The Story Engine Deck

August 2026

Disclaimer... I am not an affiliate with this company; I am not a paid spokesperson... I simply love this tool, and I wanted to share my love of it with you.

I am an "old school" writer. I love swimming deep into the oceans of creativity, sifting through the silt of everything floating around in my imagination to craft new ideas and add layers of depth to my stories. I love the angst of creation, struggling through different concepts and finding conflicts that move the story forward while adding nuances of distinction to my characters. Usually, that process is a complete joy... but when I run into snags or blocks, I reach for writing tools to aid my quest.

Partly because of my age - I received my writing training and mentoring decades ago, and I've kept up with continuing education along the way - and partly because I truly enjoy the messy process of writing, I am more inclined to gravitate toward analog tools rather than digital ones. I love reading books on craft because I can immerse myself in absorbing different approaches, structures, and techniques, allowing me to digest it all at my own pace (you can read more about my affinity for craft books HERE and HERE). I'm less inclined to use digital resources to study craft or help me with writer's block (or writer's procrastination, as I call it) because I feel that digital tools often replace my curiosity, learning by trial and error, and feeling for the edges of connectivity to the story with "quick fixes" and instant "info dumps." Digital tools might get the job done faster, but for me, it's not nearly as much fun.

A couple of years ago, I discovered a wonderful tool called The Story Engine Deck. This is an enormous deck of prompt cards filled with nuggets of story details that you can either randomly or deliberately pull together to create stories, interactive games, and even poetry. The creators intended it to give writers and tabletop RPG players (think Dungeons & Dragons) a burst of inspiration as they pull cards to build foundations and then use their individual imaginations to fill in the blanks. Another way to think of it is a sort of Tarot Card Deck for creatives. This is also a spectacular tool for teachers to engage students with the idea of turning random details into full stories. You can find suggested lesson plans on their website HERE.

Here's one example of what a simple "Story Seed" pull from the deck might look like, using the Focus Sleeves (an excellent tool for writers like me who are easily distracted by other options). The play mats are a nice bonus, too. They keep the cards from sliding across the table.

The entire collection (the designers call it an ecosystem) is a massive 2,208 cards (so far), each with between two and five prompts, and some expansions have prompts on both sides. The cards are printed on sturdy, full-color 3" x 3" square card stock with rounded corners. You can find a full list of the decks and expansions HERE. This list is really helpful to remind you what you have and don't have when they release a new deck or expansion. The system also offers snazzy storage boxes and focus sleeves to keep everything organized.

There are three major decks: The Story Engine, Deck of Worlds, and Lore Master's Deck; plus lots of expansion, booster, and bridge decks. You can buy them one piece at a time, or go nuts like me and buy everything all at once. Also, they are continuously adding new expansion decks to the ecosystem, so your potential for new story ideas continues to grow. If you're interested in the list of all the different types of cards included in the expansions, you can find it HERE.

Each deck or expansion comes with easy-to-follow instructions and suggestions for the order in which you can pull your cards, beginning with the very basic and moving to complex prompts that could go on for a long time, depending on how intricate you'd like to build your story. The cards have small icons printed on them to represent their types or tropes, and this extra hint about the cards you're pulling helps you see how ideas can link together.

So, here's the basic process: You randomly pull cards from the deck, choose one of the four prompts, and continue to build on that choice until you have the foundation for a prompt. Then, you use that completed prompt, fill in the details that live inside your imagination, stimulated by the cards, and write. It's super simple and a lot of fun. I've created entire flash fiction stories from just a single prompt on one card, and I've taken an established short story closer to novella length simply by pulling their standard sequence and writing from there. There's no right or wrong way to use the cards - whether random draws or following one of the designers' suggested structures - every time you use these cards, they will offer new ideas for your story. Just to give you an idea, the main deck of 180 cards with four prompts on each card could create over 30 billion possible combinations using the simplest, "Story Seed" story-prompt layout. Also, notice the most complex pull you can make from this deck, "Soul Divided" (remember, this is just a suggestion; potentially, you could keep going indefinitely). Now, add random cards from the other two major decks, plus all the expansions and boosters, and you'll never run out of writing potential.

Here's what another basic "Story Seed" card pull might look like. Read the prompt from left to right, using just the bottom side of the cards. The Focus Sleeves I mentioned earlier are optional, but certainly you can see how they would be helpful in reining in your imagination's need to chase story squirrels!

The Story Engine Deck can also be a great game for writing groups. Pull two or three cards, give writers an option of which individual prompt they'll use, and write for twenty minutes. It can be a lot of fun to see how a group of writers, using the same prompt cards, can come up with very different stories. If you're looking to build creative muscle memory, this is a great workout idea, too! Every Saturday, Drake and I share a prompt called a Story Hatching, on our Facebook page and on the Literary Street Team page of our website that we've pulled randomly from one of the decks, or a combination of cards from across the collection. We've had a lot of fun writing shorts from these prompts, and you'll be able to read them soon in Drake's next book. Feel free to play with the prompts as we've pulled them, and let us know how it turns out!

So, if you're looking for a new analog tool to help stimulate your writing practice, add a bit of extra fun to a D&D party, or your next writing group meeting, I highly recommend the Story Engine Deck Collection. It's a super-helpful tool that's also a ton of fun to use!