Monday 21 March 2016

Board Game: 'Tales Of The Arabian Nights' (2009 and 1985)

It's a great game. Just two days ago, I was ensorcelled twice, repeatedly imprisoned, spent nine tenths of the game grief-stricken, was wounded, struck by envy, and finally send on a pilgrimage to Bulgars in a most determined and blessed state. On the other hand, my opponent fared even more strangely! I told her not to check out that abandoned fountain...

It's a fun game, a storytelling experience that harks back to the old days of 'Choose Your Own Adventures' books, and even a tiny bit to interactive fiction. You do, however, really need to be at ease with reading. Perhaps I'm putting the cart before the horse, however, with my non-explanation of the game.

Played upon a historical map of the world, the players each choose a character from the Arabian Nights, select a quest card, and then take turns moving around the map and drawing encounter cards, which lead into passages from the monumental 'Book of Tales', a hefty wirebound book which has thousands of fragments which are looked up according to the rules of the game, and to your own choices on the much smaller booklet of decision matrices. Does that sound boring? Well, it's not, not if you do it right and embellish when it's your turn to read...

I really like this game, but rarely get to play it. It's not particularly about winning or losing, but the stories you accumulate and the experience of playing it with the people you know. Some people will hate 'Tales of the Arabian Nights' because the winning and losing is so peripheral, and other people will love it for the same reason, and because they spent a whole game turned into a female ape, and couldn't win until they happened to find a treasure in the Undersea Kingdom that returned them to normal.

Yes, it's really rather cool. Genies, naiads, sages, magicians, beggars, hags and princesses, witches and mermen: All things to be found in an average trip around the board. A very lovely experience.

O.

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