Overview

Bubble Stories is a children’s exploration card game where players choose “bubbles” (circular icons on illustrated cards) to explore locations and find Star cards to complete their objective. The game features four self-contained adventures of increasing complexity. Players examine artwork carefully, choose which areas to explore, and try to find all required Star cards while avoiding Dead End cards. After completing an adventure, players are rated on an explorer scale based on how many Dead Ends they encountered.

Components

• 72 cards divided into 4 adventure packets:
  • 6 green cards (tutorial adventure)
  • 20 orange cards (Hide-and-Seek in the School)
  • 22 purple cards (The Fairground)
  • 24 blue cards (Pirate Island)
• Each packet contains Star cards, Dead End cards, and Character cards in varying quantities

Setup

1. Choose the adventure packet you want to play (start with green for your first game).
2. Take the Starting card (white checkered back) and place it on your left, face-down.
3. Take the Objective card (star patterned back) and place it on your right, face-down.
4. Spread all remaining cards from that packet bubble-side up in the play area.

Turn Structure

This is a solo/cooperative exploration game without traditional turns:

1. Flip the Starting card image-side up. Examine the places you can visit, each indicated by a clear bubble.
2. Choose a bubble to explore – find the matching bubble card from the spread and flip it image-side up.
3. Examine the new card for more bubbles to visit, Star cards, or Dead Ends.
4. Continue exploring by picking matching bubble cards and flipping them over.
5. You may revisit previous cards at any time to explore different paths.

Actions

Exploring

Choose a bubble on any face-up card and find the corresponding card in the spread. Flip it image-side up. You can lay cards side by side (without stacking) to track where you have been.

Star Cards

When you find a Star card, you have completed one step of the Objective. Place it next to your Objective card and continue exploring with any card you like.

Dead End Cards

When you find a Dead End card (red square icon), there is nothing to find here. Continue your adventure with any card you like. Try to avoid Dead Ends to achieve a better explorer rating.

Character Cards

• Some characters show a direction to follow – continue by flipping the card shown in the bubble within the green rectangle.
• Some characters check if you have found a specific Star card:
  • If you have the Star card: Continue via the bubble in the green rectangle.
  • If you have NOT found it yet: Go back and continue from the bubble in the red rectangle.

Scoring / Victory Conditions

End of Adventure

Your adventure ends when you have found all Star cards shown on the Objective card.

Explorer Levels

Flip your Objective card and count how many Dead End cards you turned over:

Dead End Cards Found	Explorer Level
3 or 4	Bronze Bubble – Apprentice explorer
1 or 2	Silver Bubble – Super Adventurer
0	Gold Bubble – Master explorer

Replay

You can redo each adventure as many times as you want. Use your memory of card locations to avoid Dead Ends and improve your explorer level.

Special Rules & Edge Cases

• Pirate Island (blue cards): The 3 Star cards must be found in a particular order.
• You can always return to any previously flipped card to explore a different path.
• Cards are never re-shuffled during an adventure – once flipped, they stay image-side up.
• The game supports 1-2 players; with 2 players, both collaborate on the same adventure.
• The green tutorial packet should be played first to learn the basic mechanics.

Player Reference

Adventures (by difficulty):

Color	Adventure	Star Cards
Green	Tutorial	Varies
Orange	Hide-and-Seek in the School	3 friends
Purple	The Fairground	4 plush toys
Blue	Pirate Island	3 treasures (ordered)

Goal: Find all Star cards on the Objective card while avoiding Dead End cards.

Explorer Rating: 0 Dead Ends = Gold, 1-2 = Silver, 3-4 = Bronze