I'm from Taiwan and I would say "說故事" is perfectly natural to me. We also say "講故事". The differences between these two are subtle in Taiwanese Mandarin, if anything, it has something to do with personal preference. I even hadn't known the former (說故事) would sound weird to some Mandarin speakers until I saw the answers above. In Taiwanese Mandarin, 說 can mean "to tell", "to say" or "to speak". So it's not just a colloquial but formal usage in Taiwanese Mandarin. The dictionary published by 教育部 includes this meaning (to tell). For your information, it comes from ancient Chinese literature. An example in the dictionary dates back to 500 AD.* It is understandable that it became a regional thing after the long-time evolution of the language.
By the way, in Taiwanese Hokkien, the second-most-common language in Taiwan, only "講故事" exists. Just on the contrary to Taiwanese Mandarin, 說 hardly means "to tell" in Taiwanese Hokkien and 講 could mean "to tell", "to say" or "to speak".
*劉義慶《世說新語.德行》:「有人向張華說此事。」