Tales of the Arabian Nights Review

Midway through our last game of Tales of the Arabian Nights, my friend had achieved things that would make most men weep with envy. He was vizier to a powerful sultan, had a beautiful wife in Bulgars, princely wealth, the respect of his peers, and mastery over half a dozen diverse skills—a true polymath. Meanwhile, I had been ensorcelled, transformed into the talking donkey from Shrek, scorned as an out-caste, and while imprisoned for a crime I did not commit, my jailor's tales of star-crossed love had left me crippled with grief. According to the game's nominal scoring method, he was clearly in the lead, and it looked like he could end the game in a few rounds. "But really," he pointed out, "you're having just as good a game as I am, because your story is just as interesting." I think that must have been one of T.E. Lawrence’s pillars of wisdom or something, because he was right.

There's a litmus test of whether you would enjoy Tales of the Arabian Nights. Like the fat guy on TV says, it's a game where everything is made up and the points don't matter. Not that you should play to lose—the game is a little too long as it is; I wouldn't draw it out if my life depended on it—but you must be able to consign your fate to the hands of the All-Powerful. You might be crippled, enslaved, sex-changed, and lost in the wilderness, and you should be prepared to not only acept it, but enjoy it—even as those status changes clap an iron collar around your already limited range of strategic choices. Sit back, relax, and let Allah take the wheel.

A note on religion: part of what makes TotAN an irreplaceable classic is its absolute refusal to bowdlerize its source material. The original 1001 Nights came from a world that was overwhelmingly Islamic, so references to Allah are plentiful and unapologetic. In some sense, the Islamic concept of surrender to the will of Allah is this game’s primary, overarching theme. In addition, you'll find numerous references to slavery and concubinage- realities of the world in which the Tales were conceived. But these archaic concepts stand alongside more or less familiar mythological creatures and folklore elements. The game's one concession to modern values is in its portrayal of women: female characters are much more frequent, and less often villainous, in the game than the original text. (As an example, the original 1001 Nights contains a story entitled "The Craft and Malice of Women.")

Arabian Nights is a random encounter game in the tradition of Talisman, Arkham/Eldritch Horror, or The Witcher. But there's one big difference: While the aforementioned games have been justly accused of putting story (especially flavor text) over mechanical substance, TotAN rises above such accusations by never pretending to be a "game" in the traditional sense. Inspired by Scheherazade, a gynocidal Persian ruler's 1001st wife who saved her own life by crafting a different story every night for 1001 nights, TotAN aims to captivate players on the strength of its story alone. And if, like King Shahryar, you're receptive to the peculiar magic of storytelling, it succeeds.

You had better be really receptive, though, because beyond the general lack of strategic gameplay, TotAN is a clunky relic of a bygone era that employs numerous books, matrices and cross-references to generate its brief, random tales. Were it conceived today, TotAN would undoubtedly be an app-assisted digital hybrid, much like the upcoming 1001 Odysseys from Asmadi. In Arabian Nights, you'll take turns moving across a beautifully illustrated map of the erstwhile Arabic world, then draw an Encounter card. This card will refer the player to your left to a paragraph number in the weighty Book of Tales, sometimes influenced by your terrain type or how deep into the game you are. This paragraph contains a table of encounters, one of which you'll face based on a die roll, the number of your current space, and your Fate score. That encounter (say, a Mad Vizier) will then direct you to a certain Reaction Matrix, a list of a dozen ways you can respond to the situation (for the Mad Vizier, you may be able to Woo, Attack, Aid, Question, Punish, Avoid, et cetera). The player to your right cross-references your encounter type and reaction and finds a new paragraph number in the Book of Tales.

After rolling a fudge die, which may redirect you to the paragraph before or after the one you selected, the player holding the Book of Tales then narrates your adventure, one of roughly 2002 possibilities. You may get additional options, the use of certain skills, or another die roll, and your Encounter ends with a shorthand list of rewards or penalties, such as new skills, conditions, status updates, and Destiny or Story points, which are the ostensible goal of the game. This convoluted process (the game may as well be called "Adventures in Library Information Science") gets a pass only because the stories are so entertaining and because passing the heavy book around somehow adds to the bonding experience of the game.

Don't misread me; "entertaining stories" isn't going to carry the game all the way to a 5-star rating. Luckily, it's got a lot more going for it. Remember back when I said that Arabian Nights doesn't even try to be a "game"? That was a white lie. In fact, given how arbitrary your fate can be, it does an excellent job of giving you the feeling of choice and achievable near-term goals. The Encounter deck will often spew out a City card, which gives you a regular encounter now followed by a special reward after you end your turn on the city depicted. This gives some form to your wanderings, making it actually meaningful when a hurricane or spell sends you halfway across the world. You also have Quest cards, long-term goals like going island-hopping or visiting an elusive Place of Power. Finally, the debilitating Statuses that many adventures saddle you with often have a specific way to discard them, giving you yet another goal to achieve.

As far as choice is concerned, it's true that you can seldom anticipate what rewards an encounter might bring or which skills it will require, but the wealth of reaction options give the feel of control over your hero, much moreso than more mechanical games. Tales of the Arabian Nights is one of those rare treasures in your game collection that you only bring out once a year because you want to savor the experience.