Smalltown Tales

What's Smalltown about?

Unlock your writing and storytelling potential with Smalltown Tales, the card game that guides you in crafting captivating narratives. Players collaborate to create facinating characters, captivating plots, and immersive settings using expert writing and storytelling techniques. Unlike prompt-based games, Smalltown Tales empowers you with professional advice, giving you the tools to build engaging scenes and weave them into a cohesive, compelling story from beginning to end.

On each turn you and fellow players cook up scenes packed with imagination and creativity, weaving them into one epic tale. It's all about putting your heads together and seeing where your storytelling skills take you.

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How To Play

Start by picking your favorite genre and one or more plot structures.

With seven genres and 36 plot structures, Smalltown Tales adapts to any mood, skill level, age group, or audience.

Select the standard game or, from several professionally authored episodes packed with thematic character backstories, settings, and plots.

Consult the expert advice on each card to create fascinating, yet relatable characters; actions that highlight your character’s desires, values, and struggles; and create immersive settings that bring your story world to life - drawing in fellow players to your narrative.

Using the Story cards above, a player might create the following scene narrative:

Dr. Dawn has a problem. She's been trying to pay off her remaining student loans by selling aftermarket organs, aftermarket meaning the corpses contributing didn't agree to it. Dr. Dawn knows what she's doing is technically illegal, but it's not like anyone would ever complain—until they did. Dr. Dawn just got a nasty note threatening to expose her crimes if she doesn't return the liver she removed yesterday morning. She would happily do that except she has two problems. The signer of the note was incinerated this morning and the liver is already on it's way to New York City.

- An actual impromptu response from a member of Authortunities Hub

Smalltown Tales offers both cooperative and competitive gameplay.

In cooperative mode, players craft narratives while building on shared plotlines, aiming to complete the genre's story structure together.

In competitive mode, players earn Story Points by creating scenes and collaborating. Each scene's value is determined by the Story card values. The three cards above would earn a player eight Story Points.

A game typically has six scenes per player before it concludes - the perfect amount for building then bringing your story to its conclusion.

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FAQs

What makes Smalltown Tales unique?

Each week our community is adding original content to Smalltown Tales.

Smalltown Tales is a community-driven game with input from authors, artists, and educators. Each Story card is like having a writing coach or storytelling mentor, guiding you and your fellow players as you create scenes and stitch together a narrative masterpiece. With five card categories focusing on characters, plots, settings, and collaboration, this game turns your musing into a beautifully coherent tale—complete with engaging twists that keeps everyone smiling.

Do you love writing or telling stories? Join our gated alorithm-free online community for sharing stories and story crafting tips using Smalltown Tales with others at Authortunities Hub

Who is this game for?

Smalltown Tales is perfect for budding novelists, storytellers, writers, teachers, students, improv enthusiasts, homeschoolers, and families. With its community input, this game enhances storytelling skills, livens up classrooms, conquers writer’s block, and adds excitement to family game nights.

What themes and genres can it cover?

Smalltown Tales is versatile, fitting virtually any theme or literary genre. Choose the standard game or dive into curated episodes from award winning authors tailored to specific genres like comedy, mystery, drama, horror, or romance. With 36 plot structures across 7 genres—mix and match for endless storytelling possibilities.

How does it help me create scenes and a story?

Smalltown Tales mentoring advice guides you through the three pillars of compelling scene creation, offering proven plot development techniques. With collaborative gameplay, it enhances everyone’s creativity and imagination, making storytelling a shared, enriching experience.

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Creating Fascinating Characters

Character cards help you explore your characters' deepest desires and fears, making them not just interesting but relatable.

These cards keep your characters fascinating in every scene

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Crafting Captivating Plots

Activity cards guide you in crafting scenes that spotlight your characters, revealing their conflicts and personalities

Activity cards highlight your character's life.

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Vibrant Settings

Setting cards offer tips to make your story world vivid and real. They're designed to spark your imagination and inspire new creative ideas, not to impose strict rules.

Setting cards bring your story world come to life.

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Enhanced Collaboration

Enhance cards introduce three important storytelling techniques—Prolonging, Expanding, and Subplot.

• Prolonging a scene with existing characters enriches its depth and significance.
• Expanding a scene introduces new characters, activities, and settings that harmonize with the initial theme.
• Subplot introduces a parallel set of activities and optional settings, potentially leading to plot twists.

These cards can be played by any player on any story, allowing everyone to contribute to and enrich each other's narratives, creating a unique and exciting story.

The Enhance cards encourage collaboration, allowing everyone to contribute to your story.

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Crafting a Cohesive Story

Plot Structure cards help you organize your narrative from start to finish, ensuring a smooth, logical flow. With 36 unique plot structures spanning 7 genres, you'll never run out of fresh story ideas.

Plot Structure cards help you organize your story from beginning to end.

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Endless Replay Possibilities

Beyond the standard game, Smalltown Tales offers ready-made episodes curated by our community of writers. From dramas to comedies, explore a wide range of genres and storylines set in Smalltown. Here are some examples:

Speculative Fiction

Bitter Suite Revenge, Dark Speculative Fiction, 1 to 4 players, Written by Angela Yuriko Smith. Based on her novel Bitter Suites.

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Best Laid Plans, Speculative Climate Fiction, 1 to 4 players, Written by Anthony St. George.

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Comedy

The Delearium Debacle, Comedy, 2 to 4 players, Written by Stephen L. Schwartz.

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Science Fiction

Neuralcom Nightmares, 1 to 4 players, Written by Stephen L. Schwartz

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Children of Neuralcom, Young Adult Fiction, 2 to 4 players, 2 to 4 Teams, Written by Stephen L. Schwartz

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Fantasy

• Seeking an Author.

Mystery

Double Dutch Death, Cooperative or Competitive, 1 to 4 players, Written by Natalie Damore

Read Double Dutch Death's Captivating Prologue!

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Romance

• Seeking an Author.

Horror

• In Process.

Create Your Own Episode

Unleash your creativity by designing your own episodes. Choose a genre, theme, and mix in your favorite characters, activities, and settings. It's your chance to tell the stories you've always wanted to explore, shaped by the unique creativity of everyone involved. Download the "Creating an Original Episode" guide for inspiration and join our community of story enthusiasts.

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Satisfying Solo Mode

Solo play in Smalltown Tales offers a richly rewarding experience. Whether creating your own characters, theme, and genre, or exploring a curated episode, you'll sharpen your storytelling skills within a flexible framework. Immerse yourself in dynamic scenes, uncover characters' motivations, and enjoy a therapeutic journey through roleplaying.

Below is a one-player example using the SciFi episode, Neuralcom Nightmares.

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Storytelling Events and Workshops

Smalltown Tales has a simple framework that’s perfect for sponsoring engaging workshops and classroom activities. It will be featured in several upcoming events focused on gamified scene creation and storytelling:

2024 Workshops Featuring Smalltown Tales:

• October: RWA Annual Conference, Austin, TX | Romance Writers Association. Smalltown Tales was featured in a workshop where writers and educators collaboratively created six-scene stories.

• October: Finding Your Best Writing Strategy (Online) | Celebrating Authors Summit. This online event features writes from various backgrounds where they collaboratively created a six-scene story.

• November: Horror Storytelling Workshop, Plano, TX | Authortunities, Local Authors.

• December: Smalltown Tales Storytelling Tournament | Authortunities Hub, Prizes include $50 Gift Card, Free Copies of Smalltown Tales, and more. Join Authortunities Hub for details. Watch the recorded competition! Editors at DreamForge Maganize and Weird Fiction Quarterly were our guest judges.

2025 Workshops Featuring Smalltown Tales:

• January: Family Game Night, Rockwall, TX | Rockwall Public Library.

• March: Texas Storytelling Festival, Denton, TX | Featured Workshop.

• May: Sleuthfest, St. Petersburg, FL | Mystery Writers of America.

Collaborative Classroom Storytelling Experience

Inspire 36+ students to create compelling and cohesive stories through collaborative storytelling and scene-building, all within a 55-minute classroom session. Download the free educators guide/presentation and student handouts. PowerPoint presentation with animation available upon request.

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Embrace Your Passion

Smalltown Tales is easy to learn, approachable by a wide audience, and a blast to play. Whether with family, friends, students, or solo, start crafting unforgettable tales today.

Download the free episodes, classroom material, and view the action shots below!

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