These fantastic storytelling board games offer a brilliant way to develop narrative skills, boost imagination, and have a proper laugh with the family. From domino-style picture sequences for the tiniest storytellers to sophisticated narrative decks for teenagers and adults, we’ve rounded up 28 of the best storytelling board games that’ll have everyone spinning yarns in no time.
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Storytelling Games For Ages 3-6
These games are perfect for introducing younger children to the joy of storytelling through play.
1. Learning Resources Storytelling Dominoes
Age: 3 years and up
These colourful, tactile dominoes inspire young imaginations with 75 double-sided pieces featuring printed sentence starters on one side and illustrations on the other. Children can mix, match, and combine 150 story elements to create unique tales every time, developing vocabulary and language skills essential for building confidence in reading and writing. The included multilingual Parent Activity Guide is packed with ideas to help children develop their storytelling skills through interactive play, making guided learning incredibly accessible for parents and educators alike.
2. Early Learning Centre Create A Story! Game
Age: 3 years and up
This award-winning game from Early Learning Centre includes a spinner, 5 fabric bags, and 62 story counters featuring animals, characters, emotions, and scenes – all made from sustainably sourced card. Players spin the spinner three times, draw corresponding story counters from the bags, and create unique narratives by combining different settings, characters, and emotions. The words on the back of the counters help develop reading skills, while the game itself builds vocabulary, language skills, and creative thinking, earning it the ‘Teaching Resources’ category award in the Creative Play Awards.
3. HEADU Invent Fairy Tales Storytelling Game
Age: 3 years and up
This enchanting set of flash cards invites children to dive into fairy-tale adventures where classic tales come alive through mix-and-match characters. Going beyond typical toddler toys, this storytelling resource encourages children to craft unique narratives while boosting speech and language development as they tell their stories. With memory and sorting challenges built into the gameplay, children enhance their visual memory while relishing timeless fairy-tale moments, allowing their imagination to soar as they weave their own magical tales.
4. Story Box: Create Your Own Fairy Tales
Age: 3 years and up
This wonderful game allows your family to create its own fairy tales with a contemporary twist through 20 puzzle pieces printed on both sides, which can be interchanged to allow for all kinds of plots. Stretching to an impressive 8-foot-long fairytale puzzle when fully assembled, the game offers three alternative endings for maximum storytelling flexibility. Children can craft countless scenarios, from rescuing a missing elf before the big, bad wolf eats him to deciding whether the witch is offering a poisoned apple or might actually help by magically shrinking the giant pink rabbit terrorising your castle.
5. Build a Story Cards Magical Castle
Age: 3 years and up
This captivating set features 36 colourful wordless cards illustrated by favourite Barefoot Books artist Miriam Latimer, designed to spark imaginations with dragons, castles, magic potions, and more. More than just a game, it includes instructions for over 30 different activities created by an education specialist to teach children basic storytelling and writing skills, with a special focus on social-emotional learning. Children will delight in piecing together creative stories using the beautifully illustrated cards, developing narrative abilities that will serve them well throughout their education.
6. TOMY Games Shake Your Stories
Age: 4 years and up
This dynamic storytelling game features over 150 varied sounds to stimulate imagination, with players shaking the device to hear sounds that inspire incredible stories and epic adventures. The game includes multiple ways to play, with different sounds tailored for both younger children (4-6 years) and family play (6+ years), making it versatile for different age groups. With adjustable volume control and options for both structured storytelling turns and open discovery play, this entertaining game makes an ideal birthday or Christmas gift for families with children aged 4 years and above.
7. A Roll of the Dice: Enchanted Forest
Age: 4 years and up
This lavish hardback adventure comes with a fold-out map, dice encased in the front cover, and a counter, letting children roll the dice to travel through an enchanted forest in a storytelling quest. Players help a little elf named Briar Luck on her perilous journey to find the Jewel of Everlasting Life, using dice rolls to overcome challenges like crossing rushing rivers or getting past goblins whenever they hit a “Do not pass!” square. With gold foil detailing on the cover, this beautifully crafted quest with a twist provides the perfect interactive storytelling experience for readers aged 4 and up.
8. Campfire Chatmallows Story-Telling Set
Age: 4 years and up
This innovative storytelling set features 12 squishy Chatmallows with story starter icons (48 icons total), 4 Chatmallow sticks, and a pretend campfire with flickering LED light to encourage imaginative play. Children create unique stories by mixing and matching story starter icons, stacking Chatmallows on their sticks, and then telling a story using each icon they’ve selected. As kids create and share stories, they develop essential skills including speaking and listening, vocabulary building, imagination, creativity, problem-solving, and self-confidence, making this set suitable for learning through play at home or in the classroom.
9. Spark Cards Sequence Cards for Storytelling
Age: 4 years and up
These educational sequence cards improve multiple skills, including verbal communication, expressive and receptive language, social pragmatic skills, and proper sequencing through storytelling. The durable, high-quality, colourful cards measure 4.5 x 4.5 inches, feature a laminated finish for use with dry erase markers, and come with stand-up custom tab dividers for easy accessibility. A complete manual with question prompts makes these versatile cards adaptable for speech therapists, ABA therapists, educators, or parents, targeting multiple language goals including storytelling, critical thinking, vocabulary development, predicting, problem-solving, and reasoning skills.
10. Petit Collage Little Library Storytelling Box
Age: 5 years and up
This charming Little Library Storytelling Box invites children to dream up fantastical stories with 40 double-sided storytelling coins featuring awesome astronauts, brave cowboys, daring aviators, silly octopuses, and more to inspire boundless imagination. Once their creative juices are flowing, children can use the included 10 mini blank notebooks to draw or write down their tales, preserving their stories for future enjoyment. The entire set comes packaged in a beautiful keepsake book box that opens to reveal a delightful library scene, making it both a creative tool and a treasure to keep.
11. Story Path by Kate Baker, Madalena Matoso
Age: 5 years and up
This innovative twist on the classic quest tale invites young readers to travel along a story path and discover an enchanted world where fairy princesses battle monsters from the deep and vampire cats zoom through the galaxy on silver unicorns. With a simple, easy-to-follow structure and bold, quirky imagery by award-winning illustrator Madalena Matoso, children choose their own characters, settings, and plots at every turn. The interactive format puts storytelling control firmly in children’s hands with the playful prompt: “Who will you meet? Where will you go? What will you do next? It’s all up to you…”
12. Campfire Stories Deck For Kids
Age: 5 years and up
This creative storytelling deck features 50 game cards divided into two sets: 25 character cards (adjective + noun) and 25 action cards (verb + object and/or adverb), each individually illustrated with 25 animal heroes. To play, young storytellers pick one card from each set and use the prompts to create their own imaginative tales, all firmly grounded in the natural world with fun and furry prompts to spark children’s imaginations. Additional cards provide helpful storytelling tips for families and describe various ways to play, including a collaborative approach where the entire group contributes to building a story together.
13. Janod Enchanted Stories Narrative Game
Age: 5 years and up
This enchanting storytelling game from French brand Janod was developed in collaboration with Hachette Éditions, specialists in educational games for children. Players take on the role of storytellers who must choose between two cards to decide the next part of a collective story, while other players bet on the storyteller’s choice and try to guess the next twist. The game includes 80 beautifully illustrated cards, 2 pre-cut sheets for tokens and a balance to assemble, and comprehensive rules in 7 languages, with each game lasting approximately 20 minutes and accommodating 2 to 7 players.
14. Rory’s Story Cubes Dice Game
Age: 6 years and up
This classic storytelling game features nine dice from the Classic edition that create endless storytelling possibilities with a simple roll. Players throw the dice to reveal nine symbols, then use them as inspiration to tell their own unique stories, combining items, characters, places, and animals into creative tales. The game’s tagline captures its essence perfectly: “Once upon a time, there was a game where your imagination had no limits, epic, fabulous, or paranormal adventures… roll the cubes, make a story!” Now presented in new, eco-friendly packaging, this pocket-sized treasure continues to inspire creativity in players of all ages.
15. Paul Lamond The Story Telling Game
Age: 6 years and up
This engaging game is perfect for children who love telling tall, short, fairy, or scary stories, making it a bestseller for kids with vivid imaginations. The gameplay is simple yet effective: each player starts with five words, and when the clock starts, the first player begins telling a story using one of their words, then it’s the next player’s turn to incorporate one of their words into the ongoing narrative. With its focus on quick thinking and creative storytelling, this game makes a great birthday or Christmas gift that will have everyone spinning tales and exercising their imaginative muscles.
Storytelling Games For Ages 7+
As children grow, these more sophisticated storytelling games offer new challenges and creative opportunities.
16. Poetry for Neanderthals by Exploding Kittens
Age: 7 years and up
From the creators of Exploding Kittens and the mind behind The Oatmeal comes this hilarious word game where players must get teammates to guess words and phrases using only single-syllable words. Slip up with multi-syllable words and you’ll get bopped with the included 2-foot inflatable “No!” stick. The game includes 200 double-sided cards, 2 game boards, the inflatable stick (with repair patch for “extra bopping”), and a sand timer, making it perfect for 2-6 players aged 7 and up. Easy to learn and endlessly entertaining, this game is ideal for family game nights, parties, travel, or camping, delivering prehistoric fun with its unique blend of wordplay and slapstick humour.
17. What’s the Story? Storytelling Cards
Age: 7 years and up
This multicultural storytelling starter kit features 60 beautifully illustrated cards showcasing places, people, objects, and phrases from around the world. Children pick cards to see what and who they’ll encounter and create stories as they explore different cultures, with variations included for different levels of language development, plus a helpful glossary. Designed to enhance language development, encourage critical thinking, and spark children’s imagination, this 2022 Tillywig Award Winner is a must-have for every little storyteller seeking to broaden their horizons while developing narrative skills.
18. Magic and Fairy-tale Storytelling Dice
Age: 7 years and up
These beautifully illustrated wooden dice revive the art of storytelling with nine dice featuring magical fairy tale elements that inspire imaginative, funny, and bizarre stories. Players can craft tales beginning with traditional openings like “Once upon a time there was a beautiful princess, who lived all alone in an enchanted forest with only a top hat and a magnifying glass for company” and then continue with whatever their dice reveal, perhaps “One fine day, a singing frog on a broomstick flew past and…” This perfect family game stimulates imagination in children and adults alike, making it ideal for cosy storytelling sessions by a log fire.
19. 2 Cents Improv: Storytelling Card Game
Age: 8 years and up
This fast-paced improvisational storytelling game challenges players to create the most outrageous stories in just 60 seconds by drawing cards and using the words on them to craft hilarious tales. Players take turns adding their own “two cents” to the stories, making them a riotous mix of wit, imagination, and absurdity guaranteed to produce fits of laughter. Beyond entertainment, the game strengthens relationships by creating shared experiences that can be reminisced about in the future, deepening connections between players while remaining family-friendly and appropriate for all ages, making it perfect for college gatherings, relaxed game nights, birthday parties, reunions, camping trips, and holiday celebrations.
20. The Mystery Mansion: Storytelling Card Game
Age: 8 years and up
This atmospheric storytelling card game revives the Victorian craze for ‘myrioramas’ with twenty picture cards that can be placed in any order to create seamless scenes with almost infinite combinations and endless storyscaping possibilities. Players follow the corridor through a mysterious country house, building a perpetual panorama populated by its inhabitants and their secrets, discovering sinister suits of armour, the aftermath of strange accidents, butlers with grudges, and glamorous couples where revenge is never far from the surface. With countless ways to arrange the cards and millions of stories to tell, each turn reveals a new adventure waiting to unfold.
21. The Hollow Woods: Storytelling Card Game
Age: 8 years and up
This captivating storytelling card game revives the Victorian ‘myriorama’ concept with 20 picture cards that can be placed in any order to create seamless, continuous scenes with over two quintillion storyscaping possibilities. Players can build panoramas stretching up to 170cm, traversing an enchanted landscape populated by fire-breathing dragons, magical unicorns, and sinister shadow figures. The distinctive black and white artwork creates a hauntingly beautiful aesthetic that invites players to craft eerie yet enchanting narratives as they explore the mysterious Hollow Woods, where each turn of a card reveals a new adventure.
22. The Endless Odyssey: A Mythic Storytelling Game
Age: 8 years and up
This imaginative storytelling card game continues the ‘myriorama’ tradition with 20 picture cards that can be arranged in any order to create seamless scenes with infinite storytelling possibilities. Players enter a strange, mythical land populated by winged horses and vengeful gods, where one-eyed monsters feast on human flesh and unexpected treasures await discovery. The cards invite storytellers to weave tales of heroes receiving favourable prophecies while watching out for the sinister boatman waiting to transport them across the river, a journey from which no one has ever returned. With its mythological theme and endless combinations, each game session poses the intriguing question: “Where will the story take you?”
23. My Little Pony Tails of Equestria Story Telling Game
Age: 9 – 12 years
This core rulebook serves as the first step in a role-playing game set in the beloved world of My Little Pony, where players create and roleplay as pony heroes exploring and seeking adventure throughout Equestria. Guided by a Game Master, players adventure together and use the “magic of friendship” to overcome obstacles while learning more about each other and the world around them. Armed with core skills and special abilities, players forge deeper friendships as they help one another in the whimsical world they create through collaborative storytelling and creative problem-solving.
24. What Next: Cooperative Adventure Board Game
Age: 10 years and up
This innovative cooperative game puts players in charge of creating and resolving exciting adventure scenarios as a team. Rather than competing against each other, players collaborate to overcome challenges and drive the narrative forward through consensus and creativity. The cooperative nature makes it perfect for building teamwork skills, whilst the adventure focus appeals to children who enjoy action-packed storytelling.
25. Atlas Games Once Upon a Time Card Game
Age: 12 years and up
This classic storytelling card game challenges players to weave traditional fairy tale elements into a coherent story while trying to steer the narrative toward their own secret ending. Players take turns as storytellers, playing cards that represent characters, items, aspects, or events, with rivals looking to interrupt and take over the tale. The competitive element adds excitement, whilst the fairy tale theme provides a familiar structure for creative exploration.
26. A Little More Conversation: 300+ Questions
Age: 12 years and up
This thought-provoking question card game encourages players to share personal stories and perspectives in response to intriguing prompts. Each card features a question designed to spark meaningful conversation and narrative sharing about experiences, dreams, and values. It’s particularly valuable for families with teens, creating space for authentic connection through guided storytelling in a low-pressure format.
27. The Story Oracle: A Creative Writing Inspiration Deck
Age: 13 years and up
This sophisticated storytelling deck serves as a creative muse for aspiring writers and storytellers. The beautifully illustrated cards provide prompts related to character development, plot twists, settings, and thematic elements to overcome writer’s block. Perfect for teens with literary ambitions, this deck functions equally well as a solo brainstorming tool or as a group game for creative writing clubs.
28. The Moth Presents: A Game of Storytelling
Age: 13 years and up
Based on the renowned storytelling organisation and podcast, this game challenges players to share authentic personal narratives inspired by thematic prompts. Cards provide storytelling themes and techniques, whilst a timer keeps stories concise and focused for maximum impact. It’s brilliant for developing public speaking confidence and narrative crafting skills that translate to academic and professional success.
You may also be interested in these storytelling activities for kids and this list of the best books on creative writing for more ideas.
Summary
The best storytelling board games offer more than just entertainment, they develop crucial communication skills, boost creativity, and create meaningful connections between players. Whether you’re looking for simple picture-based games for preschoolers or sophisticated narrative challenges for teenagers, there’s a storytelling game to match every age and interest. These games provide screen-free entertainment whilst building skills that benefit children academically and socially.
What’s your favourite storytelling game? Have you tried any from our list? Drop a comment below with your family’s top picks. We’d love to hear which ones sparked the most imagination in your home!
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