Review: Rory’s Story Cubes: Actions and Voyages

The original version of Rory’s Story Cubes, done by The Creativity Hub (home of Rory O’Connor and Anita Murphy), has been around for a while. I reviewed it a couple of years ago, along with the second set, Actions, which was then only available overseas.

Now Rory’s Story Cubes: Actions is available in the United States, and the newest set, Voyages, is available in other parts of the world. Rory gave me a sneak peak at the Voyages Cubes, and they might just be my favorite set yet. They officially launched at the Nürnberg Toy Fair in early February and are now available in the UK and Republic of Ireland. They will be available in some European and Asian countries in March.

Each of the Rory’s Story Cubes sets include nine quality six-sided dice, with each face showing a different image. The idea is to roll all of the dice and then tell a story integrating the resulting pictures. This is a great activity for all ages including kids, adults with kids, or adults on their own. Stories can be told aloud, written down, or made into an invented game. Your imagination is your only limitation. The Cubes are also good for use in any language, since there are no words on the dice.

The Rory’s Story Cubes: Actions dice show images of verbs, such as dropping a ball, breaking a stick, listening to music, walking, and choosing a path. Some of the images are open to interpretation, since some of the movements shown can mean different things to different people.

The newest set, Rory’s Story Cubes: Voyages, is all about travel and adventure. The dice include such images as a treasure map, a blackbird, a rucksack, a cave, and magic beans. I was very excited to see these, because these especially appeal to children and those with wanderlust. With Voyages, it’s so easy to work side adventures into the main adventure story.

Any of these sets of Cubes can be combined with the others or used on their own. With all three sets together, you could write a novel with the resulting combinations! The images in each of the three sets are painted in a different color of ink to make it easy to sort them out again if you decide to mix them up.

Whenever I bring out Rory’s Story Cubes, my kids get excited. They enjoy the imaginative play, and kids just intuitively know what to do with them. The sets of Cubes are so portable that you can keep them in your bag when you go out, or just tuck them in a suitcase for a trip. Check out my original review post for more ideas of what to do with the Cubes, and be sure to pick some up for your spring break trip or summer vacation. They also make excellent birthday presents for anyone.

Rory’s Story Cubes are sold by Gamewright in the United States. Gamewright doesn’t have the new Voyages set available yet, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it was available in the U.S. in time for the 2012 holiday season, though nothing is official. Keep your eye out for them! In the meantime, you can order them from European outlets including TheCreativityHub.com.

The original Rory’s Story Cubes and Actions retail for $9.99. Voyages is currently available for approximately $14.99. I can’t recommend these dice highly enough for anyone who likes to be creative, or has trouble being so.