📖 Story Chain

6–9, 10+
15, 30 min
🌙 Works in the dark

To play story chain in the car, one player starts a story with a single sentence, like "Once there was a dog who wanted to fly." The next player adds one sentence, then the next, around and around the car. Nobody plans ahead; the story goes wherever it goes. This page gives you a first line, read aloud, and a twist when the story gets stuck.

Peabody says the first line of a story.
Each player adds one sentence, going round the car.
Stuck? Tap for a twist. The last player gives it an ending.

🎮 Getting the game ready…

How to play Story Chain, the long way

Tap for an opening and let Peabody read it. The player next to the reader adds the second sentence, and the story goes round the car in the same order every time.

One sentence each, and it has to follow on from the one before. That's the only rule. Silly is good. Sad endings are allowed, but nobody in the car can be in the story by name unless they say yes.

When someone is stuck, tap "Stuck?" for a twist: "Suddenly it started to snow", "Then they found a door in a tree". After a few rounds, a grown-up says "last round", and the last player gives it an ending.

By age

🧸 3–5: Little ones can add a word instead of a sentence: "And then the dog saw a…" "Banana!"

🎒 6–9: Six to nine: one sentence each, and the twist button is theirs to press.

🎧 10+: Big kids can play with a rule: every sentence starts with the next letter of the alphabet, or the story must end where the car is going.

When it goes wrong

Someone keeps ending the story on purpose: endings only happen in the last round.
A story gets scary for a younger child: anyone can say "twist!" and the story turns somewhere friendly.
One player talks for ages: one sentence. A grown-up can count it.

Questions families ask

What if my child can't think of anything?

Let them pass, or tap Stuck? for a twist they can say as their line.

Can we keep the story?

Nothing is written down here. If you want to keep one, a grown-up can tell it back at bedtime.

All 20 cards in the deck

Show them all (for paper players, or to read out yourself)

Once there was a dog who wanted, more than anything, to fly.
The map fell out of the library book, and it was a map of our town.
Every night at midnight, the snowman at the end of the street went for a walk.
The new kid at school had a backpack that hummed.
On the first day of the holidays, the sky turned the colour of lemonade.
Grandpa's old car had a button nobody was allowed to press.
A very small dragon lived in the teapot.
The ice-cream truck came down the street, but it was playing a song nobody had heard before.
When the girl opened her lunchbox, there was a tiny door inside.
The lighthouse keeper's cat could only speak on Tuesdays.
Deep in the forest, there was a tree that grew socks.
The robot woke up in the toy shop and decided to go home.
Every pebble on this beach was warm, except one.
The goldfish had a plan, and tonight was the night.
The bus stopped at a station that wasn't on any map.
Two pigeons were arguing about the best sandwich in the city.
The kite pulled so hard that the boy's feet left the ground.
The bakery's bread had started rising, and it wouldn't stop.
A penguin got on the train with a suitcase and a ticket to the desert.
Under the bed, something was snoring.

Try next

v0.2.0 · Checked 31 October 2026 · Everything you tap stays on this phone. No sign-in, no location, nothing sent. For grown-ups