Make Story Dice Without Buying a Game

You can play a story-dice game without dice: write six choices in each of three columns and pick a character, a place and an object. Connect them with one small problem, then finish before adding another round of choices.

Set up three simple menus

For characters, try a mouse, a gardener, a cloud, a small robot, a duck and a bus. For places, use a kitchen, a pond, a greenhouse, a station, a hill and a balcony. For objects, choose a cup, a ribbon, a mitten, a spoon, a basket and a map.

Write the menus on paper. A child can point, call out a number or ask the adult to choose. If you already have a die, rolling is another option; nothing about the activity requires buying one or cutting out tiny pieces.

Connect the choices with a manageable problem

Suppose you pick robot, greenhouse and mitten. Ask what the robot could need there. A mitten cannot water the whole greenhouse, but it could cushion a rattling door handle. That gives you a small problem with a concrete solution.

Try this telling: “Every evening, the greenhouse door went clack-clack in the breeze. The little robot checked the latch. It was closed, but the handle still tapped the frame. On a shelf lay an old mitten the gardener no longer wore. The robot placed it between handle and frame, and the tapping stopped. The gardener checked the door, thanked the robot and hung a spare mitten beside the first. Inside, the tomato leaves barely moved.”

The objects do not have to turn into magical tools. Sometimes their ordinary qualities—soft, round, warm, wide—give you the useful connection.

Use one rule to keep it from growing forever

After the character solves the problem, name a familiar place they return to. Stop there. If your child wants another roll, save the three new choices for tomorrow rather than attaching an unrelated adventure to tonight’s ending.

You can also remove a choice that is not helping. “I can use the duck and the basket, but I’m leaving out the station this time.” The game serves the story; the story does not have to satisfy an awkward puzzle.

Adapt it for the energy you have

For a listener who wants fewer decisions, offer only two characters and choose the rest yourself. For a child who wants to do the telling, let them narrate while you supply an occasional question about what happens next.

Keep the first attempt brief. Once a combination works, you can repeat it another evening or change just the place. If the choosing itself becomes lively, play earlier in the day and save the finished tale for bedtime.

Day2Tale is an optional way to turn a moment from your child’s day into a personalized narrated story. A parent sets it up and reviews the result before sharing it. The ideas above work without an app.

Sources: Day2Tale support and product features