The Hollow woods is a storytelling game from Laurence King Publishing. There are multiple game modes, so the number of players varies a bit, but roughly 2-4 players each use the cards to tell a story.

Components

The game comes with 20 cards and 2 pamphlets. One goes over all the cards and one explains the four different game modes.

The main gimmick of the game is that the art is designed in such a way that the edges of any one card will match up perfectly with any other card. It looks great, and the cards are beautiful. There’s one or two cards that don’t line up quite as cleanly, depending on what’s next to it, but it’s hard to notice unless you’re looking for it.

I love the box. It’s only as big as it needs to be with almost no wasted space. The box is also really pretty, and opens like a book, which is very cute.

Playing The Hollow Woods

There are four different sets of rules that are essentially different games. In the first, you lay out all the cards face down, then each player takes turns turning them over. The player uses the imagery of the card to tell a story, each person picking up where the last one left off. This mode is more of a creative exercise than a game, there’s no way to win or lose and no reward except the satisfaction of telling a cool story with your friends. The rule pamphlet says any number of players can participate in this mode, but since there are only 20 cards I would imagine that puts some kind of cap on the maximum player count.

Game mode 2 is for 2-5 players. Deal 5 cards (or 4, if playing with 5 players) to each player. On their turn, the player plays all of their cards in any order and uses them to tell a story. After everyone has told a story, players vote on which story they liked best.

The next mode is also for 2-5 players. Start by dealing 2 cards face up to each player, specifying one as the beginning and one as the end. Then deal 3 cards (or 2 if 5 players) to each player. Each player then takes a turn playing their cards to fill out their story.

The last mode, for 2-4 players, is the most game-like. Deal an equal number of cards to each player, then each player takes a turn playing a card and telling part of the story based on that card. However, certain cards have special rules. For instance, the ogre card lets you interrupt the story and the unicorn card protects you from the other cards.

Thoughts

If the idea of a storytelling game just doesn’t appeal to you, I don’t think this game will change your mind. While the game is fun, and in my experience even people who aren’t super into storytelling can have a good time, there’s just not enough “game” here to really win anyone over. It might be a better idea to start with something more like Once Upon a Time; the fairy tale theme’s a pretty big turnoff but it does have more gameplay elements.

Because this is a storytelling game, your experience will vary depending on how good you and your friends are at thinking on the spot and what kind of tone everyone is going for. If someone is trying to tell a more serious story while someone else wants to tell a more jokey story, at least one of those people probably isn’t going to have as much fun. It’s not as big of a deal in the two game modes where players are telling individual stories, but it could definitely cause tension in the collaborative modes. Try to make sure everyone’s on the same page going in if you can.

The fourth game mode is a little underwhelming. First, only 6 out of the 20 cards have special rules. Second, the special rules themselves aren’t that great. I’ve already mentioned 2. The werewolf and the goblin both have the sort of “make another player do a silly thing” rules that you see in a lot of party games. I’ve never liked rules like that, they’re all just obnoxious and annoying. The dragon makes a player skip a turn, which is mostly fine, but the grim reaper forces any player of your choice out of the game. This card just seems perfect for starting fights.

I would have preferred that the rules interacted with the story itself more rather than the players. For instance, maybe there’s a card that lets you change something about the story so far, or a card that lets you introduce a weird character detail or plot element that everyone now has to work around or pretend was there the whole time.

Verdict

I give The Hollow Woods 3.5 out of 5 cthulhus. It’s a fun little storytelling experience but there’s not a whole lot to it. You can check it and the other myriorama storytelling games in the series out at the Amazon links below, but remember that we are an Amazon affiliate and if you buy anything from the links provided we will get some $ back.