Recently GameWright sent me a few games to take a look at which is always good news around the house. Anytime my girls can get their hands on some new games to play with the family they are all in. It’s also instant feedback  as my girls are not shy if they don’t like something. My kids are 7 and 8 so most of GameWright’s lineup is right in their wheel house. Of the games I received the one that looked the least like a traditional game was Rory’s Story Cubes Actions. I was a little hesitant to put this one in front of the girls because I wasn’t sure they would enjoy it. I couldn’t of been more wrong.

While technically this is a stand alone expansion  to the original Rory’s Story Cubes you don’t need that set to play. The first thing you’re going to notice upon opening this set is you get nine dice in the box and pretty much nothing else. In fact there are really no rules except the four or so paragraphs on the inside cover which I would term more suggestions on how to play then anything else. The gamer in me immediately thought I was missing something inside the set when what I was clearly missing was the ability to think outside the box.

As I was examining the box my 7 year old walked into my den and saw the box. I told her this was a new game and we were going to play it later. She looked at it for about 30 seconds and said “Oh I know this, you roll the dice and make up a story.” I asked her if she had played it at school or elsewhere and she replied “no, I just looked at the box and figured it out.”

Score one for my youngest daughter.

So what then in Rory’s Story cubes? Technically it’s a game to develop creative thinking but in practice it is anything your imagination can dream up.  Each cube as they are called, they are in fact large 6 sided dice, has an image on it conveying an action. Some of them are clear as to what that action is while others are open to a little interpretation.

You roll these nine cubes and you then start out by saying “Once upon a time…” and from there you look at the pictures on the cubes and create a story. For example one of the cubes has a picture of a face peeking around a corner and another one has someone lifting weights. So you might start “Once upon a time a girl name Sally heard strange noises coming from downstairs. She crept down the stairs and peeked around the corner to see her baby brother lifting a set of heavy weights over his head.”

I’ve just summed up the simplicity and the genius that is Rory’s Story Cubes. Rory’s is more an educational tool then a game, but it presents that education in the disguise of a game that turns out to be a lot of laughs for everyone involved.  The lack of a set of rules but some suggestions on how to use the cubes  fits right into the purpose of the product, creative thought.

Some of the suggestions include picking a TV show or movie and then using characters from that to tell a story. Telling a story using the opposite actions depicted or for even more fun acting out the actions as you spin your yarn.  My girls even came up with a version, telling their story with barbie dolls and acting it out. For those asking if there is an actual game here for adults the answer to that lies in how creative you are. You could use these cubes and your imagination to create any number of games that would liven up the most boring of dinner parties.

As a parent it was amazing to see with each new roll of the cubes my girls becoming more expressive and better storytellers while laughing up a storm. While Rory’s might technically not be a game in the literal sense that there is no score, winners or losers. The game itself is the real winner in what it accomplishes in such an easy manner. I had planned to donate these cubes to my girls school after finishing this review but there is no way my kids are going to let that happen.

Final Score: A