deck and deals 8 cards to each player. The remainder of the deck is then placed face down in the centre of the table to form the DRAW PILE.
The dealer gets the story started by placing one of their LETTER cards face up on the table and saying a word that begins with the letter on the card.
Play then continues in a clockwise direction.
The second player repeats the first word of the story, and then adds a new word starting with a letter on one of the cards in their hand.
Play then continues with the third player, who must recite the first and second words before adding a new word of their own, and so on.
Rule #1: Before playing a LETTER card, the player must recite all the words in the story so far without making any mistakes. If they are unable to do so, they must pick up 1 card from the DRAW PILE and their turn ends.
THE BASIC LETTER CARDS
The player adds 1 word to the story, starting with a basic LETTER card or JOKER card. The Joker allows you to announce a word that starts with the letter of your choice.
Rule #2: Players may not add more than 3 consecutive adverbs (e.g. loudly, slowly, cheerfully) or adjectives (e.g. big, pretty, funny) to the story.
PLAY AGAIN LETTER CARDS
The player adds 1 word to the story, starting with the letter on their PLAY AGAIN letter card.
If they wish (there’s no obligation whatsoever), they can immediately play again, either adding 1 more word to the story by playing any LETTER card (BASIC, PLAY AGAIN, COVERT, +1 or JOKER), or playing an ACTION card (REVERSE, SWAP or CRACK STORY).
Rule #3: If a player attempts to add a grammatically incorrect or incoherent word to the story (e.g. Sally Drew A Cow Dance Brazil), they must take back the card they were attempting to play and also pick up a card from the DRAW PILE. Play then moves on to the next player.
In the event of a disagreement about a word being valid or grammatically correct, players raise their hands to vote on whether or not that word should be accepted.
WHAT ARE THE PENALTY CARDS FOR ?
Some letters are trickier to play than others : these are the Letter cards marked +1.
The player adds 1 word to the story, starting with the letter on their +1 letter card.
They then pick up a card from the DRAW PILE and hand it to the player of their choice.
Rule #4: When two separate words are combined using an apostrophe, the very first letter is the one that counts.
For example: She’ll (letter S); Who’s (letter W); Mustn’t (Letter M).
COVERT LETTER CARDS
The player adds 1 word to the story, starting with the letter on their COVERT letter card.
They then immediately turn the COVERT letter card face down on the table.
STORY CARD
The most cunning card you can play: it brings the story to a close whilst simultaneously penalising one or more players!
When a player plays a CRACK STORY card:
- They hand 3 cards from the DRAW PILE to the player(s) of their choice (either handing all 3 cards to just 1 player or sharing them out between 2 or 3 players).
- The current story ends: all the cards that were used for the story are gathered up and placed next to the DRAW PILE.
Rule #5: ACTION cards should be placed next to the DRAW PILE (not alongside the LETTER cards that are being used to tell the story). There’s no need to recite the story when playing an ACTION card.
ACTION CARDS
REVERSE CARD
When a player plays a REVERSE card, the direction of play is reversed (if play was moving in a clockwise direction, it switches to anti-clockwise, and vice versa).
SWAP CARD
The player who plays the SWAP card swaps hands with the player of their choice.
Warning: if a player ends with the SWAP card, they hand the other player victory on a plate instead of winning themselves. Not exactly to be advised ;)
Reminder: ACTION cards should be placed next to the DRAW PILE. There’s no need to recite the story when playing an ACTION card.
CONTINUING THE GAME
EVERYONE’S STUCK. NOW WHAT?
If everyone in turn has got the story wrong and has had to pick up a card, the story is abandoned. All the cards that were used for the story are gathered up and placed in a pile next to the DRAW PILE.
The player who was the first to pick up a card starts a new story and the game resumes.
WHAT IF A PLAYER IS TOO SLOW?
If the other players think that a player is taking too long to give an answer, they can start counting down by yelling: “5,4,3,2,1: Crack On!”. If the player fails to give an answer before the end of the countdown is reached, they have to pick up a card from the DRAW PILE and play moves on to the next player.
HOW IS EACH ROUND WON?
The first person to play their last card wins the round.
All the cards are then gathered up and shuffled in preparation for the next round.
The player who won the previous round starts the new round.
WINNING THE GAME
Three rounds are played to determine the overall winner.
OUR CUSTOMERS ALSO PLAY
