Okay, this is exactly like the Narration Game, only totally different. In the Narration Game, everyone plays the role of the Narrator and just tells a story like a normal storyteller would. In the Everybody Plays a Character Game, though, everybody... um... plays a character. And takes turns playing the Narrator. And... well, you’ll see.

Setup

Okay, okay, we talked about a lot of this in the Narration game, so I’m mostly going to just tell you about the bits that are different—and there's a lot!

First off, you’ll start very much the same way as in the Narration Game. Get folks together and pick a story from the Story Book. But wait! Now you get to pick who you want to play from the list of characters in the story you chose! Take a look at the available characters (or any of them, if you want to live dangerously) and pick the one that you like the best. Or the one that’s left over because you took too long to decide.

Take that character’s standee or card or however you make it work, and put that in front of you. That’s you now! Look at you! You’re also going to need the spinner (if you’re using spinners) and puppet (come on, use puppets!) for your character and keep them nearby.

Once you’ve got your characters, review the Goals for you and your team in the chosen story. This is how you want the story to end in order to win, so make sure you angle the story in that direction!

When everyone’s settled, deal out five cards (or four, if there are more than five players) to everyone, and give the microphone standee to the person you’d like to start off as Narrator. They'll read the Introduction of the story out loud to everyone, and you’re off!

Playing Characters

Remember how in the Narration game, anyone could say anything about anything, and make any character do whatever they want whenever they want? Well, in the Everybody Plays A Character Game, everybody... plays a character! That means that whoever’s playing that character has final say over what they do and say—nobody else can make them do or say something you don’t want them to! (Mostly...)

There will, of course, be plenty of characters in your story that aren’t controlled by a single player—you can call those “NPCs” or “Side Characters” or whatever you like, and any player can say how they behave and how they act. You can bring them in at will, using a card if you like, but that’s not required.

As we talked about in the Bits and Pieces section, each character has their own spinner (or range of probabilities, or table you roll on, or whatever) that says how likely it is to get a “Yes” or “No” answer when they’re called to spin for something. Try to keep the numbers to a minimum, so people don’t feel like they’re working on a spreadsheet or something, but do what you need to do.

Each character also has a set of special Powers or abilities that they can (or must!) use when they’re playing in the story. Some are good, some are bad, and some are just there. Your standee (or card, or character sheet, etc) will have those Powers written on the back so you can easily reference them. Some work automatically (for better or worse), and some will require a spin (or roll or card pull, you get the idea, I’m gonna stop now), and they should always clearly say which, ideally right next to the cool name you gave them. (Note: playing a Power will always beat a card that someone plays, so use them wisely!)

How and when can you use those powers? Well:

• You can use your power whenever the power says you can. (obvs, yeah)
• You can always use your power when the Narrator asks you a question.

Did we really need a bulleted list for two things? Probably not. Am I going to change that? Also probably not.

Remember: whenever you play a card or use one of your Powers, the Narrator takes control of the story again, asking questions and whatnot. (Unless they forget, then get away with whatever you can until they remember!)

The Fickle Finger of Fate

So, about those spinners. The chances of getting a “Yes” when you spin should not be very high, in general. In the original game, the odds of getting a “No” ranged from the (rare) 50/50, to 10 times out of 11 (91%!!). Feel free to tailor this to your game, but make sure it’s a linear distribution—less fancily, don’t add dice together or anything, just make it a straight spin or roll or however you do.

(Players can also always choose the “No” or the bad result of a spin without actually spinning, if they think it might be more interesting or funny or good for the story to do so!)

Okay, so, if you want to win, and spinning has a good chance of making you fail, you don’t want to spin if you can help it, right? So when do you have to spin? How about another nice bulleted list?

• Spin whenever your character’s power says that you have to.
• Spin whenever your character tries to do something that affects another character.
  • (If they’re trying to stop you, you might have to do a SPIN OFF!)
• Spin whenever your character tries to do something out of the ordinary (for them), dangerous, scary, risky, or any other time when failure might be interesting or funny. (This is usually up to the Narrator.)
• Spin whenever the Narrator tells you to. (Hey!)
• Spin when you play your last card to try to end the story.
• Have a SPIN OFF! when you and another player both play a card in order to do something to each other.

That seems like a lot to keep track of, but that’s mostly the Narrator’s job, so don’t worry about it too much. I mean, unless you’re the Narrator. Which you will be at some point, probably. Definitely. Just wait...

SPIN OFF! A SPIN OFF! just means that both players spin their spinners—if one gets a “Yes” and the other gets a “No”, the “Yes” player wins, and gets to do what they wanted to do. If they both get a “No”, they both fail in some hilarious way. If they both get a “Yes”, they both do the thing, which is probably even messier than failing, and therefore more hilarious.

When Things Go Wrong

So, you failed a spin (or chose to fail) and now something bad is going to happen. (This is me sitting down on a chair backwards to do some straight shooting with you.) What exactly does that mean?

That means (all together!) that the Narrator decides what happens to you!

Whoa, that seems like a lot of power to put in the hands of one player! Especially when they’ll also be playing a character in the story! Well, yeah, that’s the idea. If you’re the Narrator, and something bad happens to someone on the other team, feel free to make it as bad as you want. If they’re on your team, though, you still get to decide—they still have to fail, but maybe it won’t be so bad? But remember, your turn to get yours will be coming soon, so... just be cool, man. Always try to err on the side of being funny, not mean.

Okay, but really, what kind of bad things can happen? Well, this is a cartoony comedy game, so nothing that bad. (Your game’s theme or tone may differ, so these are more guidelines than “rules”.)

First off, you can’t kill off or seriously injure a character that someone’s playing. (Side Characters, though...) The worst thing you can really do is temporarily remove them from the scene in a fictionally appropriate way—that is, if they get blown up, maybe they just go flying off-screen for a while, or get covered with soot and have their beak spin around until they can get their feathers back on properly. Not so bad, right?

When you’re out of a scene like that, you can’t play cards, advance the story, or work to achieve your goals. Any other player can bring back your character, though, by introducing them back into the story somehow, and if nobody thinks to do that, you get to come back in automatically when the Narrator role passes to another player. (Whaaaaaaat?)