Propp Cards

This is a deck of print and play cards based on the work of Vladimir Propp (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_Propp). Propp analysed Russian folk/fairy tales to create a “morphology” – a defined set of narrative elements which appear in the tales. Not all elements were present in all tales and these have become a powerful aid to writing folk or fairy tales. You can probably think of these as a precursor to the Monomyth (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hero%27s_journey). I can highly recommend reading the Morphology of the Folktale.

Print at high res, card backs are included as page 5 if you want to print the backs as well.

The cards have icons at the top: Propp’s symbol, the number of the function and the “act” in which it is commonly used.

I used public domain book illustrations (mainly as shared by the British Library on Flickr), converted to vector.

Update 21/6/2025: added a version “for Duplex” that includes the backs after every front sheet to make printing double sided on duplex printers easier.