Conceptually, it is the perfect format for a game based on the ARABIAN NIGHTS as the game is literally about storytelling, and it is a theme that could not be conveyed by the usual adventure game template of flipping a card to reveal a monster or event that really isn’t much more than a target number at which to roll dice. TALES OF THE ARABIAN NIGHTS is one of the most complete and resonant implementations of the idea of conceptual theme ever published, and it is probably very significant that the game is as influenced by traditional role-playing games (without all of the baggage) as it is by board games.

Players each represent a character such as Sindbad, Aladdin, or Scherezade travelling on a map representing the Middle East, Africa, Europe, and Asia of Arabic fable. The goal of the game is to acquire Destiny and Story points on your journeys and return to Baghdad—the center of the “civilized world”. Players get to choose at the outset of the game how many of each they are aiming for, adding up to a total of 20. These points are gained through various encounters, and instead of experience points or the usual leveling-up mechanics players will actually attain skills, abilities, and talents over the course of their adventures. Each player also gets a unique quest at the beginning of the game that gives them a sort of framing story and long-term goal- usually visiting a couple of specific places completes the story and results in several rewards. And there are also statuses that can be acquired- some helpful, some harmful- that can become a part of the character’s story. Most skill checks are absolute ones- if a paragraph calls for a particular skill and the player has it, one result may happen over another. The result is that the game has a much more organic, much less mechanical feel than many other adventure games and the rewards you gain from story outcomes make complete thematic sense.

The encounters, detailed in over 2,000 brief paragraphs with some often very funny and evocative writing that is actually quite a bit above the usual fluff text seen in many other games, cover a wide range of adventures of many different descriptions and tones. This is not your usual TALISMAN-style adventure game that is really just about fighting monsters to accumulate treasure. In the course of a game, you might encounter any number of colorful characters, creatures, treasures, and places all straight from the game’s source material, and fighting is often not even an option. This is the kind of game where skills such as Courtly Graces or Bargaining can be more critical to success than Weapons Mastery, where groveling or praying can often yield better results than brute force.

But that depends on what Allah has in store for your character. The paragraph system allows for a ridiculous amount of variability and unpredictability, and many who have played the game have claimed that there’s no real decision-making in it. I think that’s a load of crap. It’s just that the decisions you make may not result in the outcomes you expect. When a player moves into a space, they draw an encounter card. The card may be a city card that provides a short-term goal for the player to attain. If they cash in the card at the particular city, they get to roll to see what reward they achieve, and it isn’t hard to sort of build a narrative around their visit to the city even if it’s not as detailed as the game’s main encounters. But most encounter cards will show a person- for example, a ne’er-do-well, a beggar, an enchantress, a slave, and so on- or a mythical place. These cards provide a reference number to a series of encounter matrices against which a die roll is compared. In the case of persons, the matrix might provide an adjective modifier so that the Merchant pictured on the card could be friendly, garrulous, wicked, dying, or whatever else.

A paragraph number is provided once a player chooses the action with which they wish to approach the encounter. There are 15 different sets of “action menus”, and they run a dizzying gamut of possible reactions. This is really where the chief decision making in the game lies and since encounters in more dangerous spaces tend to yield a higher risk/reward ratio, choosing to rob the Mighty Ehfreet without a magic or weapon skill might be kind of stupid. However, nothing is set in stone, as the final paragraph is determined by a die roll that either bumps up the number by one or decreases it. The range of possible results and variability is tremendous- you won’t replay the same game twice with this system, although eventually you will see some of the same encounters turn up again if you play it enough.

Once the paragraph is determined, a reader gets to read it from the spiral-bound Book of Tales to relate to the table what happens to the player. This storytelling element is the heart and soul of the game. Anyone who doesn’t read the paragraphs in funny voices, with outrageous melodrama, and completely over-the-top emphasis probably doesn’t get the point of the game. The game is about storytelling, much more than about making strategic decisions, and it does require a little bit of playacting to get the most out of it. A player that reads the paragraphs in a monotonous drone should be branded a fun murderer on the spot and asked to leave the table. I’m not kidding.

The paragraph mechanics might sound very complicated, but the fact of the matter is that TALES is actually one of the most mechanics-transparent games I’ve ever played. In most games, the restrictions and structures that are in place to give the game form are apparent and obvious throughout, but with TALES you almost never have to consider any mechanical issues because the rules are so basic and simple that there’s nowhere that represents a disconnection from the actual concept of the game. Some of the more complex statuses sometimes cause some confusion and once you’ve accumulated a few of them it can be sort of tough to keep track of everything that’s happening to your character, but it’s never unwieldy or top-heavy.

So on paper, there really isn’t that much to it- move, figure out a paragraph, make a choice, and get a result. It’s a little old-fashioned in some ways, particularly in the on-board movement. But even that is hugely thematic the richer you are, the more you can move until you get so wealthy that your retinue slows you down unless you’re travelling by sea on some fabulous ship that you’ve probably bought with your vast fortune. The original game had some extra mechanics for player versus player combat and some take-that style cards, but I think it was a good idea to sort of slough off some of the more extraneous elements and shift the focus back to the storytelling concept. It’s just not about beating other players or outdoing them, but Z-Man has made optional rules available online if that’s something you care to add to the game.