Six ways to play with Europeana story dice

Use Europeana story dice to spark your imagination, develop creative ideas, and enhance problem-solving skills. Used in a group, they also encourage collaboration, listening and self-expression.

What are story dice?

Story dice are printable dice with a different image on each side.

Europeana’s story dice reuse cultural heritage images to provide creative prompts. Pick an image you like, or roll a dice at random, and then write, draw or discuss. Use more images to develop your story or discussion!

Europeana’s story dice encourage open-ended play and creativity, and can be used by people of all ages and in any language - just download, cut out and fold, roll and be inspired!

What’s in the Europeana story dice set?

There are six dice in the Europeana story dice set. Each dice has its own theme, but what each image means will vary from person to person, and there is no right or wrong interpretation. Have fun and be creative!

• Character - six people from different ages/stages of life.
• Emotion - six people displaying different emotions.
• Setting - six types of landscape and weather to give you a sense of place, setting or mood.
• Transport - six ways to get around.
• Objects - six random everyday items.
• Genre - six suggestions for the type of story or theme to explore.

You’ll also find a set of instructions and credits for all the images as well as a QR code to the Europeana Story Dice Gallery in the PDF download.

How do you use Europeana story dice?

How you use the dice is up to you. You can roll one at a time, or several, or all six. You can use them by yourself or as part of a group. You can make notes, write a story, do some drawing, or talk together with friends or colleagues. You can take your time, close your eyes and imagine, or you can set a timer and give yourself a challenge.

Use the dice for creative exercises or as the basis for discussion. Use them to create stories and to explore different perspectives. You can even use them to consider the stories found in cultural heritage and art, or simply enjoy them as part of your mindfulness practice.

When I saw the Europeana story dice, I knew immediately what I wanted to do with them; they’re pretty intuitive.

Rick Sanders, Lead Writer, Spark Young Writers, Writing West Midlands

How to make your story dice

1. Download the Europeana story dice pdf.
2. Print the sheets on A4 paper. Use thick paper or light card if available.
3. Cut out the dice with scissors, remembering to cut down the short edges of the flaps.
4. Pre-fold or score the creases around each square.
5. Fold your dice up - it’s easiest if you leave the single flap until last.
6. If you want to, you can add glue or tape to secure the flaps.

I printed the Europeana story dice on normal printer paper. We had a making session to start with. The five 9-11 year olds in the group cut out the shapes and folded them into the dice, which they really enjoyed.

Rick Sanders, Lead Writer, Spark Young Writers, Writing West Midlands

Six ways to play with Europeana story dice

We used them like traditional story dice, looking for a combination of elements. They threw two dice each, and looked at the pictures that landed face up, for example, one character and one scene. Then they wrote a short paragraph or poem which included those two things. These children are just starting out on their creative journeys so we are always looking for fun exercises.

The dice worked together really well and I would use them again with another group.

Rick Sanders, Lead Writer, Spark Young Writers, Writing West Midlands

There is no set way to use the Europeana story dice. Here are a few ideas.

How to play by yourself

Six dice challenge

• Throw all six dice and write a story that incorporates all the images.

Timed challenge

• Throw one dice every three minutes and build each new image into your story.

Close look

• Roll one dice - describe in detail what you can see in the picture.
• Then describe what you can’t see - what happened just before or after, who or what is out of sight, what do you want to know about the person or image, name the object/image/person, give them a voice and see what they say.

How to play in a group

Group story

• Person one rolls a dice and gives the first sentence of the story.
• Person two either immediately gives the next sentence or rolls another dice and must then incorporate that dice’s image into their sentence.
• Continue until all dice have been rolled and/or the story reaches an ending.

Beetle drive

• In this game, members of the group are racing to complete a story. Take it in turns to roll a numbered dice. If you get a 1, then roll the story dice on Character/age, roll 2 for the Object dice, 3 for the Setting dice, 4 for the Transport dice, 5 for the Genre dice, and 6 for the Emotion dice. Note down which images you have gathered.
• You can only start writing when you have a genre and one other dice rolled.
• Once you have begun to write, every time you add a new dice, you must immediately incorporate it into your story.
• The first person to have rolled all six story dice must shout ‘Story time!’ and share their story with the group.

Consequences

• In this game, the group will create stories without knowing what the person before them has written. They need one piece of paper each.
• The dice are rolled in the order specified below. After each roll, everyone writes a sentence on their paper, then folds the paper so their sentence isn’t visible and passes it to the next person - so they write on the next piece of paper each time.
• First, each person rolls the character/age dice and, inspired by the image they roll, writes the following on their sheet - ‘NAME, a SOMETHING from SOMEWHERE met…’, for example, ‘Harriet, a shoemaker from the Italian riviera met…’
• Next roll the character/emotion dice and write, ‘NAME, a SOMETHING from SOMEWHERE’, for example, ‘Goliath, a sad circus performer from a small town in Czechia'.
• Roll the Setting dice and write, ‘at/in PLACE’, for example ‘under a windswept tree’.
• Roll the Genre dice and use it to inspire a sentence about ‘WHY’, for example ‘Because they had been lured there by a ghostly figure who promised to grant them their heart’s desire’.
• Roll the Transport dice and write a sentence that incorporates it into the story, e.g. ‘Then they heard the sound of a squeaky bicycle’.
• Roll the Object dice and write a sentence that incorporates it into the story. ‘He felt in his pocket for the spoon he always carried for situations like this.'
• There is no dice for the final line. Write an ending to the story, ‘And they… CONCLUSION’.
• Pass the papers around one more time, unfold and read out to the group.

We’d love to find out how you use the Europeana story dice, and read the stories you write. Please share your feedback with us at editorial@europeana.eu