Trashdome - Arkham Horror VS Tales Arabian Nights

Last night we played Tales of the Arabian Nights. The Spawn and I were racing back to Baghdad to win the game. She landed on a spot three spaces away from Baghdad, I was six spaces from Baghdad, This meant that as long as she avoided any terrible statuses, and didn't get shot off somewhere else on the board, she would win the game on her next turn, otherwise I would have the chance to win the game. The reward for her encounter was to go to the Underwater Kingdom. We told her that she now had the choice to stay where she was and win the game next turn, or go to the Magical Underwater Kingdom. Without hesitation she choose to go to the Underwater Kingdom. That's the awesome part of Tales of the Arabian Nights, especially as a family game. It really is not about winning or losing, it's about playing the game.

That said, something we realized when playing the Z-man version of Tales, was that although the game had been improved in many ways - the stories hung together better, it was less fiddely, more accessible and played in a shorter time - Zev had also stripped out some of the game play. I realized that much of my love of Tales came from the original game, and I understand where people who have only played the Z-man version are coming from. We always played the Quest variant of Tales. Zev told me that when he was doing his survey, prior to starting production of the re-print, exactly zero people had said they played the Quest variant, therefore he took it out of the reprint. So I guess I have a minority experience with Tales.

The Quest variant is a race game with a push your luck element. You have to complete two quests and then return to Baghdad. Your story and destiny points are not a factor in the winning conditions, however advancing these points does give you bonuses, such as gaining new talents. Quests are encounters with specific people. You are given a card depicting that person with a specific paragraph number on it. You have to go to a specific location to meet that person. When you do, you roll against a chart. Roll a 6 and you complete your quest. Roll low, and you not only fail (are given a new quest at different location), but something nasty happens to you. However, there are ways to modify the die roll. Without going into all the details you can make choices that will improve your chances of success, however, these choices will make it take longer to complete a quest, which, since this is a race, becomes the crux of the game.

We have decided to pull out the original game and spend some time this holiday figuring out a way to put the original quests back into the Z-man version.

Until we finish that project, despite the awesomeness of Tales of the Arabian Nights, I will have to vote: Arkham Horror