Story Chain — Fortunately, Unfortunately rules and how to play
Story Chain is a collaborative storytelling game for 3–20 players in which each player adds one line to a shared story, alternating between lines that begin "Fortunately" and lines that begin "Unfortunately".
- Players
- 3–20 players
- Length
- ~15 minutes
- Type
- Creative
- Type
- Relaxed
Runs in your browser · no download · no account
Story Chain is the oldest improv exercise there is, wearing a party hat. Someone starts a story. The next person makes it better, and has to begin with the word "Fortunately". The person after that ruins it, and has to begin with "Unfortunately". Repeat until the story has nowhere left to go, and then go there anyway.
The alternation is what makes it a game rather than a conversation. You do not get to choose whether your line is good news — the phone tells you, and it is your problem to make the swing land. Rescuing a story from a talking goat is a different skill from introducing one, and the game makes everyone do both.
Twist cards are the other half. Every few lines the phone drops a complication into someone's turn — the lights go out, a character from the past shows up, the floor becomes lava — and it always lands as an Unfortunately, because complications never arrive as good news. Each story gets exactly one free skip, so spend it carefully.
Story Chain is part of
What you need
- One phone, passed round the circle
- 3 to 20 players in a fixed seating order
- Written mode if you want the story to survive the night
- About 15 minutes for two lines each
How to play Story Chain
The phone deals an opening line — a wedding, a heist, a printer with demands — and reads it out to the table.
Players go in the order on the screen. Every turn tells you the two words your line must start with: Fortunately, or Unfortunately. They alternate, so the story lurches between good news and disaster.
In Written mode you type your line and the app keeps the whole story. In Spoken mode you just say it out loud and the phone tracks whose turn it is.
When a twist card appears, work it into your line — "…and then the lights went out", "introduce a talking animal". A twist always lands as an Unfortunately. Each story gets one free skip if a twist is truly unusable.
Typed something wrong? Undo the last line, no questions asked, and the phone goes back to whoever wrote it.
On the final lap the app tells everyone to start landing the plane, and the last player has to finish on "…The End".
Then read the whole thing back, copy it if it deserves to survive, and vote for the best line. A vote is a point for its author, and the most-voted storyteller takes the crown.
Scoring and winning
- Nothing scores during the story itself. The story is the point.
- At the end everyone votes for the best line. Each vote is +1 to whoever wrote it.
- In written mode you vote on the lines themselves, with the authors named. In spoken mode there is no transcript, so you vote for the storyteller instead.
- Most votes takes the crown. A tie goes to a runoff with only the tied authors on the ballot.
- Scores can be nudged by hand afterwards, for the bonus point the table insists the talking goat deserves.
Story Chain strategy and tips
- End your line somewhere the next person can stand. A line that resolves everything is a dead end, and the person after you will hate you quietly for the rest of the story.
- The best Unfortunately does not undo the Fortunately — it accepts it and finds the problem hiding inside it. "Unfortunately, the parachute worked perfectly, and they landed in the zoo."
- Name things. A story with a Deborah in it is funnier and easier to continue than a story about "the woman". The next four players will use her.
- Take the twist literally and immediately. Working it in on your line is the whole exercise; deferring it to "later in the story" wastes it.
- Written mode caps lines at 140 characters on purpose. If you cannot fit it, you are writing a paragraph, not a line, and you are stealing someone else's turn.
- Save the free twist skip for a card that genuinely cannot follow the line before it, not for one you simply do not fancy. There is only one per story and the table will remember.
Variants and house rules
Spoken mode
Nothing gets typed. The phone shows whose turn it is, which prefix they owe, and any twist that has landed. Faster, louder, and completely unrecoverable afterwards.
Written mode with a copy
Every line is kept with its author, and the finished story can be copied to the clipboard in one tap. This is the mode for group chats the next morning.
Genre lock
House rule: agree a genre before the opening line — horror, nature documentary, courtroom drama — and every line has to stay inside it. Twist cards get much harder and much funnier.
One-word veto
Each player may, once per story, ban a single word for everyone else. Ban "suddenly" first. Ban "then" second.
Long form
Three lines per player with twists every two lines. With eight players that is a twenty-four line story, which is long enough for an actual plot and a genuinely earned ending.
Story Chain FAQ
How do you play the Fortunately Unfortunately game?
One player gives an opening line. Going round the circle, each player adds one sentence, alternating between sentences that start "Fortunately" and sentences that start "Unfortunately". The story continues until everyone has had their turns and the last player ends it.
How many players do you need for Story Chain?
Three minimum so the story actually travels, and up to twenty. With a big group choose one line each; with four or five, choose three lines each so the story has room to build.
What are twist cards?
Complications the app drops into a turn every few lines — the lights go out, someone from the past arrives, the plan needs a new leader. You have to work it into your line, and a twist always lands as an Unfortunately. Each story gets one free skip.
Can you play Story Chain without writing anything down?
Yes. Spoken mode is built for it: the phone tracks whose turn it is, which prefix they owe and when a twist lands, and everyone just talks. You lose the transcript and the best-line vote becomes a vote for the best storyteller.
What if someone writes a bad line?
Undo the last line at any point during the story, and the phone goes back to whoever wrote it. At the end, any line can be tapped and rewritten before the vote — the author keeps the credit either way.
How do you end a Story Chain story?
The app flags the final lap so everyone starts steering toward an ending, and the last player is told to land it on "…The End". Then you read the whole thing back and vote for the best line.